Elizabeth had taken to sulking in front of the mirror for at least a quarter of an hour every day. It seemed that no matter what she did she would never look quite as good as before the baby, no matter how hard she tried her horrible stubborn body would never-

"I think you're lookin delicious."

Elizabeth jumped at the voice from the shadows and only just managed not to scream. "Goodness, you scared me," she breathed, pulling her robe closed. Although on the one hand she didn't like to be seen looking so pudgy, she was still amazed and flattered that he had actually come all this way for her, taking time out of his busy schedule of pillaging, risking capture… "How did you get in here?"

"Now none of that," he said reproachfully. "Do I ever ask you?"

"Captain, I know discretion is important, for both of us… especially here… but you can trust me," she assured, before she remembered what she had planned for him. She had been getting heated over this idea for weeks now. She had promised herself that if he actually came to see her – which he probably wouldn't – then she would find some way of overwhelming him the way he always did her. For that he was going to have to hold still. For that, she had a pair of shackles tucked under her covers. How she was going to get them on him, she had no idea.

"You can't trust anybody," he said, and she tried not to look guilty. "I hope the birth went well?"

"Very well, thanks. I mean, as well as they usually go, I suppose. You know, it was even more terrible than I was expecting. I'm glad she's a perfect and beautiful little angel who leaves nothing at all to be desired, because I am never having a child again."

He didn't ask to see the baby and she didn't offer. He just laughed, "Lusty little thing like you? Keep your hands off the men for the rest of your life? I doubt it."

She tried to summon up some indignation, but found herself smiling. "Well, as you said last time, there happens to be a perfectly agreeable alternative…"

"Agreeable for me, maybe." He snorted. "Some day I'll have to show ye the flip side."

"The flip side?"

"Not tonight." He pulled her close and ran his hands over her body through her robe. "Tonight I'll have ye proper. We've waited too long as it is."

She led him into the master bedroom – why not, since Will wasn't expected home for two days and nobody would disturb them there in the meantime? Besides, it was a big canopy bed, and if she could just get him to stand up against the bedpost, she could lock his hands behind it. And then he would see what it was like to be terribly nervous and helpless in the hands of a sex-crazed lunatic.

In the end she decided on the method that had worked so well with Jack. Under cover of a very aggressive kiss, she backed him up against the post and began working his coat off his shoulders. The clattering of his sword to the ground nicely covered the noise as she fished out the irons, and when he went to tug his coat off over his hands, he put himself in perfect position for her to lock them on.

When he heard the twin clicksfelt the unmistakable cold metal at his wrists, Barbossa jerked away but it was too late. The chain ground against the bedpost and the bed didn't budge. "What-"

"Shh." She put a finger to his lips and pleaded, "Trust me?"

He was suddenly short of breath but he ordered himself to calm down. She almost certainly meant him no harm, and of course losing his head would only make things worse regardless of what his predicament turned out to be. He tried to laugh. "Do I have a choice?"

"Not really." She kissed along his jaw to his lips and was relieved that he opened his mouth to her. Good – he couldn't be too upset if he could kiss like that. She leaned her body against him and hugged him tight, amazed at how different it was when he couldn't manhandle her.

After a while it seemed like he had relaxed enough, so she knelt down, pressed a kiss to his belly, and slowly opened his pants. "Have you missed me?"

He sucked in his breath as she started to lick him. "Aye, I'll admit I have. Lots of wenches, but- ooh… none like you."

She was having fun, taking him deep in her mouth the way he liked, and then tapering off to teasing caresses designed to make him squirm. Every now and again he would reach for her head without thinking about it, and the chain would stop him after a few short inches. At first it was merely frustrating, but the worse he wanted to the more disturbing it was to be prevented. Finally he heaved at it with all his strength, and though the chain made a terrible noise against the bed, he was still stuck.

Elizabeth stood up, staring into his eyes, and kissed him. She unbuttoned his shirt and put her palm flat on his chest. "Your heart's pounding."

"That be the excitement," he answered, defensive.

She reached around to rattle the shackles. "Are you afraid?"

A second passed. "A little."

She put her lips to his neck. "So am I," she said between kisses, "Because I can't even imagine what you're going to do to me after this."

The open collar of his shirt was getting in her way, and he didn't like her shivery kisses to be interrupted. "Elizabeth," he breathed, shrugging his shoulder to indicate the shirt, "Cut it off – I've got others."

"Patience," she giggled, "We'll get there." She opened his shirt the rest of the way and raked her nails down his chest hard enough to leave four livid lines from his throat to his waist. She knelt down and, before going back to work on him, said, "I want to hear what you're going to do to me once you get loose."

