A/N: Part 3 coming soon!
"I require you."
Her statement echoed against the shell of his ear, already serving to haunt him. To mock him with what he so earnestly wanted dangled within reach. All that was standing in his way, was him. And he'd be damned if he himself wasn't his greatest adversary.
Joanna Francis had epitomized his mantra of look, but don't dare touch.
Joanna maintained her patience, even with James' glistening sea-glass orbs boring into hers, as if in defiance.
Though she hadn't known him long, the sturdy Commodore at his absolute end was a sight she had yet to see.
Exhaustion plagued him. That much was evident by the way redness streaked the whites of his eyes, and how the tall height of his frame sagged with his bone-deep fatigue. Yet he was also yearning, an ailment that often presented the same.
In all her time spent with him, Joanna had never so much as glimpsed Commodore Norrington a hair short of pristine. Even out to sea for as long as they had been, she had only ever witnessed him outfitted in full regalia. Perfectly neat and respectable, he carried himself firmly, but not without approachability. His very presence commanded reverence.
That evening, and the current challenge he faced with her, saw him looking more like a man instead of commander. A man who was travel-weary, and lonesome. A man who needed nurturing by a woman's touch.
And as he stood before her looking just that way, bedraggled and neglected, Joanna craved to give him all of that and more.
"Miss Francis," exasperation thick on his tongue, not unlike how an adult would lecture a small child, "I fear intoxication has severely clouded your judgment. Therefore, I cannot in good conscience acquiesce to your request."
Joanna's smirk was venomous, yet her tone no less nonchalant than if they were discussing the weather, or the condition of the sea. "Commodore, I have thought long and hard, and if I am to be claimed by a man, I have decided I want it to be you."
The implication of her words rang in his ears like cannon fire, equalled in disorientation to standing within earshot of one's thunderous blast. So deep in his own disbelief, he thought to question his own sobriety in that moment. Adrenaline spiked, leaving him dizzy with the ferocity of blood coursing through his veins.
Still, James relented. Their verbal tug-of-war waged on.
His hand left his side to paw at his mouth, the coarse stubble snagging the pads of his fingers. He inhaled sharply through his nose, and when he finally spoke it was closer to a growl. "I cannot accept that you mean to suggest you desire me in this way."
Joanna rolled her shoulders back, stiffening her posture. It was her turn to be defiant. "I don't recall ever having previously needed my meaning interpreted by you, Commodore."
To the surprise of them both, when he spoke his tone wasn't of vexation. Despite the hardened gleam in his eye and the grim set to his jaw, he was gentle with her. Soft. "My lady," he then swallowed, gaze unwavering. "I...," his eyes at last left her but only for a moment, sizing up the goblet of wine still at her side. "Perhaps all you require is a decent nights rest."
"Oh no you don't." She warned, her laughter sharp and throaty, though she was all business when she addressed him. "I will not allow my words to be manipulated, Commodore, nor will I be so easily shirked."
So it would seem.
"What was it you just spoke of, something of needs and grievances?" Cocking her hip to one side, Joanna tossed her head in mock-regality. "I have stated my need rather plainly, and if it continues to go unaddressed by you, I fear I can make no guarantees as to how quickly you'll have my grievances to contend with in addition."
Ever calm and dignified, James took a shallow breath, before then marching towards her. He held her eyes without mercy, as his severe allure often had. But the smoldering intensity to his gaze, and sudden confidence to his posture, almost had her shying away.
As if she could, even if she wanted to. She played her hand, all that was left now was to wait for his move. If the stoic Commodore would allow himself the indulgence of her vulnerability, or cover her up and dissuade her of his affections.
Knowing Commodore Norrington, it may just be the latter.
His tall posture erect, he stood mere inches from her at the side of the washtub. So close she could just about brush her front against his own if the lull of the ocean tipped her forward just so.
The seas did nothing of the sort to help her, leaving her to stand before him with bated breath. She lifted to her tip-toes in effort to try and bridge the height disparity between them. James stared her down the bridge of his sharp nose, his brow burrowed in contemplation, or scrutiny - she couldn't discern which.
All that kept her from shrinking away from the smoldering jade embers he had for eyes was the wine pulsing hot in her blood. Her sculpted calves began to quiver under her weight, mostly in anticipation. Feeling like a marionette, dangling at the end of her wire, seconds from snapping.
James' unending reserve equaled only by his patience, he continued to allow her to stew, his internal struggle spilling out across his handsome face.
