It's been an absolute pleasure. Enjoy this love letter to the couple who has yet to be topped in my heart. Damaged goods, both of them. 3
(M-RATED…so beware of the sexy. ;))
Jack and Kate stood in the clearing, blanketed by the leaves as he continued his urgent assault on her mouth. The kiss grew from gentle and slow to vital and needy. She whimpered and grabbed at his shoulders when he sucked her bottom lip into his talented mouth before biting it gently, and swathing his tongue over it playfully.
He picked her up into his strong arms, their kiss never breaking. She banded her arms around his neck, drawing their kiss deeper. She moaned as she opened her eyes to watch, capturing the bliss displayed all over his face.
Even in the wild throes of their long-awaited closeness, she could read him. He had a serious thought to something underneath. She couldn't wait to erase all thought from his mind until there was just her.
"What is it?" Kate smiled, bringing her lips to his again and again, rendering him helpless each time.
"I just…can't…believe it." Jack managed between her kisses.
"I can." Kate said while running her fingers through the thick brown hair at the back of his head.
She took the moment of silence as an opportunity to close her mouth over his. He could feel his brain slipping into the abyss. She moaned and shifted against him, clear in her objective. Her fingers were still buried in his hair, pulling and combing. She was casting her spell.
He had to break free, and only would allow himself to for what needed to be done and nothing more. Once they were alone again, there would be little attempt to do anything but what their bodies and hearts clearly wanted.
"We should go." Jack whispered.
"Go where, Jack? We're already here." Kate whispered back, angling her head to place gentle kisses along the side of his neck. His stubble tickled the tip of her nose, and chaffed her swollen lips.
"I mean…" Jack started to clarify with a groan. She continued what she was doing, nibbling and then applying warm, soft pressure to places that were tripping every one of his triggers. She wanted to brand him, and she would if he didn't stop things there.
He put her down carefully, out of reach from her intended target, and then pulled her into him by her lithe waist. His large hands encircled her easily.
"We should go find Richard. He's bound to know what happens next." Jack said apologetically.
"I already know what happens next." Kate said with a wink.
"Kate." Jack laughed.
She placed a gentle touch to the side of his face. His eyes danced with happiness, but drive and curiosity lingered there as well. She knew what he meant. They needed to know what the next steps were, how they should proceed from here.
She doubted protecting the Island was without ceremony of some sort. Duties of this kind did not wait.
"Okay, let's go."
Jack took her hand and led her through the tall grass that Richard had already stomped a path through. He stopped flat once they reached their intended mark, not expecting who stood there in Richard's place. Kate caught up, wondering what brought Jack to a standstill. She looked up and gasped.
"Jacob?" Was all Jack could manage.
Jacob nodded. "Hello, Jack."
He turned to the beautiful, small but mighty creature standing next to him and nodded. "Hello, Kate."
"You're dead." Kate blurted out in amazement.
Jacob swallowed a chuckle. He was charmed by her already. "Yes, I am."
Kate looked him up and down, clocking the small pouch he held in one hand. "Then, how are you here right now?"
"These are my ashes." Jacob gestured to the pouch in his hand. "Once I burn them away, I'll be gone forever. But before I can do that, there are a few things you need to know about this place."
"How about we start with why?" Kate asked.
Jacob turned to Jack, who stood behind Kate's refusal to go just yet and awaited the answer or some version of it he had given him in his living quarters two-thousand years ago. Kate deserved the same, if not a better, answer from him.
"Why did you put us all through this? People are dead. Ben went on a rampage and you what? Just stood back and watched?"
"I decided not to act, and hoped that—"
"That what? That Ben would just stop and come to his senses? You standing by and hoping left a power vacuum that created Ben's delusions and caused death and destruction at every turn." Kate seethed.
"Yes, that appears to be so, but I didn't leave that vacuum completely empty." Jacob replied.
"Richard." Jack spoke up.
"Yes." Jacob said. "He acted as my intermediary. His talents for diplomacy are unmatched. He had very good rapport with Ben, and was able to talk him down from a very perilous path a time or two."
"Such a good rapport that he shot him off the side of a cliff." Kate retorted sarcastically.
"Richard wasn't my only protection against a coup, or so I thought." Jacob shared.
"What other protection did you have in place then?" Kate asked.
"I believe you called it the Monster." Jacob shared.
Jack, of course, already knew about this from his conversation with Jacob from before, but it was still terrorizing to think that the Monster was actually protecting anything with how he had frightened him and his friends to no end. Kate looked over at him and could see that he had already learned this detail, but it was still no less shocking to hear.
"You created that thing?" Kate asked, nearly shrieking.
"Regretfully, yes, I did. I built a place to trap it, like a prison. Only I had access to it and knew how to direct it for my aims, but Ben figured out a way to take control of it. Any attack its brought to your people was not at my hand."
"What is at your hand is bringing us here." Jack pointed out. "All I somewhat understand is the Island is a source of a very large pocket of electromagnetic energy, but I didn't learn any of that from you. All you've told me is that the Island is supposed to be protected no matter what. But why? What is so special about this place that you did all of this to save it?"
"Things happen here that don't happen anywhere else in the world. Very special things, things that some would call miracles. Explorers, the military, anyone who thought to use this place for their own gain would find it, then another and another. They came, they fought and they destroyed. It always ended the same."
"Then I realized that it only ends once. Anything that happens before that is progress."
Jack opened his eyes slowly. He blinked, trying his best to push the slumber away.
