The Naughty List Bundle - Kylie Adams [267]
Jordan laughed. “Gabe is that.”
“—then he’ll always be a hedonist.”
“True. I won’t argue with you there. All of my brothers are very sexual.” He glanced at her and shrugged. “There’s nothing wrong with that, by the way.”
Georgia didn’t bother to argue with him on it. She did, however, wonder if he included himself in the “very sexual” category.
No! She did not wonder. She didn’t care. Refusing to look at him, she stared out her door window and watched the passing shrubbery on the side of the road. Even in the darkness, everything looked wilted by the rain.
Without her encouragement, Jordan continued. “Gabe is still a man, still very interested in sex, and I can’t see that ever changing. But now he does all his overindulging with his wife.”
Lord, how had she gotten onto this subject? She felt so hot, her window was beginning to steam. “If you say so,” she mumbled, hoping he’d let it go.
But of course he didn’t.
“You don’t believe me?” When she didn’t answer, he whistled. “Must have been a hell of a marriage you had.”
Georgia denied that with a shake of her head. “The marriage was fine. It was the end of the marriage that was hell.”
So softly she could barely hear him, Jordan asked, “Because you still loved him?”
“No.” By the time the divorce was finalized, she knew she’d been living a fairy tale, created and maintained all in the fancy of her mind. She’d seen what she’d wanted to see, not what had really been there. “No, I didn’t still love him. And it didn’t matter that he had never really loved me. But he never loved his kids, either. And that I can’t understand.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Why?” His voice had that low, hypnotic sound to it again, making her insides tingle, making her breasts feel too full. It pulled at her until she wanted to lean toward him, wanted to press her face into his throat and breathe in his scent, feel the warmth of his hard body. “What difference does it make to you?”
Jordan turned into her driveway and cut the engine. “Maybe I can explain it once we get inside.” His gaze, glittering bright, held her. “Go unlock your front door and I’ll carry the kids in.”
She quickly shook her head, dispelling the trance he’d put her in with that melodic voice. “No. Thank you. You’ve done enough and I insist on repaying you for your—”
“I’m walking you in, Georgia.” His tone was now firm and commanding. His large hand cupped her cheek, tipping up her chin. “We have a few things to say to each other.”
“We have nothing to discuss!”
“Mommy?” Lisa sat up, rubbing her eyes and looking around in confusion.
With one last glare at Jordan—where she couldn’t help but notice that he appeared understanding and sympathetic still—Georgia got out of the front seat, then opened her daughter’s car door. “Sweetheart, we’re home.” She unfastened Lisa’s seat belt and smoothed her tangled bangs out of her face. “Wait right here while I go unlock the door, then I’ll get Adam and we’ll all go in, okay?”
She’d forgotten to turn on a porch light before they left, and the path to the front door, broken and overgrown with weeds, would have been impossible if Jordan hadn’t flipped the headlights back on. Her hand shook as she struggled to get the key into the lock and open the front door. But when she turned around, she almost fell over her daughter.
Jordan stood there, Adam snuggled blissfully unaware in his arms while Lisa held on to one of his belt loops. He gave her a gentle smile and said, “Move.”
Like a zombie, Georgia stepped out of the way. What choice did she have? None. As a matter of fact, Jordan, with his quiet, calm ways, had been taking away her choices from the moment she first saw him.
She closed the door and started after him, hearing Lisa direct him to Adam’s room at the top of the stairs. Lisa followed him, then veered off to her own bedroom. Georgia went to her first, helping her to get her nightgown on and tucking her into bed.
“I didn’t brush my teeth.”
Georgia smiled