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"You're
still welcome to spend the night here. Can I make you up a pallet?" Ellis
offered.
"I'm sure if I stagger home now, she'll take me in," Will countered,
reaching for his waistcoat. "Likely, she's begun to worry already."
"All the more reason to stay, then." Smiling, the host lifted the rum flask
in his hand, twin to the one languishing in Will's long, slender fingers.
"Besides, there's the rum to consider."
"I suppose it would be cruel of me to leave you to consume that much
on your own." A smirk curled the corner of Will's thin mustache.
"Then, by all means, be seated," Groves encouraged, "and we'll see who can
find the bottom of a bottle of blind-drunk, yet this eve!"
"That was, after all, the original goal, was it not?" Will joined in the
now-jovial spirit. "Aye, I think that might be just the thing."
"To meeting one's goals!" Groves toasted.
"To finding what one seeks!" Will responded.
They drank deeply together. The silence stretched a bit. The air began to
feel close, uncomfortable in the little parlor. Both men spoke at once.
"What made you..."
"Why did you..."
And two laughs resounded. "You first," said Will.
Groves blew out a gust of rummy breath. "Were you sure of your reception,
with your advances t'wards me? I... I find myself unsettled by the
implications of that."
"Oh, you're the soul of discretion, I can assure you. Your
appreciation for, shall we say, a different sort of dance partner isn't
widely known in Port Royal, if that's your fear."
"Who, exactly, is privy to this understanding?"
"Well, from the subtle hints he's dropped about you in my presence, I
suspect the Commodore of course. He is entirely trustworthy, concerning
sensitive matters, as I'm sure you're already aware."
"I doubt very much that this news came to your ears from James' lips.
So? You said something about never listening to Jack's tales. Don't
tell me Captain Sparrow suspects my proclivities?" Groves' moderate
concern was shifting into outright fear for his privacy. He quickly slugged
some more burning rum.
Will followed suit, hammering down a few blazing gulps of his own. "Jack's
deadly perceptive, and it wouldn't surprise me in the least if he knows. But
no, no one told me. No one had to tell me."
"No one had to tell you..." Groves was beginning to look a bit owlish,
again, as the rum took its toll.
"Well, you see..." Will stammered a bit, "I'm, I'm married, not blind.
When the fellows on the Dauntless are stripping for a good scrub, I mayhap
to notice. And I've had occasion to notice who else is noticing, just for
curiosity's sake."
"And you've noticed me noticing?"
"No. I've noticed you making very, very sure that no one could possibly
misconstrue anything you do as being noticing, in any way, shape or
form." Will chuckled at the other man's subsequent chagrinned look. "It's a
dead giveaway, Ellis. You're so very careful to never look at the
lads, it's like a banner across your forehead for those with eyes to read
it!"
"Hmmm. Perhaps I'm merely squeamish about nudity?" Ellis said this without
irony, despite the fact that he was slouched, more than slightly drunken,
and wearing nothing but a bit of flimsy fabric at his hips.
"Which is what I'd believed, until I noticed it was only about the nudity of
men and not that of the doxies in the brothels' quarter. The
strumpets can lift their skirts or flash their bosoms all they want, and
your eyes slide right over them." Will pantomimed the "flash of bosom" with
a bit of his own left tit, and laughed at his own joke.
"Why all this interest in where my eyes do and do not alight?"
Will smiled, slow and sweet. "I believe I already answered that one."
"You're married, not blind," Ellis returned the smile. "So you came to the
Faithful Bride this evening to seek a partner to join you in your
infidelity?" At the thought of Will, out on the prowl for a bed-partner,
Groves' mood shifted suddenly, like a breeze on a squall-tossed sea. The
wind blew from the south now, and fair strong it was, too, judging by the
slight tenting of his smalls. He wished he'd thought to leave his breeches
on, if he was going to engage in this conversation. Time to change the
subject, or my resolve not to drag him upstairs will waver, he thought
to himself, and said, "Your turn for your question."
"You seemed honestly startled, when I...um..." Will's embarrassed voice was
given lie by his widely dilated pupils. "I thought, when you invited me back
here..."
"Startled?" Groves laughed loudly. "I'm utterly gob-smacked, sir!
