Disclaimer: I don't own much really. Not responsible for or benefited by anything that happens once the party starts swinging.
Chapter 15: The Morning After
Gwen woke up feeling a bit warmer but a lot more comfortable than she usually did in the mornings. Immediately she realized this was because of how closely she was curled against Jack's side, sharing his body heat in his bed (a marked improvement over her rug on the floor in the storeroom). He must have sneaked in sometime during the night, after she'd fallen asleep. She sighed resignedly as she remembered the night before and propped her head in her left hand to look down at him, careful not to move too much so as not wake him yet.
She had been afraid this might happen: with her determination and resolve wasted on that futile attempt last night, and her feminine virtue still intact, she was beginning to have second thoughts. She had thoroughly convinced herself that she wasn't going to worry, just do. Just feel and love and live. Enjoy life with the freedom and abandon that the men of the Black Pearl were possessed of.
But in the innocent pale light of dawn, that idyllic scenario was beginning to look somehow less exciting and more like just another of her rash decisions. She wanted to stay on the Pearl. That, at least, was not arguable. There was nothing for her in Port Royal. Or anywhere else in the Caribbean. Or really anywhere else in the world. But here, she could be free, she could belong somehow. The crew had practically accepted her as one of them already. Would it be so hard to convince them- and their captain- to accept her permanently, rather than just as an amusing guest?
But sleeping with the captain- sleeping with Jack- well, she should know better. She did know better. She had just convinced herself last night that it didn't matter. If life was about fun and thrills, as Jack and his crew seemed to think, then it just didn't matter.
Now, though, her practical arguments against it rose once again. She was an unwed young lady. The idea of sacrificing her innocence for the pleasure of a moment- for the pleasure of a man- was supposed to make her blush and cringe away. Not to mention that the man in question was a pirate. Any favors she could bestow on him he would simply take, not as tokens of affection, but as greedily as if she owed them to him. He would ravish her and satisfy his own lust, and at the end of the day, he would still belong only to himself. And when he grew disinterested, she would be left a dishonest and broken woman, with nothing to offer anyone.
Gwen chewed on her lip as she considered these unsavory things and studied Jack's features as he slept. The kohl-darkened eyes; the wild mass of hair; the scruffy beard and braided goatee; the lips that had kissed her so hungrily, that had consumed her completely.
Yes, he had already marked her. She'd already given up much of her innocence to him and to the Pearl. Now, she couldn't even muster any proper embarrassment at the pleasant warmth of their bodies snuggled together.
Her eyes slid away from his face, and then she noticed for the first time the edge of an angry red scar on his upper chest. Pushing the blankets farther down his torso, she was surprised to find two round marks in his tanned skin. She didn't know much about such wounds, but it looked very much as though he had been shot and then had healed. Her eyebrows furrowed at this evidence of some of the less pleasurable events in his shrouded history. A pirate's history. If she stayed with him, would she get shot at? Would she be lucky enough to survive, like he obviously had?
She shook her head, clearing those thoughts. No. She could allow herself to doubt Jack's embrace, but she couldn't allow herself to doubt that his carefree life really was the kind that she wanted for herself. Hang the consequences, she wasn't going to care. A pirate's life for me. But that didn't have to mean a pirate's bed for her, now did it?
Just then, he started stirring.
As Jack awakened and his senses and memory engaged, he recalled the last time he'd woken up in his bed beside Gwen. He idly compared the two experiences, the former and the current, as he peeled his eyes open. This time, her dress was laid out neatly on the desk chair, since she had fallen asleep in the bed on purpose rather than accidentally. His skull wasn't pounding and his body wasn't trying to exact vengeance on him for drinking half a keg full of rum. And Gwen wasn't squirming away from him. She was lying on her side, her body still cuddled close against his, head in her hand. Her other hand lay casually, fingers curled under, on his chest, just over the twin scars from a couple of balls that had nearly killed him once. Her expression was unreadable as she stared down at him, but that didn't worry him.
A roguish grin swept across his face, and he tightened his arms around her.
"Where were we, luv?"
Gwen cast about for something to say in response to his suggestive inquiry. By her current estimation, they weren't anywhere because she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to be there in his arms and in his bed just then at all. Or, more accurately, she wasn't sure she liked the fact that, despite all, she still did want to be there.
But she took too long deliberating. Jack pulled her down to him and was already kissing her before she could form any protestations. His lips were insistent against hers, but he kept the kisses light, taunting her.
Gwen tried not to be swayed, tried to remind herself again why she shouldn't toy with Jack. He didn't really care for her, after all. But she could feel herself giving in.
Well, he cared enough right now, didn't he?
Gwen was uneasily aware of how quickly her new resolve- against physical involvement with Jack- crumbled. But she shoved the unsolicited concerns to the back of her mind, grabbing at a handful of his hair and hair ornaments. Using the same tricks he had used on her, she tried to gain entrance into his mouth with her tongue.
