The Pirate

  When he moved lower still, she thought she would fly apart into a million glittering pieces.

  “Jared.”

  “I’m not going anywhere. You taste like the sea.”

  “I can’t stand…Jared, wait. Come here. Please.” She coiled one leg around his thigh and tightened her grip on him, pulling him upward again. Her hands slid down his back. “Your jeans.”

  “I know. I’ll get rid of them.” He rolled to one side, unfastened his denims and slid out of the last of his clothing. He paused long enough to draw a small packet from one pocket, fumbled with it for a few seconds and then he carne back to her in a hot, enveloping rush.

  “This is so perfect,” Kate said, looking up at him through half-closed lashes. His body was lean, hard and beautifully male. “Maybe too perfect.” The strength in him was controlled and all the more powerful because of that control. “You’re so perfect.”

  His smile was slow and deeply sensual as he bent over her. “Remember that in the morning. Promise?”

  “I promise.”

  He caught his breath as he put his heavy thigh over one of her twisting, restless legs, pinning her gently. “Now put your arms around me and open yourself for me. I want you more than I can ever remember wanting anything in my life.”

  “I want you, too.” She was stunned at the depths of her own need. Such incredible passion would have a high price. Nothing came free in this world. She looked up at Jared, studying his shadowed face.

  “I’m glad you want me. I need you to want me. Lord, how I need it,” he said fiercely. His expression was stark in the moonlight; the desire in him unmistakable. His eyes glittered with it. The hand that covered her stomach shook with it.

  Jared slid his warm palm down to the soft hair above her thighs. Kate parted her legs for him, lifting herself helplessly against his hand. She felt his fingers slip down into her softness and search out the growing dampness between her legs. Slowly he explored her secrets with roughened fingers, coaxing more of the liquid heat from her until she could not think of anything except the mind-spinning passion. He kissed her, filling her mouth and then withdrawing in a tantalizing rhythm that set up the more intimate pattern that would soon follow.

  When Jared moved at last, settling himself deliberately between her legs, Kate cried out and sank her nails into his shoulders.

  “Yes, sweetheart. Show me how much you want me.” He pushed himself slowly, relentlessly into her heat. “So good,” he muttered hoarsely. “So tight and hot and sweet. I’m going to lose my mind.”

  She clung to him, wrapping herself around him as he filled her completely and then he began to move, pulling almost free of her, hesitating and then driving as deeply into her softness as he could.

  Over and over, Jared repeated the excruciatingly exciting rhythm until Kate was lost in her need. She could no longer think clearly or question or talk. She could only feel, and what she felt was unlike anything she had ever known in her life. She was on fire with passion, a white-hot banner of searing flame that threatened to consume her. It would have been terrifying if it hadn’t been so totally irresistible; so totally right.

  Together they twisted and writhed on the blanket, clutching each other as if locked in mortal combat. They rolled over and over, fighting for the release that was racing toward them out of the darkness.

  As the sensual battle moved toward its inevitable conclusion, Kate experienced a wild, surging sense of freedom and exhilaration that was beyond anything she had ever known in her life. She cried out with it.

  “Jared.”

  “Now,” he muttered against her throat as he pushed her onto her back. He grabbed her wrists and anchored them above her head, muttering hot, encouraging words into her ear as he held her. “Let it go. Give it to me. All of it. All of it.” His muscles bunched and his back arched. “I’ve waited so long for you, sweetheart. Too long.”

  Pinned beneath him, Kate opened her eyes just enough to see that Jared’s face was set in a rigid mask of emotion. She didn’t think he even knew what he was saying. His words were thick and hoarse, almost anguished. He surged deeply into her one last, shattering time and she was spun outward into the shimmering sea.

  And suddenly she knew without a shadow of a doubt where she had seen him before. He was the man in her dreams, the one she had first begun to know when she had changed from girl into woman; the one who had haunted her all these years; the one she put into every book she wrote. This was her pirate—fierce, tender, passionate and proud.

  The shock of recognition merged with the sensual storm that was sweeping through her and blotted out everything from Kate’s mind. She cried out and then she was lost.

  Reality trickled back slowly, mixing with moonlight and the soft sounds of the sea. Kate was aware of Jared’s arm across her breasts and of the dampness of his warm skin. He was sprawled beside her, one leg still flung over her thighs, his chin just touching her head. He was heavy, but his weight made her feel protected and safe.

  She remembered the fleeting instant of recognition a few minutes earlier and shuddered.

  “Cold?” Jared stirred lazily, turning onto his back, one hand behind his head. He looked up at her with eyes that gleamed with the banked embers of a fire that had been only temporarily quenched.

  “No.” She touched his moonlit-etched face with curious fingers.

  “What’s wrong?” He kissed her fingertips as they traced his mouth.

  “Nothing’s wrong. It’s just that I’ve had this odd feeling I know you.”

  “You do know me. In fact, I’d say that you know me very well now.”

  She crossed her elbows on his chest and studied him. “Better than you think.”

  He laughed, his voice husky and replete with satisfaction. “Is that a warning?”

  She shrugged. “Maybe.”

