Chapter 14

Portia woke feeling sticky and dirty. There was sand everywhere and the hot sun beating down on her was surely burning her skin to a crimson color. Rolling over to hide her face from the bright glare, she gagged at the smell of sweat and heavy alcohol assaulted her nose. Shoving Jack's unconscious form away in an attempt to breath again, Portia woke the sleeping pirate up. His dark brown eyes gazed at her in confusion.

"What are you doing?" he asked, and then opening his eyes more clearly, jumped up, grabbed Portia's hand and dragged her out of the sun into the shade of the trees. As they ran Portia realized too late that they were leaving their clothes behind on the beach. They were both stark naked.

Portia began to giggle as they reached the cover of the trees. Jack stopped running and turned to look at her inquisitively.

"What is so funny love?" he demanded.

"I don't think I've ever run naked on a beach before," she gasped out between fits of laughter.

Jack growled at her. "And why is it funny?"

Portia shook her head, unable to express how his running form in front of her had set her into unstoppable laughter.

Frustrated when she still did not stop laughing, Jack took advantage of the hand that was still clasped in his and pulled her to him. As their bodies made contact Portia immediately stopped laughing.

"Better," Jack mumbled. "No more laughing at me, savvy?"

Portia nodded. "Now, can I ask why we ran away without our clothes?"

As if he had suddenly realized they were naked, Jack's eyes swept down across the curves of her body. But just as he did so he doubled over as if in pain and fell to the ground.

"Jack!" Portia screamed, dropping down next to him. "Jack!"

She shook his shoulders and he grunted, assuring her that he had not died, but he would not open his eyes.

"Clothes, go put your dress on," he mumbled.

"What, Jack, what's wrong?"

"Get the dress Portia!" There was anger and pain in his voice.

Releasing her hands from his shoulders, Portia turned away from him with a look of frustration and confusion on her face and went to collect the scattered clothes from the beach. She put her dress back on before going back into the trees.

"I'm dressed," she said, dropping Jack's things by his side.

He opened his eyes, looked up at her and smiled weakly. Carefully he sat up, rubbing his temples.

"What happened?" Portia asked, kneeling down next to him.

"Damn curse," he replied. "That's woman's voice was in my head again…." He groaned.

"The prophecy?"

Jack nodded.

Portia sat down wearily next to him. "Well nothing happened last night when we…" she trailed off- the NYC part of her could not talk about those things as easily as the woman from Jack's world.

Jack's eyes came to meet hers and he sighed heavily. "That's because last night I wasn't just admiring your body, or lusting after your flesh, it was…"

"Something more." Portia finished. "Something good."

"Just good?" Jack asked jokingly, letting a smile coming to his lips.

Portia shook her head at him. "Wonderful," she added.

Jack's smile grew. "I…" the words stalled in his throat. No, he would wait to say that, he did not want his headache to get any worse. Portia looked into his eyes curiously when he stopped. She could see the words he wanted to say but could not.

She replied to them by brushing her lips against his. He groaned, but did not make any move other than to let her kiss him.

"We should get back to the others," he said and stood up to dress.

"Of course," Portia replied as Jack pulled up his pants. An idea coming to her, Portia took Jack's hands from his pants and tied them herself. He gulped to keep back another groan. Then she took his shirt and slipped his arms into it and over his head. And then of course she tucked it haphazardly into the waist of his pants as he did.

"You're evil," he murmured when she had finished,

"Come on, let's go," she replied, smiling.