Adult-FanFiction.org : Books

In the swirl of passion	By : Lywhn Category: M through R > Peter Pan > Het Views: 35043 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Peter Pan, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 9
- 10
- 11
Chapter 10 – A stolen day

“Hold tight!”
This was an order Wendy obeyed without any protest. She wrapped both arms firmly around James’ waist, digging her nails in the silk of his redressed waistcoat and looked with wary eyes along the mainmast down to the middle deck. Heavens, it really was high! She didn’t want to climb over the shaky shroud down. The way up to the Crow-nest had been strenuous, but easier because she had always looked up, didn’t recognize the height she had crested. But now she had to see down onto the so deep below laying deck all the time and it made her suddenly dizzy.
Hook had noticed her dilemma immediately, but had said nothing at first. It serves this little stubborn pig-head right to feel at least a little bit fear. Such an insanity – to climb up into the Crow-nest! But otherwise he wouldn’t have gotten one small part of his memories back and this was something that almost mollified the rest of his anger to an evanescent remainder.
“And now?” she asked in the small voice.
He grinned. “Climbing down!”
The girl swallowed. “Really?”
“If you didn’t want to stay here until we will arrive in Neverland and maybe one Pan’s fairy-friends give you fairy-dust, then I think you have to climb.”
Something in the way his voice sounded made her suspicious. “James? You are keeping a secret here!”
He hid a smile. “And what should this be?”
“There must be another, quicker way to go down.”
“Aye!” he nodded, pretending to be very sincerely. “Jumping!”
She looked up at him, realizing his black joke and started to giggle – even if it sounded a little bit nervous. “After you then.”
“Always ‘Ladies first’. You know I am a gentleman.”
Wendy rolled her eyes. “And in the jungle is Mother’s Day today!”
“For someone who is really near to have a great problem in the next minutes and needs desperately help, your remarks are a little bit too sassy!” He lifted one brow and gave her one of his don’t-dare-me-looks.
She battered his eyes. “James? Please bring me down there.”
“Have I really to describe to you how to climb a shroud? As I remember you hadn’t any problems during the ascent.” He enjoyed her discomfort; this she recognized more and more.
‘Wait, my dear Captain. I will get you!’ She stood of her tiptoes and reached for his head, pulling it down and kissed him slowly and sensual. He returned her kiss instantly, pressing her closer to him and cupped one half of her butt with his good hand.
As they finally parted Wendy was out of breath and Hook seemed to be very satisfied.
“I’ll take that as a deposit”, he grinned. “Think very sincerely how you want to pay the rest.”
Wendy grinned back. “I think, I know what you would like to have!” she whispered, wriggled herself suggestively at his body.
“Believe me, my sweet girl”, he growled, trying his very best to ignore the flames that instantly flew through his veins straight to his guts. “You will have to pay a very high invoice!”
She smiled and moistened her lips, feeling the urge to return to his quarters and let him had his ‘revenge’ again. God help her, but even in her boldest dreams she had never thought that a man – and especially THIS man! – Would be able to wake such a longing and hunger in her.
“I will pay”, she murmured. “I promise!”
“You don’t have to make a promise!” he retorted arrogantly. “I’ll take what I want.”
“Is this a menace?” she asked huskily, didn’t even believe her own ears as she realized the way she spoke. Where had her morality gone? ‘To Davie Jones Locker!’ whispered a forbidden voice in her mind, which she knew had to be the part of her she had named Red-handed Jill.
“No, my sweet lost girl. This isn’t a menace, but a promise!” Hook smiled suggestively.
She nodded. “Good!”
He starred at her, and then shook chuckling his head. “Vixen!” He loosened his grip and sat down directly at the entrance-hole, bent down, pulled a loop up to him and winded it around his right arm. Then he made an inviting gesture to his young lover. “Come here!”
Again she obeyed – what took him by surprise – and snuggled closer to him; her legs dangled over the fovea. Prudently she didn’t look down.
“Hold tight!” he repeated. “And don’t let go, what ever will happened.” He looked very serious at her and Wendy nodded.
He wrapped his left arm around her waist and his good hand gripped her waist-sash. Then he let himself and the girl sliding through the entrance of the Crow-nest and Wendy muffled a scream, pressing her eyes shut. Instinctively she clung to him for dear life, while she felt her stomach haywire as she and James speeded down to the deck, secure held by the wire rope hoist that had been installed as an odd kind of shortcut directly at the Crow-nest.
“Attention! Deck!” she heard Hooks voice in her ear and pulled her legs up. She felt a jolt, accompanied with a thud and then everything went silent. Still she held onto him, her lids were solid shut.