He was lying on his back, slumped over the uneven jungle floor below. He slowly craned his neck to pick his head up from the ground and took in his surroundings. He was lying in the middle of a shadowy clearing deep in the bowels of the jungle.
He looked down and noticed her. Kate was asleep, draped over his chest and lower body.
He brought a hand up to her face and pressed his palm over her forehead. In a caring motion, he smoothed her curls away from her face. She looked so peaceful. His breath hitched at the sight, finding that her being by his side was likely the reason he felt so at ease at the moment.
The thought of Jacob brought him back to the urgency of the situation. He gently shook Kate several times before she came to.
She blinked, finally registering his face and their positions, but not their surroundings. "Hey."
"Hey. You okay?" Jack asked.
"What happened?" Kate asked, relatively sure that her body had just experienced something it never had before, but not quite sure what.
"I'm guessing we're not in the present day anymore." Jack said, his large hand rubbing soothing circles over her back as she continued to wake up and get her mental bearings.
He had woken up with a fearful start too many times in this situation to not understand how confused and out of body she must feel right now. She eventually looked up at him again after she took a good long look at their surroundings, searching for threats.
"Did you just say we're not in the present day anymore?" Kate asked.
He nodded.
"Where's Jacob?" Kate asked as Jack began to detangle their upper bodies so they could sit up.
"He's likely right over there." Jack said.
Kate looked up at him, confused. Then, she noticed the soft glow casting the shadows away from the clearing. She turned towards the direction of this blinding light, emanating from the slits between the bamboo.
Jack was the first to get to a kneeling position. They got to their feet together, and walked through the bamboo. They found Jacob on the other side, waiting for them in the glowing light.
Jack and Kate weren't bothered by the brightness of the light. They felt life, energy emanating from its warmth.
"Where are we?" Jack asked.
"The Heart of the Island. I'm surprised you don't recognize it, Jack. A few clicks that way, over the ridge, is where you woke up after your plane crashed."
Jack shook his head in disbelief. "That's impossible. I looked around myself after we settled on the beach, about a dozen times. There was nothing out here."
"Nothing you could yet find." Jacob added. "This Light is the source of every living thing on Earth. It's where all life in all of time flows out of. It's the epicenter that powers all of existence. It's also where I became the Island's protector."
"It's believed that the source of the Island's mystical powers originate from here. It's how I created the Smoke Monster, how I haven't aged in over 2000 years, how I was able to heal you when you showed up on the beach outside of my living quarters." Jacob gestured to Jack.
"It's also how you all survived your plane crash with only so much as a few scratches."
The light began to dim, exposing a clearing embossed by large trees and a foggy mist. They could hear the faint rush of water falling nearby.
"It's not only where all of life comes from, it's where all life returns upon death. So, you can see why I couldn't leave it in the hands of someone like Benjamin Linus." Jacob reasoned.
"So, it's not just about protecting the Island, the physical place itself, but everything that comes from the source, and everything the source is capable of doing." Kate put together.
Jacob nodded grimly. "By protecting the Island, you are protecting the consciousness of all living things and the source's inherent abilities."
After the plane crash, Jacob observed the survivors closely, through Christian, but he would venture out on his own as well. Jack and Kate struck him especially. The immediate connection, the obvious attraction, the dissonance of their opinions about the caves and the hatch, and inevitably, the consort of their actions and motivations about protecting their group from the Others.
They were a complete pair. Nothing would distract them from their loyalty to one another. He knew about Jack's motivations for leaving the Island, and he also knew that no matter his machinations with Eloise to get him back to the Island, coming back for Kate was the only motivator Jack needed. He also knew about Kate's shame and devastation over hurting him and how from that pain she knew she was in love with him and always would be.
He expected a love match between them at the sheer depth of that devotion alone and was not surprised when the twin flames became one. He knew it would always stay that way, and it would save the Island from anything that came for it.
Jack found his faith and Kate found her home. They both found their purpose.
"Is this why Ben's cancer never healed? He lived on the Island for most of his life, yet he still got sick." Jack said.
"The source is inherent to the Island; it provides the very miracles men like Ben seek. Ben's need to protect the Island didn't come from a place of sacrifice, but one of his own survival. He never told you this Jack, but he thought your plane crash was about saving him. When he found out that there was a world-renowned spinal surgeon on the plane, he saw it as his miracle. So, he infiltrated your camp with one of his own, and when he was discovered and killed, he devised a plan to infiltrate your camp himself. Then one of your fellow survivors exposed him, so he got desperate. He took you and your friends and set out to get rid of you once he caught on to the real reason for the crash."
"Much to the credits of your miraculous gift Jack, you did save him."
"Maybe I shouldn't have." Jack said, his tone sharp.
"You did the right thing, even at a great expense to yourself. It's one of the reasons why you've always been fit to lead."
Jacob could see the tremendous weight of responsibility, the gravity of this information forming in their faces. There was no question that any other two people would run from this responsibility with everything they had, find some loophole, but he knew Jack and Kate wouldn't.
"The scientist who helped me come back to the Island said that because of this source, the Island can move through time. Is that how I could meet you 2000 years in the past, and then wake up 500 years into the future from that moment?" Jack asked.
Jacob affirmed with a curt nod. "There are scientific consequences for the source as well. It sits over the largest pocket of electromagnetic energy in the world. The device you came back with Jack, it only resets the energy source here on the Island, killing things that were created from it by man, not inherently from the source itself."
