He nudged her back and ran a thumb over her moist cheeks.
“I’m sorry,” she muttered.
“For what?”
“For crying like a baby.”
He brushed moisture from her cheek.“You have borne more than most women in a lifetime.You are no weakling.You are a lioness.”
Her lips curved.And at that moment, as if summoned, Patches leapt onto the desk, tail flicking, and meowed.
“She missed you,” Caleb said.
Reaching out, Desi stroked the cat’s fur.
“Imissed you.”Caleb’s sincere tone brought her gaze back to him.
“I can’t thank you enough for saving me, Caleb.”Emotions surged.His nearness was a fire, his eyes pouring love so pure, it stole her breath.
“I would do it all over again.”His gaze lingered on her lips.
Desi’s heart crashed against her ribs.She should back off, run.She could not fall for this man who lived three hundred years in the past.Another kiss like their first would set her over the edge of the cliff she now stood upon—the cliff that spanned ages and eternity, past and future.
Then his lips found hers—tentative, reverent, then hungry, urgent, until the world dissolved.The groan of timbers, the hush of waves, even the creak of boots above faded into nothing but the press of his mouth and a mad rush of ecstasy she could not pull herself out of, even if she wanted to.
Which she didn’t.
With both hands, he gripped her face, drawing her closer, deepening the kiss.Loving her like no one ever had.Unknown pleasures swept through her, swirled around her and seemed to lift her out of time and space into a world where she and Caleb could live together forever.
When at last he broke away, he kissed her brow.“I love you, Desi.”
She dared to look up at him, the love spilling from his eyes swelling her heart.Should she admit she felt the same?Or would it only make things worse?“I…I…”
A knock on the door tore them apart.Desi faced the stern windows to hide both her tears and the overwhelming effect of his kiss that surely was written all over her face.
“Enter.”Caleb’s voice shook, raw and emotional.
Liam appeared, his expression grim.“Cap’n, a mob with torches is making for the docks.”
Desi turned to see Caleb dismiss him, march to Patches’s bed, thrust a hand within the folds, and draw forth the authentic Ring, its gold band glimmering in the lantern’s glow.
He moved to her, grasped her hand and pressed a kiss upon it.His thumb lingered against her cheek.“Stay here.”
Then with a storm in his eyes, he was gone.
♥
Caleb leapt onto the main deck and marched to the railing, halting beside Alden, just as a mob of at least fifty men, torches aloft, blades and clubs flashing, stomped down the dock, shaking the wooden planks beneath their boots.The marquis was not among them.No man of his station would soil his hands with such plebeian fury.Yet, oft a patron’s designs were worse when carried out by other men’s blood and fear.
“What do you suppose they want?”Alden said, gripping the hilt of his blade.
“They aren’t comin’ fer tea,” Shorty spat from the other side of Alden.
The remainder of the watch lined the railing farther down, Levi, Keg, Blaire, Craden and two others, all shouldering muskets and fixing the crowd with hard, steady eyes.
Caleb glanced aloft.“Why are there only two musketeers in the tops?”
Liam eased on Caleb’s other side.“The rest have gone to their cots, Captain.Fever’s got them.”
