Kade rested on his elbows, his body above mine, one knee insinuated between my legs. “We’re fine,” he assured me, leaning down to press a kiss to the underside of my jaw. My eyes slipped closed. His lips moved against the tender skin of my neck as he spoke. “The most dangerous thing around here,” he murmured, “is me.”
Then he started whispering in my ear, his dark voice telling me exactly what he planned to do with his mouth and tongue while his hands tugged my panties down and off my legs, and I forgot all about the noises outside.
The surprise destination wasn’t another country, but it was very far away.
“Hawaii?” I squeaked, looking at the departures board for our flight. I remembered when we were in Vegas and how Kade had told me about when he’d been to Hawaii and how he thought I’d like it.
“Just sunshine, beaches, palm trees, and miles of nothing but ocean,” Kade replied, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me back against him. His lips nuzzled my ear. “A trip to paradise sound good to you?”
My smile was so wide I thought my face might crack. “It sounds amazing,” I said, turning in his arms. “Thank you.” Just Kade and me, together in one of the most beautiful places on the planet? It sounded like heaven.
The flight was really long, though Kade had gotten us first-class seats, so it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been. When we landed in Honolulu, it was nighttime.
I was busy looking all around, taking in the airport, which was smaller than I’d thought it would be. Kade bought a lei with beautiful, bright pink flowers and placed it around my neck. The petals were soft and cold against my skin, the scent drifting up to me.
“Aloha,” he said, kissing me lightly. “Welcome to Hawaii, princess.”
We took a cab and Kade told the driver our destination. Twenty minutes later, he was paying the cabbie and getting our luggage from the trunk.
“This way,” he said.
I followed him, glancing around. The ocean breeze gently whipped the long skirt I wore around my legs. It seemed like we were at some sort of marina. I could hear the ocean lapping at the boats. Not that boats was really an appropriate word. My jaw fell open as Kade and I walked down a long pier. Yacht after huge yacht was berthed there, and I nearly tripped, I was so busy trying to see them all.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“Right here.”
Kade stopped in front of a yacht that looked different from the others we’d passed. It had rigging for sails and was longer.
“Here?” I asked in disbelief.
Kade’s lips twitched. “Yes, here.” He climbed aboard, set down the luggage, then reached out to help me.
I stood on the deck, looking around in amazement. It was beautiful, opulent. And big.
Kade moved suddenly and I gasped as he swung me up in his arms. Turning, he walked across the deck, stepping down into a room. I wasn’t paying attention to where he was taking me—I was too busy studying the curve of his jaw and line of his throat.
“Don’t take this the wrong way,” Kade said suddenly, “but I’d rather not knock you unconscious.”
“Wha—” was all I had time to say before Kade had slung me up and over his shoulder.
“I want to carry you, but the stairway’s too tight. So next best thing,” he explained.
“Please tell me you’re joking,” I said, bracing my hands against his back. Everything was upside down, though I did have a nice view of Kade’s ass. And what a fine ass it was . . .
“Duck!” Kade called out, and I squeaked as I narrowly missed cracking my skull. He carried me down a spiral staircase that just wouldn’t have worked had he been carrying me the other way.
The incongruity of the situation tickled my funny bone and I laughed. Even I could appreciate the ignominious entrance I was making to a multimillion-dollar yacht—ass first.
Kade stopped and swung me down into his arms again.
“There,” he said with a small smile. “That’s better.”
I smiled back, reaching up to curve my hand around the back of his neck and pulling him down to kiss me.
Kade lowered me to what I belatedly realized was a bed. We didn’t stop kissing. He lay between my legs, the denim of his jeans abrading the tender skin on the inside of my thighs as Kade inched the hem of my skirt up to my waist.
“Wait,” I said, worry crowding through the fog in my head. “What if Blane can’t call off the contract? Will they be able to find me here?” I couldn’t handle it if Kade was hurt again, and I knew he’d throw himself in harm’s way to protect me, which could get him killed. It had taken years off my life when he’d been shot. One too many close calls and eventually even his luck would run out.
Kade must have heard the worry in my voice, because he glanced down at me, his brow furrowing. “If they do, I’ll take care of it. No one’s going to hurt you. Not while I’m around.”
That’s what I was afraid of.
We christened the bed and several other places on the yacht that night, and when the sun peeked over the edge of the horizon, we were on the top deck, a sheet wrapped around us as I sat cuddled in Kade’s lap.
I watched the sky turn a faint turquoise, then rose, and finally the sun came up, a huge ball of red rising from the ocean.
“Wow,” I breathed. “It’s beautiful.” But Kade wasn’t looking at the sun, he was studying me, the backs of his fingers lightly brushing my cheek, then drifting to twine gently through my hair. I turned my face toward his, smiling. “You’re not even looking,” I accused.
He raised his head, his gaze serious. I lifted my hand to cup his cheek, the soft stubble a gentle abrasion against my skin. Kade closed his eyes, turning his face to kiss the center of my palm, then his eyes met mine again.
“I need to ask you something,” he said.
The seriousness of his tone struck a note of panic in me. What was wrong now?
Kade’s smile faded as he spoke. “I once told you that you made me want impossible things, and I was right. I never allowed myself to hope that the life I wanted would ever be in my reach. I’m a bad man, and I’ve done bad things, most without an inch of remorse. But I love you, and I love our baby.”
Tears began to leak from my eyes. Kade brushed away the tracks with his thumbs.
“I don’t deserve you,” he said, his voice a hoarse rasp. “I’m the absolute worst thing for you. My name isn’t honorable and I can’t change the selfish bastard that I am. But I want you, and I don’t ever want to be without you.”
I couldn’t speak, couldn’t look away from his eyes, so blue and so intense, his soul shining in them. A beautiful soul, no matter what he said.
“Marry me, princess?”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Tears blurred my vision, my throat too clogged with emotion for me to answer, so I just gave a vigorous nod as a sob built in my chest.
Kade hugged me so tight I could barely breathe. He rained kisses on my face—my forehead, cheeks, eyes, lips. He kissed me until I was breathless. When he finally lifted his head, his smile was blinding.
“I have something for you,” he said.
Before I could reply, he’d set me aside and jumped up with all the excitement of a kid at Christmas. He bent to grab his discarded jeans off the floor while I admired the view, then he was back and holding a small box.
I recognized the Tiffany blue immediately as he took my hand and set the box in my palm.
“I bought this when we were in Vegas,” he said. “I was out of my mind to even buy it—one hell of an impulse buy.”
My hands trembled as I opened the box. A ring was nestled inside, the stone reflecting the light in brilliant glimmers.