"So, that's why the Monster disintegrated." Kate said, amazed at how much Jacob knew. But then again, he was the orchestrator after all. The true man behind the curtain. There was very little he didn't know about.
"When the hatch blew and you left the Island Jack, the clock started ticking." Jacob shared.
"That's why you enlisted Eloise. Who exactly is she to you, if you don't mind me asking?" Jack asked. He felt their connection had to be extremely strong for her to have moved on in her life but stopping at nothing to help Jacob.
Jack followed Jacob's eyes to Kate, who practically glued to his side, staring off into the distance, momentarily checked out of the conversation. She was still amazed by the beauty and mystery of their surroundings. Jack nodded his understanding and left it at that.
Kate buried herself into Jack's side while crossing her arms around her abdomen, cold from the misty breeze. "Where is the waterfall?"
Jacob smirked, hoping one of them would ask. "Just over there, as are the caves you once lived in."
Kate looked up at Jack, who was already looking down at her.
"The cav—" Jack began, not even able to form the words.
That couldn't be, he thought. The caves were miles inland, and nowhere near the bamboo forest. He let the thought to contradict what was float away. The Island will never cease to amaze him.
"You mean, at one point in time, we were living at the Heart of the Island?" Kate asked.
"Not exactly, but very close to it." Jacob shared as he began to walk off. Jack and Kate followed close behind.
They came through to a larger clearing, filled in by a beautiful, large waterfall in the near distance, with smaller, residual waterfalls hanging over broad, tall rockslides that they only assumed connected to the caves, the waterfall within the caves a canal from the one they were currently mesmerized by. Jack recalled the cave-in he got stuck under and wondered which bed of rock was unstable enough overhead to have caused it.
A generously sized stream ran down to their feet with plenty of bellowing trees scattered about. It made for excellent shade and shelter. The water in the stream was clear, the reflection of the sun sitting on its surface, shimmering through the ripples.
Forcing herself out of the trance planted by the view, Kate turned and watched as Jacob quietly approached the stream. He kneeled down at its edge and brought his hands together, dunking them into the water. He paused before he dunked them back into the water again and brought them back out, a small pond of crystal water in tow, with drops trickling between his fingers.
Kate looked closer, studying the moment. Jacob's eyes were closed and his lips were moving. She could hear him saying something, almost like a chant or a spell. He abruptly released the small cup of his palms to free the water to flow back into the stream. He clapped and rubbed his hands together and slowly stood.
Kate moved closer, her curiosity always getting the better of her. "What are you doing?"
Jacob dried his hands on his pants as he approached her, with Jack walking over to hear his answer.
"Preparing for my end." Jacob said. "Now, do either of you have a cup?"
Jacob sat in the clearing, letting the sound of the nearby waterfall lull him. It was now dark, and he smiled with what now was.
The smoke from the fire was just beginning to clear in the air. The pouch full of his ashes continued to burn from the last of its embers.
Kate woke up, choking on the drops of water at her throat. She coughed a few times, blinded by the downpour of rain that was relentless. She blinked enough to be able to make out that she was lying in the middle of a meadow, surrounded by tall grass.
She rose to her feet and immediately ran in search of Jack.
"Jack?" She screamed.
"Over here!" She heard him call back. She followed the direction of his voice, turning a corner and finding him crouched low on the ground, one hand firmly cupped over his right shoulder.
She ran to him, crouched down right into the mud with him and brought her arms around his neck and shoulders.
"It's okay. I'm right here." He said, cupping the back of her head with his large hand and banding his other arm tightly around her waist in a reflex. She tightened her grip on him, causing him to groan in pain.
Kate pulled back, worry in her eyes. He smiled, trying to ease her fears, but his hand went right back to cupping his shoulder. He bowed his head.
"It's my shoulder. It's out of the socket."
Kate could tell that he was trying to breathe through the pain, but wasn't doing a good job of masking it.
"Need help with that?" She asked with a small laugh. Without waiting for an answer, she wrapped her small hand around his wrist, pulled back, and gave him time to brace himself for what was coming.
"You ready?" She asked. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath through gritted teeth and nodded.
"On three. One, tw—" Before getting to three, Kate pulled as hard as she could and twisted, resetting Jack's shoulder as his loud groan filled the space around them.
He pulled his arm into his side and collapsed forward. Unable to take watching him in so much pain, Kate placed her hands on both sides of his face and pressed her forehead to his, hoping to absorb some of his anguish for herself. They stayed that way for awhile, listening to each other's breathing, the wind and rain above and the stillness.
Jack pulled his head up and took in Kate's face and upper body. She was drenched from the heavy downpour, her shirt soaked down to her bra, with raised welts from the leaves slapping her upper arms. She weathered a storm to get to him, again. No one ever loved him even half as much as she did. He could see it now. Even when he didn't think he saw it, or talked himself down from seeing it, her actions always told him something even his deep-seated denial couldn't brush off.
They shared a knowing glance. They remembered Jacob, the Light, the waterfalls, the stream. They stood ceremoniously in that stream, standing in it up to their mid-shins, and drank from the same cup, swallowing the water Jacob had incanted with whatever it took to pass his responsibility to them. Their hands were tied together, their eyes locked in, the love shone there too bright to ignore.
Kate smiled and cupped her hand over his jaw, bringing her lips to his. She pulled back, satisfied for the moment. "Are you okay?"
