Usual disclaimers.
Thanks to Linnie and for the reviews. Special thanks to Hilary for letting me bend her ear and for all the suggestions XX
Some of you have had a problem with Jenny. I hope this chapter goes some way to explaining her character and why she has been what someone called 'inconsistant.'
It also deviates again. A more graphic version can be found at affnet.
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Chapter twelve: 'That is, if ya will want to be released by th'time we get back'
Mr. Gibbs looked pensive. 'I dunno Jack… it's very far south. Imagine how bloody cold it'd be.' He scratched his chin pensively. 'We don't even know there's treasure there.'
Jack rolled his eyes theatrically, 'Of course there's treasure there, what's this all about eh?' He held up the broken coin, 'You've heard the rumours of the lost treasure of Sancho Lopez. I reckon this leads to it.' He sighed heavily at his quartermaster's doubtful face. 'We'll call a ship's meetin' if it makes yer happy.'
'Aye, I reckon that'd be the best course of action,' Gibbs agreed, even though he knew the captain was hoping to avoid that route.
'On deck,' Jack growled, his face dark with displeasure, watching as his quartermaster scurried off. 'That includes you Jenny.'
'It has nothing to do with me,' she replied from behind the drapes, yelping in surprise as Jack pulled them apart and stood there with his hands on his hips.
'All hands hoay!' came Joshamee Gibbs' voice from the deck.
'Ya hear that, luv? All hands, that includes you. Now ya can either walk up there or I carry ya, your choice.'
'Very well,' she snapped, pushing past him and muttering darkly under her breath.
Jack strode onto the deck of The Black Pearl and stood on the forecastle, looking out over his crew.
'Many of you weren't aboard this ship when Cortez's cave on Isla de Muerta was plundered again and again until we had recovered all of Barbossa's treasure, but you've heard the tales of how great the treasure was.' His voice carried effortlessly across the deck. 'Now you have the chance ter get yer hands on treasure that could easily make that hoard pale into insignificance.'
Jenny looked at Mr. Gibbs exchanging glances with Ned Cotton, both of them shaking their heads ruefully, a small smile playing on the quartermaster's lips as the crew responded as eagerly as Jack hoped they would.
'Thanks ter Jenny there,' Jack nodded towards her, grinning as she blushed under the scrutiny of the whole ship's company. 'Thanks ter Jenny, we now know where this treasure is.' He fell silent as the deck erupted in cheers and whistles before raising his arms and signalling for quiet. 'Do we take it?' he cried.
'Aye!' The deck exploded with noise once more and Jack waited for long minutes until the noise died down naturally. 'We make sail fer Fortaleza and stock up there then we go ter Argentina.' The cheer that went up was muted as the men realised the distance they would have to travel.
'The crafty bugger,' muttered Gibbs admiringly.
Jack walked back along the deck of his ship, nodding at the men as they parted to let him past but Jenny shot out her arm and grabbed him, preventing him from going further. 'If I come with you willingly, will you release me after you have found this treasure?'
Jack's eyes darted about in alarm as everyone waited for his response. 'Ah, ah yes. Yes, of course I will luv,' he smiled generously, his hands weaving about in front of him as he leaned towards her. 'That is, if ya will want to be released by th'time we get back,' he grinned, lasciviously.
'Oh I will, believe me,' she smiled acidly at him before making her way back below to clean the cabin. 'Or will I?' she thought, stopping dead as she pondered where the thought had come from.
…
Jack returned a couple of hours later, all smiles and full of rum and called Jenny over to the table where he spread a chart and began plotting a course to Fortaleza, explaining to her how he made the calculations and inching ever closer as he did, looking innocently at her warning glance.
'It's a rather long way to go on a whim.'
'Aye luv, it is a long way but if it's what I think it is, there will be treasures beyond yer wildest dreams. Besides, I need ter get away from th'Caribbean fer a while,' Jack winked at her, chuckling as anger caused a red flush across her features.
'You won't renegade on your promise will you?' she warned, ignoring the doubt that was still niggling at her.
Jack sighed regretfully, 'Nah luv, I won't break m'word ter ya.'
Jenny smiled sardonically then looked back at the charts. 'Will you teach me how to chart a course properly, if there's time?' She had been fascinated by it and wanted to learn more, plus she needed something to keep her mind occupied.