  “I’ll keep it in mind.” He stroked her bare shoulder. “You know something? You’re not prickly at all when you’re in this mood.”

  “I’m glad you approve.”

  “I approve, all right. I can see the trick will be to keep you in the right frame of mind as much of the time as possible.”

  “That could take a lot of work on your part.”

  “I’ll devote every spare minute to the job.” Jared snagged his fingers in her hair, pulled her mouth down to his and kissed her hard. “Damn, but you’re a delight. You make me feel like a million bucks. Two million.”

  “I feel pretty good myself.”

  “What piece of good luck brought you to my island, sweet Kate?”

  “The combined effects of overwork and two well-intentioned, interfering friends. Left to my own devices, I would never have made it as far as Amethyst Island. I’d still be sitting at home, staring at a computer screen.”

  Jared framed her face with his hands, his expression turning serious. “What’s your home like? A snazzy little apartment in Seattle?”

  “I like it.”

  “How long have you lived there?”

  “Since my husband went off to devote himself to his talent.”

  “What was he like, this ex-husband of yours?”

  “He’s a man who has the soul of a poet. A writer of great undiscovered literary potential, or so he told me.”

  “Why did you marry him?”

  “Good question. When we were first introduced we were both aspiring writers. I thought he was sensitive, intelligent and supportive,” Kate said slowly. “And he was. At first. He liked the fact that I had a full-time job and could support him while he devoted himself to his writing. But then I got published and he didn’t, and he blamed me for his failure and things went downhill from there. I now realize, of course, that he was really weak, neurotic, self-centered and a whiner. Goes to show how one can change one’s opinion of a person, doesn’t it?”

  “Where is he now?”

  “I’m not sure. Last I heard he was hanging out at an elite writers’ colony, reading his poems to other writers who all agree with him t
hat the only reason they’re unpublished is because the world does not appreciate true genius.”

  “Miss him?”

  “No.” Kate smiled. “And I know he doesn’t miss me. Toward the end of our relationship, I had gotten tired of coddling his overinflated ego and even more tired of dealing with his nasty little remarks about my writing. I’m afraid I turned a tad shrewish.”

  “I’m shocked. You? A shrew?”

  “That was how Harry saw me.”

  “Probably because he didn’t know how to deal with you,” Jared said easily. “So your ex turned tail and ran, hmm?”

  “Packed his bags and walked out after making a suitably dramatic farewell speech. I cried for about fifteen minutes, and then my friends Sarah and Margaret came over and took me out for champagne and pizza. They told me I was lucky to see the last of good old Harry, and within forty-eight hours I knew they were right. But it took a while to put it all behind me.”

  Jared nodded soberly. “Harry was not the man for you.”

  “Truer words were never spoken.” The man for her existed only between the covers of her books and here on Amethyst Island, Kate reflected silently.

  Jared grinned. “On the other hand, be sure you remember what you yourself said earlier.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Unlike your ex-husband, I am perfect. Your very words.”

  She laughed softly. “I’m not sure you can hold me responsible for that remark. I was under the influence of a lot of raging hormones at the time.”

  “If that’s the way you’re going to be about it, I’ll just have to enrage your hormones until you say it again.” Jared shifted, rolling her beneath him. “And again and again.”

  “We could be here all night.”

  “That thought had occurred to me.” He lowered his head and took her mouth.

  A long time later Kate sighed and snuggled close. “Perfect,” she murmured.

  The next few days passed in a haze of passion and laughter. Kate went snorkeling in the cove with David, toured the island with Jared and his son in a Jeep, ate papaya and impossibly fresh fish and spent every possible stolen hour in the arms of her dream lover.

  Those hours had to be grabbed when they were available because Jared, Kate soon learned, in addition to being a father, was a very busy man. His schedule was unpredictable and usually very full. One moment he was going over special banquet arrangements with his food and beverage manager and the next he was dealing with a crisis involving the pool filter machinery. Kate sought him out one afternoon and discovered him helping his staff fold a huge stack of towels in the resort’s hot laundry room.

  “The assistant housekeeper’s daughter is having her baby. She went over to Ruby to be with her and two of the laundry room staff went along. They’re all family. None of them made it back this morning, so we’re short-handed,” he’d explained tersely, folding a towel with precision.

  “Want me to give you a hand?” Kate asked, picking up a fluffy white towel that bore the Crystal Cove crest.

  Jared blinked in surprise and then grinned broadly. “I’ll take any help I can get.”

  “Just be sure you also take a few bucks off my room bill for today, okay?”

  “You bet. Want to flip a coin for the day’s tab? Double or nothing?”

  “Not on your life, Hawthorne. Unlike everyone else around here, I only bet on a sure thing.”

  The housekeeping staff had found the exchange hilarious, and the story was soon all over the resort. Afterward Kate found extra towels every day in her room.

  Jared made no secret of their liaison and Kate soon realized that everyone, from the resort staff to David, Letty and the colonel, was delighted with the way events were unfolding.

  It should have been a perfect island affair, and Kate told herself it would have been if it weren’t for two things. The first was that the end was preordained. She was, after all, holding a return ticket to the States. Whenever she allowed herself to dwell on that fact, she got restless and depressed and had to consciously push aside the emotions.

