Hey there! Thanks so much for the reviews! They were great! I apologize for not replying personally to everyone, I got caught up. Again, I'm sorry. Anyways, enjoy the chapter. Updates may be a little slow because I'm starting an original story that I'm spending a lot of time on. Thanks go to my beta and my reviewers. Tomorrow is my birthday! Woohoo.
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Tortugan Beginnings
Violent Delights
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Angelina sat at the very edge of the hard bunk that Lucas slumbered in. He lay for near half a day, sleeping. He did not look peaceful or very at ease. He looked rather haunted and trouble with his brow knitted together fitfully. His eyelids fluttered with anxiety and he squirmed about on the bunk as a thin sheen of sweat covered his lithe body. The strands of black hair seemed plastered on his forehead and his down-turned lips were slightly parted with his breath raspy and hoarse. Angelina worriedly placed her light hand on his wet cheek as she brought her lips close to his ear – cooing and hushing him to sleep. Lucas' fitful slumber did not cease, he merely moaned out; from the pain or gentleness of her breath, she did not know.
Blood had not seeped out of the terrible wound on his shoulder in the recent hours. The bandage had not been bled through but was merely tainted a light color of crimson, indicating that the blood was neither heavy nor constant. Angelina sighed to herself and neatly placed her hands in her lap hesitantly. Napoleon Basset said to her, many hours ago when the darkness still enveloped the cabin, "'Lina, ye are to stay wit' the lad. 'E may wake, 'e may not. If 'e asks for spirits, chow, anythin', ye are to supply him. Understand me, darlin'?"
Angelina had done just that. For hours, every time he writhed under the scratchy, moth eaten blanket from heat, she removed it. When he cried out for water, she took the cool liquid to his lips and he drank it with zeal. And when he cried out, for no particular reason, she placed her lips to his forehead, calming him immediately. But, for the past hour, he made no noises besides his shrill moaning and his raspy breathing.
"Lucas." She touched his forehead with her fingers. "You're scaring me, Lucas."
She expected no answer and she did not receive one. She only heard the hum of the waves, the shrieks of old wood and his breathing. Angelina was disappointed for some reason, even though she knew he wouldn't wake, not yet, at least. She turned away from his fretful face and wrung her gangly hands in apprehension.
Again, she turned back to his still form. "I know you'll live. Still, I'm frightened."
She waited for a moment, staring at his full lips as if they were to part and spew out words. There was no answer. "No, I didn't expect an answer. I don't quite know what I expect from this."
Angelina smiled at him, he looked so soft. She grazed her fingertips against his eyelids and was faintly surprised to feel the soft response of his eyes beneath. "From this," she repeated slowly. "This life. I'm not a pirate, Lucas. I'll never become one. I'll never be one. I don't know why I remain on this boat. Ship, I meant ship."
She paused and rubbed her temples in frustration. "I don't clean or cook. I don't know how. I sit here, all day long, and I listen to the world outside me, knowing that I'll never experience it."
Suddenly, she felt strange talking to a sleeping – nearly comatose – man. It never quite occurred to her how odd it was. She sat there, talking about her problems and insecurities while the man had just been shot. A new feeling of selfishness suddenly struck her as well. The pain he must have been feeling or even felt was near agony. Angelina was there to serve him, not use him as an outlet to her feelings. She almost wanted to apologize to him, but that even made her feel stranger. So, she placed her hand on his cheek, almost comforting and then turned away from him.
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Jack welcomed the heat of the sun upon his already bronzed face. He was quiet, besides the low rumbling of his hum, and he was at ease with the wooden spokes grasped in his hands. Dawn had only just arrived, less than an hour ago. Some slept in the bowels of the ship still, and others completed their difficult and laborious chores on the deck. He watched them with a fascination. The men on their knees, the holystone grasped within their dirty, blackened hands as they scoured the decks with intensity. Then, his dark eyes moved towards the silent men up in the rigging, their faces fearless. Still, he moved his eyes back towards the deck as men briskly moved over the ship, completing an errand or two. In and out, men brought their needles through broken sails with precision. Jack watched the routine of the Black Pearl with a deep satisfaction that caused a familiar roguish smile to spread upon his lips.
As he scanned the decks with his beloved ship in his hands, he noticed that Audrina was not on deck. He caught no sight of her greasy, dirty, curly, black hair or her petite frame. Usually, before Marcus Addison had walked into their lives, she sat in the rigging, watching the ocean with contentment. Now, Jack knew, she lay in the cabin awake. She was awake when he left her on her hammock. As he slipped his shirt on earlier that morning and greeted her, Audrina merely smiled delicately without a word.
