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When Will went into port with Jack to "reconnoiter" and returned the
next morning looking hangdog and smelling of cheap perfume, Elizabeth
decided that the "forsaking all others" bit of their vows didn't really
apply anymore. Of course, Jack was a sort of an exception for them both, but
he had the morals of an alley cat, and an uncanny ability to persuade Will
into all sorts of mischief. They thought she didn't know that they shared
whores and rent-boys, and even, on one particularly foolhardy occasion,
Commodore Norrington, but Elizabeth was neither stupid nor blind, and there
was very little her men kept secret from her. Still, they might have made
some effort at discretion, and Elizabeth was privately quite peeved at
Will's blatant disregard for her feelings.
So, since fidelity didn't seem to be part of their arrangement, the next
time Jack and Will disappeared on one of their mysterious errands, Elizabeth
made no effort to resist Anamaria's wicked innuendos and daring eyes. They’d
been bantering and teasing one another for so long that Elizabeth wasn't
sure at first if the invitation was in earnest, but then Anamaria licked her
lips and pressed them to Elizabeth's, almost diffidently, and Elizabeth's
stomach flip-flopped with anticipation.
For all that Anamaria had the sharpest tongue on the Pearl, her lips
were surprisingly soft, and her kiss was meltingly sweet. Then, just when
Elizabeth began to surrender to it, teeth nipped at her lips and Anamaria's
thigh pressed against hers and their hands clenched tightly together. It was
nothing like Will or Jack, and yet inevitably familiar - the same tune
played on a different instrument - and Elizabeth found that she knew exactly
what to do, how to make Anamaria squirm and twist in her arms and how to
respond when Anamaria tugged her into the great cabin and pushed her down
onto Jack's swinging bed.
*
When Will
returned, he was surprised at Elizabeth's contented demeanor. He'd been
worried that he and Jack had been gone too long, or that Elizabeth might
have tumbled to the nature of their more private adventures, but once again,
his secret seemed to be safe. With equal parts guilt and relief, he greeted
his wife and vowed to make it up to her, even though she hadn't a clue what
he'd been up to.
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