Page 37 of Stalking Wendy Darling

“I think you’ll find,” I told the nightmares as I crossed the floor on nimble feet, “this captain ismineto torment, not yours.”

“Don’t,” he gasped, his neck strained, sweat plastering his hair to his forehead. “Eldrick, please—”

The mattress dipped when I perched on the edge, pulling the top of the blanket away from Hook’s face and sighing quietly at the strain written on every line of his features. A vein in his neck bulged as he struggled against whatever torture was happening in his nightmare, his breaths so rapid they were almost non-existent.

“Hey,” I murmured. “Captain. Hooky.”

I adjusted myself, ready to catch flailing arms or defend myself if he woke violently. It took one gentle touch to his shoulder to bring him awake. I caught his arm before it could connect with my chest.

“It’s Wendy. You’re in your room on the Death’s Right Hand. No one’s attacking you.” After a moment, I added, “Presently, at least.”

A rough breath left his chest and he fell back to the bed with a groan, covering his face with his hand. “This is unsavoury.”

I rolled my eyes, loosening my grip. “Don’t be a baby. We all have nightmares; they’re nothing to be ashamed of, Hooky.”

He dropped his hand, his eyes slitted when they landed on me. “Have I threatened to kill you for the use of that name recently?”

“Not recently,” I replied with a little smile. “You’re going soft on me, captain.”

Exasperation entered his black eyes but it melted into something hazy and heated by the end. I raised an eyebrow, leaning closer.

“I think you like me calling you captain, don’t you,captain?”I made sure to purr the title, to wrap my lips around it like a caress, and was rewarded with fiery desire entering his eyes.

“Don’t test me, mutineer,” he replied, his voice full of gravel. “Not tonight.”

“Cards on the table—” I began.

“You cheat at cards,” he muttered.

“I do fuckingnot,”I growled, shoving his shoulder. “Cards on the table, nightmares are vicious things that sink their teeth in deeper than sharks, and they can only be beaten by one of two things.”

He sighed, rubbing his face with a hand that trembled. “Let me guess. You’re going to explain them to me.”

Aw, he knew me so well.

“Option one. We have a very heartfelt heart-to-heart, and I help you process your demons the way Joanna helps me process mine after a nightmare.”

“A flagrant overuse of the word heart in that sentence,” was his only remark.

I prodded his chest. “Option two. We fuck the absolute life out of each other until we can’t think, let alone remember demons and nightmares and trauma.”

He tilted his head, staring at me a little too long. “What makes you think I want to fuck you?”

I let a smile play with the corners of my mouth and pulled the covers back before he could stop me, taking hold of the erection I’d felt through the plush material. “This,” I said with a flutter of my lashes.

“Astute,” he remarked, his nostrils flaring. “Move your hand, Wendy.”

I made sure to squeeze his base before I stroked up and down his length, my smile deepening at the thickness of him. I was a little obsessed with the way he slept naked.

“You know that’s not what I meant,” he groaned, but pulled the covers all the way off, shoving them against the wall as he hauled me up his body. My hand ended up splayed across his chest, his skin hot against my palm, and a flutter went through my belly when my pussy landed over his cock, only the fabric of my trousers between us. The subtle sway of the ship rocked me over him, stroking my clit with his tip. I sank my teeth into my bottom lip at the feeling.

“Goddamn,” he groaned, grabbing a fistful of my hair and dragging me down for a bruising kiss. “You’re determined to ruin me, aren’t you?”

I brushed my lips over his, as soft as feathers. “I just think you’d be really pretty ruined.”

His laugh travelled all the way down my spine and pooled between my legs. “Oh, darling. You’re the one whose ruin is near.”

I caught his bottom lip between my teeth, delighted by the flash of heat and warning in his black eyes. Running my tongue along the places my teeth had marked, I surged forward the moment his mouth parted on a groan. He was mine to taste, mine to consume, mine to claim.

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