Chapter One

The Morning After

Wow, sequel time already! I'm so excited to kick off part two! Haha...Thank you all so much for your reviews! Sequels are always hard to match to the original, but I'll try my hardest. I think I'll start you off by giving everyone sugar cookies to munch on for your enjoyment for the first chapter (and no, that is not a bribe to leave reviews...haha).

Alright, I thought...and I thought...and then I thought again. This is the only way I could think of how to start the sequel.

I own nothing except Melissa, Kate, and any other OCs that I mention.

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Though the closed blinds in her bedroom, Melissa could feel the cool morning air coming through the open window. She had fallen asleep on her side. Her arm by her pillow was cold. What time was it? It didn't matter. She felt too relaxed to even open her eyes.

Melissa rolled over onto her stomach and nestled in. She had a dream last night that her and Jack went out to a restaurant called Billy's. All these people that she didn't recognize kept talking to Jack. They looked like people that he would know. They sort of looked like fish and they were all crusty looking. Jack kept asking them where Bootstrap was.

Melissa hated dreams like those. They never made any sense! She always wondered what made people dream things like that.

Melissa nestled in against something that was neither her wall nor her sheets. It was soft...like skin. A hand went on her back. Was there someone in her bed with her? Had Jack come to wake her up?

She opened her eyes to see a pair of dark brown eyes looking back at her. Jack saw that he did not have his shirt on, nor did she have any pajamas on.

Melissa started panicking. She sat up quickly and gasped, clinging the sheets to her chest. Next to her side of the bed was a pile of clothes mixed together. It was their's.

Everything came back slowly: how they took each other's clothes off, how she saw the two gunshot marks on his chest, the way he kissed her all over her body, the way he touched her...

They had sex. Melissa couldn't possibly have done that! What was she thinking?! Was she out of her mind? Yes, she wanted to change and be a little more free, but she didn't want to give up her virginity!

"Oh, my gosh..." Melissa said softly. "W-We didn't, did we?"

"Ya were fully conscious and awake, love, ye should remember th' amazin' night that we 'ad last night."

Of course Melissa remembered it. Her only problem was that she wanted to forget it.

This must be what they mean when they talk about "the morning after", Melissa thought. She felt the same sense of what-did-I-do? that she had heard some people talk about. She wanted to crawl under her covers and ask herself why she did it. After she got bored of asking herself that, then maybe she could call Kate and confess what she did.

But, she couldn't do either of those things. She couldn't hide under her covers because Jack was laying right next to her. He had that stupid grin on his face that she wanted to yell at him to wipe off – that same grin that he had used countless times on her. And she couldn't call Kate because she was still with Will in Duluth (and probably sleeping, it was only 8:00, she saw) and because she wasn't sure if she wanted to admit to anyone what she did.

This was not like Melissa to do this! She had never done anything except kiss a boy in her life! Their hands had stayed only in reasonable places.. That is, until last night. Jack's hands had roamed freely, and in return, she had done the same.

"I do remember," she said.

She tried to forget the way she felt whenever his hands caressed somewhere new. Melissa couldn't, though. She told herself she was the one who had initiated things last night. She had no one to blame but herself (if she was going to blame someone, although sex was hardly a blamable thing).

And so out the door went Melissa's promise to herself last night, the promise that she would remain pure until marriage. She had lost her virginity before Kate – Kate! The biggest flirt that she knew! Kate who could get anything with a pout of her full lips and just one look into her emerald green eyes. Melissa was even younger than her by a month!

"Last night...last night was not supposed to happen," she said, sitting at the edge of the bed, looking through their pile of clothes for something to put on.

"Oh, it wasn't, eh?" Jack said.

"Yes! Last night...was a mistake."

Jack propped up onto his elbow. "Really?"

"Yes, really," she said, finding her nightgown, and holding it in her hands.

"'Ow 'bout we 'ave 'nother mistake b'fore ya get up, then?"

Why was Jack implying to have sex again? Did he even pick up that she regretted last night, that it was a mistake, or was all that rum finally settling into his head?

"I'd rather not," she said.

"Not even..." Jack said, sprinkling kisses onto her shoulder, "if I promise to behave myself?"

"No, I'm sure."

"Actually, I behaved myself last night. Ye were the one who was diggin' your nails into my back. So, technically, I will give ye 'nother try if ya behave yerself.

"Jack! I do not need you to retell every detail about last night!"

"Persuade me, then."

"What, to stop?"

She turned around to see that both of their faces were but inches apart. His eyes flickered with lust.

"I see ye're not a saint anymore," Jack said. "I told ya so–"

Melissa had no choice but to kiss him to make him stop. "There's your persuasion."

"Not good enough," Jack said, gently pulling her back down onto the bed as she dropped her nightgown back onto the floor. They lay down next to each other, each smiling.

"Mmm, you want more persuasion, do you?" she purred. "That's all the persuasion I have to offer you."

"I'm afraid I'll have t' persuade ya t' persuade me some more, love."

She did not really want to have sex with Jack again, seeing as she had the morning-after regrets still in her.

"Ya know, I'll keep talkin' 'bout last night."

"Then I'll just get up and get dressed."

"Then what's holding ya back?"

"You haven't said anything else last night."

"Well...good girl Mel is havin' some thoughts 'bout Cap'n Jack right now, is she not?"

"It's sort of hard not to when you're right next to me," she said.

"Very un-saintlike thoughts, they are."

"I thought you already said that I wasn't a saint anymore."

"Exactly. It's 'cause ye're not. Now, gettin' back t' last night, after ya–"

Melissa kissed him before he had anymore of a chance to talk about last night. That kiss lead to Jack putting his hands on her back, which lead to even more kisses.

After being having the other persuade the other, Melissa figured that maybe last night wasn't as regrettable as it seemed.