“Kitten? You can open your eyes and it would be advantageous if you would put down your feet”, he whispered with soft mockery.
Careful Wendy did what he say, seeing several amused dirty faces around her and the clean and grinning one of James Hook, straighten her shoulders and cleared her throat. “Thank you, Captain!” she said polite and the most of the buccaneers in her nearness started to laugh.
Wendy blushed and James remarked dryly: “This civilly ‘captain’ will no one believe you anymore, sweetie!”
The pirates around them roared with laughter, made some ambiguously zingers and returned to their work.
“How dare you to cause me such embarrassment?” Wendy hissed.
Hook chuckled. “I have caused you embarrassment? Darling, these men maybe pirates and the most of them aren’t the most intelligent minds you have ever met, but they ought to be completely idiots not to realize why you are here on board and what we have done last night.”
Wendy turned crimson red. “You mean…” she whispered, let the sentence unfinished.
“Aye!” James nodded. “Of course they know what happened between us – and still does!”
The girl didn’t amplify to the last part of his words, but closed her eyes. “Goodness! How distressing!”
She felt his warm hand cupping her cheek. “It is distressing for you to be with me?” he asked quietly and shocked Wendy looked at him.
“NO! No of course not! I… I love to be with you but… that everyone knows… and… Of course you are right. They surely know what my present in your quarters means and…” She buried her face at his chest. “They will think that I am a wench!” sounded the muffled words.
James felt two things in one time: first a deep amusement of her disconcertedness and her still lasting innocent way of thinking and second an almost all consuming joy as she said that she would ‘love’ to be with him. He wrapped both arms around her petite form and laid his cheek on her head, sighing in gladness. She loved to be with him! He couldn’t believe it.
Wendy grumbled something about ‘men’ and ‘always have to hear how good they are!’ and snuggled closer to him.
For a long moment they hold each other, then Hook lifted his head and said with pretended strictness: “Still we have to talk about your disobedience!” He took her with him where they could not be heard. It was better for his authority that the others didn’t get it that their captain let a disobedience practically slip through.
Wendy fallowed him to the rail and looked up to him, rolling her eyes. “Do you really have to do this? I have understood that you have been right. It was… dangerous and… maybe not right I didn’t listen to you.” Her voice had gone smaller and she bit her lips, avoiding his now really hard gaze.
“It didn’t have something to do, that you have understand my objection in this whole matter. I had give you an order and I had relies that you would obey. I had relies on you, Wendy. You are an intelligent young woman and I thought that you would be wise enough to realize how dangerous a trip up into the Crow-nest is.” He shook his head. “Do you know how much you scared me?”
By all demons of the Seven Seas! Why had he said it? He had admitted now the second time that he was worried about her safety; that she was valuable to him and with that he had laid open weakness. But to deny it would have been a lie – a big lie, to say the truth. She was dear to him, more than he was willingly to confess to himself by now.
Wendy had lowered her head. “No”, she whispered softly. “I didn’t think that you would fear for me so much. I am sorry, James.”
He snorted slightly. “You know that to disobey the directly order of the captain means mutiny and will be sincere punished?!”
She nodded. “Yes, but I am not member of your crew.”
He made a face. “Your luck. Otherwise you would be in real trouble now, my beauty.”
Wendy dared an apologetic smile, what made his heart beating faster. Heavens, he really couldn’t stay angry with her for long! With a shake of his head he took her in his arms. “Was it really worth it?” he asked after a while and lifted a brow.
His young lover nodded, her eyes started to shine again as she looked up to him. “Yes! It was even better as I had imagine.”
James cocked his head. “Why the Crow-nest? How have you come up to that?”
She looked out at the sea and her mind seemed to drift far away. “I was six as father took me and John with him to London’s harbor, where an older sailing-ship of one of the greatest partner of the bank, where my father works, laid. It had only three masts and it wasn’t in such a good state as the Jolly Roger is, but it impressed me completely. Mr. Johnson – the owner of the ship – recognized my instantly fable for ships and told me about the former sea-travels; about the freedom on sea and the adventures; of storms and dead calms; of foreign countries and…
“And of pirates!” Hook grinned, knowing now who had put a bee into the girl’s bonnet for everything that had to do with his ‘occupation’.
Wendy blushed. “Aye. He also told me of pirates and that the crew of trading-ships always had to have one on guard high above in the Crow-nest to warn the crew if he saw a buccaneer-vessel. He pointed to the high lookout and… and I was caught. Father had all hands full to do to hold me back.”
James laughed. “I think I understand perfectly well what your poor father had gone through!”