You're married! Happily so, to all appearances! Why should I think
you were accepting for any reason other than to prevent yourself from waking
with the dawn, pockets picked, in some rancid gutter?!?"
"So the invitation to sleep in your home..."
"...was merely intended as an invitation to sleep in my home.
Honestly."
The silence that fell this time was more companionable. Suddenly, Will began
laughing. "You lie! You were interested! The look on your face when I tugged
my breeches down to show my sunburn! HA!"
"I never said I didn't find you of interest. I said what my
intentions were." Ellis staunchly defended himself.
"Well," Will countered, "my intentions were entirely nefarious. It
wasn't only the rum talking. I must admit that the thought of you, of...once
I suspected which way the wind blew, I—"
"Clearly this was not your first brush with the thought of certain actions
undertaken sub rosa, shall we say?" Groves began the topic as diplomatically
as he could. Still, his curiosity burned. He had known Turner, man and boy,
since the Dauntless had found him in the water, all those years ago.
Surely it wasn't Master Brown... Could the older man have been taking
advantage of the apprenticeship in that way? Groves shuddered slightly in
distaste. "Not to pry, but...if you would you care to enlighten a curious
fellow?"
"As a friend, and not as a leftenant, aye?" Will waited for Ellis to nod.
"It was Jack."
"Jack? Sparrow?!?" The rum flask nearly slid from his inattentive hand, as
shock drove out all thought of maintaining the hold on his beverage.
"Captain Jack Sparrow, aye." Never having had the opportunity to
gloat over his liaison with the famous Pirate had been one of the great
frustrations of Will Turner's life; he found this moment quite...
satisfying.
Ellis took a moment, to shift his view of the world, arse over teakettle,
for the second time that night. "Captain Jack Sparrow." Downed another
burning mouthful of the rum.
"Fiercest, wiliest Pirate on the Spanish Main. More legends about him than
any other."
"You. And Sparrow." Ellis shook his head. "You sodding, lucky bastard. Well,
I've said it before; that fellow's got to be the best pirate I've ever seen.
Hmmm...I suppose that explains a few things! Wish I'd been there that day
you freed him from the noose, but after your and Sparrow's little escapade
on the Interceptor, there was no way the Dauntless was going
to be left with anyone ranking less than a lieutenant. But by all accounts,
it was quite the escapade!"
"And you drew the dreaded shipboard duty?" Will prompted. Groves reached a
finger to trace his own cheek, the swelling brow, unconsciously. Shipboard,
where he had hanged Riley, today. For having made a poor choice. Once. In
front of the wrong people. Ellis shook himself out of reverie, to respond.
"After a few poorly chosen remarks on my part, I doubt the Commodore trusted
me not to play pirate myself, give a helping hand to you with Sparrow." His
usual naval decorum had fled him. He slid down in the overstuffed chair,
comfortably drunk and relaxed out of his usual rigid role.
"Now there's a lovely picture!" Will laughed, quite intoxicated himself,
both with the liquor and the topic of conversation. "Oooh yes, a lovely
picture indeed."
"What picture?" Groves glanced quickly, down at himself, checking for gaps
in the fabric.
"You. Giving me a hand with Jack." Will's eyes glittered in the lanternlight,
and he swigged more rum. "You look like you have very able hands,
Ellis. And Jack's hands, well, they're certainly an experience."
Groves drained the last of his bottle's contents, in hopes of deadening some
of the sensations that his body was insisting he do something about. "You're
going to be cruel and tell me all about it, aren't you?"
"They say that confession is good for the soul. I'm only thinking of my
likely destination in the hereafter."
"Bollocks." His legs lewdly splayed and wearing nothing but his smalls,
Ellis said, "Do I look like a priest to you?"
Notwithstanding, Will continued. "It was on the Interceptor. Jack
said I needed a hat..." A faraway look took his eyes, and he paused.
"Are you going to tell me about it, or not?" Ellis demanded, bemused. "Where
on the Interceptor? She was to be my first command, after the
Commodore's promotion. You owe me."
"Oh, you're not so disinterested, after all?" Will ran long fingers through
his tousled brown forelocks, which had escaped the tie at the nape of his
neck. "He started it at the helm. Made me keep my hands on the wheel, as he
failed to keep his hands to himself. But mostly in the captain's cabin, in
that capacious bunk there."
