The Pirate & The Adventurer & The Cowboy

a golden opportunity to make a point. "She didn't trust him."

    "How could she? The man was a pirate."

    "Depends on your point of view. He didn't attack English ships. Just those of England's enemies. Enjoy your swim this morning?"

    "Yes."

    "You went snorkeling with Taylor, didn't you?"

    "Yes." She forked up her tuna and sampled it tentatively, then nodded in approval.

    Jared sighed and put down his fork. "Did you do it just to show me that you could get away with seeing Taylor after I told you I didn't want you hanging around with him?"

    "No. I went swimming with him because I had already made the arrangement last night. You probably heard me make it, since you were lying on my bed eavesdropping at the time."

    "You're not really interested in him, are you?" Jared was sure of that, which was the main reason he hadn't gone down to the cove this morning and interrupted the snorkeling activity.

    "No, I'm not seriously interested in him. He's a nice guy who asked me to swim with him, and I'm supposed to be enjoying myself on vacation, so I went."

    "Meaning you don't enjoy yourself with me?"

    "I wouldn't say that. I like being with you when you're not grilling me or giving me orders or telling me to mind my own business. Unfortunately, that leaves a very small amount of time in which I can actually enjoy myself."

    "Now I know how Roger Hawthorne felt when he realized he'd kidnapped a professional shrew."

    "But the good time we do have together makes it all worth it," Kate concluded, her eyes flashing with feminine mischief.

    Jared felt himself slipping under the spell of her provocative smile. He took a firm grip on himself and picked up his fork. This was neither the time nor the place to take her into his arms. He had work to do this afternoon. "All right, I'm ready to change the subject again."

    "What would you like to discuss now? Ready to tell me what's going on up at the castle?"

    "No, dammit." His temper erupted in a flash. The woman did not know when to quit. "And furthermore, I don't want to hear one more word about it. Clear?"

    "Clear." She went back to eating and made no effort to introduce another subject.

    Jared gave her five minutes of silence. Then he could no longer resist asking the question that had been at the back of his mind for several days. "I'm not like him at all, am I?"

    She did not pretend to misunderstand. "My ex-husband? No, you're not like him at all. As you said, night and day."

    He heard himself ask the next question before he had the good sense to think about what he was saying. "If you were ever to get married again, would you want someone like him? I mean someone like the man you thought he was when you married him? A sensitive, literary type? A guy with the soul of a poet or whatever it was you thought he had going for him?"

    "Nope." Kate worked steadily on her tuna, apparently relishing every bite.

    "I see." Jared found himself stewing in unaccustomed frustration. He hadn't wanted to ask the question in the first place, but having asked it, he had certainly expected a more complete answer than the one he had gotten. Kate was normally chatty as hell. "Do you, uh, know what you'd want the second time around?"

    "No, but I expect I'll know it when I see it. Think you'll ever find someone who will fill Gabriella's shoes?"

    That startled him. "I don't know." He frowned down at his tuna, trying to sort through his jumbled thoughts. "I'm not sure if that's really what I want, anyway. I used to think it was. But maybe it's not such a good idea. Lately, I've started wondering. I loved her. If she were still alive, I would still love her. But she's gone and I've done some changing and nothing stays the same, does it?"

    "No." Kate smiled with a curious understanding. "That's the one sure thing in life. Nothing stays the same."

    Jared nodded and then found himself saying aloud something he had never admitted to a living soul. "I had to be so careful with Gabby. She was very fragile. So gentle. You could crush her with just a look. I treated her like rare crystal most of the time, but once in a while I didn't and then I'd feel guilty for days."

    "I know what that kind of guilt is like. I wasn't always gentle enough with my husband," Kate said. "I would get impatient with him. His ego was so fragile and he used to get so depressed so easily. I don't think I was as understanding and compassionate as I should have been. It must have been hard on him watching me get