She rolled her eyes, pretended not to have heard him. “You have been up there years ago again and again. Father would not even dare to go near a shroud!”
“He is a banker, not a pirate”, James shrugged, mustering her intensively. “And to nurture you had been surely the biggest challenge of his life.”
This time she couldn’t ignore his comments. She wrinkled her nose and threw him a pouting look. “This was mean!” she grumbled. “I never was that bad.”
“That I am doubting!” he smirked, waggling his brows.
“If you’re thinking that I am contumacious, then you can try to change it!” Defiantly she lifted her head; a pert smile played around her mouth.
James pursed his lips. “This I will do, my beauty. I love challenges!”
She winked at him. “So I will give you a next challenge.”
“And that would be?” he asked suspicious, knowing her well enough by now.
“Showing me the ship!”
He cocked his head and folded his arms before his chest. “You mean you are deserving a ship-tour after your disobedience?”
Wendy looked to the sky and sighed. “I thought we were done with that.”
“Aye – almost. And to make sure that you think twice before you decided to have your will again, I will show you where you would stay the nights next time you disobey.”
The girl lifted one delicate brow, knowing the pirate-captain too well. “Why do I think that it would be not the best place?”
James chuckled. “It is up to you, how you much like the brick.”
She gasped. “You would not dare to put me in the brick!”
He grinned, drew her beside him and walked to the companionway. “Be sure of it, my little pig-head.”
“And how you would stand a night without me?” she teased almost mockingly.
He only smirked. “Who says this? The brick is big enough for two. By the way: below there nobody could hear us.”
Wendy stopped dead in the tracks. “Just a moment.” She met his exhilarated gaze. “You… you mean…?” She swallowed. “No! This could not be! We were in your quarters and…”
“Darling, my quarters maybe safe, but the walls are all made out of wood. And wood isn’t the most soundproof material on earth. Believe me. Not one man of the crew has any doubt how close we are now.”
Wendy grew stiff. “Do you want to tell me in this polite way that they had HEARD us?” Her voice was shrill.
James started to laugh. “They must have been deaf not to hear us – especially you, my sweet screamer!”
Wendy turned crimson red. “You… You… Why didn’t you say…? Oh YOU!”
Guffawing he dragged her along to the stair that leaded down into the ship, ignoring Smee’s “Cap’n? Your sash and sword!” and pulled an abashed Wendy with him downstairs.
Several of the crew looked at each other, grinned and jested about ‘love birds’.
Cecco stepped to Smee, who looked after the both and shook his head.
“Can ye tell me w’at happen’d to our cap’n?” he asked the Irishman, whose face brightened in a wide smile.
“That’s easy, Cecco. It seemed that one of Armor’s arrows has hit him. Finally!”
The giant pirate looked uncomprehending at the boatswain. “W’at?”
Smee declined, rolling his eyes. “Ask Mullins. I’m sure he can tell you more about it.”

Three hours later the ship-tour was finished and Wendy sat at the wide-open windows in the captain’s quarters, ate an easy lunch and listened eagerly to James’ explanation about navigation possibilities.
Hook was chuffed about Wendy’s enthusiasm and her amazing knowledge of ships. She was aware of the names of the masts (bowsprit, foremast, mainmast, aft-mast and mizzenmast) and that of the yards and the sails. She knew the differences of the cannons and the nautical measures like fathom, knots and sea miles and to his great surprise she even knew what it meant to tack before the wind. She knew port side and starboard, aft and ahead and was nosy about everything else. She really had a fable for the seafaring and he felt her zest infecting him.
He had told her about the difference sections of the ship, showed her the clever connection between them that made it possible for the crew to reach them, even if the men had to take cover. It was possible to change between the two cannon-decks without to step open on the deck to avoid the danger of falling riggings and yards and bullets during a fight. The quarters of the crew were below the captain’s cabin and that of the ‘officers’. They all laid in a way that the crew needed not more than half a minute to reach the cannon-decks. Quickness could decide over life and death – especially on a pirate-ship.
Wendy had to laugh as James told her that the extreme high stern – like the Jolly Roger had – was also called ‘castle’.
‘And it really fits’ thought Wendy. The stern didn’t end in a poop deck but in a large close room with a rounded roof. “This kind of construction make it impossible for attacker to capture the ship by coming from backwards”, James explained.
“It this the reason you have no galleries behind your quarter?” Wendy wanted to know and nipped at her goblet with a mixture made out of wine and water, what tasted fresh and had sparse alcohol.
