Page 86 of The Last Lost Girl

I heave a sigh. “I’m getting you all wet.”

The first mate waves off my concern. “I’ll dry in no time. It’s nothing to worry over. How do you feel, Ava?” he asks.

Smee is officially the nicest human to ever grace this planet, let alone Neverland.

I gingerly lower myself into the chair. My vision is clear now. My mind, too.

I feel… not good. Not even okay. But slightly less terrible than I did before, and I’ll take it. “Not as bad as I did,” I answer honestly.

As the captain rises from the water and steps out of the tub, Smee shakes out a huge piece of linen and wraps it around my shoulders. Then he checks my head the way Hudson just did, and gives me an encouraging smile.

Hudson reaches past Smee, takes a piece of linen, and begins to dry himself off. He rakes the fabric over his hair, his chest and back, his legs… He ties the fabric at his hips, then turns away from us. His back ripples as he works his sopping shorts off beneath the cloth that covers him, then he glances at me before making his way through the mess to collect some new, dry clothes.

“Smee?” Hudson says from across the room before tossing a dark blue article of clothing into his hands.

“Ava, can you… arm… now?” Smee asks.

Another sigh. “I think so.”

“Do you need help?” His brows rise as he waits for my answer.

“I can do it.” Hesitantly, he turns his back to me. I peek around him to where Hudson is standing. “Do you have any extra… shorts or whatever you call those things you just took off?”

Smirking, he finds a pair for me and tosses them at Smee, who reaches them around his back to me without looking. I stand and take off my bikini, slide his… shorts and shirt on, and tap on Smee’s shoulder. “I’m decent.”

I may have ‘armed’, but I’m not sure I can ‘leg’. Walking seems like it’ll take too much energy. Energy I do not have at present. But the alternative is being carried, so I stand on my watery legs and step out from behind Smee, placing my hand on his shoulder so he knows it’s okay to turn around.

Hook’s dark eyes are on me the second I emerge from behind his friend and the privacy screen. His throat works, making me swallow in reply, but it’s the Darcy-esque hand-flex that stops me in my tracks and makes my pulse quicken despite my body’s exhaustion.

Smee rushes to change the bedding my clothes had dampened before, telling me I’ll feel a thousand times better with some rest, promising to check me for fever as I sleep, and vowing that he’ll be careful not to wake me when he does. He chatters about having Kingston prepare some hot soup. He tells me that Kingston is a wonderful cook.

Hudson agrees as he crosses the room.

When Smee has replaced and arranged all the bedding, the captain stretches and sits down on the bed, his tall, broad body making it seem miniscule. Then he climbs in and situates himself between the sheet and blankets. Blankets he holds out expectantly for me.

I stare at the soft-looking blanket and the bed I know is beyond comfortable, though I refuse to look at the man offering to share it. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.”

“You’re suddenly modest? We just bathed together,” he says, narrowing his eyes.

“No we didn’t.”

“I believe we did,” he argues.

I cross my arms weakly. “Not in the way you’re implying.”

The gleam in his eyes turns positively wicked. “You didn’t complain when we slept together the other night.”

Smee’s back straightens and he stops just before he reaches the doors, his ear tilting to hear us better.

“We did not sleep together!” I say, loudly enough for Smee – and anyone else on the ship who happens to be within earshot – to hear.

“We certainly did!” he retorts, acting wounded. “Don’t tell me you’ve already forgotten our evening under the stars…”

“In a bird’s nest made of pilfered branches and picked-clean bone. How could I forget?” I deadpan.

But Hook is not to be deterred. “I can remind you of the nicer parts – if you ask nicely.”

I shake my head and grit my teeth. Smee finally takes the final few steps toward the doors and carefully pulls them shut behind him.

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