Chapter 11
Tink
Tink screamed. Her eyes flew open as she leaped toward the center of the pool and away from the voice at her back.
Hook stood on the bank next to her pile of clothes, a bemused expression on his devilish face.
“You!” She covered her breasts with her arms. “You—”
Flora’s petals! Her heart pounded in her chest as she took in the smug pirate.
Wet locks dripped water onto his bare chest. A fine smattering of dark hair adorned lean, chiseled muscle that even the dimming light couldn’t hide.
Something hung on a string around his neck, landing over his heart.
Her mouth dipped open as her gaze traveled lower, taking in toned abs and a dark trail disappearing into damp breeches.
He dropped the boots and clothes he carried on the ground next to hers. “You were saying, love?”
“Ugh!” She splashed water in his direction. “Don’t you know it’s rude to sneak up on women while they’re bathing? Or ever, for that matter.”
“Is it?” He scratched at his chin. “Last time I interrupted a lady in the bath it turned out quite nicely for the both of us.”
Her cheeks burned, and she swatted at the water. “You’re disgusting.”
He sniffed at his arms as he sat on a large boulder, legs spread and elbows propped on his thighs. “Actually, I’m clean as I’ve been in weeks.”
Tink turned her back on him. “Leave.”
“We’re to be allies now. A team. Shouldn’t we get to know one another?”
“Allies don’t lock each other up,” she snapped over one shoulder.
“They don’t steal from each other either.”
“Tink!” Barley’s shout carried to them through the trees.
Great. Just great. She sunk lower in the water. Even more of an audience. So much for a relaxing soak before more days of misery on board the Jolly Roger.
“Barley,” Hook said, his tone sour.
“Uh…Captain?” Barley skidded to a halt next to the spring.
Tink glanced over her shoulder. Barley’s gaze traveled from her to Hook and back, lingering over her upper wings that stretched above her head.
“All’s well,” Hook said. “Go on back—”
“Like hell,” Tink said. “Take him with you and leave me be.”
Hook stood. Not the easy, lithe movements of earlier, but the stiff posture of a captain. Tink hugged her arms tighter around herself. All at once, he seemed taller, stronger, menacing in the specks of twilight and glowing moss.
Barley looked between them again, clearly on edge. “I’ll go back to the beach.” His attention shifted to Tink. “Yell if you need anything.”
Tense silence threatened to chill the waters as Hook watched Barley retreat into the forest. “You’ve made a friend.”
Tink huffed and blew the hair out of her face. “Not all of your crew is as irritating and unreasonable as you.”
“Perhaps. But let’s get one thing straight.” Hook crouched by the edge of the water. One step closer, and he’d fall in. “No one commands my crew but me.”
“Aye, aye, Captain.” Sarcasm laced her voice, but if Hook noticed, he chose not to comment.
She turned her wings to him. Maybe he’d finally take a hint and leave her be.
He was silent so long, she almost thought he had until he spoke again. “What do you need a pearl for?” he asked. “Can’t be a normal one. You could have stolen that from me instead of the Heart of Fire.”
The bracelet on her arm suddenly felt like a lead weight, dragging her into the depths. “You’re not going to leave until I tell you, are you?” When he didn’t respond, she sighed. “It’s a black pearl. The enchanted black pearl. It fixes something that is broken. Anything.”
“That’s worth all this trouble? What do you have that needs fixing?”
She glanced back at him through the steam. “Perhaps I’m broken, Captain.”
“You don’t look broken.” He’d perched on the edge of the pool. Deft fingers trailed across the water, stirring up little ripples.
Beryl’s wings, will he not just leave?
“Oh really? Besides the fact that I’m stuck here and can’t return home?” Insufferable pirate. “No, not broken at all. Wouldn’t you want to be whole again?”
He stiffened.
Instant regret coiled through her belly. Why, oh why, did I say that? Mentioning his hook of all things…
“Captain Hand wouldn’t have the same ring to it.” She caught the hint of a smile, but his voice lacked playful mirth. “No. It’s part of who I am. I wouldn’t change it.”
Figures. He wasn’t the type for self-pity.
No, the great and glorious Captain Hook likely had a higher view of himself than the gods.
Though his comment stirred a question she couldn’t help but ask.
“What did they call you before you gained your hook? Surely you weren’t born with that attached to your arm. ”
“Might have been unpleasant for my ma. Let’s make a deal, love. Tell me what it is you want to fix so badly, and I’ll answer your question.”
Not a fair trade. Not even a bit. Tink frowned at the water, cursing the way his voice, smooth and rich as caramel candies, enticed her to play along. She was naked for goodness sake! With night descended and water cocooning her in its embrace, she could almost forget it. Almost.
Reluctantly, she raised her arm out of the water and jingled the broken bracelet.
“I wasn’t lying when I said I was broken.
” She glanced back at him again, taking in the way the moss glowed against his tanned skin.
“When pixies come of age, we’re given a bracelet.
It lets us travel from the Sylvanna Vale to the rest of Neverland through our pixie doors.