James nodded, lightened his double-cigars and leant relaxed back. “Aye. It is an old trick to deflect a crew by attacking them from the side and while the most of them are concentrated on deck, another group of raiders climb the stern up, using the galleries to fasten the grapnels, invade the quarters and fall the crew in the back. This is a very successful method to gain victory. Believe me. I have done it self many times.”
Wendy pursed her lips. “I am sure you’re full of surprising ideas to capture a ship!”
He smirked slightly. “You are right. You have to change your methods from time to time, because not only pirates exchanges their experiences when they are ashore; the navy and the merchants are doing this as well. If they knew the technique of a certain pirate-captain – and they know who is after them when they are seeing his flag – then they maybe have the chance to stave him and his men. And as every business you need… ‘profit’.”
“Profit?” the girl repeated, could not help herself but laughed. “I think the correct term would be ‘booty’.”
James grinned back. “Why it didn’t surprise me that you are even knowing pirate-terms?”
She shrugged. “Because you know me a little bit by now?”
Suggestively he bent forward. “Only a little?” he asked with a low, purring voice, eyeing her intense.
Wendy blushed slightly. “I am speaking of my character, not about my body! So don’t change the subject.”
He leant back again. “A shame!”
She giggled: “A danger foreseen is half avoided!”
He repressed a smile. “I am a danger for you?”
“Yes, a very big one!” she nodded and emptied her goblet. “And to avoid it for the next hours I wanted to know what you have planned for the afternoon. And… James! Don’t look at me like I am a peace of cake!”
The buccaneer bit his lips. The way she sat there – clad in boy’s clothes that showed her curves so clearly and with sunbeams in her hair; her shiny eyes looking at him daring and her full lips seemed to call him – let heat building up in him. He felt himself hardening, even if he was still a little bit sore from the last night. And he was sure that she had the same problems. Her very carefully sitting-down had told him enough. Nevertheless his desire for her reawakened and grew stronger with every second.
“A peace of cake? That fits, because you are so sweet, my sweet!” he teased her, taking in her irritation.
“Is it really so difficult for you to call me by my given name?”
“Which one? Red-handed Jill or Wendy Darling, darling?”
She threw her napkin at him, laughing loud as she saw his perplex face. He took it and mustered it thoughtfully.
“It is white. Does this mean that you are hoisting the White Flag?”
“Never! You should see it as a kind of gauntlet and… James! You are doing it again!”
“What?” he asked innocently, extinguished his cigars, never looking away from ‘his’ shining beauty.
“You’re gazing at me as if you would like to devour me.”
James cocked his head and felt the fire under his skin as he answered: “This I would like to do right now!”
She shook his head. “I am not eatable!” she retorted dryly.
“You’re wrong, my dear. You are very eatable – and delicious!” he gave back with a husky voice, as he remembered the moments he had tasted her in the most intimate way last night.
Wendy knew what he meant and turned crimson red. “Oh… YOU! You are impossible!”
He nodded silently and stood up; his burning gaze was fixed on her.
The girl watched him wary; anticipated his intentions immediately. “James, I am still having lunch!”
“You are done with the entrée and you know that I prefer the dessert.”
She swallowed and felt an answering tingle deep in her that slowly spread through her whole being, turned into sparks and flamed beneath her skin.
“You are insatiable!” she whispered, couldn’t believe that she indeed felt the passion for him returning after the long hours of lovemaking last night.
“Aye! And by the way: you have to pay your ‘invoice’ for the lift I gave you.” He had stepped to her and bending over her now; his warm breath stroke over her face, smelled of the good tobacco he had. It suited him, emphasized his aura of danger and forbidden temptation.
“I know”, she answered with a suddenly dry mouth. “I promised.”
“As I told you before: You don’t have to make a promise to me. I take what I want!” He gently pulled her up and into his arms. “And to stay at the subject: you still have to be punished for your disobedience.”
The fire in his eyes seemed to burn her whole.
“We have dealt with this!” she protested.
“Not really, my beauty! I don’t let something like this slip through – even not with you!”
“A… and what have you in mind?” she asked, felt suddenly very thrilled by the imagination what he could do with her.
He smiled a very wicked grin. “Afraid?”
“No!”
“Good! Because I like you fiery.”
She nodded, decided to pull his leg. “All right. In the evening I promise to let you have your way with be, but just right now I want to go to deck to haaaaaaaaeeeee… James! Put me down this very instant!”
Chuckling he threw her over his shoulder as he had done yesterday. “When I am saying ‘I prefer the dessert’ then I mean NOW!”
Wendy started to giggle. “HELP! Anyone help! This man is insane!”
