His Lover from Long Ago: A Time Travel Romance Page 11
She caught enough of his meaning to chuckle, and drew some lazy circles of her own on his chest. “He wants to be your squire. He is a good boy. Not like Lancelot.”
“We shall see. If he stops apologizing, I may let him join the crew. He doesn’t know how to be a paying passenger, anyway. He keeps working.”
He fell silent, and put both arms around her to keep her more securely against his warm skin. She slid her leg in between his, feeling safe in her new world.
“Vivien nearly ruined this cabin looking for that ruby. Where did you have it hidden?”
“I had it here.” She tapped her hair, still coiled in its braids in her royal aunt’s favorite style. “A jewel in the crown, you see?”
Griffin laughed, a wonderful sound from deep in his chest. “No wonder you were standing like a queen. If you’d lost your regal bearing, a ruby might have fallen from your braids.”
She caught his meaning. It was surprising he hadn’t seen her slipping her fingers into her braids before she’d held up the ruby.
Her smiled faded. Of course he hadn’t seen her do that. He’d been staring down the barrels of two pistols. To Kayna, the ruby had become worthless in that instant. Whether it held Camelot’s magic or not, it had been no more valuable to her than a chunk of wood. Emeralds, rubies, sapphires, diamonds—nothing was as valuable as Griffin’s life.
He rubbed her back in a sympathetic way. “I am sorry to lose that ruby. It brought you to me.”
“I want it no more. Everything is here, so I want here. I am the wife.” She felt clumsy with his language, but she must have made him understand her heart, because he held her tighter still, and dropped a kiss on her crown of braids.
Her hair should be undone before bed, but that ritual had needed to wait. Once the door had been repaired, everything had needed to wait until she and Griffin could satisfy the compulsion to touch each other. Kissing was not nearly enough. When they’d fallen onto the bed together, their clothing had been too much. And this time, when his fingers had made her desperate with want, he’d knelt between her legs and lifted her hips and had claimed her as a man claimed a wife.
She could feel her cheeks redden, yet she felt more pride than embarrassment. It was a wondrous thing to know her body could bring Griffin that same explosion of pleasure that he’d given her.
Perhaps he’d changed his mind about waiting for a wedding once she’d explained that bed often came before marriage when Merlin was doing the matchmaking. Perhaps Griffin’s declaration of intent on the deck before all his warriors had been as binding as a wedding in this century as it would have been in hers.
Or perhaps it had been neither of those things. They’d just had a cold reminder that life could be cut short, and it had seemed vital to reassure themselves they were still alive. Their futures were joined now, and so were they, hearts and souls and bodies.
“What are you thinking?” he asked.
“I’m happy.” The gryphon’s language was beautiful after all, one she could use to sum up all that was in her heart in two words.
She felt him smile into her braids. “Are you not worried that the ruby will fall into the wrong hands?”
She lifted her head to look at him in the moonlight that shined through the glass windows. “It is magic. It will go where it needs to go.”
“It was your last gift from Camelot.”
“No.” She sighed, feeling as wonderfully drowsy as her ship at anchor. “You are my gift. You are a man more...” Her sleepy mind struggled for the right words. “More than the ruby. Griffin say it.”
He kissed her first. “You are more precious than all the rubies in the world. I love you.”
Precious. That was the word he’d used, saying a ship was more precious than a ruby. “Captain Griffin Dennehay from all England, you are more precious than all the rubies in the world. And all the ships. I love you.”
As she drifted off to sleep, the right words came to her. “For all time.”
Want to learn more about Griffin’s friend Jonas Black, the former captain of the Redemption? Read Caro Carson’s novella, Her Pirate from the Past.
About Caro Carson
Despite a no-nonsense background as a West Point graduate and U.S. Army officer, Rita® winner Caro Carson has always treasured the happily-ever-after of a good romance novel. After reading romances no matter where in the world the Army sent her, Caro began a career in the pharmaceutical industry, never guessing the years she spent discussing science with physicians would provide excellent story material for her new career as a romance author. Now, Caro is delighted to be living her own happily-ever-after with her husband and two children in the great state of Florida, a location which has saved the coaster-loving theme park fanatic a fortune on plane tickets.
You can find her on Facebook, where she spends far too much time, on Twitter at @TheCaroCarson, or you can drop her a note through her website at http://www.CaroCarson.com.
Also By Caro Carson
For a complete printable booklist, please visit Caro’s website here.
Series: Jewel Box Anthologies
Her Pirate from the Past
His Lover from Long Ago (this book)
Series: Texas Rescue
Following Doctor’s Orders
A Texas Rescue Christmas (winner of the 2014 RITA® award)
Not Just a Cowboy
Her Texas Rescue Doctor
A Cowboy’s Wish Upon a Star
How to Train a Cowboy
Series: The Doctors MacDowell
Doctor, Soldier, Daddy
The Doctor’s Former Fiancée
The Bachelor Doctor’s Bride (nominated for the 2014 RITA® award)
Series: Harlequin’s Montana Mavericks
The Maverick’s Holiday Masquerade