'Aye, course I will darlin'. Eh, yer not thinking of getting yer own ship are ya, I don't fancy two of yer in competition wi'me.'
'Two of us? What do you mean?' Jenny turned and looked at Jack, realizing that it brought her in very close proximity to his face and Jack's eyebrows raised slightly as the same thought occurred to him.
'Well there's Anamaria, who was crew aboard this ship 'til I gave her one of her own. Now she's got her own command and crew. Mind ya, when she left she nicked half the bloody crew off me!' He pulled a face, remembering the fight he and the female pirate had about whom she could have. Anamaria won hands down, much to his annoyance.
'You gave her a ship of her own? That was very generous of you.' Jenny looked suspiciously at Jack, who had the good grace to look sheepish.
'Well, actually luv, it was a replacement for her old boat that I borrowed.'
Jenny chortled, 'That sounds more like it.' Jack found it hard to drag his eyes away from her lips and started to learn towards her. Jenny, startled by this, moved away from the table. 'I had better and help in the galley. She hastened from the cabin, feeling his eyes boring into her back as she went.
… … … …
To Jenny's surprise, Jack left her alone that evening. In fact he behaved like a perfect gentleman for the following few nights, holding her whenever she had a nightmare about the man she had killed, but not touching her otherwise. She had woken a couple of nights to find him masturbating in the side cabin, feeling guilty as the sight of his hand pumping his shaft aroused her and she had hastily shut her eyes, feigning sleep and trying desperately not respond when he had climbed back into the bunk and curled his body around hers.
As promised, he taught her the basics of charting a route and they spent many hours over the days that followed, pouring over the maps and checking the direction of various places with his good compass, not the strange looking one that he had shown her, that did not point north He also taught Jenny the basics of using the sun, moon and stars to work out the direction, pleased that she was picking it up quickly.
When he thought the time was right, he fetched her sword from the armoury, holding it hilt down to her as she sat on the deck.
Jenny shielded her eyes then realized what he was holding. 'N-no Jack. No, I can't do it.' She jumped up and went to go past him, but found his hand restraining her.
'Ya got to sometime luv,' his voice gentle.
'No. Jack, please, I can't touch that thing again.' She avoided looking at the sword, her breath coming in ragged gulps.
'It's the only sword small enough for yer, an' if we come across another ship, we've all got to be ready to attack or defend, savvy.' He took her hand and wrapped it around the hilt, holding tightly so she could not pull away.
She whimpered and tried to pull her hand free but his grip was too tight. Her eyes stared into his, beseeching him to let her go, but he shook his head slowly.
'Come on Jen, ya can do it luv.' Slowly he released her hand, feeling pleased and relieved when it remained where it was. Jack drew his own sword and waited for the right time before sparring with Jenny, gently to start with, then gradually building up the pace until she felt too tired to carry on.
'Well done luv, I'm proud of ya,' Jack kissed her gently on the forehead, taking the sword from her and back to the armoury, leaving her feeling drained but elated at the praise. Her spirits were slightly dampened when Mr. Gibbs ordered her back to work, but even he could not hide the broad smile on his face as he did so. She took an old rag and started polishing the brasses, grinning as the other men congratulated her on her bravery.
… … … …
Jenny pulled her clothes off and got ready for bed while Jack was still on deck, playing cards and drinking with some of the men. She looked at her reflection in the mirror, her eyes tracing the contours of her body. She had never looked at herself naked in a mirror before, she had always felt it was wrong… but now? Now she was not sure what was right and wrong.
She finally admitted to herself that she was starting to miss the intimacy with Jack. It had been getting harder and harder not to respond to his touch but now that he had not touched her for a few nights, she felt bereft. Jenny frowned, unsure as to what to do about it. She hesitantly ran her hands over her breasts, feeling her nipples pucker beneath her fingers but it did not feel the same as when he did it to her. She pulled her shift over her head crossly and climbed into the bunk, lying there staring at the cabin ceiling, feeling extremely dissatisfied but not knowing why.
