The last thing Justin Connor expected to find washed up on the wild shores of New Zealand was a young woman asleep on the sand, curled like a child beneath the moonlight. Though fiercely protective of the haven he had found on this island paradise, Justin was compelled to rescue this mysterious refugee, little realizing she would shatter his peace forever with her defiant courage, her vivid beauty, and the memories she stirred of a past best forgotten.
Orphaned, cheated of her inheritance, Emily Claire Scarborough had sailed halfway around the world to find the man who promised her father to take care of her - and instead had left her a charity case in an English boarding school. She never dreamed she'd be tossed by the pounding surf practically at his feet, or that she'd find him a disturbingly handsome recluse with the look of a pirate... and a disarming tenderness in his amber-flecked eyes. Confused by conflicting emotions, Emily was determined to make Justin pay for her years of loneliness - with nothing less than his heart.
Excerpt:
Justin knew he would never forget the way Emily looked, standing alone on the stretch of beach where he had first found her. She was as rare and exotic as a wild English rose blooming in the desert. The wind tousled her curls and whipped at her skirt. Her chin tilted in defiance even as she twisted her hands together for courage.
As he angled toward her, he could feel his face hardening in ruthless lines of desperation. "I don't like you," he said.
"I don't like you either."
Each weighted step through the damp sand carried him nearer to his destruction. "I'm too old for you."
"Much."
He tangled his hand in her curls, drawing her head back until her mouth was a scant breath from his own. "I won't marry you."
Her hand crept around his nape. "I wouldn't have you."
"Oh, you'll have me."
She shivered at his husky promise. His mouth closed on hers, tracing its shape, its softness with a patience and delicacy he was far from feeling. He wanted to make her ache deep inside, as he was aching. He rubbed his lips across hers, nibbling and coaxing with an expertise he'd almost forgotten he possessed. He was determined to stoke the flame of her need with exquisite stealth until she burned for only him.
Her lips parted shyly beneath the tantalizing pressure, burning his restraint to cinders....
