The newlywed bride of a Creole aristocrat, Celia Vallerand prays for deliverance from the bloodthirsty brigands who abducted her from a New Orleans-bound schooner. Though she believes her beloved husband slain, and despairs for her own life, the shy French beauty fears above all the dashing privateer who pays a king's ransom to claim her...and boldly risks capture to possess her.The most notorious pirate of the open seas, he is called and "the Griffin and " - a rugged and powerful renegade who arouses within Celia desires as dangerous as they are irresistible. But the magnificent adventurer is a man trapped in a perilous deception - and he guards a shocking secret that could deny him the love of the gossamer-haired enchantress who stirs his manly passions and enslaves his heart.