Neverland (15 page)

I struggle to keep my face straight. “You do make a mighty fine pirate, Angelina McFarland.”

“Pirate? Only if I can be the captain.” She sticks her tongue out at me and jogs up the last couple of steps.

“You want to be captain of the ship? Fine with me.” Reaching for her hands, which obviously surprises her, I unlock the helm and wrap her fingers around the handles, securing mine over hers.

Caging her in between my arms wasn’t a smart idea, because now I have this girl standing pressed to my front and all I can think of is kissing that delectable neck of hers.

“I can’t see,” she mumbles and laughs. The hat has dipped forward into her face and since her hands are locked under mine, she can’t fix it. I take it off her and put it back in its rightful place. At least wearing the hat brings back some feeling of normality. Abandoning the pirate in me is exhausting at best. But, oddly enough, for Angel I try.

Angel seesaws the wheel a little and I let her so she can gain a feeling for it. “How do you know you’re still on the right track when all around us there’s only water?” she demands. “A horizon at all sides.”

“We started off due east from Neverland.” I explain to her how to use the compass worked into the counter next to the helm and she’s all ears. I never thought she would be interested in how to steer a ship. Finding out she actually is gives me a feeling of excitement. Dreaming of keeping her onboard for a while longer is just too easy. “You always keep an eye on this needle”—I tap the glass of the compass—“and make sure it stays pointed at true north.”

“I see. So what happens when I do this?” She freaking spins the wheel in a fast circle and the ship tips hard portside, catching me unawares—and certainly the rest of the crew under deck, too.

“Blow me down,
lass
! You can’t do that!” Falling sideways, I hold on to the helm and the railing behind her for balance and steady myself just before I would have run her over.

As she swirls the helm in the opposite direction and the ship tips again, Angel shakes with laughter. “Why not?” She’s really having fun doing this.

The cape slides from her shoulders and lands in a black puddle of fabric on the floorboards by her bare feet, taking away the last bit of piracy from her and changing her back into the beautiful girl she was when I met her. The sound of her heartfelt laughter fills my chest with an odd warmth that I want to keep there at all costs. I last felt it ten minutes ago when I kissed her. Before that…never. Standing behind her again, I place my hands over hers and bring the Jolly Roger back to her original course. “Now hold her still,” I say in her ear.

“Aye, aye, Captain.” She mocks me with a grin over her shoulder. What she obviously didn’t reckon with is how close this brings her face to mine. It only takes one blink of an eye and I have her captured with my gaze. She doesn’t turn away. Her lips slightly parted, she breathes a little faster.

I know it’s a bad idea, but I can’t resist. Slowly sliding my hands up her arms to her shoulders and then farther on down her sides, I want to feel her, hold her and explore every little bit of her. But most of all, I want to kiss her again. So with a gentle push to her hips, I make her turn around to me.

Her eyes seem shy and she places her hands against my chest. I don’t know if this is a natural reaction to keep me at a distance. When her fingers dig into my shirt and she clasps the fabric, I realize she doesn’t want to push me away after all.

I thrust my hands into her hair, skimming the strands out of her face, and stroke my thumbs over her cheekbones. Slowly dipping my head so my brow touches hers, I take in a deep breath through my nose, trying to catch her cinnamon scent again. But there’s only a familiar note of tangerines. I never thought it would be this intoxicating to know that the same scent clings to both of us now.

Behind me, footsteps come hurriedly toward us. I know who this is and why. Angel’s bold maneuver on the wheel worried my first mate. Never letting go of the girl in front of me, I say loud enough for my voice to carry over the empty deck, “All is fine. Go away, Smee.”

His laugh drifts up to us but, thank God, so do his retreating footsteps.

“That wasn’t nice of you,” Angel breathes against my lips.

What the heck— “I’m not going to let him interrupt this again.” And then I tilt my head and take her mouth in a way I’ve wanted to do since she went for my throat with the dagger this morning.

I don’t seduce her into surrender with soft kisses but demand entrance from the very first instant. Angel releases a soft moan that I catch with my mouth. It’s the most thrilling sound I know and it makes the little hairs at the back of my neck bristle.

