Hooked (Never After, #1)

by Emily McIntire

And I don’t drop his stare either, feeling somehow like if I do, I’ll have lost something I didn’t even know to keep.

“I want to make sure you’re taken care of, darling.”

“Hi,” she says. My stomach flips. “Hi back.”

A surge of something hot whips through my insides and slices up my middle until I have to physically stop myself from pulling her into my arms and making sure Ru knows that she’s mine.

“When will I get my date, darling?” “When do you want it?” “Yesterday.” I press into her. “Now.” She stumbles into the cab’s door. “Tomorrow.”

“Anything happens to her and there will be no corner of the earth that can hide you from me. Understand?”

It seems like he’s never anything less than perfectly put together.

I wasn’t lying when I told her she was beautiful. She is. Achingly so.

My heart thumps against its cage, hoping she can’t feel it through my skin—not wanting to admit, even to myself, that what she’s doing is affecting me. But it is.

And in this moment, I’m not sure how I’ll let her go.

Because she trusts me.

“Just remember that whenever things feel bleak, all situations are temporary. It’s not your circumstance that determines your worth, it’s how you rise from the ashes after everything burns.”

And that means she never betrayed me at all.

True love sometimes requires sacrifice.

“But I regret, with every fiber of my being, that for even one moment you suffered under my hands.” Her eyes widen, the beautiful shades of brown glossing over.

“You are, without a doubt, the only good I’ve ever known.” I rest my forehead on hers, my shaky breaths ghosting across her lips, my thumb rubbing against her cheek. “So don’t lie to me, Wendy darling. Because my heart won’t survive it if you do.”

It’s in this moment that I know, as wild as it seems, that I love her. And that terrifies me more than anything else ever has.

“If someone else touches you, I’ll cut off their hands so they can never touch anything again.”

“You want to watch the world burn?” “Let me guess, you’ll set it on fire?” I ask. He chuckles, the sound vibrating through me and settling into my bones. “No, darling. I’ll hand you the match and stand at your back, watching you become queen of the ashes.”

I choose him.

“Darling, if I’m the dark, then you’re the stars.”

“The greatest thing I’ve ever done in my life was to love you, Wendy darling.”

“Only yours, James Barrie.” “And always yours, Wendy darling.” He kisses my jaw. “Every night.” “And straight on ’til morning.”

And to think, it all started with a little bit of faith. Misplaced trust. Missing pixie dust.

And a villain who just needed to steal a little love.