Jack nodded, his tone sincere. "I am now."
The lightning overhead kicked him into second gear. "We should get out of here, find cover."
They wobbled through the downpour together for what felt like hours, taking turns supporting one another. Jack's right arm was out of commission, so he leaned into Kate to compensate. He was worried even she wouldn't be able to keep this up.
"Kate, I think we should rest."
"We're close, Jack. I know it."
They were looking for the caves. They had no idea where they woke up, but they had to find a safe place, and besides the beach, where they knew they could be attacked at any moment, the caves were safer and close to what they were tasked with protecting.
Jack trudged along with her a bit more, her bloodhound instincts in high gear. Suddenly, they heard the downpour from the waterfalls, the torrential rain loud, but not enough to drown it out. They sighed as they came upon the familiar bedrock of the caves.
Jack looked down at Kate, in awe.
"Told you we were close." She teased as they moved inside.
It was the first time they had been there together since before the raft launch and blowing the hatch door to seek refuge inside after news of an imminent attack by the Others.
It still provided all of the necessary features that made it so appealing to Jack in the first place. He worried about Kate though. She was never a fan of the caves and often distant about her place, eventually visiting more and more after the cave-in and the news about Claire's abduction.
Kate looked around. The fresh waterfall was in overflow from the rain, and the plant life that brought a bit of the jungle inside set up a stunning image. In her initial defense about the move to the caves from the beach, she didn't see the appeal. She found herself angry at Jack for wanting to move, and ultimately, for leaving her behind. It wasn't his fault she came to realize. She was still operating in fight or flight, the caves signaling the groups' resolve about the lack of rescue. She couldn't wait for US Marshalls to reach the shoreline and find her. She had to be proactive, catch the eye of a plane overhead or a ship off the coast. Anything not to get caught.
How things have changed. Now, she was here on the Island to stay, at the side of the love of her life, with no intentions to leave. She realized that the caves were essential to their survival back then, and it was the key to it now.
She looked over at the crevice where the skeletons once were, and found it empty. She would ask later where Jack thinks they went. Maybe whoever they were hadn't died and been laid to rest there…yet.
They moved further inward and rested along the flat rocks near the waterfall.
Kate saw Jack's eyes lingering in a particular spot. She wondered if he was thinking about his father. As quickly as she noticed the look, it was gone, brushed under the surface.
They snooped around a bit more and found a pile of folded clothing and other worn tools in the corner, where Jack's infirmary used to be. There were blankets and clothing garments for both of them. Slightly worn and tattered, but would suffice while they built a fire and let their soaked clothing dry.
"I'll find some dry brush to build a fire with." Kate said, shivering from head to toe.
Jack caught her wrist, stroking the skin there as she turned to face him. She read the soft expression on his face and smiled. She brought herself up on her toes, smiling as she gently laid her lips over his.
The fire crackled in the expansive space, providing both warmth and light. Kate sat close to it, wrapped up in a wool blanket, vibrating with excitement for Jack's return. He nervously fidgeted as she began to undress from her wet garments, taking no precautions to cover herself.
In a haste, he decided to go out in search of food. Kate insisted she go instead, her tree-climbing skills unmatched, but Jack beat her to it. She built the fire, he felt he had to do something. His injured shoulder felt better already and with the torrential winds from the storm, an abundance of mangoes were bound to have fallen underfoot.
Kate made a spontaneous, playful decision about her undergarments, which had to dry just like the rest of her clothes. At least that would be her excuse when he teased her about it later.
Jack arrived with a knapsack full of various fruits, none of them picked over. In one deft motion, he pulled his damp t-shirt over his head, leaving his jeans and underwear in place, his foray into the humidity of the jungle had dried them some. He didn't want to assume what level of intimacy Kate was ready for. Even after her sultry teasing early before they went to find Richard, he didn't want to push her.
Kate watched with a dry and eager mouth, swallowing hard at the specimen on display to her. Lean muscles, taunt shoulders formed a tantalizing show among the shadows. Jeans that should be illegal to look so good in rode low on his waist. He looked over at her and she made no attempt to look away from her visual feasting. He grinned to himself, not in an arrogant way, but in the pleasure that she was having just as much of a hard time being respectful as he was.
He wanted her, right this second. He had from the very beginning. Plenty of his vivid sex dreams on and off the Island had her present in the starring role. He quietly wrapped his shoulders and chest into a matching blanket and sat next to her at the fire.
They talked and laughed while they ate at their fruit and drank their fresh water from the waterfall.
He looked around, nostalgia and grief gripping him all at once. "It feels like a million years ago we were here together."
"Or a million years from now." Kate said with a light chuckle.
He nodded with a laugh, taking in the most beautiful vision he ever saw. She was wrapped up in a blanket that was so large, she was swimming in it. Her hair started to frizz a bit as it dried and her eyes practically shimmered in the glow of the firepit.
She turned and took in the besotted look on his face. They stared into each other's eyes, communicating their needs. It felt like déjà vu, when they had come from the line in the jungle, the same spot the Others revealed to have taken Kate, in search of antagonizing them into showing their faces. They sat trying to figure out what to do, what to say. She spoke first.
'I'm sorry I kissed you'
'I'm not'
She hadn't meant the apology. She just missed him.
He meant every word. He wasn't sorry and he never would be. Not about her.