His flat hand landed a smack on her butt. “And a further reason to punish you. You increase your list, my dear!”
The girl laughed and hit not too strong his back. “Set me down, James.”
“As you wish!”
She found herself thrown onto the bed, looking up to an amused pirate-captain; who was very aroused as well as the bulk in his breeches proved. “No mercy?” she asked, biting her lips and gave him a hungry look.
He shook his head. “No mercy, my beauty. I am unaccommodating in your cases!” His gaze told her unmistakable what he meant.
She laid back, her whole pose an invitation. “Then, great captain, I think I am completely in your graciousness”, she murmured, moistening her lips.
He undid his waistcoat and smiled. “That you are!”

It was in the early afternoon they returned to deck and Hook ordered several maneuvers. These short trips were the only possibility for Hook to drill the crew anew and to test the abilities of the men and the ship. Wendy could only staring with open mouth, how quick the men took in the sails and were ready to let fall the anchor and then set the sails again, making the ship ready in a breathtaking tempo. As she saw how easy and normally the pirate moved in the riggings she had to thought about her excursion in the morning and how glad she had been that James brought her secure back to the deck (even if her ‘payment’ for it had been two hours of savage passion, so that she really had problems to sit or to walk now).
Then sailing-maneuvers followed. James took his time to explain her the functions of the for- and aft-sails during the tacking, pointing to the position of them. Then he let the Jolly Roger running before the wind and again some sails had to be set and other ones to take.
And every time the crew went better and better. Had he in the beginning barked to them, that even snails are quicker and that they all had gotten big bellies, he now was very satisfied with them. And as they exercised a pretended attack from an aggressor and were ready to fire the cannons within less than one minute he reported that there would be extra portion rum in the evening, what took note with loud cheers.
Suddenly the wind changed his direction and a tug went through the whole ship.
Hook and Smee exchanged a look and the old Irishman lowered his head. “How ever!” he mumbled and Wendy frowned slightly.
“What is it, James?”
He sighed and she saw anger and sorrow in his eyes; made her wanting to take him in her arms even before the eyes of the crew.
“We have reached the frontier of Neverland’s sea”, he only answered silently and went to the helmsman Bob Jackson.
“Adjust the ship, Mr. Jackson!”
The stubby man with his red hair and upper arms like a boxer only nodded.
“What does he mean by ‘we have reached the frontier of Neverland’s sea’?” Wendy asked Smee quietly, watching ‘her’ captain as he gave his order for the change of course.
The boatswain pressed shortly his lips together, then he explained: “After this point begins the ocean of the normal world. We have tried to cross it several times, but we never made it. Every time we reach this distance to Neverland the wind and the ocean current changed, forcing us back to the island. It is like an invisible barrier that we are unable to break down.” He rubbed his tired eyes. “We’re prisoners, Miss Wendy. Every one of us! And these stolen days out of sea is all that remains for us!”
The young girl took a deep breath as the cruelty of this fact fully hit her. “I am sorry!” she whispered.
The old man dared to stroke her cheek. “Don’t be, Missy. Sometimes I think that this is our punishment for all we did as we were still in the Caribbean Sea. Maybe our superstitiously Mullins is right and we are indeed damned.”
Wendy felt tears dwelling up in her eyes. “Is there nobody who could help you?”
Smee shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know, Miss Wendy. Maybe when He up there”, he made a gesture to the sky, “is convinced that we have suffered enough He will give us a hand. But until then…” He didn’t finish his sentence and sighed again.
“There must be a way!” Wendy whispered.
“This I have thought for very long, my dear. And it would be more than nice of you to inform us if you will know it eventually”, James voice sounded in her back.
She turned to him and touched his arm. “This I will!” she answered, swallowing the lump in her throat.
James sensed her feelings instantly and gave her a tender smile, pulling her closer to him. “The prison isn’t so unbearable anymore since you have returned to this cursed place!” he spoke under his breath in her ear, stroking over her anew-bounded hair.
She smiled back. “Just have a look. Who have ever thought that the fearsome Captain Hook could be also Prince Charming!” she teased him softly, changing his mood of sorrow back to this of dark humor.
It worked. Hook chuckled and shook his head. “You have done it again!”
“What?”
“You make me laugh even when I am not in the mood for it.”
Proudly she lifted her head. “You see: I am far too important to be locked in the brick!”
By this he really had to laugh. “What should I do with you, mh?”
“Not the same thing like this midday. I swear: one more time and I unable to make the slightest move!” She blushed, but her eyes were sparkling.
Smee cleared his throat. This talk went far too privately.
