Neverland (14 page)

His footsteps sound again and I think he’s leaving me alone, but when I look up he’s holding onto the net that’s coming down from the sailing mast above us and he hoists himself onto the railing. The feather on his hat is blowing in the wind, the waves splashing against the belly of the ship the only sound.

“Can I ask you something?” he says after a long time of just gazing at me.

“Mm.”

“What’s waiting for you in London?”

The fact that he wants to talk to me about my home tugs at the corners of my mouth. “Family,” I tell him. “A warm home. School.”

He nods, seeming to understand what those things mean to me. Full of longing, I drop my legs from the box I’m sitting on to reach into my pocket. From it, I pull the travelcard. It’s creased at the corners. Smoothing them out, I look at it for a long time.

Hook leans forward and takes the card from my hands.

“Hey,” I protest. “Do you ever ask before taking something?”

“I’m a pirate.” He gives me a look full of amusement from under his hat. “I steal things. I feel bad when asking for them.”

I laugh. “Too bad you can’t steal the information you want from me then. Must drive you crazy.”

“It does,” he replies with dead seriousness, but his eyes stay warm and friendly. Then he examines my card more closely. “What is this?”

“It’s a ticket for transport. With that I can travel from my house to my school in London.” I sigh. “It’s the only thing I have left that reminds me of my home.”

After some time, Hook gives me the card back and I slip it into my pocket. “What’s it like? The town,” he wants to know, and he sounds somewhat enthusiastic now. I wonder if he’s trying to sway me into a better mood. If he is, it's working.

“Oh, you would love it,” I tell him. “It’s bustling with excitement. Quite like the main street at the seaport, but far, far bigger. Bigger houses, bigger streets. To get from one end to the other people drive cars or ride busses.”

“Cars?”

“Yes. It’s a sort of transportation. Like a coach but just without the horse. They are so fast you could go from the north to the south of Neverland in less than an hour.” I pause. “You do know what a coach is, right?”

Hook laughs and nods. “I sure do, but I much prefer
her
.” He pats the railing of the Jolly Roger. “Your cars sound extraordinary.”

“They aren’t the only cool things we have. There are airplanes—flying coaches. And we have computers. They're machines that write for you and do other stuff. You can send a letter to another person ten thousand miles way, and that person will get it just a second later. You can also talk to that person through a tiny thing we call a phone.” I laugh at the thought of him trying to figure out how to work one. “And we have boxes where you can watch people act out stories. We call it television. It’s like you have all those tiny people in there and just watch what they do all day.” My eyes must shine with ecstasy by now. “You would be amazed.”

Hook studies me silently for a half minute, then he says in a voice full of understanding, “It does sound like a fascinating world…Angelina McFarland.”

Something flutters inside my chest and I sit straighter. “What did you just say?”

“I think that’s your name, isn’t it?”

“I—” My breaths come faster and I twist my hand to stare at the fading word
Angel
on my forearm. It was short for...
Oh my word
, Paulina and Brittney Renae used to call me that all the time. “Yes.” I look up at Hook who lets go of the net and slides down from the railing. “How do you know?”

He lowers by my side on the wooden box. Briefly, he brushes his knuckles over my cheekbone and smiles. “You speak in your sleep.”

I don’t even want to know how he found
that
out. And I don’t think I should like it so much when he touches me. His hands are calloused, but his touches are always gentle—when he decides to be Jamie and not the pirate captain.

“Did you hear me say anything else?” I demand, hoping to learn more about what I’ve already forgotten.

Hook nods and one side of his mouth turns up. His eyes shine warmer. “You called me an evil pirate.”

“Yeah, well, you were!
Are
.” I pause for a breath. “You can be. Sometimes.”

He laughs softly at my stuttering. Then he purses his lips and searches my face for a moment. “What about now?”

“Now…you’re different.” I hug my knees tighter to myself. “If it wasn’t for your hat that always makes you look a little dangerous, I would deem you a normal, actually quite nice guy.”

“Ah, the hat.” He lifts his chin and mocks me with a penetrating look. And then he surprises me with the weirdest thing he could do. He takes off his hat and puts it on my head. “Maybe it looks less dangerous on you.”

