“As soon as I get you to my cabin—” He glances around. “Maybe before?—”
“No! We have to get out of here. You aren’t safe.”
“You aren’t either, lass. Not once we’re alone.” He licks his lips, and I stumble. Taking my arm he leads me into the surf, then helps me into the rowboat.
His sailors are already using the other one, taking turns sending the crew back to the Jolly Roger.
“Wait, is everyone all right?” I peer into the darkness for familiar faces.
“We lost nary a one.” Hook grabs the oars and starts pulling hard, shooting us away from the shore.
Something tickles at my back, then flutters past my face. I scream and swat at it, which sends a ray of pain shooting down my back.
“What is—I havewings?” I get a crick in my neck as I try to turn and look at them.
“Pretty ones.” He nods, still rowing at an inhuman pace. “I intend to kiss them all over when we get to the tender part, lass. But this is not tender.” His eyes eat me up even though I’m doing everything I can to get a look at the wings on my back. “What I feel for you right now is anything but.”
I’m awash in new sensations—the wings at my back, the desire beating through me like a pulse, the slight edge of fear at how hungrily Hook is looking at me.
“Focus on the wings.” I reach behind me and touch one. It’s soft and thin, like a gossamer curtain stretched taut.
“I’m focused onyou. Every bit of you.Mine.”
That’s when it hits me. I drop my hand, my heart falling into a pit. I’m not his. I never was. He wished for love, but that love isn’t me. I’mPeter’sboon.
“What’s that look for?” He’s still rowing hard, his intentions clear as he speeds us back to the ship.
I meet his eyes.
He finally slows just a hair. “Are you all right?”
“Let’s just get to the Jolly Roger, okay?” It’s odd that I feel safe on a pirate ship, but I do.
“That’s the plan.” He goes back to rowing viciously, his eyes unabashedly fixed on me.
I touch my wing again and get a glimpse of its pearly glow. It’s beautiful. Like Widow’s but bigger. They’re actually more similar to Tinker Bell’s. Her loss is one that tangles inside me, because I didn’t know her, not the real her. Everything I thought turned out to be wrong, but she was just as tangled as I am. Together, we’re a gordian knot, incapable of solving, forever tied into each other, even if one piece has gone irretrievably dark.
“Lass, I know you’re going through a million emotions. The time will come when we talk about all of it.” He stops rowing as we make it to the ship. “But I need you to focus on just one.”
“Which one?”
He grabs hold of the rope ladder that hangs by the hull. “Lust.” Holding out his hand, he takes mine and guides me up the ladder.
“You are literally the worst.”
“That’s what they say.” His smirk is sexy, and I could swear he knows it.
Climbing the rope ladder still isn’t easy, but I make it to the top without falling over or bursting a lung. As soon as my feet touch the deck, Hook is behind me, his hands on my hips as he guides me to his cabin.
“We should talk.”
“We will.” He takes my hand and pulls me along.
Smee rolls his eyes as we pass.
“No one enters my cabin. No one even comes near the fucking door,” Hook snarls.
“Aye, Captain.” Smee nods.
