Jack finds himself almost swallowing his heart when she speaks again, the resounding rejection he feels in that moment pounding in his head as his weighs his options. The redhead is making this very difficult, but a challenge is what he lived his life for and as he explained to her some days before on deck, the thrill of the unknown is what kept him alive most of the time. He would always seek it out, no matter the course.
His palm remains as though one with her face, unwilling to remove his hold on her as much as he was unwilling to resist the urge to sweep her off of her feet, quite literally, to possibly find a way off of this ship and finally be alone with her. He wanted her the way that the sun and moon longed for one another, but remained just out of reach. It was a painful, desolate longing that apparently, he was the only one willing to fight. In all of his years on this Earth, he had never met a single soul he was ready to die for.
The depth of his yearning for the woman before him ran so deep, he had lost himself within its current and could not possibly make it back to shore now. His eyes bore so intensely into her own that he was sure she would crumble in his hands. There was a familiar look of doubt that flashed through her own gaze as she spoke her words and it only encouraged him to believe absolutely nothing she was saying.
" I've lost all ambition to care, Rose. I'm too involved now, " he says, voice soft still as he continues his efforts toward convincing her that they are perfect for each other. In the short time they had known one another, the blossoming of affection had risen so much that he simply could not falter even a little in his desire. Her next words send a dagger through his heart, his jaw tensing at the sound. " But do you love him? "
Perhaps that last question was out of line, but it had been a long time since he played by any sort of rules. As far as he could tell, judging by the way she presented herself in his presence, Rose was not strictly tied down to Cal. She seems to have assured even herself that the way she must behave is all there is to it and he absently flinches at the thought of it. The woman who, nights before, had been rattling off all of her insecurities relating to feeling stuck in her life.
His clasp upon her jaw loosens some, but only to brush his thumb softly against her lips as if to silence her woe for a moment or two. He doesn't wish to hear more about her engagement; he knows she feels chained to Cal in a way that leaves her suffocating and it only aids in tormenting him further. If he could do anything in the world for her, even if it meant parting ways, he would see her free from all that binds her and renders her completely hopeless, as she is.
" And you believe yourself to be one of those people? Do you honestly believe that, Rose? " he asks, a frown shifting his expression into one of complete injury, those words impacting him more than he would care to admit. He knows just how fragile she is, how she allows others to decide her fate and yet, he cannot conceive of the idea that she is going to fully resign herself to it, to bend to others will.
The supple sensation of her lips meeting his own pulls him from his state of utter disbelief, if only for those few fleeting seconds when the world around them stops spinning and they feel like the only two people on Earth. There was nothing in his life that would ever compare to the allure of a woman so out of reach, yet so close at the same time. If he could not have her, he would dedicate a full life to winning her heart in ways only he knew how to carry out.
Jack had learned a thing or two in his years, enough to know what he could do to secure the love of a woman like her. She was every bit out of his league and that challenge itself proved him a worthy opponent for Cal Hockley. Much as he tried to tear in his dislike of the man, it seemed to show on his face whenever Rose gave mention of him. Her kiss right now, though, banished every other thought from his mind that did not have a focal point on her.
" Go where, Rose? " his voice slightly raised, patience wearing thin as he leans in just a little closer once more, his fingers now having combed through ringlets of deep red to burrow into her hair so far that she cannot possibly turn away to leave him like this. " To the man you do not love? To the Mother whose ambitions meddle in her daughters happiness? " he says, jaw clenching as he speaks.
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