Apprentice To The Sorcerer

I woke to the feel of Jack’s hands running over my hair. His patient, clever fingers worked out a snarl with not a single tug against my scalp. His motions and steady heart beat kept me floating in the peripheral area of wakefulness. He provided the most intimate mattress. My weight didn’t seem to affect his breathing in the slightest. Jack had powerful lungs.

I lay very still as he combed my hair over the two of us, still, I had to murmur, “That feels so good.” My lips moved over his hard chest. Inspired, I mouthed the area, kissed him there. His cock stirred underneath my leg.

“Mmmm, Lizzie,” Jack groaned sleepily. His fist clenched in my hair.

I moved to his dark, flat nipple, tonguing the hard nubbin of flesh, tasting clean skin. He puckered for me, a short gasp of pleasure escaping his lips. His gasp changed to a groan as I suckled him. Moving my leg to allow his growing pleasure ample room, I discovered he felt like a firebrand. My hands moved of their own volition, coasting over his tight, muscled sides. I was hungry now. “You’re so beautiful, Jack,” I whispered. “I watch every move you make.” As I spoke I delved lower between us, dragged my short nails over his rippled stomach.

My light abuse brought him off the blanket. He rose with me straddling him, bending his back as I tried to wrap my hand around his glorious tool. Hissing, he fell back down, his arms wrapping around me. The dimly lit room became a blur as he reversed our positions. I let out a shaky breath as I stared up into his burning sepia gaze. I played with fire here, apparently.

I enjoyed seeing Jack’s aggressive side.

I still quested for that which he had distracted me from, running the tips of my fingers over his washboard abdomen. When I but grazed his cock, he let out a strangled curse.

“God, Lizzie,” Jack groaned. “Are ye not sore this morning?”

“Well, yes,” I answered truthfully. My fingers closed over him. He shuddered all over, pulsed and grew in my grip. I felt veins running the length of him. Already, wetness collected just inside me. “But I might like a little pain from you,” I went on. “Being bitten excited me, after all.” I wriggled my hips underneath him, feeling his rigid length roll over my clit. “And I’m not one to leave treasure behind.” I paused, smiling up into his attentive face. “Persuade me.”

Abruptly, my hands came to rest at either side of my head, pinned by the wrists. The wetness inside me burst as I looked up into the depth of Jack’s lust. His staring eyes heavy, hot, dark, he parted his lips on a ragged exhale. “Persuasion,” he breathed. His hips pushed against me, pressed on my pleasure center, drove me hard into the blanket. I cried out, bucked against him, and sought his lips. He gladly gave me his mouth, speaking lowly against my lips. “You don’t want persuasion; you want controlled, at least right now.”

Jack arched his pelvis backward. His tongue slid past my lips as his cock entered me.

We groaned together, our voices joining. Jack devoured my mouth but his hips moved achingly slow. He filled me by degrees, feeling most brutal amid such care. I stretched, throbbed with pain and pleasure, and caressed his throbbing shaft. My cries strangled against his greedy mouth. He met the seat of my womb.

“I’m more than willing to indulge you,” Jack whispered softly. He thrust against me and I shifted. “You’re mine, Lizzie. I’ll remind you any time you forget.”

Jack, bearing his weight over me with knuckles and toes, arched into me. I went rigid with shock of his penetration, half coming off the blanket to meet him. He threw his head back, growling like a beast. I flooded, bathing his cock in my juice, making his way easy. He shuddered, dropped his head back down. I fell into his eyes, forgetting to breathe as the depth of his pleasure stunned me. But I had no time to climb out. Jack’s body covered mine and he began to fuck me in earnest.

His dominion over me set me aflame. The fire kindled deep within me on his every stroke, building to a conflagration. I rocked under his control. He held me; I could not dig my fingers into his flesh. Frustrated, I fought him.

“If I thought you really wanted loose, you’d have it,” Jack growled, increasing his power. “But you don’t. You like this, don’t you Lizzie?”

“Oh God, yes,” I moaned.

