On a Long Ago Night by Susan Sizemore

such tender, fair skin.
    Her bright eyes were full of many conflicting feelings,
    and Diego could read them all. "You'll find veils useful,"
    he told her and stepped behind the cabin's scarred
    writing table. "Come here, Honoria Pyne."
    She stood tensely in the center of the cabin for a few
    moments, swaying easily with the movement of the ship.
    The galley cut swiftly through the calm southern
    Mediterranean, the rowers obeying the steady drumbeat
    that set the time of their strokes. To Diego the drum was
    as familiar as his heartbeat. He perceived it now only
    because he noticed the subtle way her body moved to the
    primitive rhythm. It was not the sound that quickened his
    pulse, but the sensual sway of the woman's beautifully
    rounded hips and breasts.
    He couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to
    see her dance.

    "Why are you smiling like that, James?"
    James looked at his father's puzzled face, then tilted
    back his head and laughed.
    "Some things," he said, "a man cannot discuss with
    his father."
    "Things of a delicate nature, I presume?" James
    expected his father to look disapproving, but instead saw
    fond amusement in his pale blue eyes. "It's a blessing that
    you're still attracted to the young lady." He tilted his head
    to one side. "You were thinking of Lady Alexandra, I
    trust?"
    The question struck James like a blow. His first
    thought was, Who ? He stared at the fish on his plate,
    which stared blankly back, because he could not face his
    father's discerning gaze as he replied, "Of course."
    Lady Alexandra. Who the devil was Lady
    Alexandra? Haughty, he recalled, stiff as a board, and
    proud beyond bearing. There had been no life in her cold
    eyes, nothing but disdain in her demeanor. She was a
    duke's daughter, too good for the likes of him, and she
    knew it. She was also Honoria Pyne. The two were one
    and the same, and nothing alike. A rush of pain and anger
    went through him with the knowledge that his Honoria
    had lied to him. Every word she spoke, every deed, every
    look and touch, all the passion, from the moment they
    met, had been a lie.
    His. Oh, yes. She had been his, in every way a
    woman could belong to a man. His lips lifted in a grim
    smile as he remembered how alike he and the duke's
    daughter were on some basic, primeval level. It wasn't
    just in how their bodies fitted so perfectly together; there
    was a matching of souls between the duchess and the
    pirate. After all, everything he had done was a lie, as
    well.
    "You should save your smiles for the lady herself,"
    Edward Marbury said, and tossed a pile of envelopes
    across the table. James looked up questioningly as the
    fine, heavy stack of paper landed beside his plate.
    "What's this?" He rifled through the pile.
    "Invitations, of course," Edward Marbury answered.
    "And a few letters."
    Letters. James fought the surges of both bitterness
    and irony. Everything between them had begun because
    of a letter.

    "What is this?" Honoria asked, as the pirate thrust
    several pieces of paper across the table at her. A bright
    smile flashed across his bearded face.
    "We should have done this yesterday. How is your
    sick friend?"
    " My betrothed," she corrected swiftly. It shamed her
    to admit that she reminded herself of the sacred
    relationship she shared with Derrick as much as she did
    the corsair whose touch … "
    Derrick and I will wed," she reminded the Spaniard .
    "If you make it home."
    His tone was a dangerous, frightening purr. Honoria
    swallowed her fear. "If?" she asked coolly. "It is my
    understanding that there is an unofficial agreement about
    the return of captives between His Majesty's government
    and the Bey of Algiers."
    "Understanding?" He laughed softly. "Sweetheart,
    you understand nothing."
    She understood that he was large and dangerous
    and frightening. She understood that she was in chains,
    that the man she was to marry and her best friend were
    locked in the hold of a corsair galley. She understood that
    she was