Hook only threw him a glare what meant ‘Get along with you!’ and turned his attention back to his young lover at his side, as an odd croaking sounded above their heads.
Wendy looked up and recognized the peg legged parrot with its eye patch and the plucked feathers. She hadn’t seen the bird until now and had almost forgotten about it, but now the memories of it returned. The bird had been in Hook’s cabin as she had been there the first time – after his stealing her away including her little house as he offered her a place as a pirate on his ship. Never she had dreamed that she would end as his lover!
“Hey!” she called out. “Old boy, where have you been the whole time?”
The parrot only croaked more and mustered her intensely with his remaining left eye.
“Get lost, ugly brute!” Hook growled and threw the parrot a wary glance.
The bird didn’t react by this. It heard sentences like this every day several times.
“Isn’t it mutiny?” Wendy asked laughing and put a calming hand on James’ arm as he made a threaten step in the direction of the bird. “Let him. The poor bird is punished enough in his state!”
“If you would know what this ‘poor bird’ has done to you and your friends you wouldn’t be this compassionate.”
Wendy frowned. “What do you mean by this?”
He gave her a wicked grin. “Do you remember what I swore to you as you have been the first time my guest?”
She nodded and looked at him askance. “Yes. You promised me that no one of your men would follow me.” She puck a finger on his chest. “You lied.”
James’ eyes widened. “I NEVER lie.” He made a gesture to the bird. “He had followed you. And you have to admit that a parrot is not a man of my crew.”
Wendy only stared at him. “Oh, you are really the most wily guy I ever met!” She looked up to the parrot. “And you, you old betrayer, be wary or you will lose your last feathers as well!”
She felt James’ arms slipping around her. “Angry with me? Even after all this time?”
She made a face and threw him a glance that meant ‘with this we aren’t done, my friend!’, then she shook her head and sighed. “It has been my fault as well. I should have known that you would not let this chance pass by. I had felt the gazes of someone and had looked back several times as I went to Peter’s hide-out, but I couldn’t recognize anyone. But I had never thought that your parrot was following me.”
He rubbed his nose at hers and looked deep into her eyes. “What I have to do to earn Milady’s forgiveness?”
She pretended to think very straight and smiled finally. “That’s simple. You only have to…”
“Ship in sight!” sounded the shout of the man in the lookout.
For a long moment a deadly silence dropped over the whole ship, then suddenly every man aboard started to speak.
Hook starred at Smee, didn’t dare to hope that this maybe was their solution. He went to the balustrade of the bridge and raised his voice.
“SILENT!” he bellowed, waited until his men shut their mouths and looked up to the man in the lookout, who climbed up to the Crow-nest – in a tempo that made Wendy almost envious. “Jackson! When this is a joke I swear you will feel the cat!”
“No joke, Cap’n!” the man cried back, seeing again through his telescope. “It’s a ship or my bones should rot at Davie Jones Locker!”
The men started to whisper to each other, throwing hopeful glances to their commander.
Hook was in a dither. A ship! That meant that they were the real world closer than ever before and maybe the others were their delimitation.
“Can you see any details?”
“Aye! It’s a sloop wit’ two masts. A quick one!”
“And the flag? Can you recognize it?”
For almost a minute Jackson looked through his telescope and shouted back: “As far as I see it’s a black one. But I can’t perceive t’e emblem!”
Once again the crew started to talk jumbled and waited breathless of Hook’s reaction.
“Maybe they have the chance to break through the frontier!” he whispered, changing a look with Wendy. “When this is really a way to escape Neverland, then I cannot keep my word to be back in Neverland tomorrow morning.”
Wendy bit her lips, realizing what that would imply. She would have to stay at the Jolly Roger, eventually for longer – far away from London in a world that was completely strange to her. It almost frightened her. She never had thought that she would someday stand at the threshold to leave her own world behind and have to step into another one. The both trips to Neverland were only just trips, but not more. But if James and his men would find a way to cross the frontier between Neverland and the real world now, she would be completely alone; without her family and her friends. The only one, who would be there for you, would be James – a man she not really known, even if they had shared the most passionate moments possible. What would become of her? And what would become of James and his men if they forfeit their perhaps only chance to escape from their ‘prison’ Neverland?
She met James’ gaze and answered spontaneously: “Try it!”
He remained silent for several seconds, before he gave her to preconceive: “When we are successful you have to come with us – with me!” he added quietly.
Wendy nodded and took a deep breath. “It is maybe your only chance to escape. And even from Jamaica will be a travel-possibility to London – if I want to use it.” She straightened her small shoulder. “Just go ahead and try it!”