The overbearing brim blocks my sight. I shove it up a little and find
Jamie
smiling at me. He rakes a hand through his flattened hair and tousles it. It makes him look so much younger. Sweeter. I can almost envision him being a guy from my school. Someone I’d meet on an ordinary day. Someone who’d catch my attention in an instant. Someone who might ask me out, if things were different.

And I would say yes.

We look into each other’s eyes so long, it seems the ship, the sea, the night, just everything fades away into unimportance. The air around me heats up. Or it’s just the cape that warms me and I start imagining things. But who wouldn’t when suddenly the sole focus of a notorious pirate captain?

“Can I
ask
you
something now?” I say after a while to break the silence between us.

“No, you won’t get scabies from wearing my hat.”

That makes me laugh out loud and the sound of it dances around us in the otherwise silent night. “I didn’t think I would. But that isn’t what I wanted to ask.”

He smiles. “Go ahead then.”

“Peter and the Lost Boys told me some strange things about you.”

“That I was an ugly, mean and scary man.” He winks at me as he shoves my own words down my throat.

My cheeks heat uncomfortably. “Yeah, that and something else. They told me about a hook on your right arm. First I thought you had lost your hand in a fight and replaced it with a hook. Obviously they were wrong.”

“Er…not quite.” Jamie blinks slowly. After some hesitation, he opens the cufflink of his white shirt and shoves up the sleeve until even his shoulder is bare. Shifting forward, he lets me take a look at his upper arm.

Whoa, there is a hook. It runs from the top of his shoulder down to the middle of his biceps. A silver chain is slung through the eye and wound around his upper arm twice. “A tattoo,” I whisper with awe and stroke the fascinating design with my fingertips. Jamie’s skin prickles into goosebumps. I quickly look up at his face, but he seems to be alright with me touching him, so I lower my gaze and explore the rest. Below the hook tattoo, the Jolly Roger sways with lowered sails on a calm sea. Everything is in blue and gray shades of moonlight. It’s beautiful. “Who drew this?”

“After Redeye Johnson tattooed every member of the crew, I determined he had gained enough experience, so I let him ink this on me.”

“You were right about my tattoo. There really is a striking difference.”

“M-hm.” Jamie lets go of the sleeve and it slides back down to his elbow. He takes my hand and gently runs his thumb over the sticker on my skin. “Yours is fading away. Mine is forever.”

I start to shake a little under his caress and I know he notices, but he doesn’t let go of my hand. He only lifts his gaze to mine and captures me in the spell of his blue eyes. “I think a skull and crossbones tattoo would look good on your skin, too. It would make you a real pirate.” He sounds seductive. And dangerous. The only suitable combination for a man like him.

“A tattoo on my skin? Where would you put it?” I breathe, feeling a risky surge of recklessness.

He smirks and lifts my arm, inside up, to his mouth. “One good place would be here.” With our gazes still locked, he places a chaste kiss on my wrist.

A shiver races through my body. The man who kidnapped me to his ship, the very one who almost had me killed in the jungle last night, is now gently breaking through my lines of reserve.

On a seductively slow blink, he lowers his gaze to my forearm in front of him and kisses the tender spot right beneath my elbow. “Or here…” he says and looks back at me.

My heart is tap dancing. I cannot move, cannot pull my arm away. I can’t do anything but feel his caress…and enjoy it.

When Jamie doesn’t move for an immeasurable moment, I think he’s done. But I should have known better. He was just gauging my reaction. Leaning in closer, he reaches up and carefully slides his fingertips under the cape’s collar, slowly dragging it a couple inches aside. “I’ve seen women with nice tattoos here, too,” he murmurs against my skin. His next kiss goes to the bare crook of my neck.

My hands start to sweat. I grip the seam of the cape tightly to stop them from trembling.

Jamie moves the collar back into place and instead takes off my hat as he runs his lips up my throat in a barely noticeable caress. He stops just behind my ear. I feel the brush of his mouth on that sensitive spot at every word he whispers. “We could do a sweet little hook in this place.”

I know my breaths come much too fast as our cheeks touch. His stubble grates a little on my skin. All I can smell is tangerines. I melt.