The memory became a phantom in their minds as they lunged towards one another. With her arms wrapped around his neck, she swallowed him up in wet, passionate kiss. He could feel her blanket slipping, her naked breasts pressed over his chest as his hands gripped at the smooth skin of her back. She crawled into his lap and pressed her groin to his, feeling her effect on him for herself.
She was ready, that much was clear. He pulled out of the kiss for the briefest moment and pressed a large palm over her breast. He repeated the process on the other side, watching her eyes darken with desire as her entire body gleamed in the firelight. She shivered, prompting the wool blanket to fall completely away.
"You are my whole world, Kate." Jack said barely above a whisper. "I'm yours for as long as you'll have me."
"I love you so much, Jack." She whispered back as she lowered her mouth to his again, capturing his mouth in a soul-searing kiss. Her head swam with love for this man. She was vibrating with intense emotions she had never experienced with anyone else.
He wrapped a large arm around her waist, twisted himself around and laid her on her back over the blanket he was once covered with. Her naked body was completely exposed and she showed no signs of embarrassment.
"I want you Jack. I've wanted you for so long. Please make love to me. I can't take it anymore." Kate pleaded with him.
He lowered his mouth to hers, telling her without words that this was all he ever wanted too. She was so soft and beautiful, the mewling and moaning noises coming from her tripping senses and desires within him he never thought he would ever get to fully experience. Her head fell back with an excited squeal, drowning in the anticipation of the moment as his lips made delicate work of her neck and upper chest, bathing her with warm, wet kisses everywhere he could as she reached between them for the button and zipper of his jeans.
The last thing he heard was the sound of her lowering his zipper. The release of his growing erection into her soft hands was both painful and exhilarating. She stroked him gently and thoroughly, most impressed by his size and length, growing a bit worried about how sore she might be after. Any thoughts of pain floated from her mind as he brought her nipple into his mouth, feasting at it, then paying the same passion and energy to the other. His stubble scrapped at her flushed skin, causing more arousing senses to flood her brain and lift her higher. She gripped his back with both hands, not willing to float away without him.
She spread her legs wider for him, humping upwards to make any contact she could with him. She wanted to feel him gliding in and out of her. She needed it more than air.
He read her actions, but he needed to focus on her for as long as his will power would let him.
"Not yet." He whispered softly over her mouth.
He started a trail of light, feathery kisses down the middle of her chest and torso, feeling her skin grow hotter by the second. He spread her legs and pushed them back as far as they would go and lowered his mouth to her pussy, licking and sucking the sensitive flesh into his warm mouth. She shuddered and squirmed beneath him.
"Jack, please make me come." Kate whimpered.
"Nice and slow?" Jack whispered against her, licking her again and watching a new flood of moisture drown her hole. His breath hitched at the sight. She was so responsive, attentive and downright sexy. He could do this all day.
She looked down at him, watching as he licked her folds with his impressive tongue, letting the tip circle around her clit with just enough pressure and heat, but not too much. He was enjoying himself, getting lost in pleasing her and that made the act hotter to her. No one ever excited her or elicited the reactions from her that he could and this was only their first time together. He quickly realized his power, she thought with a moan.
She also noticed that he was fully erect, seeping and ready to explode. She read the situation, how he ran so hot as they undressed and touched each other intimately in the firelight to now, then slowing things down. He was calming himself down, using this moment to focus on her before he entered her and lost all control. She wanted him out of control, his dick exploding against his will, against her walls.
He penetrated her with his tongue, over and over again, drinking from her like he was dying of thirst. She continued to squirm, now yelping, her breath now coming out in short pants. She suddenly went completely tense, her back pulling up in an arch, her breathing hitched and caught in her throat. She came all over his face with a loud scream. He rubbed circles over the sensitive bulb with his fingertips, making her orgasm last and last. He eventually let her bottom out, and she met his eyes with awe.
He crawled up to her face and settled himself between her legs as he guided his tip to her warm, wet hole, pushing himself in slowly, connecting them inch by pulsating inch. She cried out as she stretched for him. He could feel her walls clamping around what had penetrated so far, watching her with delight as she came again.
Once she recovered, he nudged her nose with his, opening his mouth over hers as he continued to penetrate her until he was completely enveloped within her slick heat.
He stilled, closed his eyes and felt his breathing becoming erratic. Sensing his need for control, she ran her hands up and down his back, then through his hair and over his shoulders. She needed to feel as much of him at once as she possibly could, this dream coming true almost too much to believe.
He began to move within her, burying himself deep only to retreat and repeat the process. He couldn't believe this was happening. He was out of his mind with lust for her that it was taking everything inside of him not to push her legs back as far as they could go and make her scream again. He had been with his fair share of women, had always done his best to be a considerate and generous lover, maintaining a healthy appetite for sex. Even in the beginning of his doomed marriage to Sarah, she was always eager to please and be pleased.
This was different. Kate was different. It was too perfect for their first time, too good. Already perfecting being this close was not lost on him just how Kate was different. They fit. They always had. She consumed his every thought and feeling when they were together and even when they weren't. Space and time no match for their love.
She bit and sucked at the skin of his shoulder as he continued to pound into her, each thrust more purposeful and passionate than the last. A need to be even closer, deeper, consumed him. He put his arm under one of her thighs and pushed it back as far as it would go, her leg hanging over his shoulder as he drove himself deeper. A blazing jolt of electricity pierced through her groin on impact. She cried out in surprise.
