On a Long Ago Night Read Online Free PDF Page A

he
    remembered all too well the sweet curves of her body.
    His mouth almost watered at the memory of that amazing
    body. Frustrated, he ran his hands through his neatly
    trimmed hair, then tiredly down the sides of his now
    beardless face. Oh, he had made mistakes, all right. Many
    of them. The worst mistake of all, eight years before.

    Don't be a fool, Diego told himself, as he laughed and
    angrily pulled the tall woman closer. She fitted perfectly
    against him, hip to hip, with the buxom, lush body of a
    real woman beneath the concealing layers of heavy
    clothing. She was dressed all in black, as he was all in
    white. Her hair was loose about her shoulders, a tangled
    mass whipped by the wind, blazing in the sunlight. It
    should have been modestly covered. Her eyes blazed as
    well. Without a veil to cover her emotions, her face
    showed the world that she was utterly without fear, full of
    brave passion. It was obvious that no one had ever
    commanded this woman, that she didn't think anyone
    could .
    Ibrahim Rais will call it your mistake if anything
    happens to a valuable hostage, he reminded himself, as a
    bullet slammed into the deck near where they stood .
    You'll pay the price if she gets herself killed.
    The woman, with her fiery temper and hair to match,
    provoked him, with her words, with the wild anger she
    turned on him. It wasn't only his temper she aroused,
    either. In the midst of a battle when he had far more
    necessary things to do, he came upon this milk-skinned
    black-clad bundle of fury, and —
    "You speak Arabic!"
    "Get your hands off me, pig."
    When he responded to this insult with a few very
    rude words in Spanish, her cheeks flushed bright red, and
    she slapped his face. Diego laughed again, though his
    cheek stung fiercely — but not as fiercely as the joy that
    flooded him. "A scholar." He pulled her even closer,
    putting his lips close to her ear. He whispered, "Tell me,
    fox-hair, can you read ?"
    She struggled in his embrace. "Let me go! I have to
    help Der — my fiancé ."

    "I should have let him die," James murmured. "That was
    my worst mistake. Pity the wound wasn't deep enough to
    do the job."
    "Your temper, James…" His father paused, and then
    he laughed. "All right, son, I won't try to talk you out of
    that particular urge for revenge." The viscount crossed to
    a side table and came back with snifters holding a small
    amount of brandy for each of them. He handed James
    one, then took a seat in a nearby chair. "I think we need to
    revise our strategy, don't you?"
    James tasted the powerful spirit, then answered,
    "None of this makes sense to me, sir."
    "Quite understandable. Or rather, quite confusing."
    The viscount put his untouched glass down on the desk.
    He looked intensely curious as he leaned forward and
    said, "I hate to harp on this subject, because I'm sure you
    trust your perceptions, but how is it that the Lady
    Alexandra is the woman you're looking for?"
    A thought struck James. "How is it that you did not
    know they were the same woman? You told me that
    you've known the duke since you were boys."
    "I have, though we've lost touch occasionally since
    we were at school. I don't see how my old friend and your
    Honoria could be connected."

    She did not belong to him, but she did not know that. He'd
    had her brought to his cabin. She didn't know it was the
    safest place on the corsair galley for her to be. Her eyes
    were large blue pools in a face that was pale in the
    lamplight. Freckles stood out starkly against her fine
    white skin. Diego fought the urge to trace the line of them
    across her nose and cheeks. Her full mouth was drawn
    into a hard, brave line. He wondered if he could tease a
    smile from those lips somehow. But he stuck to business,
    standing tall and menacing before her. He wore fresh
    white robes and had bathed after the battle, while the
    proud girl wore the chains of a captive.
    He took a step closer to her. "What's your name, fox-
    hair?"

    "But you know