The Naughty List Bundle - Kylie Adams [274]
And this mattered. Much as he hated to admit it, it mattered too damn much.
6
GEORGIA WOKE with the sunlight bright in her face. She didn’t move, at first making an attempt to orient herself. Something wasn’t right. She squinted; why was there so much light?
As her eyes adjusted, she saw the huge oak in her backyard through dirty windows, stately and still, not a single leaf stirring. There must be no wind, she thought, now that the dreadful rain had obviously ended.
And then it dawned on her that she wasn’t in her own bed where she should be, or she certainly wouldn’t be looking at the backyard. She was, as incredible as it seemed, in the enclosed patio curled up on the glider under a quilt.
She was still putting those thoughts together in the cobwebs of her mind when she heard a faint, muffled laugh. Lisa, then Adam. They sounded happy and for just a moment she thought everything was as it was supposed to be, as it had been the day before. Her mother, an early riser, was probably making coffee and the kids liked to hang next to her, waiting for cereal, chattering nonstop. Georgia always got up when she heard the kids, even though she was still exhausted and even though she knew her mother would complain and tell her to sleep more—and then she heard another deeper, more masculine laugh.
Jordan!
She jerked upright so fast the glider rolled, nearly spilling her onto the floor. Her heart racing, she remembered everything, her near arrest, her mother’s illness—that orgasmic foot rub Jordan had been giving her late last night.
She twisted to face the kitchen behind her, and sure enough, that was Jordan’s rough-velvet voice whispering, “Shhh. We don’t want your mother to wake up yet. She had a long night.”
Adam, sounding a bit blurry as if he hadn’t been awake long himself, said, “Mommy always gets up with us, even when grandma grouches at her ‘bout it.”
Lisa bragged, “She won’t hear anything, but she always hears us. Even when we’re quiet. Grandma says that’s a mommy’s sixth sense.”
“You’ve got an excellent mommy.” Jordan said that with conviction, and Georgia wondered if he meant it. More likely he was merely trying to appease the kids. “But today we’ll try to let her catch up on sleep.”
Lisa asked, “Can I have the next pancake?”
Pancake?
“Absolutely. I can’t believe you’ve eaten two already. Are you sure they’re in your belly? You didn’t hide one behind your ear?”
Lisa laughed again and Adam joined her.
Georgia nearly choked. She’d been sleeping so soundly one minute, and jarred awake the next, that she felt nearly drunk as she staggered to her feet in righteous indignation and groped her way toward the kitchen. Jordan was feeding her children? He had invaded her kitchen? What in the world was he doing here so early? The kids knew better than to go anywhere near the doors without her or their grandmother. She’d reminded them again and again that they were never ever to open the door to anyone.
Georgia stopped in the entryway, her thoughts scattering at the sight of Jordan. He looked…gorgeous. Sinfully gorgeous. His light brown hair was mussed, his jaw rough with beard stubble, his sleeves rolled back over his thick forearms. And he wore an apron around his waist.
For the first time she understood the appeal of “barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen”. Jordan’s bare feet looked very sexy, and though he wasn’t in the family way, he was being domestic—which she assumed was the point. He smiled at Lisa and it made her heart expand painfully against her rib cage. Georgia rubbed a hand under her breast, trying to ease the constriction, but it didn’t help.
God, the man looked good standing at her stove. He looked good with her children, too. And he looked far, far too good in her life.
Both kids wore aprons as well, tied up under their armpits and with the hems dragging near the floor. They were huddled around the stove while Jordan used a turkey baster to put pancake batter on