“Or you need to accost half-naked men cooking breakfast?”
“Mr. Rayburn,” I say in mock offense. “I have never accosted a man, half-naked or otherwise, in my life.” His smile lasts a little longer this time. “Now, sir, eat your cake or else.” I plunk a plate with a piece of the coffee cake on it in front of him.
“Or else what? You’ll spank me?” My face flushes bright red. Quickly, I spin around to face the kettle praying that it whistles soon. He chuckles lightly behind me.
The word spank coming out of his mouth in a rough growl has an even stronger effect on my nether regions than the simple touch. Where’s a good hand fan when you need one?
“Beau Rayburn! You are not the nice boy I always heard you were.” I pour the mostly hot water over the tea bags and set the mugs on the table.
“I haven’t been a boy in a long time.” He manages to say it with a smirk before taking a slow bite of cake.
My sophisticated brain wants to push everything on the table to the floor, climb over it into his lap, and ride him like a five-cent horse in front of the drugstore. What my mouth does, however, is make a weird “eep” noise. He chuckles again.
“Did you just laugh?” I ask in fake astonishment. I even press my hand to my breastbone. “Did it hurt? Is the ground going to open up and swallow us?”
He rolls his eyes, and we eat in silence for a while. It’s for the best. I don’t think I can handle Beau’s form of flirting if that was what he was doing.
“Were you flirting with me?” I ask on a whim. You won’t know if you don’t ask.
“No,” he scowls. “That would be…exploitative of me.”
“Jesus, do you read the dictionary in your spare time? Is that what you do for fun?” He looks at me with a raised eyebrow. “I’m just messing with you.” I grin. “Would you like some more?”
“No, thank you,” he says hesitantly. “I’ve got some chores I should be tending to outside.”
“Oh, is that where you keep the Christmas decorations? Outside?” I can hope.
“You’re not going to let this go are you?” He waits for me to answer, but I just stare at him until he rolls his eyes. “Yes, because stacked in boxes outside is the best place for Christmas decorations.”
“They could be in the barn.”
“They’re not in the barn. Nothing but equipment and feed is in the barn. Probably the horses at this point.”
“You have horses?” I ask a little more excited than I should be.
In my defense, what girl doesn’t dream of owning a horse when she’s growing up? I used to think about it all the time, but we lived in the middle of town, and my parents weren’t about to take on the expense of owning a horse. No matter how many books about ponies I read, the answer was always no.
“I have two.”
“Oh my gosh, two. You’re horse rich.”
“I don’t think two makes me horse rich.” The corner of his lips hitches up.
“Well, I have none. So compared to me, you’re rolling in it. Can you ride them?”
“I can,” he answers.
“Will you teach me sometime? There’s a lot of things I want, but learning to ride is at the top of my reasonable wish list.”
“Are there a lot of unreasonable things you wish for?”
“People seem to think so.”
“Like?”
“Now, if I tell you all my secrets, how will I maintain my aura of mystery?”
“Pretty sure, you’re a natural at that. Tell me one.”