You might know them as flower rings or stone circles.
” She turned away, studying the variations in the rock through the haze of steam.
“There are many guidelines we’re to follow when we visit human lands, but only a few strict laws, ones established by the ancients to keep us safe.
If you break one, your bracelet breaks, and you’re banned from using the doors. ”
“You can’t go home.” His voice held something she’d never heard—sorrow.
Tink bit her lip and shook her head. “Can’t see my family. Can’t even tell them I’m alive.”
“What did you do that’s so horrible?”
“Does it matter? It’s done. I’m an outcast. Banished. Condemned.” The words spilled out like a torrent, unstoppable as the ache in her chest. “I don’t belong anywhere anymore.”
Her hands fisted in the spring’s heat. She dropped her gaze to the tendrils of steam rising from the pool. “But if I get that pearl, I can fix this. I can become a real pixie again. I can go home. I—”
Water splashed behind her.
Tink gasped and whirled around to find him chest-deep in the spring.
“James.”
The name cut straight through her panicked thoughts. She blinked, sucking in air. “What?”
Hook waded through the water until Tink craned her head back to look into his solemn, steady gaze. “My name is James.”
James.
His hand brushed her side, just over one hip, warm as the waters around them.
That touch, so brief and gentle, broke the tethers that locked her in place.
James, he was James—not a merciless pirate captain, not someone she’d stolen from, not someone who’d taken her captive for revenge.
No, he was just a man, bare-chested and breathing heavily.
In his eyes, she saw the mirror of her own desire, a hunger she could no longer deny.
Tink stepped closer until the sodden fabric of his pants brushed her bare leg and his strong form blocked out the glowing plants beyond. Without another moment of hesitation, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his face down to hers.
Soft, moist lips crashed against her own.
A hint of the sea teased her tongue. Their first kiss had been tentative, deceptive—at least on her part.
Her only focus had been getting her dust across his lips, in his mouth, and letting it work its magic on him.
She’d barely had time to savor the strength of his body under hers, the coarse stubble of his shadow of a beard as it scraped her delicate skin.
This time his kiss consumed her, drowned her like a tidal wave and pulled her down into the depths of the sea. By all the revered elders, she couldn’t focus on anything but Hook. No…James.
Skin met skin as he wrapped her in his embrace and pulled her close.
Durin’s beard, his chest is hard. Smooth.
Warm. It was like embracing a marble statue in the heat of the midday sun.
Tink leaned against him, desperate to feel, to sink into his kiss.
All her worries washed away, lost with the flick of his tongue against her own, his breath in her lungs.
Her legs wound around him, eliciting a groan that rumbled deep in his chest. Strong fingers cupped her backside, pulling her tight against him in a daring, intimate way that set her core aflame.
If only he’d stripped off his breeches. She had half a mind to rip them off, reveal his cock, and slide down onto it.
Her core clenched tight as she nipped at his bottom lip and imagined his girth.
He’d be well-made. He had to be. And it’d been so long…
What did it matter if he was a lousy pirate? Tink ground against him, savoring the bulge that teased her taut nub. Her hands fisted in his hair. Holy Flora, he wants me too.
A delicious tingle trailed down her wings and along her spine. Tink let her legs go loose, sliding down his body. Her hands followed in a seductive caress as she continued their kiss. Down his neck, over strong shoulders, down his chest to—
Her fingers stilled over the pendant on his necklace. It’s wasn’t a pendant. It was a ring. Too small and dainty to be his.
Tink jerked away, severing their kiss and sliding from the arms of the man holding her.
Water sloshed around her as Hook straightened, a lusty moan slipping into the air between them.
A ring. He was wearing some woman’s ring, and still he looked at her like that, like he might devour her or bring her to climax over and over and—
“Love, your wings are shimmering.” He rubbed at the stubble on his chin. His eyes hooded further. “For me?”
“Ugh!” Tink swept her hand across the top of the pool, sending a wave of water splashing toward the filthy pirate.
“Hey, what?” He straightened.
She twisted around and placed her palms on the edge of the pool, shoving out of the water with a flutter of her wings. A soft glow surrounded her, illuminating her form. Her wings were shimmering. A good thing, if only Captain Hook hadn’t caused it.
“What did I do?” He sounded dumbfounded, like a child slapped on the wrist after misbehaving. And oh, he had. Did he have no shame?
All the senseless desire coursing through her veins turned leaden. The glow of her wings dimmed as she scrambled into her clothes. Behind her, water splashed as Hook climbed from the pool.
“Did you drug me again? Is that it?” Bitterness laced his question.
Tink twisted to glare at him over one shoulder. “If I had, you’d already know.”
The momentary hardness in his expression broke. “Then what…” He gestured between them. “You kissed me. I thought you were enjoying yourself?”
She twisted and tugged at the shirt until her wings pushed free. “Then you, Captain, know nothing.” Stepping into her pool, kissing her like that… Ugh, filthy, thieving, dirty pirate. She should have known better. How had she expected more?
Without a backward glance, she stomped off into the jungle.