"The Interceptor had lovely quarters," sighed Groves, "It really was
a shame, when she went down."
"Well, her captain's billet was a bit the worse for wear, after Jack was
done with her, or done with me, as one might prefer to put it," Will
chortled. "I'd heard of a 'captain going down with his ship' but it was
rather a revelation to me, how many different ways that phrase could be
interpreted."
Ellis shifted, a little uncomfortably, but Will continued, oblivious,
"Sometimes, I can recall the taste of him; Often as not, it's the smell of
honey that—"
Groves interrupted him, "If we don't drop this line of discussion, the rum
is going to be making some good intentions fall by the wayside, and the
nefarious intentions are going to get the upper hand, Will." Upper hand.
Ellis struggled to restrain his thoughts from wandering too far towards the
possibilities of hands.
Will was already dangerously close to ignition, like a scrap of paper held
too long over a lantern. "I'd enjoy that," he very nearly purred.
Damn the man for making this so damnably difficult. "So I gathered. As would
I. But we resolved to wait for your lovely wife's express permission, did we
not?"
"I have an idea. A rather nefarious one. A game, if you would." All this
talk of the time on the Interceptor had taken Will back to a time
when he made different choices. Those choices had been based less on the
careful planning of his current life, and more on the passionate demands of
the moment.
"A game? Will..." Groves was a little apprehensive of what he saw in
Turner's darkened eye. Too many times he'd seen men live to regret their
lustful choices. Was this the drink talking? Could Turner judge what was
best for himself, at this point?
"Are you interested?" The rum and Will's pirate streak had taken the helm,
steering him ever closer to the shoals of diabolical desire.
"This is a very bad idea, Will. I told you, I want no regrets, tomorrow. But
neither am I going to play nursemaid, if you insist on winding me up like
this, offering pleasurable distraction of what seems your free choice.
You'll not be leaving it my responsibility if you deliver."
"I will not touch you, Ellis." Will laid out his plan. "You will not touch
me. You will merely do what I request of you. I will do what you ask of me."
"And this will satisfy the needs of your vows? Will, this sounds dangerously
like a violation of the spirit of the law, while keeping to the letter of
it."
Will considered for a moment. "I won't do anything I would feel awkward
confessing to Elizabeth."
"Then promise me that you shall. Confess all this night to Elizabeth, that
is," Ellis' voice was stony and cool. "I refuse to be party to driving a
wedge betwixt the two of you."
"You trust her with this?" Will's smile was dangerously savage. "Aye, and so
you should, for she's a woman to be trusted; your risk, however, seems far
greater than my own." Groves nodded his certainty since he was sure this
would lead to Will taking his leave, and returning to his wife's arms for
the night.
But Groves misjudged him. Will retorted, "Then we have an accord. I will
speak to Elizabeth of all that has befallen here, and all that happens
hence. And you..." Will looked back and forth between the two of them, and
noticing Ellis's relative state of undress, compared to his own, said, "you
will go first with your request."
Ellis' careful restraint, which had held him so carefully in check
throughout this night, this evening, this entire day, finally gave way. His
voice was husky with need as he said, "Strip. All of it, you teasing devil.
And quickly."
After tugging off his stockings, Will stood, barefoot and a bit unsteady
from the drinking. He wrenched his shirt over his head for the second time
that evening, this time far more roughly that the first. The bruises on his
chest glowed a darker purple than had blossomed earlier, and his shoulders
and back still were a blazing lobster-red from the sunburn. Unbelting his
breeches and working the buttons open, one at a time, he kept his eyes
locked on Ellis'. The breeches dropped to the floor, showing the
blinding-pale contrast of his skin from the waist to the knees.
Will was sparsely haired at the chest, and lower as well, and his legs were
thin for a man in his profession, but a pleasant view, nonetheless, Ellis
decided. It was a strange sensation, to be able to really look at a
man. Not the largest prick he'd seen hard, but certainly enough, and a bit
of a shapely upwards curve to it. Will's breath came fast and shallow, and
he lay his hands on his chest-bruises, and slid them downwards towards his
belly.