He was so deep, hard and showed no signs of slowing down. He felt more of her wet, slippery heat swath over him as he continued his movements, their bodies slick with sweat, and her other leg finding its way around his waist to keep them as connected as possible between thrusts. He was so close, every muscle in his body burning as he moved in and out of her, so turned on and in need of release, but wanting to make her come all night long, to give her endless pleasure, or as much of it as she could stand. He then felt her tightening her grip on him and knew she was teetering over the edge.
"Oh god." Kate gasped, hanging on for dear life.
The tingling began, more intense and unlike anything she had ever experienced before. She closed her eyes tight, the blinding stream of bright light filled her mind and body as she came hard. She shook and shuddered below him, panting just how much she loved him while trapped in ecstasy that eventually took away her ability to speak, think, hear and breathe.
He pumped into her a few more times, hot and hungry, happy to make her orgasm last and last, but unable to hold off his own anymore. He toppled over the edge after her, exploding inside of her for a third, then fourth time, filling her up. He groaned through it, unable to move, speak, think, hear and breathe for at least twenty seconds.
He opened his eyes slowly, his mind numb, and his senses only starting to come back to him. She rubbed lazy, soothing circles over the sweaty skin of his back and purred happily at his weight almost fully laying over her, never feeling more protected and cherished than she did in that moment. He straightened out his folded arms and looked down at her.
"Hey." Kate sighed. She was just as exhausted as he was, he noticed. Rivets of curls were stuck in beads of sweat on her forehead, a sleepy and sexy smile plastered across her flushed face. No other woman had ever looked so sweet and precious in her state.
"Hey right back." Jack was spellbound by her and by the moment and how intensely real it was. This woman had all of her hooks in him and he was ready to give the best he had to offer. He brought his mouth down to hers, taking her breath away.
"You're amazing." She complimented.
"Flattery will get you anything you want, Ms. Austen." Jack hummed.
Kate cupped his face in her hands, her wild green eyes boring holes through his soul. "That's Mrs. Shephard to you."
She saw how much the gesture touched him, his soft brown eyes watery, staring right through to her heart. It shouldn't have come as such a surprise, but it warmed her heart that it still did. He still had no idea how much she loved him and she would spend every waking moment reminding him.
Moments later, she sat in his lap, their chests pressed together, her legs wrapped around his waist, and her arms twisted around his neck and shoulders, connected and rocking together in a perfect rhythm. Their pants and moans filled the space. He held to her back and the meatiest part of her ass as she moved over him, in the driver seat and taking him on the ride of his life. He sucked at the skin of her neck, intent on leaving a mark. He was completely lost in his need for release and his love of watching her come undone.
"Deeper and faster. Concentrate." Jack growled and slapped her butt hard. Kate squealed in shock from the contact, her ass stinging all over, so turned on by it she almost came. She felt the tingling begin to mount already.
She drove him in deeper, their flesh slapping together quickly and loudly as she bounced harder on him.
"Again, please." She panted. He slapped her ass again, even harder.
She pressed their groins together as she tilted her head back and cried out, the orgasm taking hold, leaving her breathless and quivering. He watched her with so much love and adoration, he couldn't concentrate on anything else. Her velvety tightness clamping around him sent him into orbit. His orgasm caught him off guard, his juices filling her womb and all he wanted was to be connected to her in any way he could, all at once. He fisted her brown curls, pulled her face toward his and fused their mouths together as they fell over the edge together.
She laid over his chest, the beast within her well-fed, but was always hungry for more. Too hot from the sex for blankets, they laid in the firelight skin to skin. Her fingers played lazily in his chest hair as she listened to his heartbeat. His hand caressed her back, dipping over her butt and back a few times, his mind going there again, but entirely too tired to do anything about it anytime soon.
Kate could sense that he was thinking deeply about something. She would catch him looking over at the same spot she caught him gazing at earlier, shortly after they arrived. There was something on his mind. She didn't want to ruin the beautiful moments they shared by prying, but she couldn't help but sense that he needed to talk about it.
"So, just how many women before me have you had practice with, Jack? Because babe, I'm so sore, I don't think I'll be able to walk for a day or so at the very least." Kate praised, pretending to mind being fucked so long, so deep and so incredibly good that she was practically aching for when he would be between her legs again.
"Was I too rough?" Jack asked.
"Rough, raw and intensely passionate. If anyone had told me getting spanked on the ass would make me come like that, I wouldn't have believed them." She said as she raised her head from his chest to kiss him. "But you didn't answer my question."
Jack laughed, her jealousy about long-forgotten women from his past making him love her even more. "There were a few serious relationships, a few flings here and there, my marriage, but none of them hold a candle to you. The only woman who matters and will ever matter to me is you, Kate."
She smiled and snuggled in closer. They were silent again, intent on laying there in each other's arms on the cave floor, in the firelight.
"A dollar for your thoughts?" Kate asked.
"Wow. A whole dollar?" Jack asked as he rubbed his large hand over her hip and thigh.
"They seem pretty deep. I don't think a penny is gonna be enough to cover it." She half-teased.
"Claire is my sister." He said softly, not able to hold it in anymore.
She rose, the shock evident on her face. "What?"
"Yeah." He said with a long sigh.
"When did you find out?" She asked.
"When I was back on the mainland. Turns out Juliet knew the entire time we were on the Island together."
"And she didn't say anything?" Kate accused, getting riled up. Jack could sense her readiness to take back any good thing she ever said about her. He bit back a smile.