Jack's lips curved into another impish smirk against hers at her initiative. All of his usual harlots and whores knew well that he preferred the dominant role during lovemaking. They generally always surrendered it to him without any ado, allowing him to do whatever he pleased with them. But in truth, while Jack certainly liked being in control of the situation, he didn't necessarily prefer his partners to be submissive. Which was one thing that Gwen definitely was not. She was accustomed to the give and take of their bantered and light-hearted arguments and apparently thought that would carry over into his bed as well.
Of the two of them, however, he was the only one who knew what gratified his desires the most. So it would be his lead that they would follow.
He flipped them over unexpectedly, in a well-practiced roll, and Gwen found herself suddenly pinned beneath him. He used his weight to keep her from moving, though he supported most of it off of her with his arms.
Rather than fight him, knowing she was trapped, Gwen slid her arms around him as he kissed her, his hair flipping forward to tickle the sides of her cheeks. Stubbornly, though, she attempted to refuse him when he tried to deepen his kiss. Her resistance didn't last long, however, and Jack explored her mouth, fighting against her tongue, drawing pleasant little sounds from the back of her throat as she gave herself into the kiss.
And then his lips were gone.
Gwen watched Jack curiously as he drew his knees up at her sides and sat up. He pulled himself into a sort of half-sitting, half-kneeling position, with his legs hugging her hips, freeing up his hands. Bending forward over her, he deftly tugged at the laces that ran down the upper part her cotton chemise, slowly loosening the scooped neck of the light garment. He lowered his head to the skin he was revealing, trailing light kisses down her sternum toward the valley between her breasts.
He yanked the remaining laces from their holes. Gwen bit her bottom lip reflexively as he parted the material, baring her chest from her throat to the middle of her rib-cage.
Jack ran his hands upward over her exposed flesh, inverted so that the backs of them touched her skin. He grinned as he felt an involuntary shiver run through her body at the rough edges of his rings gliding over her nipples. When he reached her collarbone, he trailed his fingers along her shoulders, catching and pulling the fabric of her chemise until her arms were free of her sleeves.
Her upper half completely bare now, Jack allowed himself a moment to appraise her, letting his eyes roam lazily over her body. If he had thought her face and hands were a nearly-unhealthy pale tone, it was nothing compared to the pallid skin under her clothes. He imagined that a little more of the Caribbean sun would do her a world of good and almost felt sorry for the long years of her life she'd spent away from it. Of course, to remedy that, it would require her to wear a bit less for the sun to do certain parts of her any good…
Smiling lasciviously as he imagined her wandering naked around the deck of the Pearl, Jack skimmed his hands up her arms and along toward her breasts. She wasn't as… heavily endowed, so to speak, as some of the women he'd been with, but his experienced glance proved she was well-proportioned for her smallish frame.
Gwen arched her back instinctively toward him when he traced his fingers tantalizingly around the curve of her breasts. Her reaction caught his attention fully back to her and he looked up. He could tell she was a little nervous yet. Understandable, he granted her that much. But he would have to do something about that. As he met her eyes, she seemed to realize only then that she had been chewing on her lip again and released it. Her lips then formed an alluring sort of pouting half-smile at him, and Jack couldn't resist leaning forward to capture them yet again. He kissed her intensely, sliding his tongue over her lower lip and thrusting it deep into her mouth. And then just as suddenly, he broke away again, prompting a slight sound of protest from her.
Jack thumbed her nipples, rolling them expertly into hardened peaks. As he cupped her breasts in each hand, he distractedly thought that it was a perfect fit. Bending over her, he drew a nipple into his mouth and swirled his tongue around it.
"Jack!"
He stifled a reflexive reproach at her lack of using his title. She hardly ever addressed him specifically as "Captain" and wouldn't let him get away with reminding her without mocking him in that deceptively innocent manner she had. Instead, he merely grinned at her response to his ministrations and switched to the other breast in turn. As he did so, he let his hands slip away and glide down her sides, pushing the half-shed frock further down her body.
Gwen made a soft sound of pleasure deep in her throat- but it changed almost immediately into a surprised squeak and a stream of protestations.
"Jack! No! Stop it! Ja-aaack!"
She tried squirming away from him, but couldn't get very far with him still on top of her.
"Problem, luv?" he asked innocently, but didn't stop.
"Jack!"
He grinned at her, pleased at the way she was twisting and writhing under him, her partial embarrassment at her nudity forgotten. And as a bonus, no man would have been able to honestly say she wasn't putting on a magnificent showcase of that nudity now either.