She thought back to when she was growing up, and how she was brought up by her fathers' spinster sister after her mother had died when Jenny was ten. Her aunt had very firm ideas about morals and improper behaviour, even to the extent of having Jenny's elder brother caned for giving a girl a chaste kiss on the hand after church once. She looked at her wedding band, still on her finger and thought about Edward, a pang of guilt hitting her as she acknowledged the fact that she only married him to escape her father. 'He deserved better than that,' she thought sadly. Eddie had been a good man, kind and gentle but very set in his ways. All he was concerned about was having a clean and tidy house and his meal on the table as soon as he got home from the farm where he worked and Jenny had needed more than that. She needed stimulation, she needed things to occupy her quick and inquisitive mind. He had never asked her to touch him, never given any thought that she might have wanted pleasure from their loving, but Jack had changed that - making her see that there was more to it than duty. For a moment her mind drifted to Port Royal, to James Norrington, wondering what kind of lover he would be. 'Stop being daft,' she chided herself, 'as if he would want you now!'
Her thoughts turned to Jack and how he taught her something new every day and how he made her think and laugh and get angry. How he made her want to kiss him and hit him at the same time. How he made her feel in other words. Jenny smiled as she realised she felt alive, possibly for the first time in her life. 'But why has it taken a pirate to make me feel like this?' she pondered, frowning as she thought about it. 'But then again Jack is hardly like the tales you've heard about pirates,' another voice argued. 'He does treat you well, keeps you safe from the crew and consider how he has looked after you since you killed…,' Jenny shuddered, wishing she hadn't thought of that particular subject, but having to agree with the argument all the same.
'I miss him,' she admitted to herself, chewing her lip with worry. 'I miss the intimacy. There I've said it.' Part of her waited for a bolt from the sky to come and strike her down, laughing at herself when she realized how silly she was being. 'It's getting harder not to respond to him,' she mused, closing her eyes and shivering as she recalled his soft deep eyes looking into hers, almost begging her to respond. 'But… but how can I give myself to the likes of him? He is a pirate, whether he behaves decently or not, and I am supposed to be a respectable lady.' She snorted at herself, 'Some lady. You swordfight, you've taken to swearing like a … well, like a sailor, you were always fighting with your brothers and beating them half the time, and the social scene at Port Royal bored you rigid. Some lady.'
She began to realise that, despite her demands otherwise, there would be no going back for her. Whether she had wanted it or not, however hard she had fought it, this was her life now. She sighed heavily, her decision made. If he would still have her then she would give herself willingly to him.
Jenny felt her eyelids getting heavier and turned over facing the window and drifted off to sleep, Jack's face replacing the thoughts that had been whirring around in her head.
… … … …
She felt Jack climb into the bunk, settling quickly with a grunt and she dozed back off for a time before opening a bleary eye and squinting as the moonlight cast a beam across her face. She had asked Jack if she could put some curtains up at the window but he had refused, saying he liked to look at the sea.
Jenny turned over and looked at him, lying on his back with one arm behind his head, long eyelashes brushing the top of his high cheekbones. She wondered what he would look like without the wild hair with its braids and beads and how he would look clean shaven. She reached out and ghosted her fingers across the top of a cheekbone then traced the line of his sculptured cheek before moving across and hovering over his full lips. 'He has a beautiful mouth,' she thought to herself, smiling as she could see his cheeky, golden grin in her mind's eye. She gently pressed a fingertip against his closed lips then stroked down to his chin, barely touching him. 'I think you would look very presentable indeed,' she mused, chuckling quietly as she imagined Jack's reaction to the idea.
She tore her gaze from his lips to the two vicious looking scars above his right nipple. 'You had better not take your shirt off though,' she smiled sadly, looking at the various scars that marked his body. Marks of a hard and sometimes brutal life.
Jenny held a hesitant hand over the scars, before gently stroking them. She felt a soft rumble vibrate through Jack's body and stopped what she was doing for a moment. He opened one eye and swivelled his gaze sideways, looking at her as she resumed her stroking, then her fingers carried on downwards until they were over his nipple. The rumbling got louder and a smile twitched the corners of his mouth. She ran her thumb across the bud, watching as his body twitched in response then she leaned over, her lips hovering above the nipple for a moment before she closed them around it, sucking gently, then harder, flicking her tongue over it as Jack had done to her so many times. The rumbling became a low moan as he shifted and pulled Jenny more onto him, tangling his fingers in her hair with one hand, while the other stroked down her back.
He shifted from beneath Jenny and leaned on an elbow, looking at her in the moonlight. 'Will ya give yerself to me?' he asked gently, hesitantly.