"No. I didn't say you could touch yourself," Groves grinned wickedly. "Hands
at your sides. Your turn. But no touching."
"Hmmm... What shall I begin with?" Will looked Ellis' body up and down,
appreciatively. "Would you like to remove those?" he asked, gesturing at the
pale, soft muslin of the lieutenant's remaining underclothes.
As Groves reached to his waist to pull them down, Will exclaimed, "Stop!
Answer the question. Would you like to remove them?"
"I suppose so, yes."
"Then let's leave them on for a bit longer, shall we? Do you have any
honey?" Will asked.
"Honey? I think so. I have some jam, perhaps." Eyebrow arched, Ellis
wondered what Will was about.
"No, that won't do. It must be honey. Go look for some."
Crossing the room to the pantry near the kitchen, Groves opened the tall,
thin wooden door that hid the cooking supplies. Will picked up the small
lantern from the nearby table and brought it over, to give more light to the
search. Glancing over his shoulder, he caught sight of Will approaching:
nude, with a hungry look in his eye that made Ellis's breath catch for a
moment.
He wasn't sure he had ever been looked at, openly, in quite such a predatory
manner.
Skin flushed pink and nipples shrank to tight bumps, as Ellis discovered how
much he enjoyed being ravished by someone's eyes.
Will leaned forward towards the cupboard, his shoulder nearly touching the
other man's. The aroma of citrus and spices came from within, but that
wasn't what made Turner pause suddenly and inhale. He closed his eyes, drew
breath again. "Wait. I have another idea." He set the lantern on the floor
at Ellis' feet, and jogged over to where his shirt lay in a puddle on the
floor. Sweeping up the salt-crusted, sweaty fabric, he bounced back to
Groves at the pantry door.
"I want to remember you, remember this," Will said with fervor. "Lean back,
and put your arms over your head."
"Why?"
"It's my turn. You do as I say."
"No touching."
"No touching," Will agreed.
Ellis leaned back against the wall, clasped his right hand around his left
wrist, and slowly stretched his arms up over his head. He felt distinctly
vulnerable in this position, even though it was Turner who wasn't wearing a
stitch. The drawstring of his smalls tugged around his hips, and felt like
insufficient armor for the assault he feared was about to come. Will looked
positively perilous in his current mood, and the dark marks on Will's
chest from his struggles with the horse today, did nothing to dispel that
fear.
Suddenly, Ellis became aware of his own injuries from today's events. The
eye, though not terribly swollen shut, was likely purpling nicely. He could
taste the metallic spot on his split lip. It didn't show visibly, but the
blow to the solar plexus was what had felled him when Riley had struck out
in rage and fear.
Ellis' attention was drawn back to the moment at hand. The shirt still
wadded in his fist, Will leaned in very close, almost touching Ellis'
throbbing, painful cheek. And he sucked air in through his nose and mouth,
and pushed it out again. He whispered, "I want to remember this, remember
you. I keep memories best when the memory has a fragrance to it." He tucked
his head lower, and sniffed at the shoulder, the collarbone, the chest, and
around the corner of the nipple to the tuft of hair under the arm. Will's
eyes drifted closed and his cock twitched, further erect. "I also want you
to remember me." Holding the shirt before Ellis' nostrils, he said,
"Breathe."
Ellis breathed. Sweat of honest work. Sweet, dark rum. Smoke of forgefire
and tavern. Mansex. And a certain indefinable aroma, one that he associated
with those who live intimately with a woman.
Will smelled like danger to Ellis; danger, pure and simple.
This was a very bad idea. He was sure of it.
Suddenly, in his mind's eye, he was back in his uniform, back on the
Dauntless. There was Riley, beautiful, brilliant, flawed Riley. Best
seaman on the crew. Reliable as the sun and the tides on a ship. Wild and
unpredictable in port. Sentenced to be hanged by the neck until dead.
Had Riley thought the same thoughts, warned himself of the dangers, before
committing the acts that condemned him? Had he considered the possibility of
disastrous consequence, and proceeded despite them?
"You're nothing like Jack," murmured Will, once again pulling Ellis out of
that painful moment. The breath of Will's speech tickled at his neck, and
made his own prick bounce under the fabric. "But I like the way you smell."
