“Lass, just breathe. It’s no more than a few feet. Come on.” He steps to the edge of the rock and reaches out for me.
“Don’t! You’re going to fall.” I clench my eyes shut.
“Worried about me, are you?” I can hear the amusement in his tone, and I have the urge to smack him. Not hard. Just enough to wipe the smug look off his face.
“Shut up.”
“I don’t recall a lass as pretty as you ever being worried about me.”
I open my eyes. “Did you just call me pretty?”
“Aye.” He still offers his hand. “Prettiest thing I’ve ever found in any waters.”
I scoff. “You’re just trying to distract me.”
“By telling you the truth?” He waggles his fingers. “Grab on. You can do this.”
Why am I blushing? I feel like my emotions are attached to a boomerang, flying away and then coming right back. I can’t settle down.
“Captain? We’re ready!” Smee calls from far, far,farbelow.
“I’ll send it back down. Rein it in for now.” Hook always keeps a rather harsh tone with his crew. I have to admit I like it when he uses it on Smee.
“Aye!” Smee calls.
“Look, if you take my hand, I’ll let you hit the lever that’ll send the raft crashing down on Smee’s head, all right?”
“Why would you think that would be an incentive?” I shake my head.
He groans. “I didn’t want to do this.”
“Do what?” I yelp as he jumps back onto the platform, wrenches my hand off the rope, then scoops me into his arms and jumps over the chasm and onto the rock, which draws a bloodcurdling scream from me. Raucous laughs echo up from below us, and with a sideways kick, Hook hits a lever that sends the wooden raft back down at a mannerly pace. God, I’m mortified. “Okay, put me down.”
“I lied.” He carries me up a set of stairs.
“About which part?”
“When I said I didn’t want to do this.” He looks down at me with a heated look, one I can feel deep in my ladybits.
I can only stare at him. I can’t deny the current between us, the absolutely electrical connection. But I don’t want it. Not with him. Not with the man who killed my friend and most likelywants me dead. These emotions are going to wreck me if I let them. I have to get back to Peter. Then I’ll sort it all out and figure out how to get back home.
“Are you always at war with yourself like this?” he asks.
“Wh-what?”
“Must be tiring.” He shrugs, which brings me even more tightly against his hard chest.
“I don’t know what you’re talking—” My words break off when I catch a glimpse of the structure ahead.
Past the stone cliffs and into the forest beyond, there’s a clearing with a huge house. I blink several times, trying to clear my eyes of this absolute impossibility. But no, the house is still there. It’s like someone went to England, plucked a home off a windswept seashore, and deposited it here on Neverland. It’s painted in hues of aqua and blue, the woodwork on the sides like mermaid scales. Hmm, that’s the first time I’ve thought of mermaids and not winced in quite a while.
It’s three stories of intricate beauty with a wide front porch, a swing, and the now familiar Neverland flowers growing all around it. There’s even a little fountain and pond out front with fish in it. More homes lie farther back in the trees. They’re painted in the same style but are smaller cottages that seem to be laid out in a diamond pattern.
“It’s like a little town.” I can barely believe my eyes.
“Don’t worry. We still have buried treasure around here somewhere, and I can make you walk the plank if you’re interested.” He strides right to the big house and climbs the stairs.
The door ahead of us swings open, and a wizened old lady cackles. “Brought you a boon, eh Captain?”