“Do you know why you like it?” Jack growled, leaning to speak against my sweat-slick flesh. “There’s nothing more attractive than loss of control to someone who stays in control all of the time.” He nipped me, plunging into my body with hard, selfish thrusts. “And you, my dear, have the control of a saint. I nearly came in my breeches when you asked me for employment, because it meant I could see all that stony composure every day. I could watch your mettle get tested, day in, day out, even put my hand in it.” Jack leaned into me, putting our faces so close together our lips made heat. His rhythm slowed slightly, but his strokes went even deeper. “Well, now I’ve got more than my hand in it, don’t I dearie?”

God, he was glorious. His entire body flexed over mine. He still bore his weight on his knuckles, holding me within his grasp while sparing me the pressure. His animal stamina set me ablaze. I coiled up under him, shoving, deepening his thrust. My ankles went over his shoulders and I used the motion to clench around him, hard. “Baptiser,” he swore. He sat up, releasing my hands.

I gasped in shock as Jack grasped my ankles and pulled straight up, dragging me toward him to meet his strong thrusts. He came up on his knees, plowing into me so hard I shrieked. I loved being taken, no matter the reason. I hung there, exposed and speared and helpless. It made me hot and weak inside, make me drip the liquid lust of my womb. I could smell my own want mingling with Jack’s musk. I rolled my hips, clenching around him as he entered me over and over.

Jack powered through my enticement, though he groaned his pleasure. I looked at his bulging muscles, the standing veins in his arms and sides, taken with such power. Though lean, he had vigor enough to work me as he liked. He positively rippled with strength and intent. His face glowed darkly as stepped up the hammering to my womb. His big cock spreading me open so hard and fast made me feel deliciously weak and submissive.

I loved it.

No one ever had dared to manhandle me. Even the villains in my life curiously lacked the courage to paw me. So often I’d wanted this unprocessed passion, this possession. Now I had it, and in the form of an eccentric pirate whose eyes always, always had smoldered when meeting mine. Had I but known he held what I needed; I would have surrendered long ago.

I went limp, reveling in my complete subservience. I didn’t have to help him; my muscle made little difference. His tireless rhythm and strength alone held me aloft. The sweet ache far up inside me grew and grew. A burst of wetness escaped me as I listened to Jack’s animal sounds of pleasure mingling with the slap of his loins against my stinging buttocks. His cock plundered every inch of me. I arched to feel the swing of my breasts more freely, reaching up to lift them higher.

Jack hissed. Forcing my ankles apart, he spread my legs wide. Through lust-clouded eyes we looked at each other. I dragged my gaze over his straining arms and heaving chest, across the tendons standing out in his neck and shoulders. He let his eyes linger on my breasts, my throat, my face, his expression hungry, even feral.

Jack’s primal claiming of me wrested an orgasm from my womb. I stiffened, surprised by the suddenness of it, and Jack growled, going still. “I love the way you feel, coming around me,” he uttered. He drove into me hard as I came down, leaning up and over me so I felt bent almost double. “Do it again,” he commanded me, his voice rough and raw. “Now, Lizzie.”

Again he proved command over me with only his voice. I climaxed again. Shrieking my pleasure, I locked my arms around his shoulders, drew him down even farther. I heard his breath catch in his throat. He pulled away from me and out. Head and body drawn back like a bow, Jack showed me his throat. He spasmed. Hot semen splattered across my belly and breasts.

He was so beautiful as he came. His face almost looked angelic, but his guttural moan held all the joys of sin.

I half expected him to collapse on me, but Jack surprised me. Before I could know it, he swept me up in his arms. He stood with me easily, looking down on my startled expression with open amusement. “What’s the matter?” he asked, walking toward the corridor. “Surely you don’t think you’re any heavier than Miss Bishop?” He glanced down at my nakedness, grinning. “I’m sure the resemblance ends there, though I wouldn’t know for certain.”

“You’d better not know,” I answered, pinching his arm.

He jumped. “Ouch!” He gave me a look of mock severity. “Now look here, missy,” he said. “No pinching my person.”

I smirked. Letting my arm drop, I found his tight buttock and pinched it. “Poor, pinched pirate,” I murmured with insincere sympathy. “You shouldn’t have reminded me of her.”