Lieutenant Theodore Ellis Groves was a private man, some said a secretive
man. He hid so much of his inner life from scrutiny for the sake of fear.
There comes a time, he thought to himself, when one can only bear so
much denial, so much refusal, so much restraint. This night, in his own
home, with the shutters drawn, with a partner with nothing to gain (and
everything to lose) from their discovery?
He could take this one risk.
"And you're nothing like I expected." retorted Ellis, and he dropped Will's
aromatic shirt to the floor. "Not that you should interpret that as
complaint."
Will smirked in response, then slowly lowered himself to his knees, his
nostrils skimming just above the pale skin, taking in the scent of this man,
gliding over every inch of terrain this body could provide. He finally ended
his progress directly before the straining cock, still hidden beneath the
smalls.
"I'm finding myself sorely tempted to break the rules of our game, Ellis."
He'd thrown his caution to the four winds already; this time it was Ellis
who purred, "I'd enjoy that." Will's delicious exhalations danced across his
upper thighs, his hipbones, causing gooseflesh to rise on the skin of his
belly.
Will panted, hesitated, "You decide; I can't." Then he rose to his feet, and
backed away, picking up the lantern. "I believe it's your turn."
Ellis turned and reached into the cupboard, rummaged there a moment and
pulled out an earthenware jar with a spoon handle protruding through the
slotted lid.
"The honey," he stated. "My choice. I want you to do, whatever it was
that you wanted me to do, with this." Setting the lid behind himself
on the shelf, he passed the open container to Will. "But first, it's getting
a bit cool. Let me grab a blanket, here, and we'll make ourselves
comfortable before the hearth." He tugged a broad swath of loomed lambswool
from the top shelf of the cupboard (carefully keeping it away from the
lantern lifted in his other hand), and led the way back to the floor before
the dying coals.
"Another log on the fire, perhaps? This will be more...pleasant... if you
can see." Will explained. Ellis selected a couple lengths of pine, set them
atop the embers, and soon the white-yellow of fresh flame lit the floor
where Will seated himself.
Before joining him, Ellis returned the lantern to the small table where it
usually rested, and as he did, noticed Will's not-yet-empty rum flask, which
still held a couple of inches of dark amber liquid.
"Are you falling behind?" Ellis asked, gesturing with the bottle
Will raised a hand and waggled his nose with a pair of unsteady fingers.
"I'd better stop now; not much sense wasting it on me at this point. It's
yours for the taking." Ellis took a deep swig, and then, making sure first
that Will was looking, slid his entire mouth down over the neck of the
bottle, causing Will's mouth to drop open. Ellis leered, then sat down
crosslegged, on the far side of the blanket from Will. "Where were we? You
were going to show me something with that honey?"
"I was going to ask you to take two fingers like this," Will gestured with
his right hand, "dip them in the honey, like this," and he scooped a bit of
the golden viscosity and held it up for display, "and then show me what
you'd do if that was my cock."
"You are wicked. Well, go on, it's running down your hand. Show me
what you'd do to me, if I were decorated in sweet and sticky stuff."
"I think I need to see it first, don't you?"
"Thought you'd never ask." Ellis shucked off his underclothes, tossing them
beside the blanket.
"...Oh." Will's eyes widened at the sight. Then he chuckled a little, curled
up a third finger and dipped his hand again in the honey. Ellis laughed with
him, but the laughter died away as Will began, with short sharp licks, to
tease the dripping substance off of his own wrist. Working his way up the
palm, he switched to longer, slower lapping motions. Will's eyes closed, and
he abandoned himself to the feeling of his own mouth on his skin, the gentle
dragpulltug. The taste of the sugar on his tongue. Nibbling teeth and
lips collecting each sweet droplet.
Ellis thought this was probably the most intensely sensual thing he had ever
seen. Will's tongue left his palm, and began swirling and circling the
fingernails, and Ellis found his hand had perforce moved to his painfully
hard erection. The long-delayed touch after prolonged arousal, combined with
the sight of Will, sliding those slender, sticky digits, deeper and deeper
within his mouth threatened to undo him.
"Wait," Will interrupted Ellis at the brink of the abyss, "not yet."
