Page 48 of Veiled in Stars and Silver
James gestured toward me. “After you, Wendy Darling.”
We flew to the edge of town where the transients of winter tended to settle. After landing, I knocked on the paint-chipped door of the landlord's apartment, my clothes stiff, my fingers aching.
We could have returned to Neverland, but things were ridiculously dangerous there now. We needed a good night's sleep and some food before going back to battle evil and chaos. Plus, I wanted time to think.
I glanced over at James, who had his good hand under his other arm, his breathing coming in large puffs from near purple lips. Guilt slithered inside of me as I held the dagger in my hands. The weapon I had agreed to turn over to Peter Pan. I slipped it behind me as a stooped, weathered man opened the door in his nightcap and squinted up at us. “What d'ya want?”
“We'd like a room,” I said.
The man looked us over, his narrowed eyes stopping on James. “Would ya now?”
What was wrong with him? We were clearly in danger from the cold. Was our less-than-conventional clothes more important than the fact that we were about to freeze to death? “Yes.”
“Not sure what kind of place you think this is, but this is a respectable establishment. We don't house your kind.”
James gave him a nonplussed stare. “That's too bad, because we can pay.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a ruby.
The man's eyes bulged, and my jaw dropped. I had thought I'd have to sell off a few of my throwing knives. The landlord didn't haggle on price, he accepted the ruby as if that wasn't significantly more than the nightly fare. “I only have one room left, and the furnace is broken.”
At that point, neither of us cared. “W-We'll take it,” I said, clutching my arms around myself. Anything to get out of this weather.
The man gave us acrooked, half-toothed smile. “Pleasure doing business with ya.” He unhooked a key that hung by the entrance and held it out to us. “Last door on the left. Stay as long as you'd like.”
James took the key from the man and turned to me. “Let's go.” So much snow clung to his hair that it fell whenever he moved.
“Where'd you get the ruby?” I asked through chattering teeth.
“Cora offered me a few gems she had from the last time I paid her,” he said.
That made sense, though I was sorry I'd asked.
We stumbled over to the door the landlord had indicated. My feet and hands were numb. I didn't know how James managed to get the key in the lock. His hand shook so badly he almost dropped it before we heard the click, and he shoved the door open.
Both of us rushed into the room. I immediately began brushing snow out of my hair and off my clothes, dropping the soaking overcoat to the floor. Even if the space wasn't warm, it was at least dry. A bed with a single threadbare blanket occupied the small space, along with the broken furnace. I frowned up at the piping that was bent and cracked through, wondering how that happened. On a rickety table next to the entrance sat a low-lit lantern that must have run through the day because the wick had burned to a tiny nub.
James pushed the door shut, and then I felt a tug on the back of my dress. I stiffened as the wet fabric around me loosened.
“What are you doing?”
He continued to unbutton me, despite the obvious threat I'd laced in the question. “We are bothdangerously cold. The only way to make sure we both wake up in the morning is to get out of these sopping clothes and warm each other in that bed.”
My cheeks stung with unexpected warmth. “You mean both of us together, completely bare?”
I wondered if he saw the tips of my scars peeking out above my corset, but he seemed too worried about getting them both undressed to notice. He finished with my buttons and corset ties before lifting off his shirt. At his tattooed chest and messed hair, the warmth in my cheeks dipped into my stomach. Shit. He was warming me, and we weren’t even under the covers yet.
“I swear to be the perfect gentleman,” he said.
I snorted, and a mischievous grin crossed his face.
“As close to the perfect gentleman as I can manage,” he amended. His arm brace spanned over both shoulders and down his hook arm, but his movements remained easy, as if it wasn’t there.
When his hand gripped his pants, yanking off his belt in one fluid motion, I turned away, despite a fervid curiosity. A part of me knew he wouldn’t mind if I watched. He’d probably like it, but if he reacted to my looking, I’d never be able to climb into that bed with him.
The mattress creaked from movement under his body. I risked a glance, and he was sitting up. I traced the muscles of his abdomen to where the blanket covered his bare lower half.
He raised an eyebrow, his blue eyes teasing. “You’d rather freeze to death than join me?” He patted the space next to him.
“Perhaps I would,” I returned, but I placed my back to him as I gripped my dress. Despite the reaction James elicited in me, I was still shivering. “Don’t look.”
