A/N: Well, the fans have spoken. The missing chapter, "Fire and Ice", is now posted at my personal website. It's rating is definitely NC-17. You can read it by going to my profile here at Fanfiction Dot Net and clicking on my homepage link – then click on Adult Fanfiction on my personal site. Sorry about all the re-routing, folks – for some reason Fanfiction Dot Net isn't letting me post links in my stories. Grr'n'stuff.
The next installment of this story, "A Rude Awakening", will not be up as soon as I had hoped as I put much more effort into "Fire and Ice" than I had expected. I will try to finish writing it soon.
And so, since I am told that I cannot merely post an Author's Update, we shall have a brief interlude...
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Interlude
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Andrea awoke on the couch as dawn's first rays filtered in through the window. She stretched languorously on the couch, unsuccessfully holding back a huge yawn. Her clothes were a mess - rumpled and ripped. She looked as though she had been through a hurricane. 'If that's how lusty pirates normally were' she thought quietly to herself 'it's no wonder they pillaged every port they came to!'
She heard a low, piteous meowing coming from the back of the kitchen. "Oh my God, Rum!" Andrea ran to where the poor cat was trapped in his cage. She carefully let him out, avoiding his claws as the enraged kitty stalked out of his prison. "I'm so sorry, Rum. How can I make it up to you? Tuna? Cream?"
The cat glowered at her, stalked to his food dishes, and gave her a Look. She could almost hear him saying "Do not think you can bribe me with food, mortal. But I am hungry, and thirsty, and so you may feed me. Now."
She laughed weakly at his theatrics, and proceeded to provide both the promised tuna and cream. As Rum wolfed them down, she sighed ruefully. "Well, there goes lunch."
She walked back into the living room, and wrinkled her nose. There was no sign of Jack, but the room reeked of sex. Andrea sighed. "It figures. It didn't even happen on this plane of existence, but I still have SOME sort of mess to clean up."
She carefully opened the room's ancient windows, then took a better look at herself. "Well, I guess it's shower time for me."
Andrea prayed that Daniel would wait until a more decent hour to call on her. She knew that she'd only gotten an hour of sleep, max, before dawn had woken her up. She really, really, REALLY didn't want to explain to Daniel why it was she was taking a shower when he knew she'd prefer to be asleep, or - even worse - explain why the front room now had that distinctive odor.
As hot water cascaded over her tired body, Andrea mentally smacked herself. "He's not my boyfriend. I'm not even sure dinner last night could be considered a date. He kissed me...so what? So...I still like him, that's what." She sighed in confusion. Her liaison with Jack had cured her immediate problem of horniness, but it had complicated her life in other ways.
Speaking of the devil, where was he? It wasn't like him not to be pulling some sort of prank on her now that he was confined to the house. Andrea turned off the water, grabbed a towel and carefully dried herself off. She frowned as she glanced at her neck, then used her towel to wipe the steam off of the mirror. The markings of her binding showed up a rich purple color in the mirror, but where they had been physically invisible before they were now a light shade of lilac.
"Oh boy...I guess I'm not wearing that tank top any time soon, after all." She dropped the towel on the floor, no longer caring if she ran naked through the house. Jack had already gotten the full show, after all. As she entered the bedroom, she could not help but grin.
She had left her bed a mess the day before, and it was now beautifully made and turned down. The pillows were fluffed and adorned with a single red rose from the garden outside. After putting the rose in a glass of water, Andrea gratefully slipped between the cool sheets and into sweet oblivion.
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