Our tongues slide against each other, tender and sweet, like two birds dancing in the sky. I move closer to Angel, trapping her between the helm and my body. This is what my pirate side feels best at. She can’t escape from me and I revel in possessing her. Like a treasure to keep.

But on a subtle whisper from the back of my mind, the sweet memory of Angel
wanting
to be with me comes forth. The sensation of not forcing her but getting all of her nonetheless was intoxicating. I want to relive it. So I lay my hands around her tender body and make her twist with me. My back is now against the wheel, my legs placed firmly apart, and Angel stands between them. I’m playing with fire—she can kiss me now or she can turn away from me. It’s her call.

A heartbeat passes, and she just stares into my eyes. She knows exactly why I did this. To watch the realization dawn in her eyes is exhilarating. Like a poker game where you bet all without knowing what’s in your opponent’s cards until the very end.

When it’s Angel’s turn to show her hand, she lifts to her toes and brushes the tip of her nose against mine. A saucy grin spreads her lips. “Must be hard for a pirate captain to give up control.”

“You didn’t really think I would have let you get away, did you?” I tease her, wrapping my arms tighter around her. Suddenly, the words take on a deeper meaning in my mind. There will come a time when I have to let her go. If this journey is successful, even sooner than later. The question is will I be pirate enough then to ignore what she wants and steal her back? Or will
just Jamie
keep his promise?

I don’t want to think about this now, but it’s too late. Angel notices my concerned look. “What’s up?” she says in her soft voice.

“Nothing.” I shake off my frown and go for a smile. The night is too beautiful to waste a single minute of it. Angel is in my arms and I want to savor her for now. I dip my head forward to kiss her again.

This time Angel hears it first and she stiffens. “Someone’s coming.”

Standing rigid, I listen into the night. She’s right. A set of footsteps comes closer.

“Do you think it’s Smee again?” she whispers.

I shake my head. Over time I’ve learned to distinguish my men even by the sound of their boots on wood. “Fin and Brant Skyler.”

And to prove me right, Skyler shouts, “Cap’n. You still on deck?”

I draw in a breath to answer, but Angel startles me and claps her hand over my mouth, shoving me with some girlish force away from the wheel and behind the storage room on the bridge. “No! The captain has gone to his quarters,” she calls over her shoulder. Then she locks her bright eyes with mine and whispers quickly, “Is there another way off the bridge?”

Since she didn’t take her hand off my mouth, I nod, starting to enjoy her dauntlessness. “The captain said you can take over the wheel now,” she tells my men then and makes me move.

I can’t help but smirk at her before I take her hand, bend to pick up my cape from the floor and pull her with me. We duck farther along the railing of the sterncastle to the back, where a ladder leads down starboard to the quarter deck. As the men ascend at the front, we leave at the back and sneak around the corner to the front again. I don’t exactly know where Angel is headed, but when we pass my quarters, I open the door and drag her in.

“Why did we come here?” she hisses.

“You said I’ve gone to my quarters. That’s what I’m doing.” I close the door behind us and lean against it, watching her walk up to the window in the moonlight. It’s too dark inside. I want to see her again, so I toss my cape and hat on the bed and light the candle on the small desk by the wall. The warm flame makes our shadows dance on the walls.

When Angel turns around, her face is in skeptical lines. “Last time I was in here you kicked the door to trash.”

“If I remember it right, you came after me with a dagger first.”

She starts to grin and I wonder if she too thinks that it all seems so very long ago. Not like it happened only this morning. The clock strikes eleven. She must be tired, but I’m not yet ready to let her retreat to her room. I want her to myself just a little bit longer. Maybe an hour, I tell myself. Then I’d be happy. But at the same time I get this feeling that an hour wouldn’t even scratch it. Today I found out that I can’t get enough of her smile and her sweet voice.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, I reach for her hand and pull her to me. “What would you like to do?”

She doesn’t let go of me, but her grip isn’t as tight as it was before. “I’d love to stand by the window and wait for any land to appear in front of the ship.” A deep sigh escapes her. “But it will only lull me to sleep and I can’t afford to even snooze.”

