“If by looking at your butt you imply am I looking at your arse, then yes, I am.”
There was something about the woman that loosened his tongue. With his whores he never verbally sparred, they were there for one reason, to ease his aches. But he could not deny he enjoyed the woman’s tongue. Wanted to enjoy it in other ways too.
Instead of being outraged, she patted her bum, winked and said, “Well looking is all you’ll ever get, Hook, so enjoy it while you can.”
He wasn’t known for having much of a sense of humor, in fact, it was rare for his men to see him wearing anything other than a scowl. But when he returned topside, he couldn’t stop the grin from splitting his face.
As they walked toward the rail, the men manning the sails went absolutely still, staring agog at not only the woman, but at him.
“She belongs to me,” he growled, eyeing each one with the stare that’d made him legendary—cold and calculating and absolutely ruthless. Playing with the curve of his hook, he lifted his chin. “Return to your positions or I shall be gouging out eyes later, up to you.”
Scattering like a school of fish, they all turned around to resume their tasks.
When the last set of eyes had turned away he was finally able to turn back to her. Only to see Trishelle tapping her foot, small fists bunched on her hips and wearing a fierce scowl of her own. “Belong to you?” she snapped. “I don’t think I need to tell you how infuriated I am right now.”
Standing as she was, with her hair dancing around her head, she reminded him of Medusa in that instance—bold and frightening and sexy as hell.
“Come.” He held out his hand. Her jaw set and his grin widened. “I could sit here and apologize for saying what I did, but I wouldn’t mean it. Or, you can stop acting so offended and come with me before you miss the surprise.”
“Gah, you’re impossible. How can I even fight with you when you sound so frustratingly rational?”
He lifted his brows, not speaking as he continued to hold his hand out to her. Blowing out a long breath, she slipped hers into his. “Fine,” she said grudgingly. “What’s so special?”
Maybe nothing. He’d seen it a million times in a million different ways, but for some reason he suspected she’d enjoy the peculiarities of his form of travel. “Have you done anything other than get mad at me?”
“What?” Her fingers twitched in his palms and his grip tightened.
“Look around you, Trishelle.”
Tipping her face up, he smiled when her lips parted in a breathless O of wonder. “Oh my wow,” she chuckled, “is this for real?”
Seeing it as she might, James looked up. The translucent bubble covering his ship gleamed, refracting the light of the thousands of fish swimming above, below, and around them.
This was the Seren Seas. A land filled with wonder, and unique to all of Kingdom. Tiny dancer slugs, appearing like bejeweled magenta skirts, undulated gracefully around them by the droves. Scuttle fish—with their foot-like neon green appendage—scuttled about on the sea floor. Brain coral throbbed and pulsed with veins and atop them frog fish extended long tongues, lapping up the spawning fly fish.
Silver nurse sharks, gleaming like molten silver, tended to their tiny, quicksilver pups. And a giant, bucktoothed orange-hued whale, opened and closed its mouth, dragging in bucketfuls of glowing blue plankton.
The water itself was lovelier here than in any other part of Kingdom. Blue, with bands of every other color of the rainbow swirling through. Very few in Kingdom ever got to see the beauty of the sea maidens’ realms, it was by invitation only. If you stumbled upon this region, and were not invited, the reception would be much different.
Dark and stormy, violent and brutal.
“What do you think?” he asked softly.
Her emerald green eyes were wide as she looked back at him. “I’m…” she laughed, “there are no words. Thank you.”
They shared a look without blinking and in her gaze he read her sincerity. A part of him yearned for that look, for that wonder, wanted to make it his, if only because within her body was trapped the soul of his beloved. But, though he could read the awe, he could not see any familiarity of it.
Clenching his jaw, he nodded. “Walk with me to the railing, this is not the best part.”
Clutching his elbow, she nodded, following his easy meanderings. The bubble that enveloped the ship and helped them to breathe, also kept out all smells. As much as Hook loved this realm, he missed the scents of the upper world.
“This land is different from anything I’ve ever seen or could have even imagined.”
The words pierced his soul. Danika claimed the memories were inside, but it didn’t seem so to him. Beautiful as this woman was, this was not his mate, could never be. There’d only been one in his heart, and that was all there would ever be.