  The second factor that stood in the way of her total enjoyment of the affair with Jared Hawthorne was a little harder to pin down, but it filled her with increasing unease. It had to do with the fact that she had seen him make another midnight trek to the Hawthorne castle with Max Butterfield and she had begun to realize she did not particularly care for Max. His incessant references to the great novel he had not yet written reminded her too much of her ex-husband.

  On the night Jared and Max made the second trip to the castle, Jared had taken Kate back to her room right after dinner in the hotel dining room. He had made hot, urgent love to her and then told her he had to go home early because the baby-sitter couldn’t stay with David past midnight.

  Something had not rung true. She had known Max was back on the island, however, after being away for a few days. Kate had lain awake for a long time after Jared had left, questions and doubts and pure curiosity tumbling about in her brain. Then, drawn by a premonition, she had dressed in jeans and a dark shirt and walked down the path through the jungle to the point where it branched off to the castle.

  She had stood concealed in the shadows for a long time before she had heard Max’s complaining voice and the sound of his labored breathing. A moment later the fat man and Jared had passed her on their way to the castle.

  Kate had waited a long time for them to return, but finally had given up and gone back to her own room. She did not get much sleep that night.

  No matter how she looked at it, Jared had lied to her. He had not hurried home to his son.

  The next morning, Kate sat in a lounger on a terrace overlooking the cove and wondered what to do next. Over and over again she toyed with the idea of confronting Jared and asking him what was going on, but she always backed off from that approach when she remembered that he had deliberately misled her. It was obvious he did not want her to know what he was doing with Max Butterfield. If she confronted him, he would probably lie to her, and she didn’t want to hear his lies.

  She had to face the knowledge that, though Jared might appear to have stepped straight out of her fantasies, the truth was, she knew very little about him.

  “Good morning,” sang out a familiar, cheerful voice. “How’s the antistress campaign going?”

  Kate shook off her somber mood and smiled at Letty Platt. “Terrific. I feel like a new woman. And. I’ve got some fascinating reading.” She indicated the diary of Amelia Cavendish that lay in her lap.

  Letty glanced at the leather-bound volume. “So Jared has let you actually touch his precious old Hawthorne journals, I see. Congratulations. He’s very protective of those books. Keeps them in a locked glass case.”

  “I know and I don’t blame him. They’re fascinating, once you decipher the handwriting. They’re in amazingly good condition, too. But that’s because the paper used in the old days was of such fine quality, not like the cheap, disposable stuff we use now.”

  Letty nodded, sitting down on a nearby lounger. “Discover anything interesting about our founding father?”

  “This is Amelia’s diary, not Roger’s, and yes, I’m finding out a lot of interesting tidbits. For example, did you know that she had been in love with Roger Hawthorne since she was a young girl?”

  “Really? I thought he just happened to spot her when he went back to England looking for a bride.”

  “Nope. She was the daughter of the lord who owned the estates that bordered his father’s lands and she’d had a crush on him for years. He was well aware of it, the cad. Used to tease her unmercifully. But he also danced with her when she made her come out in London. He kissed her that night. Listen to this, Letty.”

  I was transported the moment his lips touched mine. I did not dream such unbearable joy existed. I know I should not have allowed him such liberties, but I vow I was helpless to resist him. It seems I have loved Roger forever, and at long last he is discovering he loves me. Surely he loves me. He is
too much the gentleman to have kissed me otherwise. I am in heaven as of this moment. I cannot wait until he makes an offer for me.

  “Uh-oh,” Letty said. “Let me guess what happened next. The rogue left England and poor Amelia never got her offer.”

  “Afraid not. Hawthorne didn’t actually seduce her, but he certainly got passionate on a number of occasions and led her to believe he was going to ask for her hand in marriage. Then, without any warning, he ups and leaves the country without a word of explanation and doesn’t return for three years. Amelia was devastated. Cried inconsolably for days”

  “Poor girl.”

  “She turned out to be the feisty type, though. When she finally recovered from her heartbreak she was determined never to give her heart to another man. She scorned all offers of marriage, though her family pleaded and threatened when she turned down one eligible male after another.”

  “She’d really had it with men, hmm? Can’t say that I blame her. Why did Roger Hawthorne leave England so suddenly?”

  “I don’t know yet. Amelia just says he split without bothering to say goodbye. He was a second son and so couldn’t inherit. I expect he decided to go off and make his fortune as a pirate, and the thought that poor Amelia would get her heart broken didn’t occur to him.”

  “Or didn’t bother him too much if it did occur to him. Typical male in many respects.”

  “I’m at the part now where he’s just returned. Amelia has found out he’s in London and that he’s asked her father for her hand in marriage. Apparently he’s quite wealthy now and society is willing to overlook the little matter of how he got so rich. Amelia writes that her parents are delighted with the offer. But she refuses to even see him. Says she is not about to trust him with her heart a second time. Can’t wait to see what happens next.”

  “Well, we can guess, given the fact that the legend says he eventually kidnapped her and brought her back here.”

  Kate closed the book. “Something tells me she put up a good fight. She’s really furious with him at this point.”