The Gentle Highwayman

the long version

Ahab had forgotten how lovely she was -- this spoiled and deceitful 'lady' who had once done her best to see him hanged. Now, imprisoned by her marriage to the brutish Lord Dacre, she was desperately begging him to help her escape to her childhood home in Jersey. It was a moment he had waited for six long years. She was at his mercy. He should have savored refusing her, hurting her, but somehow it was not a triumph at all. It was strange and cruelly unfair that this girl, his longtime enemy, should have the power to touch his heart with pity -- and with desire....