“You were jealous?” Jack asked, setting me down at the tub. His pleased grin made me want to pinch him in a more delicate area. “I never touched her.”

“I wasn’t jealous,” I said, allowing some of my venom for Arabella Bishop to show in my tone. “I was eaten up. All that made it better was seeing you in the hammock over mine.” I got in the water and grabbed the soap off the ledge, looking up at him. His attributes made me forget what I had been about to say.

Jack eased into the tub, settling down just beside me. “I enjoyed that,” he said softly. “I liked the idea I was close enough to protect you.” His hand darted out, snatching the soap from me. “I knew you weren’t in any danger, and certainly I know you can handle yourself, but…” Jack averted his eyes from me suddenly. He cleared his throat. “But anyway, I did take pleasure in sleeping so close to you.”

“You like it,” I agreed softly, wondering what he had almost said. “I do too.”

Jack relaxed a fraction. He worked a lather up and began soaping my shoulders. His eyes fell on the drop of come not yet washed away. Slowly, he raised his attention upward. “My apologies, Lizzie,” he said quietly. “I shouldn’t have splashed on you. I fear it was as much marking territory as it was preventing a little one.”

Despite the ache in my cunt, I felt a twinge of desire at his frank admittance. “I…liked that, Jack,” I said, my tone just as soft. If he could bare himself utterly to me I could do no less. “I watched you do it.”

Jack smiled. “Did you?” His apologetic demeanor dropped away.

“I always watch you,” I confessed. “I always have.”

Jack reached over for me. With a quick twist I lay on my back, across his knees, partially floating. Slowly, he began to wash the rest of me. The slide of his slick fingers over my breasts filled me with a lazy passion. He flicked his thumb over my left nipple, making it harden.

“So hard for me to believe the measure of you, Lizzie,” Jack said. “I know it must have hurt to bind these beautiful breasts flat. You did it for years.”

“I had to do it,” I said.

“I understand that,” Jack answered solemnly. “But I don’t know any other woman to have done it.” He moved his hands to my sides, gentle in his touch. “You must love the sea to give up being a woman for her.”

“I do love the sea,” I said. “But I didn’t think of it as a sacrifice. I didn’t want to be me anyway.”

“And now?” Jack dipped his slick hands lower. His touch aroused me but did not stir me to act.

“I wouldn’t want to be anyone else,” I answered firmly. “I’m proud of me.”

Jack leaned down to drop a soft kiss on my open lips. “I’m proud of you too, Lizzie,” he said lowly. “I’m so damned proud of you you’ll never know how much.”

We were silent as he washed the rest of me. When he finished I got up and straddled his legs. My throat felt swollen with the things I wanted to say to him. I wanted to talk to him about babies and a house and all the things I felt certain we were meant to share. But looking into his deep, rust-colored eyes, all I could do was stare.

His soul still smiled out of his eyes.

I played with a strand of beads, twisting it around and around my finger. Still, I did not break our gaze. “You amaze me,” I confessed. “I never could help the way I feel about you. It’s like you bewitched me.”

Jack smiled gently. His eye lids fluttered. “A fairly normal thing, a wizard casting a spell,” he teased.

I gave his braid a tug. “Are you really, Jack? I’m serious.” I gave him my best beseeching look, one I’d had cause to practice and use during my days in polite society. “I can’t help but wonder sometimes. You have this mystical quality about you, this air of knowledge. You do amazing things.”

Jack wound his arms around me, sliding his fingers over my back in a soothing rhythm. “What’s in a name, Lizzie?” he posed softly. “I didn’t cast a spell on you, dearie. We have the same star. Can you feel it now?”

I closed my eyes. I could feel my star, as always when I sought it, but now I could also feel a tugging toward Jack. We made a triangle of energy. Jack and I provided the base and our star shone as the highest point. A feeling of great peace washed over me. I didn’t know the mysteries of the world, and I had no religion, but the star I shared with Jack made everything else fall away.

“I feel it,” I whispered. “We’re beautiful, aren’t we Jack?”

