" Maybe there is a way to have it all,” he said, lowering his head to hers. “If you want me, Starfish, we’ll find that way.”
“I do,” she said, the sudden prickle of tears surprising her, but it was such a huge rush finally to admit it, to tell him. To tell herself. “But--”
“No buts,” he said, kissing the damp from the corner of one eye, then the other. “We’ll sort it out,” he said. “It’s what we do for the people we love.”
If she hadn’t already been certain her heart had tipped his way, it was definitely in free fall now. She reached up, stroked his face. “What have I done to deserve you?” she asked, quite serious. “Why me?”
“Because you’re made for me,” he replied. “I knew it from the moment I met you.” He leaned in, kissed the side of her jaw. “It’s not about earning or deserving. Everyone deserves to be loved.” He lifted his head, and the intensity of his gaze was matched by the slow slide of his beautiful, cocky, sexy-as-hell grin. “We just have to be smart enough to recognize our perfect match when we find it.”
Her smile matched his, her heart bumping hard inside her chest. “Are you calling me a dummy?”
“Not at all. I’m just saying that maybe some of us caught on a bit faster than others.”
She tried to hook his ankle and roll him to his back but he was on to that move.
“Now, now, my little pirate wench, the only one with a hook is me.” He rolled fully on top of her, then, bracing his weight even as he nudged her thighs apart.
“My, my,” she teased, her heart full to bursting, “what a big…sword you have.”
“All the better to pillage you with,” he murmured, lowering his head again.
“I should tell you one more thing,” she whispered, making him lift his head a bit, an eyebrow raised in question. “I’m protected. Makes traveling easier when you know what will be happening when,” she explained. “So if you’re okay with, uh, keeping your sword there unsheathed, I’m okay with--”
“Oh, aye, I’m very okay,” he said, eyes gleaming that much more brightly.
“Good,” she sighed, then tipped her head back and arched up into him. “Please feel free to pillage away. "

― Donna Kauffman , Starfish Moon (Brides of Blueberry Cove, #3)