It was not a surprise to him that Audrina Hart was missing from the deck; however, it slightly irritated him. Yes, she was a woman. And, yes, she had gone through a dreadfully traumatic experience, but still she was a member of the crew. Why should she sit there in her hammock, reading Italian poetry and English classics that he scarcely even looked at?
Jack almost abandoned the helm and charged into their shared cabin and demanded her out. Still, he stopped himself and swallowed his irritation. It was early, yet he would force her into the pirate she once was soon. Without even needing to look over the deck, he knew Angelina and Lucas were both absent, as well. Lucas Hart lay motionless on a bunk inside the sick cabin while Angelina hovered over him like a mother. Or even a wife. Jack found this amusing – this "relationship" of theirs – it was almost nonexistent, yet so obvious. The perfect contradiction. He silently vowed he would play Cupid with them. Ah, Captain Jack Sparrow: Love Expert Extraordinaire. With a wistful smile, he concluded that he rather liked that.
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The morning progressed as usual for Captain Sparrow. Hours after dawn, he abandoned the helm and went to sate his ravenous hunger. The galley had been near empty; the crew had already gotten their porridge-like meal and were continuing on with their duties. Jack ate slowly, knowing that immediately after he would go to Audrina and force her out of this trance.
He was somewhat afraid. It was rather comical, a pirate captain afraid of bringing a mere woman to her wits. Yet, he was sometimes frightened of her harsh temper and her threats, even if he knew that Audrina would never dare carry them out. Jack wasn't necessarily afraid of anything she might physically do to him; he just rather hated confrontations with women. He was often spat at, threatened, but always slapped across the face. He remembered the sting of a women's slap across his cheek, and he didn't really miss it, either.
As the food before him began to disappear, he slowly rose from his seat and left the galley. Reluctantly, he continued on further towards his own cabin. He contemplated just letting her be. Yet, he kept walking because he knew that she couldn't keep herself in isolation for so long.
The door loomed right before him, and he opened the door slowly. The small room where the hammock and bunk stood was behind a red, velvet curtain. He saw her silhouette behind it. She was sitting cross-legged upon his bunk. He simply watched her for a moment until her soft breathing became more audible and he was put into motion once more. His hand grazed the curtain and he walked past it to see her fully.
Audrina turned to him curiously. "What?"
Jack looked at her. She had a book of some sort opened on her lap; he did not care to read the title. Her hair was pulled away from her face with her black bandana, with her curls cascading down her back. Her eyes were quizzical and narrowed upon him. It occurred to him suddenly that she seemed rather empty and not much like her former self. Her skin was dirty, her hair was radiating filth, and her clothes were partially torn and as equally soiled. She hadn't bathed for a fair amount of time and perhaps her filth matched even his own.
He grinned and sat on the bunk beside her as he leaned back with his hands laced behind his head. "Jus' curious, that's all, luv."
"Curious of what, may I ask?"
He shook his head with an increasing smile. "No, you may not ask, 'Rina."
"Insufferable," she replied with a trace of humor.
Jack lifted his eyebrow quizzically. "Insufferable? I am beginnin' to think that I'm borderin' on ambiguity."
She furrowed her brows and tilted her head. "Ambiguity? What are you talking about?"
"Ah, ya say I'm insufferable. What ya really mean is, 'yer devilishly handsome'. Ya mean both. Ya givin' me quite ambiguity."
Audrina simply looked at him and then gave the smallest hint of a smile as she began to understand. "Jack Sparrow: insufferable, devilishly handsome and irritatingly arrogant."
"Arrogant? No, never," he replied with charming sarcasm.
She closed the book on her lap and placed it on the table and sat back down on the bunk next to him. Audrina was close to him, their elbows almost touching, although he was reclined and she sat upright, cross-legged. She looked away from him and at the wooden floor. "So, Jack, tell me why you really came here."
Jack sat up and steadied himself with his hand. "Oh? I can't come here jus' to discuss the ambiguous nature of my name?"
Audrina looked at him intensely without a smile on her face. The smile quickly died from his.
"Piracy is in yer blood, luv," he started and he took her arm and rolled up her sleeve to show the 'P' branded on her flesh. She touched it wistfully. "Yer part of the crew and I don' want to see ya sitting here like a woman all day wallowin' in grief. Be the man ya pretend to be, 'Rina. Savvy?"
Audrina looked away from him once more and then after a few moments, she turned back to him and tilted her head to the side. "So, you know now?"
"That Marcus Addison is in fact yer parental figure? Aye," he replied.
She seemed confused for a moment, but as the memory of her whispered confession on the night of the battle came back to her memory, she relaxed. "Unfortunate, isn't it?" she said bitterly.
