Since the Surrender (38 page)

Said with such absolute certainty and finality. The way he said everything.

There passed a silence noisy with glorious unspoken things, during which they gazed at each other and she couldn’t feel her hands or her toes. She was tempted to reach behind her to see whether perhaps she’d sprouted wings, like that prurient angel in the Rubinetto painting.

Imagine Captain Charles Eversea, offering up his grand, brave, scarred, difficult, beautiful heart to her.

She would die for the honor of protecting his heart forever.

“Chase?”

He waited, pale, his jaw taut, his eyes fiercely blue.

“I love you, too.” His voice had been so bold. Hers emerged a whisper. Damn.

She reached up an impatient hand to knuckle away tears, because she didn’t want a single second of this moment to be blurred. Slowly, slowly, he simply smiled.

“And Chase?”

He waited. His breath appeared to be held.

She wanted to be the one to give the order this time.

“We ought to marry.”

He went utterly still.

Something fierce and brilliant suffused his face. And then he closed his eyes and inhaled like a man taking his first ever breath. He released it slowly.

When he opened his eyes again, he gave his head a disbelieving shake.

She knew how he felt: How did I become so lucky?

They beamed like ninnies, like besotted schoolchildren, and then Chase startled her by closing the distance between them with one long step.

Gently, as though she’d suddenly become breakable, tentatively, in acknowledgment to how new this was to both of them, he pulled her into his arms as though still uncertain she was his to keep. She reassured him; she went to him easily; she clung. He folded her tightly into him, and beneath her cheek his breath went out in a sigh, a very final sound, a sound of home.

She linked her arms around his neck, threaded her hand up through his hair, and her lips found his. The kiss began awkwardly, and became fierce, then deep, and then slow. A kiss that echoed the curve of the years they’d known each other, and they took their time about it. Because it was just the first kiss in what would be a lifetime’s worth of kisses.

Unsurprisingly, Liam was waiting outside for him when Chase left a few minutes later to inform the captain of The Courage he would not be on board as scheduled after all. He was passionate, but he was dutiful, and Rosalind approved.

“Where did you come from?” he said to the boy.

“Followed ye,” Liam said complacently.

“Ah,” Chase said.

“Ye’re walking like the blazes, Captain Eversea.” He was gleefully sly about it. “Almost dancin’…ye might say.”

“On air…you might say.”

“D’yer see the liedy?” Shrewd little cove.

“Oh, I saw the liedy.”

“Is she yer woman now?”

“Oh, aye, Liam. She’s my woman now. Now…” He turned around, walked backward a few steps, the sea behind him, Rosalind in front of him, watching him go and waiting for him to return. “…and forever.”

“Cor!” Liam said, and gave a hop. “Knew it all along!”

Acknowledgments

Much, much gratitude to my insightful, delightful editor, May Chen; to my agent, Steve Axelrod, for wisdom and Olympic-class pragmatism; to Kim Castillo, for cheerfully brilliant assistance; to the hardworking crew at Avon, who made the book you’re holding possible; and to all the lovely readers who help make writing such a joy.

About the Author

San Francisco Bay Area native JULIE ANNE LONG originally set out to be a rock star when she grew up (and she has the guitars and fringed clothing stuffed in the back of her closet to prove it), but writing was always her first love. She began her academic career as a Journalism major, until she realized Creative Writing was a better fit for her freewheeling imagination and overdeveloped sense of whimsy. And when playing guitar in dank, sticky clubs finally lost its

“charm,” Julie realized she could incorporate all the best things about being in a band—namely drama, passion, and men with unruly hair—into novels, while also indulging her love of history and research. Since then, her books have been nominated for awards, including the RITA®, Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice, the Holt Medallion, Bookseller’s Best, and The Quills, and reviewers have been known to use words such as “dazzling,” “brilliant,” and

“impossible to put down” when describing them. Visit Julie at www.julieannelong.com, www.julieannelong.typepad.com, or www.myspace/julieannelong.

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Copyright

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

SINCE THE SURRENDER. Copyright © 2009 by Julie Anne Long. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books. Adobe Digital Edition June 2009 ISBN 978-0-06-189359-9

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