The Naughty List Bundle - Kylie Adams [265]
She could hear the smile in his mellow, mesmeric voice when he spoke. “No problem. You’ve had a rough day.”
Georgia made a sound of agreement, leaned her head back and closed her eyes. Maybe if she didn’t look at him, if she didn’t see his wide, hard shoulders, the thickness of his muscled forearms, the way his light brown hair caught the moonlight and how deep, how seductive his green eyes were when he turned them toward her—well, maybe it would help. But she doubted it. He was a sinfully gorgeous male, tall and strong and hard, but she’d seen strong attractive men before, dealt with them every night at the bar. No, it was much more than Jordan’s looks, much more than his physical attributes.
All the man had to do was mutter two syllables and she wanted to melt. Something about his voice affected her deep down inside, stripping away her defenses. It made her imagine awful, wonderful things.
She shook her head, more at herself than anything he did or said. “I appreciate the ride home. And how you carried the kids out. I could have managed, but—”
“But you’ve had enough to deal with.” He reached across the seat and his large hand squeezed her shoulder. Even through the borrowed T-shirt, his touch was electric. She caught her breath, not wanting him to know how he affected her, how amazingly turned on she was even at this moment.
She’d had very little sleep over the past two days. She’d worked a double shift and dealt with the threat of being arrested, then the gut-wrenching fear over her mother’s health. She had no idea how she was going to manage to work and take care of her mother at the hospital, with no baby-sitter. Things looked very grim.
But still she wanted him when she never wanted any guy. She’d long since considered herself immune to the normal urges most women felt. So what if Jordan was an uncommonly patient and wonderful man? She shouldn’t care that he was gorgeous and as finely built as a Greek statue, or that he had a voice warm enough to melt butter.
She knew he disapproved of her, and that should have taken care of the rest. But somehow, maybe because her children seemed so taken by him, his disapproval didn’t matter.
“You deserve to take a break, Georgia. And I like your kids. Adam reminds me a little of Casey when he was that age. Constant motion right up until he runs out of steam.”
A distracting topic if ever there was one. She gladly accepted it. “Your nephew certainly took me by surprise.”
Jordan’s smile was gentle and filled with pride. “He’s an amazing kid. Only eighteen, but I swear he has more common sense, more backbone and maturity than a lot of men twice his age. We pretty much raised him ourselves, you know.”
She didn’t know. Since she’d moved to Buckhorn, she’d kept to herself except for her work. And she certainly hadn’t tried to form any friendships at the bar. She didn’t have time to gossip with neighbors, or go out of her way to get to know anyone. “We, meaning you and your brothers?”
“That’s right. Casey’s mother couldn’t deal with a newborn infant, and she took off. Sawyer, my oldest brother, the one who’s a doctor? He was still in medical school when Case was born, but he brought him home from the hospital and that was that. I was…let’s see, fifteen at the time. And I remember being absolutely fascinated. I looked up to Sawyer and Morgan a lot, and I’d always seen them in a one dimensional way, you know?”
“Yes.” She saw most men in a one dimensional way—selfish. Her father, her ex, her boss, the men who threw money at her while she was on stage…. She squeezed her eyes shut at that thought, praying that none of the men were spending grocery or bill money. Some of them, she was sure, couldn’t afford what they tossed at her while downing drink after drink, night after night. And if she thought about that too much, she felt miserably guilty.
But the brothers, even the nephew, had thrown