Then, just when she felt she would burst from the tension, he unceremoniously pried off one of his boots, dropping it to the floor with a thud. Then he pulled off the next.
All the while he never took his eyes off of her.
When at last he spoke, it sent tingling ripples through her. From the tips of her toes that still supported her weight to the crown of her head, her being buzzed.
"It appears my mind has been made for me." The deep crooning of his voice alone almost sent her to the ground at his feet in a heap of limbs. Raising a hand to paw at the stubble that shaded his jaw, he then remarked, "I suppose I am a little... ragged. A wash should do me good."
Joanna's breath hitched as she watched his long, dexterous fingers yank at the ties of his shirt, before then grabbing the hem to pull it up and over his head. That article was next to join his boots.
Joanna had fantasized often about the full breadth of Commodore Norrington, of the man beneath the uniform. Even the most vivid imaginations paled in comparison to the reality of him. Tall and broad, the muscle roped across his body and tapered with his form as if chiseled from stone.
A matting of salt and pepper curls over his chest and down his abdomen did little to conceal the array of scars that marred him, some new, most old. His body was decorated by his illustrious naval career.
Her pupils widened in awe, tracing the length and depths of each wound like she might with her finger-tips, anxious to read the story his body told, and commit it to memory.
Her sparkling eye caught sight of a sizable horizontal slash that puckered the skin below his collar bone, before finding another that trailed off across the taut intercostals of the opposite side. She followed them like a map, leading her down his body as one dipped below his waistband.
His hands fell to the laces at his waist, but upon noticing that her silent gawking hadn't broken, he stilled. "Not as pretty of a sight as you were hoping, I take it."
Joanna swallowed, her lashes fluttering as her lowered gaze swept across his physique. "No, not pretty at all." She hushed. "Beautiful."
Too wrapped up was she in her visual adoration to notice the bowing of his brows. With that simple utterance she had nearly reduced him to the very surrender he fought with such vigilance.
Their tug-of-war dissolved in an instance.
His chest, as his heart pulled against it. "I am... unfit to receive such flattery from you."
Joanna's eyes snapped upward, his refusal of her observation sobering. Lowering herself back down into the water, she concealed her body from him once more. Now, it was his turn to reveal himself.
"Since you are so keen to speak for me, and now think for me, I shall have to work twice as hard to convince you otherwise."
At a moments hesitation, James freed himself of his last stitch of clothing. Stepping out of the pool of breeches at his bare feet, the Commodore was now just as naked as she.
Ruefully wishing she had lit more candles so as to get a better view of what she had craved, Joanna's wide eyes scintillated in arousal. She had no doubts to how blessed he most likely was, but she hadn't a clue just how well endowed he was indeed.
All but licking her lips at the sight of his manhood bared before her very eyes and at attention, not fully erected but full all the same, her heart raced against the cage of her ribs in eagerness.
He didn't stand before her long, his modesty and pesky sense of propriety ever looming. "Then I must warn you, I am not an easy sell."
"Oh, of that I need no reminding." She watched him intently as he left her side to climb into the washtub behind her.
James smirked to himself. "Then my stubbornness goes equally without note."
Joanna hummed. "One of our many commonalities."
She heard the splash of one foot plunge into the water behind her, then followed by the second. She could feel James maneuver in behind her, even though he had yet to touch her.
The washtub wasn't large; perfect for her dainty size and stature, but a bit awkward for the tall Commodore, more awkward still with their bodies now combined.
He managed, sinking his frame in gingerly, he draped both lean arms along the edge of the tub at either side of himself, bending his legs at the knee and bowing them, allowing for her a place between. A low, throaty groan bubbled up his throat from deep in his chest at the contact of the water, lulling his head to hang back. It was no longer hot, but the heat, however mild, soothed his aches and fatigue near instantly.
Dead silence coalesced between them, only the sound of his deep, gentle breaths audible to only his ears. Eyes still shut, James allowed one more rumble of appreciation to escape him. Painfully aware of Joanna's proximity, her nakedness, his current quandary.
Then, without making a sound, not so much as a ripple in the water to alert him, he felt the smooth pads of her feet slider over the tops of his flexed thighs, before continuing down over his hips to rest against the wall of the tub behind him.
Opening one eye in time to see her gracefully mount him, Joanna stopped just shy of actually climbing into his lap, keeping her bared sex from making contact with his.
She stayed low in the water. Though she had already had her breasts full on display for him moments prior, she sunk below the surface to the collar bone.
Unsurprising that she was the first to breach their unspoken boundary with first contact, he then felt nimble finger-tips trail up from his abdomen towards his shoulders. She then raked them gently back down through the hair there, petting his chest before finding his shoulders once more.