Bracing himself with one hand behind me, he splays the fingers of his other hand on my cheek and hair. Gently, he tilts my face a little more his way and skims the tip of his nose across my cheekbone until we’re eye to eye. I can barely breathe at this point. He looks ruthless; he looks endearing. He looks like he knows exactly what he wants right now. But he’s waiting. And I think I know just why.

He’s asking me for the kiss.

Being a true pirate, he could have just stolen one. But tonight
Jamie
is with me and, as bad as it might make him feel to ask for something, he gives me a choice.

My answer to his unspoken question is a shy smile.

He smiles too at our silent understanding and then he closes the last three inches of distance between us. I shut my eyes.

As he touches his lips gently to mine, warm and cold shivers take turns down my spine. Reluctantly, I let go of the cape still clasped between my fingers and reach up to lay my hand over his heart. It is pounding just as hard as mine.

He kisses my top lip, then my bottom lip, and the third time he uses just a little more pressure to make me open my mouth and invite him in. His fingers move deeper into my hair, holding me. A cautious touch of his tongue to mine, then another. He starts stroking it in a slow spiraling slide.

I feel like I’m falling out of the sky again. I push my hands up over his chest to the back of his neck and cling onto him, like he’s my lifeline. We share the same breath and it’s amazing. Thrilling. I know who he is, but he kisses me as gently as if he’d never spent one day of his life as a pirate. It feels like this night belongs to us alone.

“Cap’n?”

Shock slams into me and in an instant we break apart at Jack Smee’s call from behind the pile of boxes. “James!”

Alarmed, I sit up. But Jamie only gives me a slack smile and places his hat on my head again. He eases back against the big wooden box behind us, his feet dangling from the one we’re sitting on, and laces his fingers over his stomach. “I’m here,” he says loud enough for Smee to hear.

Clacking of boot heels draws nearer. “I saw the vacated helm and thought—
Fucking hell!
” Jack Smee looks like he’s been hit by a cannonball as I tilt my head up to him. His focus is on me as if he’d mistaken me for the captain. Understandable, with me wearing Jamie’s hat and cape.

Utterly uncomfortable now, I turn to Jamie. He reassures me with his relaxed expression. Not in the least bothered at being caught, he switches his gaze to Smee. “What did you think?”

“Ugh…” Smee runs a hand through his shaggy hair. “I thought maybe you wanted me to take over the helm.”

“It’s okay. I secured it before I came down here.”

Nothing throws Jamie off balance. He’s cool with the situation, while I’m way too warm and shaky. I wish Smee had picked a different moment to come out here. A moment hours from now.

“You can stay with the others. I’ll be up at the bridge in just another minute,” Jamie informs Jack, who mumbles an
aye
in return. When he’s gone, Jamie’s entire focus is on me again. He reaches up and brushes his thumb over my cheek. “I do have to get back to the wheel, you know.”

Unable to keep the disappointment out of my face, I nod, hating how he takes the warmth with him when his hand slips away from me. I follow him with my gaze as he stands up. He only takes one step away from me, and I already feel alone on the wide, deserted deck. Suddenly he turns around again and holds his hand out. I think he wants to claim his hat and cape, but he smiles down at me and says, “Would you like to come up?”

James Hook

I CAN’T BELIEVE I’m standing here asking Angel to come with me to the sterncastle. But then a lot happened today that I can barely wrap my mind around. Kissing her is on the very top of that list.

Angel stares up at me with big dark eyes.
Is she coming or not?
Giving people choices is new to me and it makes me feel uncomfortable. I actually start to feel like an idiot because she isn’t moving an inch. Slowly, my arm lowers, but just then she reaches out and places her delicate hand in mine.

I want to growl:
What the hell took you so long?
But instead I find myself doing what I’ve done most of today when near her. I smile.

She rises and lets me lead her to the narrow stairs. The cape barely reaches my boots when I wear it, but now it sweeps along the floorboards as it hangs from Angel’s shoulders. I let her walk up first and the feather of my hat tickles my face while I fasten the cufflink of my right sleeve. A chuckle escapes me.

“What’s so funny?” Angel asks, looking over her shoulder.