Pan's Revenge (23 page)

“
Do I?” A
shiver rakes over my body at the mischievous tilt of one of his
eyebrows. His hand sneaks up to my waist and, with a gentle pull,
he makes me stand between his spread legs. He lowers his chin with
a small smile so he’s staring directly into my eyes. “I thought,
maybe if somehow I found a way to keep you happy, you’d agree to
stay this time.”

The nearness
should have startled me or maybe make me feel uncomfortable, but
the truth is, I enjoy the way he stakes his claims on me. I know
it’s a pirate we’re talking about, and if one can believe Disney,
the meanest that has ever sailed the seas too. But when I look at
his taunting, hopeful face, I feel perfectly safe with him. “Stay
with you and leave my former life behind?” I ask, not bothering to
keep a playful hint of skepticism out of my voice. “My family, my
home, my everything?”

Both his hands wander to the small of my back
where he laces his fingers. “Neverland has some qualities of its
own.”

“I’m not a pirate. You can’t expect me to
spend the rest of my life on a ship.”

“I’ll build you a house in the forest.”

“I’d be pretty lost without my memories
here.”

“I don’t care. I’m going to make new ones
with you.”

I give him a sidelong look. “Are you trying
to seduce me, Captain Hook?”

“Possibly.” He cracks a smile. “Does it
work?”

Succumbing a
little more to the part of me that still knows James Hook in a way
that
I
don’t, I rest my forearms on his shoulders and loosely
clasp my fingers behind his neck. “No. Way.”

He bites then licks his bottom lip. “What if
I let you wear my hat and cape again and you can be captain of the
ship for a while?”

The hopeful
glimmer in his eyes coaxes a resentful sigh from me. I free myself
from his hold and walk to the window, turning my back to him. “This
isn’t my home. You know I have to go back, Jamie.” In spite of the
undeniable attraction I feel for this man and the vague memories I
have recovered, staying in Neverland isn’t an option at
all.

I gasp when his hands slide over mine from
behind and he intertwines our fingers. He brings our hands in front
of my stomach and hugs me against his chest. I only let him
because, just like before, being in his arms gives me a feeling of
safety and comfort. Frankly, it does feel familiar. If only there
was a chance for me to pull the rest of my memories out. I want to
know what we had…he and I. I want to know it so bad that I close my
eyes and dip my head backward to rest on his shoulder.

“I always loved it when you called me Jamie,”
he whispers into my ear and nuzzles my temple.

Laughing, I counter, “Apart from the one time
when you threatened to cut my throat for it.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t have told you that.” The
warm breath of his chuckle feathers against my skin.

I turn my head to look at his face. His long,
fair lashes brush the skin underneath his eyes at each of his
blinks. No matter what he does, how he looks or what he says,
there’s always a layer of dominance that overrides the warmth in
his gaze. His moves are slow and deliberate, his words always sound
considered. James Hook knows exactly what he wants.

And right now he wants…me.

Leaving one hand placed on my stomach, he
lifts the other to my face and skims his fingertips feather-lightly
across my cheek. Guided by his touch when he strokes his thumb over
my bottom lip, I tilt my head a little more to him.

He leans in so close that I can feel the
softest brush of his lips against mine when he whispers, “What do
you think? Can you bear to spend one day with me before we ship you
back to your world?”

Ten heartbeats pass.

In that time, I’m transfixed by his gaze
while in my mind I play out all the possible scenarios my parents
might go through when they wake up in the morning and find me
missing. Hysterics. Police. Crying. Searching. Hoping. Calling
friends. Soothing my sisters. Not once in my life did I run away
from home. I’m quite aware of the sorrow I put them in with each
passing hour I stay here.

But on the other hand, this is Neverland. The
land of the boy who wouldn’t grow up. The land of fairies,
treasures, pixie dust, and heck yeah, it’s also the land of pirates
and Captain Hook. Would anyone go back without taking the chance at
seeing a mermaid, just once in their life?

Would I?