The look in his eyes was something she never would forget – even if she was going to be hundred years old. It was a radiance of joy, relief and hope and in this moment she understood that he ought to let this chance passed by to keep his word. In this second she realized that she could trust him – really trust him. As insidiously he was against his enemies, as truth worthy he was to them who belonged to him. And in this case she was it as well.
Hook felt his chest swelling with warmth and gentle happiness. She was even willingly to accompany him for his well being, even if she wasn’t ready for it.
He looked deep into he eyes, saw the hidden nervousness and lightly fear as well as her soft convincing that it would be all right.
“Thank you, Wendy!” he murmured and turned his attention to his crew.
“Into the riggings with you! Heave to! Ready to sail against the wind! We have to come closer to the other ship!”
Cheers and applause surged, the men broke every record to haul the Jolly Roger close.
“Mr. Jukes! Load three cannons and give a salute! Now!”
He whirled to the helmsmen. “Jackson! Hold the new course. If you need a hand to hold her, then you can have any help you whish!”
The red-haired man nodded. “Aye, Aye, Sir!”
The Jolly Roger furrowed through the waves. The giant galleon swayed more and more as it fought its way against the ocean current.
Wendy clung to the balustrade, tried to equalize her balance and felt James’ one arm around her to steady her, while the parrot above her cawed, trying to hold onto the yard he sat on. Water splashed over the bug as the waves went higher, even without a storm. Neverland was trying to hold them. For the first time the girl felt the uncanny power of the magical island and to her own surprise it afraid her. It was against ever nature as she realized the first time.
“Ready to fire!” came the shout from the foredeck.
Hook’s gaze laid at the sloop that had come slightly nearer.
“Fire!” he barked and the three cannons fired off with the familiar salute between buccaneers. The heavy cannonballs hit the water and several moments later came the answer: three shoots not target at the Jolly Roger.
Wendy glared at James. “Is this a good sign?”
He smiled. “Aye! This is a very good sign!”
After several minutes he cursed silently, ignoring Wendy’s asking looks and turned to the helmsman.
“Jackson! Where is the problem? We are turning back!”
The stubby pirate cawed with a deep red face. “No chance, Cap’n. The ocean current is to strong.”
Hook left Wendy’s side and stepped to Jackson, grabbled the heavy steering wheel. “Together!” he ordered and stemmed against it.
The young girl watched alternating the both men and the other ship. It hadn’t come very much nearer but she could see the construction of the vessel now. It had a higher stern, even if it wasn’t such a solid castle as this of the Jolly Roger. Wendy shook her head. From where – the heck – came a second old pirate-ship? Sloops weren’t exactly ordinary ships today, especially not with this kind of stern!
She heard a wild curse from James and looked back at him. He stepped away and gave a signal to Jackson. “Let it be! It serves no purpose!”
Frustrated he kicked against the anchorage of the steering wheel. “This God Damn Island!” he whispered, repressed tears of wrath and despair. “It will never let us go!”
Wendy went to him and wrapped her arms around him from behind, closing her eyes, trying to give him strength only with her presence.
“We will find a way!” she murmured calmingly.
“There is no way!” he answered bitterly.
“Nonsense. Where a way is in there must be also a way out.”
He sneered. “But between it lays a shut door that isn’t to break down.”
Wendy sighed. “Then we have to find the key that will open it.” She pressed her cheek at his tensed back. “We will find a way.”
Hook had almost laughed sarcastically. He has searched for a way out of this ‘paradisiacal’ hell for a half eternity and this mere slip of a girl thought she would find it by…
He tensed. Had she said ‘we’? Did she really think in this term?
Suddenly the world didn’t seem to be so dark anymore. If she thought in this way then it meant that she felt more for him as only this consuming passion that had hindered him to kill her at first sight after her return and that had driven her into his arms over and over again. Nobody really liked him and…
His gaze found Smee and he recognized the compassionate look of his boatswain. The old man didn’t think about himself in this moment, but of him. And from one to the other moment he asked himself, if the fact that nobody liked him reasoned out of his distant and rejecting way to handle other ones.
For a second he remembered again his former life and his behavior, as he was younger. Even with the cruel, unfair way life had changed for him he still had comrades. But now…
“Cap’n, the distance grows!” Smee remarked and Hook lowered his gaze.
“Of course!” He shook slowly his head, while his shoulders sacked down. “Of course!”

It was late at night and Wendy lay secure in James’ arms. She couldn’t sleep and because of the unsteady breath of him she knew that he was also awake.
