Page 32 of Stalking Wendy Darling

“Because I’m generous,” I said, loudly enough to carry to everyone watching, “I’ll give you one chance to surrender, mutineer.”

“And after that, what? Off with my head?” Wendy laughed, dismissive. She wasn’t afraid of me. That was annoying. Thrilling, too. “Go on then, Hooky. Decapitate me.” She held her hands at her sides, sword held casually enough to remind me she could use it, and damn well.

I couldn’t ignore her challenge with the whole crew listening. Dammit. I leapt at her so fast shadows trailed my boots, driving my sword at her shoulder, not her head, because I was weak. How the hell did I become weak for this menace of a woman?

Steel rang against steel, a scrape of sound that made me cringe.

“Do your worst, Hook,” she whispered, a bright light in her blue eyes I knew was reflected in mine. I was enjoying this.

“Oh, believe me,” I replied, driving all my weight against our locked swords until the tip brushed her collar bone just below her bandage. Rage burned up my veins at the sight. I was the only one allowed to harm her. “I will.”

She leapt back, nimble on the deck, and surprise had my head tilting. I’d expected her to reply with stubbornness and anger, but retreating, assessing, before another strike was clever. Almost wise. Wendy and wise didn’t often fit in the same sentence.

I was ready when she came at me, bringing her sword down in an obvious move from above and—

A knife drove into my thigh, knocking me back a step with a snarl that turned to laughter. She threw a knife and I never saw it coming. I barely got my sword up in time to knock hers aside, stunned. Laughter and jeers smattered through the audience. Damn.

“You’re losing your touch,” Wendy taunted, swinging her sword in a lazy threat. “I’m injured and still kicking your ass.”

Losing my mind was more accurate. When she laughed, throwing her head back, I realised I’d said that out loud.Fuck!None of this was going according to plan. Mostly because I didn’thavea plan. I’d been ambushed by this fucking duel.

Enough was enough.

I drove my sword at her, following the move with all my weight, betting on her stopping the blow and smug when she did exactly as I anticipated. But I wasn’t trying to slice off her head. I used the locked swords to push her back a step, and then three, five, seven steps, until people scattered out of the way, crates toppled, and I had Wendy against the railing.

“Give me one good reason not to throw you in the ocean,” I snarled.

“I can swim?” she offered, looking delighted instead of scared. Were none of her reactions normal, for fuck’s sake?

The sound that gathered in my chest was full of monstrous frustration, a growl unlike any I’d made before. “You are the most infuriating person I’ve met in my life,” I said through gritted teeth.

“Thanks,” she chirped.

“Bit rude,” Vea said to my left. “I thought I had that title.”

“Wendy likes stealing titles, don’t you?” I bit out, pushing her into the railing so hard it must have hurt, and I realised I was trying to goad a glimmer of fear from her. She offered nothing, not even a hint, only delight, excitement, violence, and the odd flash of pain. Looking into her eyes was madness, a storm of viciousness and blood and low, sensual promises. I tore my stare away.

“You could always agree to an impasse,” Vea suggested. “We can have two captains.”

“Over my dead body,” I snarled.

“That’s what I was about to say,” Wendy agreed with wide-eyed innocence. “Well, more likeorder coming right up—one captain’s dead body.”

I drove her into the railing so hard her back arched, but that only put her hips at cock-level and goddammit now we were pressed together. I tore myself away.

Wendy laughed. Giggled. An annoying trill of a sound that made my stomach riot with sudden movement. They were not butterflies. Any butterflies that dared to form would be swiftly executed.

“I have a proposition,” Wendy said, nothing but cockiness in her voice. I stiffened, casting her a warning glare when she walked her fingers up my arm, a devious grin crossing her face.

“I’ve got a better proposition for you, sweetheart,” someone boasted. It couldn’t be anyone who’d spent a great deal of time with Wendy. Even I knew a comment like that would get me stabbed. I grabbed her arm before she could rush across the deck and skewer him. Quicker than I could stop her, she threw her sword into her left hand, drew a small knife with her right, and let it fly through the air.

“Wendy,” I groaned when it buried between Keyvon’s eyes. He’d been part of my crew for over a year, uncouth and obsessed with sex but a good worker. Now he dropped to the deck like a stone, with as much life left in him as a brick.

“That’s a fair response,” Sterling said with a snort. “His cock’s a sad little thing. Smaller than my finger. It would have been a shit proposition, captain.”

“Thank you!” Wendy said, stabbing her finger at the weapons master.“Someonewho recognises my authority as captain.”

“For the record, this duel was useless,” Sterling said. “You’re either both captain or neither of you are. There’s no winner tonight.”

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