“You little minx, you beguiled me from the first moment when you mistook me for my brother. I was enchanted, and I think I have been so ever since. I always shall be, I suppose. I have resigned myself to it.”
Her luscious mouth puckered into a discontented moue. “You do not sound very pleased about it.”
“On the contrary, wife.” He lowered his head to touch his lips to hers. Meeting his kiss, she then lingered near his mouth as he spoke softly. “I am ecstatic at the prospect. How much you have given me, Lily! Never forget it. I never will, I promise you that. You are my life. And I shall cherish you and honor you—and, yes, trust, you evermore.”
She sighed, molding against his body in that way she had that set his loins on fire. He gathered her hair in his hands, inhaling deeply of her scent as words deserted him. His kiss descended again, this time filled with all the unsaid promises held in his heart and she answered his message with her own, sealing their souls until the passion was overwhelming, a raging heat yearning to be quenched.
It was much later, when they lay curled together upon the tousled furs, limbs intertwined, that Rogan spoke again.
Taking Lily’s chin between his thumb and forefinger, he tilted her face up to his and said simply, “I love you.”
* * * * *
JACQUELINE NAVIN
Jacqueline Navin is thrilled, to be part of Harlequin Historicals’ ten-year anniversary. She has been a reader of historical romance for twice that long—at least!—and can hardly believe her stories are now among the wonderful books she’s loved for so long.
Publishing a novel was a distant dream until The Maiden and the Warnor was released by Harlequin Histoncals in March 1998. A native Philadelphian and University of Pennsylvania graduate with a Ph.D. in Psychology, she lives in Maryland where she divides her time between family, writing and her private practice.
You can write to her at P.O. Box 1611, Bel Air, MD 21014.
eISBN: 978-14592-6131-0
THE FLOWER AND THE SWORD
Copyright © 1998 by Jacqueline Navin
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