"I confronted my mother after Juliet told me, and she was upset when she found out I knew. It was like the worst thing in the world to her, that I knew about my sister. I can't even begin to put myself in her shoes. Her marriage to my father was never easy. I overheard enough arguing and threats to leave growing up to know that much, but I don't think I could ever ask someone I love to ignore this other part of themselves, you know? It feels wrong."
Kate nodded as she listened intently to every word, the relief evident in his expression from putting words to his thoughts and feelings. "It was wrong that she denied you the chance to grow up knowing Claire and bonding with her."
"I left het behind, and I'm trying really hard not to feel guilty about that." A single tear rolled down his cheek then. "I feel even worse about not being able to tell Claire face to face and to be there for her."
Kate brought her hand up to his face and wiped at his tears. She knew something heavy was weighing him down.
"How is she gonna find out?" She asked.
"I planned on telling her, but I wrote her a letter just in case something happened to me on the way here. I was gonna tell her everything about him, his life, his death, and the inheritance."
"Inheritance? So, I snagged myself a sugar daddy." She teased.
"Yeah, something like that." Jack laughed, her attempt to break up the sadness working. "It turns out my family comes from old money, and lots of it. Way too much to spend in a single lifetime. Claire was denied her equal part of the inheritance as a condition of the agreement my father made with my mother. She wasn't in his will or named in the trust, but she is now. I made sure of it. She and Aaron are set for life. They never have to worry about money ever again."
"That will be such a relief to her. She shared a lot with me and money was something she always worried about if we were ever rescued."
"Money won't change anything, though. It's all I have to give her now. We lost that time and we can never get it back."
"Oh Jack." She adjusted herself over his chest to wrap her arms around him. "I'm so sorry."
"Me too." He said, returning her hug, "I just hope she and Aaron made it to the plane."
"She did. I know it. She and Aaron are gonna be okay, Jack." She said.
"Do you think your mother would eventually invite Claire and Aaron into her life?" Kate asked, unsure of the nature of his relationship with his mother, but given how he never talked about her and the distant tone in his voice when he did, they were not close.
"I don't know." Jack shared, sadly. "Claire and Aaron are the only pieces of my father she has left. I just hope that she can put those ugly feelings and emotions aside to let herself be a parent and grandparent to them."
"Mmm. Me too." She sighed.
"Do you think Claire would want to know about me?" He asked.
Kate cupped the side of his face with her hand and kissed him softly. "Of course she would. I can't imagine anyone not wanting to know you, Jack. You were there for her during the scariest moments of her life. Ethan, Rousseau, the Others. You kept her and Aaron safe and protected at all times."
"No, you kept them safe, Kate. I was just there as backup. You helped her bring Aaron into this world, just like I knew you could." He said, squeezing her playfully.
"It was a team effort." She said. "Claire believed you would come back too, you know? She was her usual self at first, letting her anxiety get the better of her, but she was the first of the group to come around. She loves you, Jack."
He smiled at her words. If anyone knew Claire as well as he would have liked to, it was Kate.
"Claire was the reason my father was in Australia when he died. He thought he was beyond the point of return with me, so he went to reconnect with her." Jack shared.
"Did your mother tell you that?" She asked.
"No, my father did. I saw him right over there, after I disappeared from the cabin." He looked over at the same spot she had caught him staring to several times before.
She remembered him telling her that he woke up in the caves, and had a conversation with his father about Jacob, Locke and Ben, but he got distracted when she asked about what else they spoke about. She never in a million years would have guessed any of it was about Claire.
"He told me he always wanted her to be a bigger part of his life, and wanted us to meet, even grow up together but my mother threatened him with divorce papers if he ever told me about her or even saw her again."
"You didn't think he loved you. Your father." Kate said, more of a statement than a question.
He could tell that she was analyzing him like only she could, tapping into uncomfortable territory for him, but he took a deep, long breath and spoke.
"Sometimes I did feel like he loved me, but it was always attached to something, some gain for him. I make good grades, he would show me more attention. I'd get a standing ovation at a piano recital, he would spend the whole weekend with me. That's probably why I went into medicine. To constantly be around him, to excel at something he loved so much, in hopes that he would one day love me too."
"What else did he say to you when you saw him?" She asked, her heart breaking for him.
"He said this life was the one that was meant for me, not the one he had planned. It was actually refreshing to hear him sound so humble for a change." Then he remembered the letter. "He wrote me a letter while he was in Australia, right before he died. He never got the chance to give it to me, but Jacob somehow got it to Eloise, who got it to me."
"What did it say?" She asked.
"About the same thing he told me when I saw him here. Only I lost it." He admitted. The last time he remembered having it was when he woke up in the jungle after meeting Jacob and before the Black Rock crashed into the statue during a heavy storm that took him deep into the bowels of the jungle.
She could hear the sadness in his voice, the idea of having something his father gave to him or intended to give to him very important to him. She suddenly sat up and reached over him for her pack.
"What are you doing?" He asked, watching her rummage through it with precision focus.
"I have something from your father that you didn't lose." She handed it to him, watching as his eyes went soft and watery with emotion.
His father's watch. It was a bit worse for wear, with mud caked over the band and the face slightly cracked, but there it was.
"You told me that your father gave it to you when you graduated from medical school, and that it was the first time he ever said he was proud of you. You asked me to hold onto it and protect it for you. As you can see, I dropped it a few times."
He laughed lightly, deeply touched. "You remembered that?"
