Sweet Sanctuary (21 page)

Aunt Elaine laughed delightedly. "So I do have my uses! I'm glad my tactics were the right ones."

"They were disgraceful," he informed her sternly. "You and your animals and your pretty orphan secretary…"

"I do wish you wouldn't call me an orphan," Kate said with some indignation. "I'm no more an orphan than you are! We neither of us have any parents, after all."

"Ah," he said wickedly, "but I don't have big innocent brown eyes and a helpless, appealing smile…"

She glared up at him, but with a glinting look in his eyes he slid his hand around her waist and pulled her closer. "Let me go," she protested.

"Once aboard the lugger and the girl is mine," he whispered, kissing her beneath her ear. "You have been warned! I've got you now, and I shall shut you up in my castle for ever!" His light mocking tone only just hid the passion which lay beneath.

"Sanctuary isn't a castle," she retorted. "It's a refuge!" She looked around the kitchen with dancing, bubbling joy, looking at the geraniums, the bright china and the warmth and gaiety of the whole room. "Especially this room—the heart of the house…"

Nick looked down at her, his unguarded heart in his eyes, those eyes which had seemed so cold to her when they first met. "You are the heart of the house," he said huskily.