Weakly she accepted it. She bit into the warm, crunchy toast and closed her eyes in bliss, feeling the honey and melting butter slide down her throat.
“Told you it was delicious,” he said, his voice oozing with satisfaction. “Nearly as delicious-tasting as you.”
Her eyes flew open. “You, sir, are a shocking flirt. One should be free of such things at breakfast!”
She blinked. She’d just reprimanded a man at his own table. She glanced at him from under her lashes.
He seemed amused. “Anything and everything is on the menu here at the Grange. Kisses before breakfast, flirtation as an appetizer.”
She wondered what he’d offer for the main course. And then was shocked with the direction of her thoughts.
“Careful, you’re dripping honey down your wrist.”
She snatched up her linen napkin and wiped the honey that had dripped onto her hand.
“I could always lick it clean for you—”
She gave him a warning look.
“Like a cat, I meant,” he said with mock innocence. “You like cats, remember? Lovely sensuous creatures, cats.”
Callie decided it was more prudent to become interested in the pattern of the curtains. She hoped she wasn’t blushing. She felt a little hot.
He certainly was a bothersome man.
He poured himself some more coffee and crunched through a pile of toast. She waited politely until he had finished, and the moment he had, she said, “Thank you so much for your hospitality and care, but we really should be leaving.”
“Stay a few more days.”
“Thank you, but it’s not possible.”
“It’s perfectly possible. Stay and rest. There are lilac shadows under those lovely eyes.”
Callie tried not to blush. “My shadows are none of your business,” she said with quiet dignity.
“While you are on my land and under my roof, they are.”
“I am leaving your land and your roof,” she reminded him.
He frowned. “And where are you planning to go? Last night you were bent on getting to Lulworth.”
She nodded. “Yes. The boat was supposed to take us right into Lulworth Cove, which is, I understand, an excellent safe harbor, but when it came to the point the captain simply refused!”
He shrugged. “Not surprising, if you travel with smugglers.”
“They weren’t smugglers. I would never risk my son to smugglers!”
He raised his eyebrows. “No, of course not, that’s why they dropped you at Brandy Bay.” He saw she didn’t understand and added, “So named for all the smuggled French brandy landed there over the years. A landing place known well to men of the smuggling trade.”
“Perhaps, but they weren’t smuggling anything.”
“Except you and your son.”
She frowned, not liking to think of herself and Nicky as smuggled goods. “You may think what you like. One of the sailors explained to me the real reason they couldn’t enter Lulworth Cove. It was because there were too manypreventivesin the harbor.”
He gave a shout of laughter. “And what mightpreventivesbe, my pretty innocent?”
“Don’t call me that,” she told him. “I admit that I don’t precisely know what a preventive is, but I imagine it causes some sort of obstacle, perhaps a large and dangerous creature—”
