The Pirate & The Adventurer & The Cowboy

arms of a nineteenth-century sailor who wore a gold earring in one ear.

    Kate lost track after the sailor. The truth was she didn't care who partnered her. She was lost in the fantasy. She floated around the floor in the arms of strangers and imagined herself to be a fine Regency lady who had been kidnapped and carried off to the island kingdom of a wealthy, dangerous pirate, who was secretly the son of an earl.

    The man had his reasons for turning pirate, Kate decided, automatically plotting a novel in her head while she danced. Vengeance, perhaps. Whatever the reason, someday he would return to England to claim his title and his estates. But in the meantime he lived a life of violence and elegance here on a tropical island. And he was tired of living it alone. Hence the kidnapping of the lovely lady. How else was such a man to obtain a bride?

    At the end of the first hour of steady waltzing, Kate finally allowed herself to take a short break. Edging through the crowded lobby, she made her way outside into the scented, balmy night.

    She just wanted a few minutes alone in the moonlight to catch her breath, she decided, as she moved along the garden path. She was feeling oddly enthralled, almost light-headed. She wanted to savor the fantasy. Tomorrow she would dig out a notepad and jot down all the plot ideas that were occurring to her tonight.

    For a moment she thought she was dreaming when she rounded a bend in the garden path and saw the rakish, dark-haired buccaneer waiting for her. He lounged in the shadows of a palm, his wide-sleeved white shirt giving him a ghostlike appearance in the moonlight. He wore a leather belt and gleaming leather boots. The handle of a surprisingly lethal-looking dagger gleamed at his hip. His black half mask shielded the upper portion of his face. The polite inclination of his head was both elegant and arrogant. Kate halted a few feet away.

    "I trust you are enjoying yourself, madam?" Jared asked, smiling faintly. He didn't stir from the shadows.

    Did he know who she was, Kate wondered. Possibly. She had recognized him instantly, even before she heard his distinctive, rough-textured voice. She realized with a small shock that she would have known him anywhere.

    "I am enjoying the evening very much." Kate was suddenly afraid to move lest she shatter the shimmering magic.

    "Did you know the ball is in honor of my birthday?"

    Kate regarded him with deep interest. "I was told the ball was in honor of a certain pirate's birthday."

    "I never liked the word pirate myself. Too difficult to define. One man's pirate is another man's loyal privateer, still another's hard-working sea captain."

    "Now I myself have never had any trouble spotting a true pirate the minute I see one," Kate said.

    "Have you ever actually seen one?"

    She thought of the man who had haunted her dreams most of her adult life, the pirate who existed only in her imagination. "Oh, yes. I've seen one."

    "Ah, so you consider yourself an expert on the subject?"

    "I like to think so."

    "But even experts make mistakes." Jared held out his arm. "Will you walk with me in the gardens, Madam Expert?"

    Kate hesitated for an instant, a delicious sensation of adventure making her cautious. The entire evening was beginning to feel like something out of a dream, and though she was in the business of creating dreams she had never before found herself in the middle of one.

    But dreams, she was discovering, had a power all their own. On impulse she stepped forward and curled her fingers around Jared's arm.

    "Tell me about yourself, my lord pirate," she said as they began to stroll through the scented tropical greenery.

    "What would you like to know?"

    "Well, to begin with, why did you come here to AmethystIsland?"

    "I think you know the answer to that."

    She nodded. "You wanted to carve out your own kingdom."

    "There are not many places left in the world where a man can do that. Some men were not born to live in cities or to work for corporations or to answer to others. Some men prefer to live on their own terms and keep civilization at arm's length."

    "I can understand that."

    "Can you?" Jared sounded intrigued.

    "Of course. I write about such men all the time."

    "Ah, yes. The heroes of your books. Maybe you do understand. Tell me, Kate, why do you set your stories in the past?"

    She smiled. "That's a good question. I'm not certain of the answer, but it's probably because so many modern men seem unsure of