“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.

I started crying again as Kade took the ring out and picked up my left hand.

“It’s a princess cut diamond, of course,” he said, his lips twisting in a grin as he slipped the ring onto my finger, “and they don’t make them any bigger than this.”

I laughed through my tears, reaching up to pull him down for a watery kiss.

“Thank you,” I said, looking up at him. “It’s beautiful.”

Kade’s grin widened. “I done good,” he said smugly.

I rolled my eyes. His arrogance knew no bounds, but in this, he was correct. The ring was exquisite, diamonds embedded into the platinum band on either side of the stone.

“I love you, Kade, even if you hadn’t ‘done good,’” I said, then raised an eyebrow. “But if you ever even think of leaving me again, I will kick your ass.”

His face turned serious in an instant. Taking my hand, he placed it on his chest, directly over his heart.

“I won’t. I swear it. I’ll never leave you.”

Then the moment was broken when his lips twisted and he said, “But I would like to see you try to kick my ass.” His eyebrows waggled suggestively.

I pinched him.

“Ouch,” he said with feigned hurt. “I didn’t know you liked to play dirty.”

I could feel my face heating and couldn’t smother my grin. “There’s more where that came from, pretty boy,” I warned him.

“I certainly hope so.”

I squealed in surprise when he tossed me down on my back, then he was scooting down my body until I felt the warmth of his breath against my inner thighs.

I started to protest. I hadn’t showered after our last bout of lovemaking and was immediately self-conscious. But then his mouth was on me, his hands pressing my legs farther apart as he slowly licked me. The feeling was torturous, the warm heat of his tongue dipping inside me then sliding to my clit, wiping every objection from my mind.

It seemed Kade didn’t mind dirty at all.