Chapter Sixteen

Love, According to Jack Sparrow

"There you are!"

That was my mother's greeting as Jack, Karissa, Barbossa and I stepped in their bedroom. My mother was lying on the bed, and my father, who had been pacing, turned to look at us.

"Don't touch my daughter," he said to Jack, who was holding my hand.

Jack responded with a smug smirk. Karissa and Barbossa glanced at each other with question marks in their eyes.

Inside joke I mouthed to them.

"Sade, I can't believe my own daughter left me to rot here in this stupid bedroom on this stupid ship!"

"It's not stupid! The Ocean Pearl is majestic, amazing, and, by the way, the most durable ship to ever sail the Caribbean." I crossed my arms.

"Who's this?" my dad asked warily, glancing at Barbossa.

Jack sent him a wink, and Barbossa got the message. "Yet another one of your lovely daughter's admirers," he answered, pushing Jack aside and grabbing my hand. "Jack and I are in competition."

Karissa cleared her throat, signaling for us all to get back on topic. She obviously didn't realize that we had arrived at it.

"I'm independent. I don't need you anymore," I told them, yanking my hand back from Barbossa. "I never needed you. And I don't see a reason to come back with you. I just killed a man to save my best friend's life." I gestured to Karissa.

"I'm at least denying you a sex life," my mother clarified, pointing at Jack and Barbossa. Jack raised his eyebrows at me, as if suggesting something, and I rolled my eyes and shoved Barbossa, who in turn fell into Jack, and the two pirates fell tumbling to the floor.

"They're faking it," I explained.

"We are?" Jack asked Barbossa, confused. Barbossa shrugged and returned his attention to the conversation.

"To annoy you," I continued. "I was in on it. I'm still a virgin; I'm planning on keeping it that way for quite a while."

"You know, at the beginning of all this you were saying you'd be one forever," Karissa snickered into my ear.

I pushed her away, and she joined the tangle of pirates on the floor. "I don't need supervision in my life anymore. I'm free, except, of course, for the curse, but that's all that's holding me back. I'm Captain Sade River. I don't need anyone. However," I added. "If you would like to stay on the ship for a while, I'll grant you that. As much as I hate it, I used to need you. You gave me food and water, and kept me alive. In pirating, that's saying a lot. You may join us for a couple months, see what we do. And I don't believe I've told you about Davy's curse yet." I snapped a finger in my crew's- and Captain Jack's- general direction. "Hector, why don't you tell them?"

"Sure, Cap'n," he responded.

Jack, Karissa and I left, and I went to take over steering. Jack leaned on the rail next to me, while Karissa left to go to the opposite end of the ship.

"Love…" Jack's voice faltered for a minute, then he continued. "We've been through a lot the last couple weeks. I've discovered things about myself. You've discovered things about yourself. We've discovered things about each other."

"Your point being?"

"That I like what I see." He smirked and stared out at the ocean. We were silent for a few seconds. "I'd like to see more," he added, glancing down at my body.

I grinned fondly and gave him a little kick. "You're never going to, Jackie."

"I wouldn't be so sure," he replied, giving a smug raise of his eyebrows.

"Uh huh," I said. More silence followed.

"Tell me," I said. "How can we never have a conversation without you mentioning something completely inappropriate? Or touching me? Or anything?"

"Maybe it's the way we were meant to be," he replied in that seductive tone of his. "You see, darling, there are some people, when they meet, they clash. They collide. They react strongly to each other. And I firmly believe that that's you and me."

"So… you're saying?"

"That I wish you wouldn't regard me as a playboy or a womanizer and that I wish we could stay up late one night, you could drink some rum, get loose, and we could…"

He was cut off by Nettle. "Captain!" she called. "We found an island! It's time for Lord Beckett's burial."

The crew were preparing to stop at the island. Jack gave me one last, meaningful look, then, suddenly, sly as a cat, grabbed me and held my face close to his. His eyes seemed to be calculating something, and we stood there like that for a few seconds.

But then he released me… but not before muttering something so dirty in my ear that I won't dare to repeat here.

"Jack!" I scolded, blushing.

He gave me a sly smirk, and I felt my heart flutter. I doubt that what he had said would be clean enough for an R rated movie. I shuddered as he strode away, graceful, handsome… maybe even brave?

I closed my eyes and leaned on the ship's rail.

Was I in love with a pirate?

I hope you all enjoyed this! This is the end of this book. I hope to have the sequel, Unfinished Business, uploaded soon. Please review! I want to take any suggestions, and hear any criticism or complaints you might have. Again, thanks for reading! :)