He fought his bodies urge to shiver at her touch. Only once she begun did he realize just how long it had been for him. Too long.
"You work yourself too hard, Commodore." She cooed, her gaze full of his sculpted upper body, her palms cupping and kneading the tense meat of his muscle. "You're as rigid as iron."
To that a gentle snicker flared his nostrils. "I can assure you you are certainly not the first to say something of the kind." James was surprised at how low and gravelly his voice oozed from his own throat. His body already melted into the depths of relaxation from her hands.
"Hmm. And here I thought I perhaps was a special woman in your life." She understand what he meant, but she couldn't help but tease him with the insinuation. The wine didn't plant desires where none existed, but it certainly emboldened her.
James chuckled, deep and hearty, the sound more melodic than she'd expected it to be. "Miss Francis, I've long since arrived at the conclusion that you are no mere woman, but a succubus."
To this she grinned. Beginning to walk her finger-tips down his torso, Joanna bat her lashes, simpering, "do you find me so wicked?"
Eyes having fallen and remained shut, James grunted when he then felt her finger tips stroke up the underside of his cock. "Wicked and insolent," he hissed, his breaths becoming hoarse and choppy while she began to fondle him. "And... beguiling."
"Well then, if I am succubus..." she allowed her words to trail off, grabbing ahold of his girth and giving it an attention-getting squeeze, before then beginning to pump him, slow and methodical. A groan seethed through his teeth. When Joanna began again, her praise was so richly sweet the honeyed words dripped from her lips like liquid sugar. "You, Commodore Norrington, are a God among men."
"Adulation will garner no extra favor, of that I assure you." He lied through his teeth, his humility insistent. He reveled in the attention she bestowed upon him. The poeticism fueling his fire. She sought to lavish him, and having never found himself on the receiving end of anything like it before, he feasted.
"Come now, Commodore. Surely you least of all are no stranger to a lady's fawning." She purred, beginning to apply more pressure, she took care to swipe her thumb over the slit at his head, while her other hand found more of him between his legs to massage.
James saw stars. His lower abdominals tensing, he almost bucked up into her hand. An aching knot of white hot pressure began to swell and pulse within the seat of his pelvis. He grit his teeth as she played with him, growing all the more riled as that's just what she did; played. Toyed with his manhood like a feline who caught ahold of a mouse.
Finding it harder to keep up the flow of their banter, he countered with a huff. "I suppose it will delight you to learn I seldom keep the company of many ladies at all. Rarer still of your variety."
"A delight and a relief," she moaned, the flicks of her wrist up and down his swollen length quickening. She had succeed in working him to his maximum engorgement, kneading up and down the silk sheathed rod of iron he wielded. "I loathe the idea of having to compete for your affections."
James could sense he was near to his release, the tell-tale ache becoming a searing burn that lapped up the inside of his loins, winding tighter and harder in the pit of his belly. Sweat prickled the back of his neck, as the sack she delicately cupped and molded her palm around inched ever closer to bursting.
Swallowing hard the lump in his throat, he plunged a hand into the depths of the tub with a splash to snatch her by the wrist and tug himself free of her grasp. He didn't realize his breathing had grown so uneven, blinking the glassiness out of his eyes while he peered at her pouting face. Before she got a word in edgewise, he clicked his tongue, working hard to settle his erratic heart rate and steel his frayed nerves.
"I warn you, resorting to childishness will only obligate me to treat you like one"
She blinked in feigned indignation. "Shall you bend me over your knee, and paddle my rear?"
This young woman will be my undoing.
"Tempting as that may be, I fear you would enjoy that far too much." Still with his firm grip on her dainty wrist, the combination of his cavalier handling of her with his play at being coy sent a delicious heat slivering towards her core. "No, I believe proper punishment for you might be absence of my touch altogether."
Joanna's eyelids grew heavy in pure, unbridled arousal as she flicked her dilated pupils his way in challenge. "You would not dare."
James smirked in amusement. "I wouldn't dare?" He chuckled, releasing her wrist as a test. "Was it not you who just moments ago acknowledged my stubborn inclination?"
With the confident air of someone who believed they had the upper hand, she leaned in close to him, close enough he could feel the warmth of her breath misting against his lips. Lift the velvet of black currant from the wine that soaked her tongue. She abstained from leaning in for a kiss, just as he, before whispering, "I invite you to test me, Commodore Norrington. Breaking you is not a matter of if, but of when."