I can’t tell her the truth which is…

Because it was the last thing I saw her in before she was hidden from me. Because it was the last thing I held her in the last night we spent together. Because it’s the image of her I held onto all these years, wishing, hoping, secretly praying, that one day we’d finish what we started.

“Is that how this is going to be?” she taunts, rendering me speechless for reasons I can’t understand. “Your crew may take orders from you, Pan, but I. Never. Will.”

With an authoritative glare, I step into her and wait until I have her complete attention before lowering my voice. “I have ways of making you comply. I won’t stop at getting what I want, Darling.”

“I don’t believe you,” she counters quickly. “You told me that once before, and then you broke your word.”

“I think you’ll realize through your time back in Neverland, it was you who broke your word, not I.”

“Bullshit.”

My eyes widen. I’ve never heard Wendy swear before and it’s only now that I begin to realize the sweet innocence I fell for seventeen years ago might just have been replaced with a damaged soul that matches my own.

“I call fucking bullshit.”

“Dirty words for such a beautiful mouth.” I lick my lips as I take another step closer, until I can feel the heat of her body on my skin. “Don’t tempt me, Darling, because you’ll quickly find, I play dirtier games than you were used to before.”

“Try me.”

A mischievous smile spreads across my face as I lean closer, my lips resting above her own. “Gladly.”

Pushing her back against the bed, I grab her nightgown at her side, previously discarded and tossed across the mattress, and slip it over her head. I’m surprised when she doesn’t fight back, and even more stunned when she lets me continue to dress her. My eyes catch hers in a tender way that shakes my black heart, tempting it back to life, as I slowly lower the garment down her bare chest, across her slender stomach and full hips. Pulling the gown down her thighs, I grasp the rope at my waist and start to wrap it around her wrists tightly.

Strangely, she still doesn’t fight, just stares up at me with revulsion, and it does something to my soul. Fascinating it. Intriguing it. Luring it back to life.

“Maybe you like it dirty,” I antagonize her, implore her, needing to know what she’s thinking. “Filthy, perhaps? Is that right, Darling?”

She doesn't say a word as I drop to the floor and tie her ankles next. Hastily, I finish tightening the rope, giving it one last tight tug for good measure when her voice pulls my attention back up to her bewitching gaze.