Pirate's Bride (Liberty's Ladies) (69 page)
“What are you saying?” Ian looked baffled.
“Open your arms, silly, and hold me.”
Immediately he embraced her, drawing her closely against him, and Bethlyn sighed in contentment. “Now I’m home.”
For the first time in his life he understood what it was she had yearned for all of those years ago when he’d carelessly and foolishly abandoned her on their wedding day. He thanked God that she had given him another chance, because he’d be nothing without Bethlyn, their son, and the coming baby. But a question burned at him, and he knew he had to ask it of her or go insane with wanting to know the answer.
“Do you think my mother made a mistake in ordering that we marry?”
“Never,” she declared, and sat up on her elbow to gaze down at him. “Jessica must have known that we were meant for each other. I like to think that she looks down upon us sometimes and smiles at a task well done. If not for your mother falling in love with my father, and I know this subject has always pained you, but if not for that love, we wouldn’t be here at this moment — naked and together. I shall thank your mother every day of my life.”
Bethlyn never ceased to amaze him. Images of her over the years whirled in his mind. The plump, sick little girl he’d married, the beautiful woman he’d captured and loved, the feisty and heroic poetess, the woman who nursed his son and then clung to him in passion afterward. How could all of these personalities be housed in this exquisite mind and sensuous body? But he no longer questioned his continuing fascination with her. Bethlyn was his now and forever, and he must never take for granted his rebellious bride who’d tamed him with her love.
“I think I’m grateful to her, too, my darling,” he said, and finally added, “to them.”
After a few silent moments, Bethlyn traced her fingernails over his bare chest, delighting in the way he grew aroused with only a touch from her. “Ian, do you remember what I said outside a while ago?”
“Was that when you pleaded with me to carry you inside and have my wicked way with you?”
“Yes, but I mentioned Hawk. I wondered if he might come visit one night soon. I’ve missed the scoundrel.”
“Wanton witch! You want me to wear the mask.”
With a bold smile curving her perfectly shaped lips, she reached beneath her pillow to withdraw the hawk-like facade she’d fashioned from some black cloth Tansy Tolliver had given her. “Making love to a masked man is most exciting.”
Ian’s eyes spilled over with mirth, but he pretended outrage. “In that case, my faithful wife, turnabout is fair play. Do you think the Dove might show up one moonlit night and ravish me?”
With a graceful and sensual movement, Bethlyn again reached beneath the pillow to lift the Dove’s masked visage to her face. Before placing a totally tantalizing and utterly beguiling kiss upon Ian’s lips and feeling the mounting heat of his desire settle between her legs, she said, “I believe it would be her profound pleasure.”
And it undeniably was.
END
Book 2 in the Liberty’s Ladies collection
,
Savage Deception
,
is available
now. Find it and other of
Lynette’s
books at:
http://www.amazon.com/Lynette-Vinet/e/B001JSBEHA
Steel Magnolia Press is publishing more of
Lynette’s
backlist
in new digital editions
! Sign up for
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, the SMP monthly newsletter, to find out when new books are released, most at special introductory prices:
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Lynette Vinet is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana
,
and a member of Romance Writers of America and Creative Minds Writers. She has always been intrigued by the history of her native city and the
S
outh, as well as Colonial America and the British Isles, probably because her ancestors were born there. An avid genealogist, she is also a member of the Genealogical
Research
Society of New Orleans.
Over the last two decades she has published eleven historical romances
as well as a number of
genealogical articles. She is a wife, mother and doting grandmother.
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Ebooks by Lynette Vinet available now or coming soon to Amazon (from Steel Magnolia Press)
Historical Romances
Savage Deception, Book 2 in the Liberty’s Ladies Collection
Wicked, Wild Eden
Knight’s Caress
Midnight Flame
Emerald Desire, Book 1 of the the Emerald Series
Emerald Enchantment, Book 2 of the Emerald Series
Emerald Ecstasy, Book 3 of the Emerald Series
Love’s Golden Promise
Rapture in His Arms
Passion’s Deep Spell