Ellis reached for the rum, slugged down the last of it, and gasped, "Can't
hold out much longer, Will."
"Neither, I." Will thunked the honey-pot on the blanket between them. "But I
want a chance to watch you."
Ellis dipped a fingertip in the honey, and flicked it with his tongue. "Very
nice," he said. "Not my favorite."
"And your favorite would be...?"
Grinning hugely and arching the brow on his uninjured side, Ellis picked up
the jar and retreated to the pantry. Putting the honey away, he pulled out a
glittering blueglass bottle, and returned to the hearthside.
"What's that?"
"Rose oil. Heaven in a bottle," Ellis replied.
"Jack called honey 'heaven in a jar' but he called the oil in the bottle
'nirvana'. What is the difference, I wonder?" Will said.
"It's only a matter of where you're coming from, so to speak." Ellis laughed
at his own double-entendre. "Either way, you end up in the same situation, I
suppose."
"Well then," came Will's breathy whisper, "I'd like you to show me how you
prefer to get there."
Kneeling on the blanket close enough to Will to feel the warmth radiating
from his body, Ellis unstoppered the vial of oil, and poured a good bit in
his hand. He gestured with the bottle towards Will, who also held out his
hand for a bit of the liquid. Deftly re-closing the container and setting it
aside, he watched as Will slathered his already-leaking sex with the
slippery stuff. "Keep one hand away from the oil, would you?" he requested
of Will.
"Why?"
"So it doesn't get too slippery."
Careful to use the hand without the oil, Ellis grasped the now-empty rum
bottle, and tipped it to his mouth, making sure that the last few drops were
sucked dry. Then he passed the clearish palegreen flask to Will, who gave
him another quizzical look. "Just hold it, for now. Trust me. Don't get oil
on it."
Ellis dribbled oil over his cock, and rubbed it in with his other hand, down
through the hairs there, below to the balls, and further around and under to
the shadows behind. Swinging his still half-full cupped hand around to the
back, he crouched, on knees and one hand, and began to work the remaining
oil into himself, slowly, carefully, a little at a time. Will watched,
fascinated, as Ellis managed to slide first one, then two, and finally three
fingers inside and stroke in and out with a smooth, gliding motion. Finally,
he turned to Will, and pointed to the bottle.
"You are the rum bottle." Ellis encircled the neck of the bottle with
the less oily of his two hands, slicking the smooth glass, down to the point
where it flared at the shoulders. "Would you hold this steady for me?" Will
did so. Cupping the bottle's base with his dry hand, holding it stationary
at the place where Ellis guided him to, pressing chill glossiness at Ellis'
bare backside.
You are the rum bottle.
This was what Will had asked of Jack, but never received. This was the place
he had wanted to go, and Jack refused to take him there.
It was surprisingly easy, the entry into the other man's body. A push and
pop and a glide and the bottle's neck was in. The base of the flask was cool
to Will's palm; it must be shiveringly cold, taken deep inside. Not like the
actual article.
A delicious shudder passed through Will. You are the rum bottle. He
watched as Ellis gradually began rocking against the bottle's neck,
slithering against it again and again; the lieutenant's slippery hand held
his own cock sliding in an accompanying rhythm.
You are the rum bottle.
"I am the rum bottle," Will's voice, low and deep, thrust into Ellis like a
flaming poker from the blacksmith's forge, bringing him to shattering
climax. Semen spattered the blanket, his belly, his hand.
Ellis clenched the bottle with recently spasming muscles, but Will pulled it
free with a tug and a twist. His lust was naked on his face. "I want..." he
moaned.
"Now. In." Ellis made it a guttural, animal sound.
Will swung around behind the man, who still knelt on all fours. Ellis was
tighter now than with the bottle, but there was still less resistance than
Will expected.
The searing heat of him, the smell of rose and rum, cum and sweat, the
sensation of the skin slamming against skin, the exquisite friction...and
all of it forbidden.
Broken vows, and failed resolve.
Orgasm thundered through Will, an electrical storm of overwhelming
sensation, years of pent-up desire for this, the thing he had most wanted
from Jack, and had never managed to take.
"Fuck," he murmured, as they collapsed on the blanket together. Ellis held
him, as the dry sobs wracked Will.
"Fuck."
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