“Because you’re afraid of forgetting more of your life.”

“M-hm.” Her fingers slip away from mine. She walks past me and climbs onto my bed. I follow her with my gaze. Fluffing up the pillow behind her, she leans against it with her legs drawn to her chest. “Would you mind helping me stay awake for a while longer?”

Oh, not in the least.
I twist around and let a smirk slip.

“Tell me something about you,” she adds and with it she tramples my hopes of getting kissed again. “Anything to keep me from falling asleep.”

She looks so forlorn on my bed. Helpless but full of hope. Her trust in me makes me think and do weird things, so I stand up then, take her hand and pull her forward to squeeze in behind her with my legs spread around her. “I have a better idea,” I say into her ear and make her lean back against my chest. “Why don’t you tell me everything you’re afraid of forgetting? That way, if you really do forget, I’ll be like your memory and can tell you about it again.”

Angel tilts her head to look up at me, her eyes huge with wonder. “Really?”

“Sure.” I lace my fingers in front of her stomach and she puts her hands on top of mine. Such a simple thing and still it heats me like a bonfire at night. She lets me kiss her brow, then she nestles her head under my chin and begins to tell.

After some time, I feel like I know everything about this girl. How she grew up, what she likes to eat and wear—mostly men’s clothes from what I got out of her story—how kids her age go to schools and take tests. And then of course everything about her home and her family. Or the part of her family she still remembers. Brittney Renae and Paulina. She described them in so much detail that I feel like I’ve carried them around as babies myself.

When her voice ceases to a mumble with longer breaks every now and then, I know she’s about to fall asleep. It’s past two o’clock in the morning. I don’t think she’ll be able to stay awake much longer, no matter how hard she tries. So instead of prompting her to tell me more like I did every time her voice became lower in the past half hour, I remain silent now and just stroke the side of her face until her breathing becomes slow and even.

For half an hour I stare at the clock on the wall and watch the minute hand move ever so slowly. If I fall asleep now and Angel starts speaking again, revealing the treasure’s hiding place, I might miss it. But chances are she spoke so much this evening that nothing whatsoever will happen during the rest of the night anyway.

Angel shivers a little in my arms. Since we’re sitting on the blanket, there’s nothing to cover her with. At the end of the bed lies my cape, but it’s too far away for me to reach it without moving Angel. And I don’t want to do that, because I don’t want to wake her. She deserves some rest.

There’s not much I can do other than wrap my arms around her, covering her own arms to warm her. She sighs against my chest and nestles a little deeper. Smiling to myself, I close my eyes.

I’m the one who wakes first. It’s morning and a rock bobs up and down in front of the cabin’s windows. The ship has come to a standstill. My first thought is to jump out of bed and see where we are. But Angel is still sleeping peacefully on me. She turned to her front during the night and her cheek rests on my chest. Her body lifts and falls with her breaths.

Skimming my fingers gently through her hair to wake her, I look to the windows again. There’s something weird about the rock outside. It’s familiar. With a sense of doom, I suddenly realize where we are. We landed on the west side of Neverland. No London anywhere near.

My heart sinks for Angel. This is going to crush her.

And then I won’t get the information I need.

Chapter 10

SOMEBODY MURMURS MY name. The voice is gentle and matches the tender caress on my cheek. Stirring awake after a wonderful dream about home and introducing Captain Hook to my family, I open my eyes and look up at Jamie’s face. He looks worried.

“What’s up?” I ask, rubbing the sleep from my eyes and sitting back on my haunches between his straddled legs.

Jamie rises from the bed and walks over to the windows then faces me. “You won’t like this.”

Now I’m really alarmed. Pushing off the bed, I go after him. “What do you mean?” But then I see through the smudgy windowpane there’s land outside. My heart starts to race. “We found another island? Do you think it’s where I come from?”

Oh my God, my home might not be far away!
“Come on! Why are you standing stiff like a mast?” I bellow with excitement and drag him away from the window, but then I remember my shoes and let go of his hand. I find them under the table and sit on the floor to put them on. Beaming, I look up, but he still wears a dark expression of concern.