Free Hook's Pan by Marie Hall Page A

Danika frowned, and began to draw up into the sky, her eyes flicking between him and the black void of spiraling water opening up before them.
     
    “Because I’d have done the same,” he finally said, just as the prow skirted the edge between the upper and under world of Never.
     
    “Thank you,” she whispered and then flicked her wrist, sailing through the thin sliver of blue a second before the ship crashed over the edge.
     

Chapter 7
     

     
    After about thirty minutes, she decided she didn’t know what to think. Dream or not, true or not, she was here now, and that was all that mattered. Which meant, well...she wasn’t sure what. Did he plan to sleep with her? Did she want him to?
     
    Why did he give her his room if that wasn’t his ultimate end game? Dirty old Hook. She smirked, heart beating just a tad harder when she thought about peeling the breeches and shirt off. What kind of a body did he have she wondered? Hard and ripped, or soft and wimpy?
     
    “Bet it’s hard,” she muttered and then rolled her eyes at the turn her thoughts were taking. The man made her have ‘feels.’ Which was just a really lame way of saying he was making her tummy wiggle with a mass of butterflies. His hard black eyes and chiseled jaw…gah, he was everything she loved about men.
     
    She had the worst taste in guys; at least she was smart enough to recognize that. And generally that wasn’t a problem because she didn’t want anything other than the temporary satisfaction their body could bring her.
     
    But she didn’t think she could handle what Hook dished out. The man was intense, all steely eyed and growly and moody and when he laughed… She squeezed her thighs shut and moaned, flinging back onto the mattress and tossing a hand over her eyes.
     
    Why had Danika the devil bug brought her here? Why had Betty and Gerard tried so hard to convince her Hook was the man for her? Never in her wildest dreams could she have imagined this ever being a reality.
     
    She laughed. Softly at first, then harder as it all finally started to sink in. The numbness she’d languored in when she’d first gotten here was now being replaced by a weird, sickening gut feeling that this was really happening. Huffing a lank of hair out of her eyes, she stared at the wooden beams above her.
     
    Somewhere up on deck was a man they called Hook.
     
    Danika had said the answers were inside her. Closing her eyes she tried to clear her mind, she really did, but after five minutes she began to feel stupid. What was she thinking? Trying to remember being a mermaid? Of once living in Kingdom? She laughed. How stupid and desperate she’d become.
     
    Irritated, she scratched her thigh, wishing all over again she could just yank the tights off.
     
    Actually… She bit her lip. Maybe if she was quick about it, she could take them off. Listening to make sure no one was headed down the hall, she quickly shucked her ugly green tunic off, then wiggled her way out of the itchy tights. Technically she hadn’t needed to take the shirt off to remove the tights, but she was so itchy she just needed a second without the stuff on.
     
    Her nude skin tingled and itched. Scratching all over, she reveled in her temporary nudity. But it would be just her luck that he’d walk in with her looking like this. Sighing, she put the tunic back on. She felt a little better without the tights, except the trade off was now she felt naked with so much thigh showing.
     
    Rolling her eyes, she wondered what Hook would say if she screamed for him to come back. She was bored out of her mind.
     
    Walking toward the porthole, she expected to see nothing but a thick expanse of black sky and water. What she did see made her gasp. Pressing her nose to the thick pane of glass, her eyes went wide and her mouth slackened as the world outside filled her with a sense of wonder—that is until she realized they were sinking.
     
    Because the only way she could see what she was