As I turn
around in Jamie’s arms, I suck in a deep breath and take his face
between my hands. “One day,” I say with determination and stand on
my tiptoes. “And you have to show me a mermaid.”

His attempt to suppress a joyful grin is
ineffective. “I promise,” he purrs then leans in to kiss me.

I let the part of me that feels most
comfortable with Jamie take over and mold my lips to his. Have you
ever been kissed by a pirate? I know I’ve been more often than I
remember, but it still amazes me how an alleged scoundrel like Hook
can turn into the gentlest lover. He leans back against the edge of
the table like before and pulls me so close there wouldn’t fit a
sheet of paper between us. One of his hands roams up my back, my
shoulder, my neck, and disappears in my hair. The tenderness of his
touch makes my skin tingle. Every square inch of it.

His tongue sweeps through my mouth, once,
twice. The hunger in his kiss grows. With his hand at the back of
my neck, he holds me tight in place as if scared to lose me any
second. But I don’t intend to back away. My hands sink to his
shoulders and lower down over his firm chest and hard stomach.
Burying my fingers in the soft linen of his shirt, I release a
fervid sigh that doesn’t quite make it out of my mouth. The
half-moan must have fueled his passion even more—I can feel it in
the kiss that just turned a notch harder.

Jamie grabs my hips and, without me doing
anything, we swap position. He lifts me and sets me down on the
desk in front of him. I take that moment to catch my breath. When
he leans closer again, I lean back and lock gazes with him. How
could I have ever doubted his intentions toward me? It’s all there,
so obvious in his eyes.

Startled by my pulling back for a moment,
Jamie cocks his head, but he seems to find pleasure in this game
that really wasn’t one and takes on the unspoken challenge. He
leans so far in that I have to recline even more, bracing myself on
my hands and soon on my elbows.

The left side
of his mouth twitches to an adorable crooked smile as he takes my
hands and forces me to lie down on my back, my feet still dangling.
With our fingers intertwined, he spreads my arms sideways on the
desk and slowly moves them up over my head, like he’s drawing a
snow-angel. Propping himself on his elbows then, he braces his
weight as he lowers on top of me. His body is so close above mine
that I can feel him each time I take in a breath.

We’re eye to eye, my favorite position with
the captain as I found out, because I can so easily lose myself in
the deep sea-blue of his irises. The smirk is still pasted on his
lips, and his soft, golden blond hair tickles my brow as it falls
forward.

“Trapped,” he drawls. “What are you going to
do about it?”

“
Scream my
way out?” I tease back and crack a smile. Then I add, “Later.”
Right now I have no intention of getting away from him. Quite the
opposite in fact. I sling my bare legs around his waist to anchor
myself to him. His contented purr is my reward for that. It makes
me shudder and at the same time wonder how someone so young and
gentle can command a ship of honorless men.

There’s no time for finding an answer. Jamie
comes down the last couple of inches and kisses my bottom lip,
wiping my mind blank in a heartbeat. I like how he starts to play
with it, suck and nibble, before he traces the bow of my upper lip
with his tongue. I do the same to him and would have never thought
that something so simple could be so sensuous. He gives me another
moment to savor him fully, then he trails downy kisses along my jaw
and down the side of my neck. I heat up like a torch when he softly
grates his teeth across my collar bone. With his nose he nudges my
chin up to give him access to the base of my throat where he places
another tender kiss.

I know I said I wanted to see the mermaids at
some point, but right now I’d be happy to spend the entire day with
Jamie in his study. I don’t even care if we stay on the desk the
entire day. But a rap on the door explodes my beautiful dream.

As every muscle in my body tenses with alarm,
my legs tighten around Jamie’s waist, pushing out a startled breath
from him. But more than that happens. It’s like the shock popped a
cork from the storage of my memories. It’s all back in an instant,
leaving me with a thudding heart.

Jamie doesn’t look half as appalled as me
when he straightens just in time as the door opens. I don’t see
who’s coming in, because I’m facing Jamie and the window front, but
I recognize Smee’s voice at his first sheepish cough.

“Sorry to—um…” The pirate cuts himself
off.

