“You two boys need some harping to keep ya in line. Now enough of this horseplay!” Millie turned and yelled, “Hey, Maria! Come out here and clear off a table for these two peacocks before this red-bearded rascal dwindles away to nothing but a dung pile.”
From the back room came a sudden clang of pots and pans mixed with a string of Spanish curses. The cacophony ended with the shout of Spanish-accented words “... her slave!”
A buxom dark hair Spanish girl stormed through the kitchen door. She glowered at Millie, but her look changed to one of delight when she saw the two men across the room. She rushed to clear off the dirty dishes.
Mumbling something about that gal needin’ mouth slappin’, Millie aimed her wooden weaponry toward the table. “Plant yore setters over there, boys, if ya want to eat. I gotta get back in that there kitchen.”
A few moments later, the blood-warming aroma of potent black coffee wafted up from their just-filled cups. Kit sipped the hot brew, watching Lee, who was busy flirting with Maria. He envied his friend’s finesse with women—his ability to keep his affairs casual. Women didn’t cling to Lee, although he drew them like flies to a grub mule.
Kit didn’t have that skill. After his soured marriage, he’d vowed never to let a woman get so close again. His experience taught him that when you loved a woman and placed your heart in her feminine hands, you gave her power. Too much power. Jo’s powerful little hands had changed to claws that shredded any illusions he had about love and marriage.
But Lee was untouched. A virgin heart. Kit had seen him breeze into port and literally charm the clothes off a woman—make that women—and to Kit’s amazement, when Lee left, those women were happy and smiling instead of clinging.
Kit raised the thick-bowled cup in his hands and stared into it as if there were answer there. The few encounters he’d had since he moved to San Francisco had not been worth the trouble. His brief affair with a widow was physically satisfying, until she began to cling to him like a burr. He’d made it clear from the start that he would never remarry, but she’d sought to change his mind, and failed. After that, well, it was easier to hire a woman for the night. No illusions and no chains, just physical release. Only lately, women left him cold, until today.
He hadn’t been cold this afternoon. He’d been singed by a passion he’d thought was lost. His run-in with Hallie Fredriksen had certainly reignited his blood. For those few moments, he had been alive again.In his mind, he would still remember her warm mouth.
And he didn’t like it.
A commotion in the doorway caught his attention. Standing inside, surrounded by smaller, cloaked figures, was Hallie Fredriksen...and her warm mouth.
She removed her cloak and bonnet and reached upward toward the high peg that sat empty. Kit sucked in a deep breath. The dress clung to her torso, and when she turned, her magnificent chest was draped with lace, a sheer, fine lace that let the soft pink fabric of her dress whisper through. For a brief moment, Kit thought the fabric was her skin.
She stooped to untie the cap strings on the fidgeting boys, and the bending action caused the lace to angle to the floor, unveiling the outline of her breasts as they swelled with her downward movement.
Kit’s blood burned.
Grasping after the water pitcher, he dumped the cool water into a mug and gulped it down, thinking that he should have dumped it on his head. “Two years,” Kit grumbled to himself. “For two years she’s invisible, and now I get two doses in one day.”
“Doses?” Lee looked at him from around Maria, who was sprawled like a napkin in his lap. “Sounds vile, like cod-liver oil.” Lee looked at Kit’s scowl and then toward the group near the door. “My, my, if it isn’t just what the doctor ordered.”
Kit’s gaze met Hallie’s.
Lee lifted Maria off his lap. “You had better get back to the kitchen,querida, before Millie flays my skin for keeping you too busy.” He gave her an affectionate swat and a wink. “I want to watch my friend here while he tries to swallow his medicine.”
4
Hallie was scared. She could feel the pounding of her heart all the way up to her ears. As Dagny helped her herd the children through the dining-house door, Hallie wondered if maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.
When she’d stood in the homey security of her kitchen, aching to think of some way to spur Kit Howland’s interest, her plan had made sense. The walk down to The Grotto gave her creative imagination a chance to unfurl, and soon, her beguiled heart’s dream limned itself to life inside her furtive head. In vivid color, she envisioned the whole scene. They would arrive early enough so she could get the children fed and calm before the place overflowed with hungry diners. Since Da always met the men after six, her plan gave her plenty of time to set the stage. Kit would walk in, see the children—they were always well-behaved after their stomachs were full—and then he would turn those deep emerald eyes toward Hallie, and he would see...the woman.
It was the perfect plan.
But now, when she stood in the foyer of the dining house, something didn’t feel right. She removed her bonnet and the boys’ caps and coats and hung them on the wall, then looked around the room for the perfect table and saw Kit.
Her stomach dove like a sounding whale.
Hallie closed her eyes briefly, hoping that when she reopened them the table would be empty, that Kit was only the same apparition she’d been seeing ever since he’s kissed her. But he was still sitting there when she opened her eyes.
She felt a tug on her hands and realized that Knut and Gunnar had pulled her into the room and they were heading straight for the large, empty table next to Kit.
A woman, prove you’re a woman in control!She pulled them back, knowing that she could not allow them to drag her across the room. She had to show how well she could control them. Her grip tightened on their fingers and she bent down to whisper a bribe. “Behave yourselves and I’ll let you have my dessert too.”
With a twin gripped in each hand, Hallie strolled toward the empty table, every inch the poised lady, while Liv and Dagny trailed demurely behind. The men stood, Lee smiling a greeting and Kit looking as if he’d been sucking a lemon.
“Evening, ladies.” Lee pulled a chair away from the neighboring table and, with his usual charm, indicated that one of the girls should be seated. Hallie nudged Dagny toward the chair, and with an expectant air she turned toward Kit, determined not to let his sour expression deter her. When he pulled out an empty chair, Hallie sneaked a peek over her shoulder. His vinegary expression had changed. In its place was an intense look, and it wasn’t aimed at her face. His gaze rested somewhere below her chin, and she had a good idea exactly where he was looking, for she felt a tightening at the crests of her bosom. Her regal composure slipped a notch, until it dawned on her that a man didn’t leer at a child’s chest.
It’s working.She took a deep breath and sat, reworking her course of action and trying to figure out what he was thinking. When no new plan came to mind, Hallie, raised a good Christian, turned to a higher source.Please let him see the real me, not the foolish girl he has known. She was so busy trying to ensure her plea by mentally reciting the Apostles’ Creed that she ignored the twins.
