“Not any longer. I only just lately realized how little it all meant to me.” She lifted her face to his. “I’ve come to understand so many truths these past few months, Kell. I thought fulfilling my mother’s dream for me would bring me happiness, that gaining a title was what I wanted. But having your love is all that really matters to me. I would gladly be plain Mrs. Lasseter, if you will let me.”
The fire burned hotter, but he raised an eyebrow. “And what of your fantasy lover?”
With her fingertips, she brushed the rough stubble shadowing Kell’s jaw. He looked very much like the dangerous rebel he had once been; the lover of her dreams. “I haven’t wanted that fantasy for a long time. All I want is you.”
Kell pressed her palm to his cheek. “So then, we’re agreed? We will start our marriage over in Montserrat. We will put the past behind us and begin anew.”
“Yes, we’re agreed.”
His smile was blinding. He gave her a lingering kiss filled with promise and anticipation of the future to come. When he drew back, his eyes were dark with desire.
She shook her head. “I still think I might be imagining this. Are you sure you truly love me?”
“More sure than of anything in my entire life.” His mouth curved in a tender smile. “I think I’ve loved you from the moment you first shot me.”
Flushing, Raven shut her eyes. “Please, don’t remind me.”
Laughing again, Kell tightened his arms around her, reveling in the intense pleasure of holding her. He loved her more than his next breath. But he would have to prove it to her. To make her believe. He would have time to show her during the long voyage, though.
Tenderly he kissed the top of her head. “I know I’ve given you little reason to trust in my love before this, but I swear I will make it up to you.”
“Will you tell me again?”
“I love you, my darling vixen. So much my heart hurts.”
She smiled against his shoulder, shaken by the enormity of the emotion that surged through her. “I feel the same way.”
“Then tell me.” He tilted her face up to his. “I need to hear you say it.”
“I love you, Kell.” She declared it with abandon and joy as she twined her arms about his neck. “I love you, I love you, I love you,” Raven murmured before she gave herself up to his passionate kiss.
Epilogue
Montserrat, British West Indies, July 1814
Raven caught her breath as Kell rose from the foaming surf, his magnificent nude body silhouetted against the aquamarine sea. He was so beautiful, he made her ache.
His gaze riveted on her, pinning her where she lay on the beach beneath a palm, and Raven smiled in secret joy. Her pirate lover had become Kell in the flesh; he had risen from the sea to claim her woman’s heart, just as in her fantasies.
As she met his intense, soul-dark eyes, she felt her love swell for him until it was something painful. She wanted him as she wanted sunlight and air.
How perilously close she had come to missing his love! She had been so afraid of losing herself as her mother had, of being overwhelmed by the mind-numbing power of passion. But she had been wrong to fear it. Love was a vital part of life; passion was a joy. If anything, that was the primary lesson of the journal.
It was more than worth the risk of pain to find the kind of soul-shattering union she had found with Kell. Without risk, she never would have known the ecstasy of true love. Indeed, the pain and sorrow in their past gave her present feel
ings for Kell even more depth and intensity.
And the things that had once seemed so important to her-wealth, possessions, titles, position-all of that counted for little if you were lonely, if you were not loved.
Kell had shown her that. She had tried to mold herself into what society expected of her, into something she was not, but he had liberated her from the false notions and oppressive strictures that had governed her life.
His passion had freed her imprisoned, lonely heart, and she could not have loved him more.
Raven watched with eager anticipation as he strode through the silver foam and across the crystalline sand to where she awaited. For a moment, he stood above her, vibrant, magnetic, intense, his hair very black against the golden light, his gaze heated, his engorged male flesh clearly proclaiming his desire. She had only to look at his virile, aroused body and she grew wet, her nipples tightening to aching peaks.
Kell understood exactly the effect he had on her, she knew. Desire crackled in the dark depths of his eyes as he knelt beside her on the blanket.
They often came here, their own private cove below their new home, to dive in the lagoon, search for sunken ships, or comb the beaches, hunting for buried pirate treasure.