He had tried to be the charming host and they had talked during dinner a lot. She had told him about her family and her life in London and had managed to distract him for several hours of the forfeit to cross Neverland’s frontier. He had laughed with her and she had been impressed of the great knowledge he had. She also had learned that he spoke difference languages – French and Spain – and he had offered her to teach her more French as she already spoke. And then Smee had come to take the allowance of the night-watchers and James had remembered the whole mess again. After this he had been silent and Wendy didn’t know how to cheer him up again.
Nearly midnight they had gone to bed. They both were tired and bodily exhausted – both form the unused day at sea and their passionate hours – and even if Wendy loved to be intimate with him she really was grateful that his appetite for her didn’t reawake. Rather the silent closeness, they shared now, was satisfying and she felt at peace in his arms.
“James?” she whispered in the darkness and felt him slightly shifting.
“Yes, my sweet?”
“We will find a way. I promise!”
He was quiet for a long time and she almost thought he had fallen asleep, as he suddenly pulled her closer and kissed her temple.
“The hope dies at last! And as long you are with me there will be ever hope!”
His voice sounded tired and she snuggled to him, stroking ever so softly over his right arm, cupped the mutilated limp with her hand and fondled it gently. She felt him intake a sharp breath, bent forward and kissed the sensitive skin over the old injury.
He went stiff and held his breath, before she heard him let out a shuddering breath. His muscles were tensed and then she realized that he was weeping.
The emotional chaos of the last days had been too much: First his wakening desire for the very same girl on which he had swear to take revenge; then his realizing that he couldn’t see her as enemy anymore and that he finds in her arm passion and a place he almost could call home; then the overwhelming feeling how she handled his injury and dared him and the pirate in him to no limit; and finally the part of his reawakened memories, the sight of the other ship and his again destroyed hope to find a way out of this hell, which children called so cheerful Neverland. And last but not least Wendy’s understanding and her slowly building tender feelings for him, which he could clearly read in her eyes and in her behavior, last but not least during and after the ‘prank’ of Pan his gang four days ago. And now she even had kissed this horridness of sliced bones with overlapped skin and scars. Not only the feeling of her soft lips hit him like a warm wave, but the meaning behind it.
He pressed his face at her throat and tried everything to stop his tears. He was a might pirate-captain, for God’s sake, and not a little boy crying over a cut in the finger! And it was now the second time she saw a weakness in him that no one other ever had. But his tears flow more and more. His soul, that yearned for solution, was bleeding and he wanted nothing more as to let everything out that had slowly but steady harmed him more than Pan’s knife had done. He nestled himself against her petite form, relishing in her nearness that seemed to be his only light in this world of darkness that threatened to fall down on him again.
Without another thought Wendy pulled the stump at her heart and kissed tenderly his lips. She tasted the salt of his tears and stroke with her other hand softly over his cheek, fondled his mouth with hers again, as he suddenly jerked himself up.
“No Wendy!” he outburst with fear. “Don’t do this! They are poisoned!”
For a moment she blinked uncomprehending then she knew what he meant. Very well she remembered the essence the poison had been made of that almost had killed Tinker Bell as she drank it to save Peter – the tears from the red of Hook’s eyes; a mixture of jealously, bitterness and hate.
“No. They are not poisoned anymore, James!” she calmed him. “Not when you are with me, because they are don’t born out of hate now.” She could feel his eyes on her and reached for his face, cupping softly his cheek and drew him closer to her again. “See? I’ve taste them and I am still alive.”
He sighed deeply, prayed that his would never change and buried his face at her chest. He smelled her familiar scent, listened to her steady heartbeat and slit over her in search for the safety he had missed so long in his life. It sounded odd, but he wanted to find shelter in her. She was such a small young girl, but she offered him something he hadn’t found before: security.
Wendy smiled and wrapped her arms around him, feeling her heart going out to this man. He seemed so lost and she thought she could sense the heavy burden of his duty and his fate, as they would be her own. Gentle she stroke over his bare back, smiled as his warm breath went over her exposed breasts and his thick curls splayed over her chest and belly like a silken curtain. “Sleep, James. I will hold you!” she whispered warm and tightened her embrace.
He sighed again and started to relax. She smiled, proud that she was really able to calm this powerful, strong-willed and sometimes so savagely man.
After several minutes his deep steady breath and his slackened muscles showed that he really had fallen asleep.
Satisfied that he had found peace in her arms again she fallowed him into the warm, inviting world of forgetting and rest. Her last clear thought was: ‘I find a way to help you out of all this. I swear it!’ Then the sleep overtook her, while the Jolly Roger drove back to the magical island that had its own rules…

TBC…
- 9
- 10
- 11
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

In the swirl of passion