But his offense quickly switched to defense, and he left off tickling her sensitive rib, which he'd discovered the night before. Catching her by the shoulders, he pinned her down, quickly calming her struggling. Gwen risked a glance up at him now that he had ceased his attack, but he wasn't looking back at her. She followed his gaze downward and realized then that her knee, in her flailing, had almost connected with the bulge in his trousers, and he had all but panicked.
Jack moved his hips then, in a rather provocative swinging motion, and Gwen looked up into his eyes guiltily. He'd caught her staring. Rather than letting herself shy away from the obvious goading, she grinned back up at him and lifted an eyebrow.
"Woman," Jack began, moving so that he no longer straddled her body, to protect certain prized possessions from her, "I'm going to write ye a new Code meself and ye'll sign it and abide by it. First off, no threats shall be made upon what makes a man a man, savvy?"
He leaned over her from a safer angle, gratified when Gwen's arms slid around him. He kissed her lightly, then leaned back again to look down at her.
"No threats..." Gwen repeated innocently.
Before he could anticipate it and try to block her, she had moved from his side to on top of him, straddling his thighs. He sucked in a sharp breath when she lay her hands flat against his stomach and dragged them down over the hard length of his arousal.
Lest she steal his careful control of himself away, Jack caught her roaming hands, wondering suddenly how he had let her get an upper hand against him. Well, no more of that, he thought as he pushed her off of him. But he didn't need any more encouragement. He reached for the thin cotton material still clinging around her lower body even as he felt her fingers scrabbling at the waist of his trousers. He grinned at her and turned his focus instead to undressing himself, as a means of getting to bare skin on skin faster, while she pulled her clothing off of herself as well.
When he reached for her again, their eyes locked and he met a look in those brown eyes that was as naked and vulnerable as her body now was. But the look faded quickly, replaced by something more salient, something familiar to him and easily identifiable: yearning, brazen desire, lust.
He descended upon Gwen with lingering caresses and wandering lips and a pleasure-seeking fervor that excited her. Jack was more than thrilled when she responded in like manner, at first just duplicating his motions, but quickly beginning to stroke and fondle and taste him at her own whims. He allowed himself to give in, if only a little, to her, but he furtively guided her eager touch for his own gratification as he discovered for himself her sensitive spots.
Jack held out as long as he could, courting Gwen's unreserved traits as well as her body, basking in pure sensation, but finally he moved over her. Nudging her legs apart with his knee and kissing her roughly, he leaned back from her face far enough to catch her gaze. "'S'going to hurt the first time, luv," he warned her, his voice gravelly with failing self-restraint.
Gwen's lip twitched slightly in response, but she fought against her nervous habit and didn't chew on it. Instead, she pulled Jack back down to her and kissed him fiercely in response. Taking this as her consent, Jack slid into her, breaking through her barrier, simultaneously thrusting his tongue into her mouth.
The deep kiss grew wild and wanton as he tried to distract them both. He was trying to distract Gwen from the pain and acute sense of invasion she was obviously going through while trying to keep himself from moving forward too quickly. He'd only bedded a virgin once or twice before and wasn't exactly sure how careful he was supposed to be. She kissed him back, just as passionately, but he could feel her body tense and stiff below him, and her fingernails were beginning to dig into his shoulders.
He began stroking her soothingly, trying to calm taut muscles, helping her relax. But when he couldn't hold still any longer, he gave in and began to move. Gwen cried out, whether in protest or pleasure or just surprise, he wasn't sure...
By the time he collapsed at her side, spent but finally, finally sated, there was no doubt in his mind that she was just as fulfilled and contented by the release as he was. Gwen stretched indolently beside him, a soft mmm purring from the back of her throat. He was almost tempted to languish with her in bed all day.
Almost.
Jack kissed her huskily one last time and then slipped out of bed.
"There's treasure to be found, lass," he said with an impish grin.
Gwen watched him, not at all surprised at his sudden shift in focus now that he'd gotten what he wanted. As he re-gathered his clothes, unashamed of his nakedness, and began to dress himself, Gwen inwardly reached for the indignation she should be feeling at how easily he pushed aside the fact that he'd just taken her innocence. But she couldn't find any such emotion. She only felt immensely satisfied and, truth be told, also rather curious about the treasure herself. Perhaps she was a pirate after all.
"Ye'll be going ashore," he informed her cheerily, once again Captain Sparrow. "So ye'll want to be getting dressed." He headed toward the door.
Before he stepped out, he flashed her a grin. "Not that I want ye to."
He was in considerably higher spirits the morning after their interrupted tryst than he had been the previous night.
Gwen tossed a pillow at him good-naturedly, but it hit the closing door and fell harmlessly to the floor. She sighed softly, thinking of Jack as she dragged herself out of bed and toward her clothes. Part of her still seemed to think perhaps she should be ashamed of herself, but she only smiled as images of Jack, bare and beautiful, swam through her mind, chasing her doubts away. She adjusted her dress one last time before following him onto the deck of the Black Pearl.