“Aye, Lizzie,” Jack murmured. “We are. You and I are supposed to share ourselves with each other. You and I are kin in a way much deeper than blood or oath.” He pulled me against him, cradling my head to his chest. “Nothing and no one will ever be able to keep us apart.”

I sighed, using the inhale to smell his wet, male skin. “I find my zenith doth depend upon a most auspicious star,” I whispered, remembering. Jack stiffened, then almost immediately relaxed.

“You are my zenith, Lizzie,” he said softly. “You are my treasure. I’ll convince you of that if it takes me a lifetime.”

“I’m entirely willing to be convinced,” I said, smiling against his skin.

We sat together for quite awhile. Our movements to depart the tub came at the same time and with no awkwardness. I felt in complete synchronicity with Jack. As a unit we returned to our little camp and began to put on our clothes.

“Let me say for the record that I heartily approved of the outfit you wore to dinner,” Jack announced, sliding on his right bracer. His sly, lecherous grin put heat in my face.

“Did you?” I asked coolly, feigning disinterest.

“Oh, aye, I did,” Jack admitted. He clasped his primary belt and reached for his other, the muscles in his torso twisting as he moved. “You cut an arresting figure of a pirate. Can I hope for similar outfits in the future?”

I smiled at the ground as I tucked in my shirt. “If that’s what you want,” I replied. “I’m liable to garner some attention in those clothes, though.”

“I’ll slit the throat of the dog that lays a hand on you,” Jack growled. “If you want to walk around naked I’ll see that it happens.”

My heart swelled. I couldn’t help a giggle though. Most men would have said the first sentence easily enough, but not the second. Jack’s view of things showcased his hidden, altruistic nature. He hadn’t a concern in the world for how right or wrong it was for a woman to walk around naked. He obviously did it himself, to judge by his dark, even tan.

Well, he had nothing to be ashamed of.

Nothing at all.

“I don’t want to walk around naked,” I said. “I want to be comfortable, able to move easily, unrestricted.” I cast him a glance. “But I still want to look feminine sometimes. I suppose that isn’t going to be so much a problem anymore, is it?”

“You have nothing to hide.” Jack lowered his baldric over his shoulder and pushed his pistol into his sash. Next came his red scarf. He tied it and quickly braided the section of hair over it. “Do what you like. If anyone gives you trouble they’ll have to contend with me and a number of others. Mokulu watches you when I cannot, and when he cannot, I have fifty six others. Scorby makes fifty seven.” Jack twirled his hat once, then firmly pressed it over his head. “If we all should fail you, the Brotherhood of the Asp will not. You made some very important friends there, Lizzie, friends with power and loyalty.”

“So you say,” I answered mildly. “But you’re forgetting one.”

“I am?” Jack paused in putting on his last boot. He looked up at me from his comical position, one leg held up in the air. “Who did I forget?”

“Me,” I said, giving him a sassy grin. I tucked my pipes inside my shirt and gave him a wink.

Jack’s delighted grin seemed to put off a light of its own. He stomped his foot down to get his boot on, and walked to me. “Of course,” he said flicking his hand across my shoulder to rid it of imaginary dirt. “You’re Elizabeth Hodari Swan,” he said.

I laughed. “Right,” I said. “Where are we going, by the way?”

“About forty five minutes walk to the summit,” Jack answered. “We’re coming back.”

We exited the cave. Scorby lay just outside the entrance. She looked at each of us, flicking her ears. With a jaw-splitting yawn, she stood up and stretched, showing us her obvious muscle and flexibility. Jack and I stooped to pet her together, something we had never done before. She arched into our attention, rumbling. Her head-butt of joy knocked me off my feet.

“She’s happy for us,” I said.

“I see that,” Jack said, smiling. “She was in on my seduction too?”

“Of course.” I patted her head. “Scorby kept watch. Scorby reminded me of my ten minute limit last night while I set up our bed.” I paused. “I didn’t really have to relieve my bladder. I should have to relieve myself by now.”

“We’ve neither one had anything to drink,” Jack said. “We’ll take care of that at the summit.”

We made a line going up the side of the hill. Jack led, I followed, and Scorby took the rear. I felt incredibly well protected.