The Pirate & The Adventurer & The Cowboy

again. "All right, I'll admit I want something from you, but it's something I don't think you can give me, so it's better if I don't ask for it."

    "Stop talking in circles. Be honest with me, Kate. That's all I'm asking."

    "I'm not sure you deserve a lot of honesty. You haven't been overly honest with me, have you?"

    "Kate, stop baiting me."

    "All right, I'll tell you exactly what I think. I think I am in love with you, but I'm afraid of that fact precisely because you are too close to being the living image of the man of my dreams."

    Heady relief washed through him. "Honey, don't be afraid to let yourself love me."

    "Furthermore," she went on as if she hadn't heard him, "I think that you could learn to love me, but you're afraid to try because I'm not the image of the woman of your dreams."

    He absorbed that in silence for a long moment. "I hadn't thought about it that way. You think I'm so hung up on Gabriella's memory that I could never love you?"

    "Not exactly, but I think that because you were happy with her, you've decided you'd only be happy again with a woman who was a lot like her. Maybe you're right. We both know I'm not at all like her, Jared. In fact, I'm her opposite in many ways. You said it, yourself: night and day."

    "I don't want another Gabriella. I don't want another angel ." The words shocked him as much as her with their intensity. "I want a flesh-and-blood woman who understands that a man can't always be a saint. A woman who can put up with me when I lose my temper, one who won't crumple like a flower when I argue with her, one who can love me for what I am."

    She stared at him, her eyes luminous in the shadows. "I want a man who can love me for what I am, a man who's not constantly searching for some image of the past."

    "Maybe it's time we both stopped thinking in terms of preconceived dream images," Jared said. He touched her cheek. "I'm not still pining for Gabby. I swear it. I'll admit she left an impression in my mind of the sort of woman I could love. But that's all it was, just an impression, an idea. And you've trampled all over it. In fact, I don't think there's much left of it. When I think about the kind of woman I could love now, all I can think about is you."

    Kate looked up at him, her eyes clear and deep. Jared thought he could see her heart. Her fingers closed around his wrist as he stroked the line of her cheek.

    "Do you mean that, Jared?"

    He framed her face with his hands and was instantly captivated by the undisguised longing he saw in her gaze. "I mean it."

    He brought his mouth down onto hers, aware of an odd and unexpected rush of tenderness. She responded to it immediately, her lips softening under his, her body pressing close. For a long moment he savored the taste of her, letting himself drown in the knowledge that she wanted him. It felt so good, he thought; so right. Whatever had made him think she wasn't his type?

    The tenderness caught fire and blazed into the stark need Jared always seemed to feel when he took Kate into his arms. It was exhilarating to know that he did not have to temper the force of his desire with her. He could let himself go and she would respond fully and completely. She was a woman whose passions matched his own.

    "I want you, sweetheart. I've wanted you since the first time I saw you. You make me crazy, you know that?" He caught her around the waist and lifted her up off her feet. She clung to his shoulders, her green eyes brilliant with silent laughter.

    "I'm glad," she said. "You do the same to me and you know it. In fact, I'm beginning to think you know entirely too much about me."

    "Not a chance. I could spend the rest of my life getting to know you as well as I'd like." The rest of my life . Jared lowered her until her feet touched the veranda deck. He took one step over to the lounger, sat down and tugged her tenderly down beside him.

    He deliberately settled her full-length on the cushions, pushing her skirt up high on her thigh. Then he reached down, circled her delicate ankle with his hand and slowly stroked his palm upward. He loved the smooth curves of her legs and the deep, mysterious shadows that waited under the silk of her skirt. In a few minutes he would undress her and touch all those fabulous, hidden places and she would grow hot and moist with her need of him.

    The anticipation made him hard. Part of him urged him to make the moment last, but another part wanted to race recklessly toward the