At that moment, Jamie looks down at my face
and I know what a horrible red flush he sees there. The man has no
decency, I swear. He gives me an amused smile then skims his
fingers over the outside of my naked thigh. What the hell, does he
have to fondle me in front of his first mate? I suck in a sharp
breath, until I realize he might only want to make me aware of my
legs still anchored around him.

Oh God!

I unhook my heels and lower my legs, covering
my face with my hands. That coaxes a chuckle from Jamie. He grabs
his hat from next to me and drops it on my face.

In the meantime, Jack Smee clears his throat
once more. “The pixie is outside and wants to talk to you, Cap’n.
She keeps fluttering above the ship and refuses to come down.”

“The pixie? I wonder what she wants,” Jamie
replies. “Tell her to meet me at Mermaid Lagoon in an hour. I
promised Angel a tour anyway.”

The door clicks closed. A moment later, the
hat is being lifted from my face and Jamie peeks underneath. “You
good there?”

“Argh, James Hook, you have to teach the crew
not to walk into your quarters uninvited!” I rant as I prop myself
up on my elbows. “It’s starting to get on my nerves to be
interrupted every time we kiss!”

His jaw drops and his eyes grow wider and
wider. “Angel?” he tests carefully.

“Now don’t look so shocked. You knew my
memory would come back eventually.” I crack a smile because, hands
down, the expression on his face is adorable.

He quirks his brows. “You. Remember?”

“Yes.”

“
You mean,
you remember
everything
?”

“That’s what I said, Jamie. Now let me get
off this desk and—” I don’t get to finish because he grabs my hands
and pulls me up so fast that I fall against his chest. His arms
encase me, cutting off the steady stream of air in and out of my
lungs. We cling to each other and his face buries in my hair. No
kissing this time, which I regret a little, but it’s good to be
crushed for a moment.

“I missed you so much,” he croaks.

Unfortunately, I can’t say the same, because
until very recently, I didn’t even know of his existence. But the
swell of joy flooding me right now is hard to contain. “It’s good
to be back.”

Drowning in his beguiling scent of sea water
and tangerine, I close my eyes and, for the first time since he
found me again, relive all the happy moments we had together not
long ago.

I HAVE HER
back. Not only physically
but in mind as
well. Happiness fills my heart. She’s here in Neverland with me.
Finally. I squeeze Angel so hard that she begs me to give her some
air to breathe. Reluctantly, I ease the embrace.

“Now that I remember it all, I can hardly
believe how I survived those three months without you. But”—Angel
steps away from me with her hands to her hips, giving me one of
those spirited, scolding looks that I missed the most about
her—“really, James Hook, you kidnapped me—again?”

I laugh and brush her ruffled hair behind her
ears. “It was the only way. And you should be happy I did it.”

Her mouth curls into a smile of surrender. “I
am. More than happy, actually.”

“Good. Does that mean our deal of earlier is
off and you’re going to stay longer?”

“
No. The deal
is still on.” She grimaces and then purses her lips, the gesture
tempting me to kiss her. “But I’m thinking, maybe we should go see
the fairies in the forest. They knew what to do last time when I
got stranded in Neverland. Perhaps they have a solution to this
problem too.”

I’m glad she
mentions the fairies, because that’s exactly what I had planned on
doing with her later today. She didn’t really think I’d agree to
just one bloody day. “Find a way to help us see each other more
often?”

Angel nods, her face displaying the hope that
moved in to my chest the moment I saw her again.

“All right. Let’s do that. Do you still want
to see a mermaid first?” I tease her.

“
It would be
great to meet Melody, though chances are slim, I guess. But you
told Smee you were going to meet Tami at Mermaid Lagoon in an hour.
If you don’t mind, I’ll come with you. I’d love to see
her
again.”

With narrowed eyes, I cock my head. “Of
course, I’m going to take you.” Whatever made her think I wouldn’t?
No one can tell how long I really get to have Angel around me this
time. I’m not going to waste one goddamned minute.

“Great!” She claps her hands like an excited
little girl and bounced on the balls of her feet. “Let’s go!”