"Yep. This watch gave me all the hope I needed that you were coming back for me. It's also proof of what your father said in that letter and in these caves. You are enough, Jack. You always were."
He lunged at her, holding her tightly and kissing her long and thoroughly, with a heart that was so full he could barely take it. "Thank you."
She smiled, snuggled back into his chest and went quiet, almost too quiet. All this talk about fathers and secrets brought her mind to Wayne, her mother and Sam, the only man she ever knew to her father and the pain of learning that they weren't related by blood.
Jack looked down at her and saw that she was lost in thought suddenly, her eyes staring blankly at the flames of the fire that kept them warm.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
"Do you remember when you asked me exactly what it was I did, right before you left for the caves and I stayed on the beach?"
"I do." He said as he kissed her forehead and tightened his arm around her. He remembered wanting her to come with him so badly and while he knew she had secrets, that she was a fugitive and whatever she had done to be in her circumstances kept her from trusting and from settling.
"You told me I had my chance to know."
She remembered the pained look on his face at those words, the disappointment. She could hear it in his voice even now. All he ever wanted was to be let in, and she had no experience with the deep feelings she had already developed for him so quickly and his need to know why she had been apprehended by a US Marshall. It was too much too soon, but not anymore.
'I don't want to be Eve.'
She remembered telling him. He claimed he wasn't asking her to be, but she knew he felt it too. The pull towards one another, the need to be close.
She wanted to be Eve all along. She was Eve now, and there was no place else she would rather be than right here in his arms.
"Well, I don't think that's true anymore. I think I have to tell you. Everything. Full disclosure. So you know exactly who you've fallen in love with and decided to be stuck on this Island with until the end of time." She said as she rose from his chest to look at him.
Jack nodded. "I love you more than anything and anyone, no matter what you tell me, Kate. I know exactly who you are and I'm so sorry I pressured you back then to tell me something that is obviously so painful for you. You don't have to tell me anything now or ever."
"Thank you, but you don't need to apologize. I went to some really low places and played some hurtful games to keep it all a secret. I hurt you, Jack."
"You were trying to protect yourself, Kate. I see that now. We didn't know each other very well, at least not well enough to tell each other our deepest, darkest secrets. I was treating the man who was trying to put you away for the rest of your life. I can't imagine how scared you were."
"It was scary for sure. I also think I need to tell you for myself, you know? To finally be able to let it go and to live without the pain and the guilt."
He knew a thing or two about living with guilt and letting it consume him to the point of self-sabotage. She wanted to tell him, so he listened.
Kate got comfortable in her position over his chest and told him everything in gruesome detail. Details about her childhood, her mother, her biological father, the father who raised her, Tom, the bank robbery, her marriage to Kevin. Everything that she felt he needed to know, the good, the bad and the ugly was laid out.
Jack was silent for a long time after she finished.
Fear choked her. "You're disgusted, aren't you?"
"Not at all, I was just wondering if I have enough in my tank to make love to you again." He half-teased.
"You're really not mad?" She asked, surprised.
"Did I enjoy hearing about the abuse, the murder and the things you had to do to survive? No, but it doesn't change anything for me, Kate. If anything, it all makes me love you even more, and better understand the kind, brave and resilient, yet cornered woman I met all that time ago, and why she felt like she had to do what she did."
"Cornered?" She asked, looking up at him from her spot on his chest.
"Mmhmm." He craned his neck to look down at her. "There are two very distinct sides to you, Kate, at least in the beginning. The caring, compassionate, confident, persistent and fearless woman I fell in love with, and this scared, cornered animal who told lies and manipulated others and said she wasn't as perfect as I am after having a really bad day, which is so far from the truth, because I'm not perfect at all."
"You could tell all of that?" Kate asked. She thought she was doing a good job of keeping it all inside, putting on an act. It was how she survived. The fact that he could always see right through her put her at ease.
Jack gently tucked a curl behind her ear as he spoke. "I could tell when you got spooked by the Marshall possibly waking up. You kept asking me about his status, and this was before I found your mugshot. You were nervous, desperate. Makes sense why you were the first to sign up for the trek to triangulate the signal for the transceiver. There's that strong and fearless woman I know and love, but still trying to find a way to escape. I don't blame you at all for doing what you had to do, even when I blamed you at the time. I'm sorry, Kate."
"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have helped Sawyer try to kill him. I didn't know what else to do."
"Like I said, cornered. You were acting out of fear." He pulled her in closer, their bodies already snug and pressed together, but in constant need of crawling under the other's skin.
"Damaged goods, both of us."
"How did I get so lucky to fall in love with you?" She asked, tears streaming down her face.
He wiped at her tears as he sat up, leaned over her and kissed her senseless.
"I don't know, but what I do know is that we're both about to get extremely lucky." He said in a deep, sexy tone that tripped every one of her triggers. She felt the moisture pooling already and smiled an equally sexy smile at him.
She opened her legs wide, welcoming him and any plans he had for her, because it always meant pleasure beyond anything she had ever experienced before. He slid inside of her with ease as their mouths simultaneously attacked, moving over her until she screamed and the need for sleep was too strong to ignore.
"Jack?" Kate whispered with her eyes closed.
"Yeah?" Jack whispered back, spent and adjusting himself slightly for the rest his body desperately needed.
"I'm not scared or feel cornered anymore, and it's all because of you." She yawned and was out.
He pulled the blanket over their cooling, naked bodies and kissed her on her forehead and let sleep take him.