"The word 'unfortunate' seems to be loosely used here, luv," he retorted.
Audrina nodded in regretful agreement. "Yes," she said with her tones low and hushed. It seemed to resonate with sadness. "I suppose you are right, Jack. I've stayed in this dismal cabin in grief for much too long."
"Cynical, eh? I'm not quite prepared to feel miserable at this here moment, dearie. Do tell later, though, when I've got my rum in me hand and I can drown such sorrows," he joked with his charming smile.
She felt inclined to smile at his teasing manner and that handsome smile. "I won't forget to make you feel miserable."
"I'm lookin' forward to it!"
Jack looked away for a moment and took the book off the table that she had been reading before he came in. Jack looked at the cover with a smile. In bold, script letters read: The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. He almost laughed. It was slightly comical to him. The "pirate" sitting upon his bunk read the complicated poetry about love and untimely tragedy; it was amusing. It seemed somewhat out of place as well. She did not look like a woman that would read tales of love as she wept for the fiction lovers. Jack tried not to laugh and he merely cracked a smile.
Thumbing through the pages, he stopped and read the page with speed. He stopped and turned to her expectant face. "These violent delights have violent ends," he read to her, and then closed the book and tossed it to the side. "What a wonderful description of the piracy occupation!"
Audrina was quiet for a moment and then, before Jack quite grasped what she was about to do, she kissed him. Her mouth was soft on his, their lips merely brushing across each other. She pulled away and was a mere inch away from his face with their noses almost touching. She could feel his breath and smell the salt and sweat from his skin. Jack put a hand tenderly on her cheek and pulled her closer. His lips crashed onto hers and soon became passionate.
Leaning back on the bed, with Jack hovering upon her reclined body, Audrina kissed him back fervently. His hands traveled up her shirt and lay dormant on her bare stomach for a few moments. His heart raced within his chest and he was almost certain she could feel it. He felt satisfaction suddenly. He finally received what he wanted – her.
Jack's hands lingered at the hem of her shirt and slowly. He pulled it up over her head to leave her chest bare before him. Audrina pulled away for a moment to look at him. He looked over her face. Her skin was drained and flushed with red tinting her cheeks. Her black hair was about her like a halo, and then his eyes traveled downward. Never had he seen her breasts so close and with her permission. With his hand, he grasped the left and teased the nipple as he kissed her once more.
Excitedly, his hands traveled down to her breeches and paused at the hem. He waited for a moment to see if she was going to protest, but she said nothing. Jack pulled down her breeches and she eased them off with a kick of her legs and they lay abandoned on the floor. Now, she was completely naked underneath him. The excitement in him rose even higher still. The curve of her hips, her naked legs beneath him. Her body totally unguarded; he groaned at the tightness in his own breeches.
He wanted to say something to her for a reason he could not explain. "Audrina," he said huskily, and he found no other words.
Audrina's eyes grew wide for a moment with surprise. His lips touched her neck while his hands still groped her body. He eagerly seized her neck with passion. Jack's kisses led downwards towards her breasts. He looked at her face as his lips lingered at a nipple. She seemed pleased, satisfied and incredibly frightened. He stopped only for a moment to wonder if he should continue.
Suddenly, he realized that he didn't want to take her like this. It was in the middle of the day and the sun was still in the sky. He did not want to ravage her in the daylight for some reason he could not explain. He wanted her with the stars speckling the sky and with the candles burning and the lanterns turned up so he could see her body.
Jack retreated and sat up suddenly. He gazed at her naked body and her confused face. He wanted her so badly. She was beautiful, not overly so but in a rough, savage way that made her even more appealing. He could see the beads of sweat on her forehead, and he could see the nervous trembling of her body.
"Do you not want me, then, Jack?" Audrina asked angrily.
Jack looked at her and shook his head. "O'course not, 'Rina. I want you," he licked his lips nervously, "very much. This doesn't seem proper-like, bein' it's still daylight and Mister Gibbs might drop on us at any time."
She laughed shortly and mockingly. "I never expected you to be worrying about what is proper and what is not."
"I surprise ya every day, don' I?"
Audrina looked away from him and faintly nodded. "You wouldn't even begin to realize how much you surprise me," she said quietly underneath her breath.
"Pardon?" he drawled.
"Nothing, just go, Jack," she turned away from him and pulled a blanket over her naked body.
The pirate captain looked at her regretfully. She was naked and waiting for him, and he said no. Why? He wasn't quite sure, at the moment.
As he stepped out on the deck, he suddenly realized why. In that brief moment when he looked up at her face when he hovered over her naked body, he saw fear. And he didn't want to take her while she feared him.
