Page 23 of Another Damned Darling

I tore my eyes away from her lips, locking my focus on my food. “It’s already past dusk, and we’re leagues from shore. I’m afraid you’re stuck here until sunrise.” When I dared a glance up, she was glaring at me again, thankfully without that plump little lip of hers pinched between her white teeth.

“I know how to swim.” Her tone was defiant, challenging me to question her and further cementing how little she knew of my realm.

“How did you get here?” It was a fair question. Anyone from the enchanted islands would have known the open water wasn’t safe at night, at least not to swim in.

Her expression closed off tight and she crossed her arms over her chest. That topic was off limits, apparently.

“Would you at least be willing to tell me if you have a reason for being here?”

Never looked longingly toward the curtains again, then back at me. “I’m looking for my brother.”

The food turned to stone in my stomach. I’d suspected her arrival might be a repeat of the original Wendy situation the moment she’d told me her real name. I might not have been fond of the family, and gods knew Wendy had hated me in the end, but I certainly didn’t want to curse Never to the same fate.

“And that search brought you here. How?”

“I don’t know exactly. One minute I was at home and the next I was here.” She motioned toward the curtains and the windows beyond. “Well, out there.”

“In the water?”

She nodded once.

So, not the way Wendy came. At least we had one difference.

Wendy had arrived in my realm in a literal fire storm, dragging more than a dozen vicious demons through the rift in her wake. And they had not been happy about the relocation. It’d taken me and my men years to find and subdue them all.

“Like I said, I can swim. Just let me go and you’ll never have to see me again.”

“There are creatures that prowl these waters at night. Violent, malevolent creatures who would love to get their claws in you. Letting you go now would be sending you to your death.”

She snorted. “I did it last night and I was fine.”

That got my attention. Surviving the waters of this realm at night was no small feat. In fact, unless she’d had help from some of the day creatures who were, for some reason, willing to risk their own lives to intervene, the sirens and nymphs would have torn her to ribbons long before her feet ever touched sand.

“Setting aside the fact that you were unconscious when we found you this morning—which suggests your survival was tenuous at best—I’m afraid the odds of repeating such a feat on an empty stomach are unfavorable.” I motioned to her plate.

The woman was stubborn and even though I’d heard her stomach rumble more than once, she still refused to work with me.

I closed my eyes and leaned back, drawing in a steadying breath. Were all women from that horrid world so difficult? “Perhaps we can strike a deal.”

“No deals.” Her chair slid back across the wooden floor, and I opened my eyes to find her gripping the table as though she planned to flip it.

I held up a finger in warning. “Don’t. I will not tolerate you wasting Cook’s hard work by tossing it on the floor. If you don’t want to eat, then don’t, but do not disrespect his effort.”

Her combativeness was getting under my skin, goading me, tearing holes in the net reining in my temper.

Her palms bit into the edge of the table. “Why should I do anything you say? I woke up to you trying to haul me off to your little boat, then you chased me through the trees. Yeah, you saved me from the gross looking lake lady, thanks for that, but then you were a condescending prick all the way back to the beach. And then…” Her voice rose in volume as her rant gained momentum. Color filled her cheeks and the bright red tips of her hair danced around her face. “Then you dragged me back here, chained me to a fucking chair, and left me in here for hours. Why in the name of fuck would I make a deal withyou?”

She speared me with an angry glare that would have made a lesser man wither. To be fair, it did have an effect on me, just probably not the one she was hoping for.

I gathered my napkin from my lap and set it on the table as I stood. “Because you are not leaving here tonight.”

The way she narrowed her eyes at me made my cock throb. That should have bothered me. An attraction to such a brash woman was illogical, but it obviously wasn’t just anger she stirred in me.

“I will take you to the shore in the morning. You have my word on that. But if you try to sneak away or leave this ship before the sun is fully risen, I will chain you below deck and leave you there to rot.”

Defiance flickered in her expression, but she took her time, clearly weighing her options. “Give me back my dagger.”

“Not a chance, love.”

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