Page 110 of Lord of Temptation
Her grin widened. “Definitely in a good way. Be wicked now, my love.”
“Only if you’ll join me in the wickedness.”
She did. Wholeheartedly. Touching, stroking, tasting.
They explored each other as though it were their first coupling, as though they’d arrived on an uncharted island and were carefully making their way around it. Yet laced throughout was the familiarity that they had traveled here before.
When he joined his body to hers, she wanted to cry out with the wonder of it. He was hers, absolutely, completely. And she was his.
When the pleasure soared through her, she did cry out—his name—and she heard her name forced through clenched teeth. Their voices mingled, become one just as their bodies had.
Rolling to the side, he brought her up against him, tucked her in close.
“I’m not lost anymore, Anne,” he said quietly. “After fourteen years of wandering, I’ve finally found home. You are my safe harbor.”
“And you are mine, my love.”
She didn’t delude herself into thinking that their life would be without storms, but they would weather them, because they would have each other.
Always.
Epilogue
Off the Yorkshire Coast
Some Years Later
“Mummy, look! I’m steering thePrincessall by myself!”
Anne glanced up from the two-year-old daughter on her lap to the six-year-old one standing at the helm, her father protectively behind her, his legs braced, his hands covering hers. The sturdy yacht, its sails filled with wind, sliced through the open water without a care. At least once a week Tristan brought the family out on the sea.
“I can see that, darling. You’re doing a marvelous job.”
“I’m going to be a ship captain when I grow up.”
“I have no doubt.”
Tristan laughed, before signaling to Mouse—who more often than not went by Martin these days—to keep watch over his eldest girl. He crossed the deck and scooped up his four-year-old daughter from where she was playing with the wooden blocks he’d carved for her. “You’ll be sailing the ship next, Princess.”
“Papa! I’m the princess,” their eldest shouted.
“You’re all princesses,” he assured her, before sinking into the chair beside Anne. He leaned over toward her and whispered, “You’re my favorite.”
Laughing softly, she said, “Don’t let them hear that. You’ll have a mutiny on your hands.”
They’d purchased a lovely house near the sea. They went to bed every night with the sound of the waves crashing against the shore. At first after he acquired the yacht, he often took it out for the day. But over the years, his solitary sojourns had become fewer. He designed luxury yachts. Mr. Peterson oversaw the craftsmen hired to build them. They sold them for a princely sum. ThePrincesshad been the first. Below deck were comfortable accommodations that rivaled many homes.
Once or twice a year, they would travel to a distant port. Their three daughters were seeing small portions of the world and feared nothing. She suspected that someday they would provide quite a challenge to any young man who wished to court them.
Of course any such young man would have to be brave enough to face their father first. He would be far worse than her brothers when it came to protecting his princesses.
“Why don’t we leave the girls with the nannies and go below?” he suggested.
“Are you really going to leave your daughter at the helm?”
“Mouse will guide her. He won’t let anything happen to them.”
“He’s almost their big brother, isn’t he?” Tristan had hired him to care for the boat, to keep it in top shape. He lived in a small cottage near theirs. For a child who had been deemed worthless, he had a good life. As a young man now, he charmed the ladies. A talent Anne knew he’d picked up from Tristan.
She signaled for the nannies and when their two youngest were safely in their care, she rose and walked to the railing with Tristan.
“The sea doesn’t call to you as much anymore, does it?” she asked.
“No. An hour here or there suits me just fine.”
“Do you ever miss it, the life of adventure you led?”
He turned her in his arms, and she gazed into the pale blue eyes that she’d loved for so long now.
“You’re all the adventure I need,” he told her before lowering his mouth to hers, sweeping her away on the tide of his love.