Kiss your feet if you'll do that a little longer, he thought. As though reading his mind she stopped what she was doing, and started teasing him with light little licks instead. "Oh- arr… no," he stuttered helplessly, trying without success to push himself in deeper. "Lizabeth…n- that's not right, go back… aah- behave yourself… stop it! Oh, no I said s- mmn, you're not deservin of a bed tonight, you wretched thing… no-…" He was trying without success to rip the chain right through the bedpost. As it got worse he descended into a series of wild threats. "I'll do ye on the wall instead! I mean it! Throw y'right up against it and tear into you… Ah you're askin-! Askin for it, by God, I'll bend ye over that table and take you from behind like the whore you are…"

She loved the way he raged and struggled. To enflame him more she would move well and firmly for a few strokes, then stop, then begin again but lighter or shallower. He got more and more creative in the list of things he was going to do to her in consequence, and she got more and more interested, until finally she felt she couldn't try either of their patiences any longer. "Say it," she ordered.

"Elizabeth…"

"Say it." She tickled at him with her hand, then put him back in her mouth and gave just the lightest scrape of teeth. "I mean it."

This the timid little thing who hadn't even known how to move underneath a man! He couldn't wait any longer to have her, no matter what she made him say. "Elizabeth, please."

She stood and took the key from her robe. "Once more."

"I said please." She was a sight all over, mouth very red and chest heaving, but he didn't take his gaze from hers. "Please, Elizabeth. I'm askin please."

She unlocked the cuffs.

Rubbing his chafed wrists, he took a second to just watch her. Her eyes were closed and her breathing shallow – she clearly expected him to turn on her savagely…. But where would be the fun in immediately doing what she expected?

So he put his arms around her first and kissed her deeply, tenderly as any lover might. As the tension slowly left her, he led her across the room. "I believe I said somethin about a wall?" he reminded. She swallowed as he closed a hand softly around her throat and steered her around til her back was flat against the wall.

When he released her she stepped forward, so he took her by the shoulders and gently pushed her back. She stepped forward again, with a little more challenge, so this time he did it hard enough to qualify as slamming. Picture frames rattled on their hooks and she would have gasped, had not her mouth been occupied by a very sudden and fierce kiss.

He kissed her til her head spun, sucking the breath from her lungs, and then without further ado he opened her robe, held one of her legs up over his hip, and steadily forced himself inside her.

She was not really ready and the friction was terrible, searing her painfully the whole way in. She jerked but by the time she had her wits together enough to react usefully, his body was flush against hers and she had taken every agonizing inch. "Please," she breathed into his ear, clinging to him. "It burns."

"Oh, I know." He withdrew very carefully, savoring the way she shook and twitched, and then held himself poised at her entrance, just barely brushing her sex with his. "Now tell me, miss," he whispered. "How will it feel, d'you think, when I really start in on ye the way I do?"

She made a few high helpless noises but couldn't find actual words. He put his hand over her mouth "In case ye scream," and she squeezed her eyes shut.

"Elizabeth." She heard it as though from a very great distance, and opened her eyes. He was smiling at her. "Are ye afraid?"

Her mouth fell open as he let go and stepped away from her. "You- you..." He only laughed. She couldn't catch her breath, hr blood was pounding in her ears… "I think I'm going to faint."

"Then I suppose we'd best lie you down," he said, clearly pleased with himself. "I can have ye up against the wall some other time."

She staggered over to the bed, undressed with a lot of help, and fell back among the pillows (the clean pillows, a very nice change from their usual meeting-place). "You are a demon."

"Aye, and you, missie, be some very great fun," he complimented right back, before swooping down on her.

He gave her a bout of what would have to be called lovemaking, complete with passionate kisses, firm though nonviolent caresses, and at last, when she begged for it, a sweet and gentle penetration.

Of course, once he was finally buried in her warm wet heat, all bets were off – he couldn't possibly concentrate on pleasing her when he felt so unspeakably wonderful himself.

But she hardly seemed to mind, holding him and urging him on as he quickened towards the pace he liked best. "Lizabeth stop it," he growled, one last attempt not to descend into complete selfishness.

She ignored him. "Captain, please," she breathed, running her hands over the muscles of his back and shoulders. "Let go."

Resisting now would be futile and it would be silly to try, so he drove into her deep and hard and just went for it.

He was giving off those low guttural sounds that meant he was almost there, but with her body already overheated from all the attention he had lavished on it, Elizabeth climaxed well before he did. In the aftermath of her pleasure she hung on, almost sobbing with the intensity of it as he pounded home his last strokes and then spilled into her, gasping her name.

Afterwards, when they had rested half an hour tangled up under the covers together, she thought to ask, "I don't know how safe it is for you in the city… how long are you going to stay here for?"

She thought, especially after the –ahem– trust issue earlier, he might reproach her for asking about his plans, but instead he just thought it over and nodded. "I suppose I might be stoppin by once more tomorrow… after all, I've still got to bend ye over that table."

TBC.

One more chapter is still to come. Please drop me a review and tell me what you think!