Jenny regarded him for long moments, wondering what would become of her if she said yes. 'How could I call myself as a respectable lady if I give myself to a pirate?' she asked herself 'But how can you say no?' another voice asked.
'Yes,' she whispered as hesitantly as he had asked, startled as his mouth immediately covered hers in a deep, passionate kiss. She lay frozen for a brief moment before winding her arm around him, anchoring him to her while her other hand ran down his lean back, her fingers tracing the outlines of his well developed muscles but stopping short of his backside, not feeling quite ready to be that intimate yet.
Jack broke away from her mouth and covered her face with kisses and licks but not touching her otherwise. He knew he had to do this right, something he had not done since bringing her on board. He grinned as she started to squirm away from him, giggling as she did.
'I need to breathe you know,' she chided laughingly then moaned as he sucked the hollow in her throat, not believing that something so ordinary could give so much pleasure.
Jack shuddered as her fingers found their way to the back of his thighs and fluttered teasingly down them. She had not realized it yet, but Jenny had found the one spot that could and often did reduce the infamous Captain Jack Sparrow to a quivering wreck. 'Do it again luv, please,' he begged, gasping as she complied until he could bear it no longer and moved downwards so his legs were out of her reach. He suckled on her belly, then plunged the tip of his tongue into her belly button and twirled it round, holding her hips down as she bucked and juddered.
'Oh… J-Jack…,' she wheezed, tangling her fingers through his wild mane.
'Ya like that, eh?' he teased, an untamed grin on his face.
'Y-yes…'
He worked his way back up so their faces were level, smiling as he looked at her. 'Oh Jen, I've wanted this fer so long luv.' He kissed her as he pushed his length inside her, moaning as she brought her legs across his back and pulling him in deeper. The thrusts got harder and deeper as their passion grew and Jenny clung onto him, sucking on his neck as she felt her body start to tense up the closer she got to her peak. Then the world came crashing down around her and she cried out, calling Jack's name over and over again as waves of passion coursed through her body.
Jack fought hard to keep control of himself, wanting nothing more than to release his seed into her there and then, but he focused his mind on a small shot hole in the bulkhead, put there a few years ago when he had bedded one man's wife too many. Anything to take his mind off the overwhelming urge pulsating within him.
He slowed to a stop to give Jenny chance to recover and smiled softly at her flushed, damp face and leaned forward to kiss her.
'Ya all right luv?' he whispered, feeling her body shudder violently as her orgasm finally came to an end.
'Oh… Jack… that was…' she sighed.
'Yes…? Wonderful? Amazing? Terrible?' he teased, yelping as she slapped his backside playfully. He sucked on her chin as he started thrusting once more, shivering with lust as she moaned wantonly and ran her hands up his sides and along his arms, entwining her fingers with his when she reached his hands as he supported himself on his elbows.
Together they rode each other's desire until Jenny reached another climax, bringing Jack to his with a cry.
'Sweet Jesus,' he breathed, releasing his grip on Jenny's hands and collapsing on top of her, feeling her heart pounding in rhythm with his own. He moved to get off Jenny but she clamped her arms across his back and held him in place, pressing her lips against his damp hair. 'I'll crush ya luv,' he murmured, turning his head and kissing her softly.
Jenny returned the kiss feeling light-headed and giddy then loosened her grip on him, whimpering as he withdrew from her and half rolled off, so he was leaning over, looking affectionately at her. She shifted uncomfortably, suddenly plagued with doubt.
'Ya all right Jenny?' he asked, stroking her hair from her face. 'Did ya enjoy it?'
'I-I… yes,' she whispered uncertainly, chewing her lip as the conflict between her sated body and her appalled mind grew.
'Ya don't sound very certain.'
'I suppose it will take some getting used to, being a loose woman,' she admitted, sighing as he gently kissed each eye lid then sucked on her cheekbones.
'Ya not a loose woman,' he replied tenderly. 'A loose woman gives herself ter all an' sundry, yer only givin' yerself ter me. Well, it'd better be only me Jenny Wren, or there'll be trouble,' he threatened jokingly, squeezing her tight.
'I was just brought up with very rigid ideas about propriety and it is hard to just let go of that.'
'I know luv. I know it must be hard fer ya, an' I'm sorry I haven't behaved properly towards ya. Forgive me?'
'I forgive you,' she whispered, mewling as his lips and body covered hers once more.
…