The Naughty List Bundle - Kylie Adams [52]
He didn’t bother with a shirt or shoes, and when he entered the kitchen, he saw the rest of the men had felt the same. Gabe had on shorts; Morgan and Jordan wore jeans.
Honey was at the stove cooking.
His every instinct sharpened at the sight of her. She, too, was barefoot, her hair now pulled back in a long, sleek ponytail that swished right above her pert behind—a smooth, very soft behind he’d stroked with his palms. As he drank in the sight of her with new admiration, he felt like a predator, ready to close in. With that tell-all note, she’d sealed her own fate. He wanted her, and now that he knew she wanted him, too, he’d have her; he wasn’t noble enough to do otherwise. After the other issues were resolved, he’d explain to her one more time how he felt about commitment, and then they’d deal with the personal issue of lust.
He glanced at his brothers who sat around the table like a platoon waiting to be fed, and he frowned. They shrugged back, each wearing a comical face of helplessness. Sawyer growled a curse and stepped up to Honey. “What the hell are you doing?”
Without raising her head, she barked back, “Cooking.”
His brows lifted. He heard one of the brothers snicker. Crossing his arms over his naked chest, he said, “You wanna tell me why?”
She whirled, a hot spatula in her hand, which she pointed at his chest, forcing him to take a hasty step back. “Because I’m hungry. And because they’re hungry!” The spatula swung wildly to encompass the men, who quickly nodded in agreement to her fierce look. “And I’m tired of being coddled and treated like I’m helpless. You want me to stay, fine. I’ll stay. But I’ll be damned if I’m going to lay around and be waited on and feel like I owe the lot of you.”
Sawyer leaned away from the blast of her anger, totally bowled over by this new temperament. Cautiously, he took another step back. “No one wants you to feel beholden.”
“Well, I do!”
“Okay, okay.” He tried to soothe her and got a dirty look for his efforts. “You want to cook, fine,” he added with a calm he didn’t feel.
“Ha! I wasn’t asking your permission. And don’t try that placating tone on me because Jordan already did. And he’s much better at it than you are.”
He glanced at his brother, only to see Jordan’s ears turn red. She was intimidating his brothers! Sawyer crowded close again and opened his mouth, only to meet that spatula once more.
“And don’t try bullying me, because Morgan has been at it since I met him, and I’m not putting up with it anymore. Do you know he told me I wasn’t allowed to cook because I was sick? He tried to force me to sit down. Well, I’ll sit down when I’m good and ready. Not before.”
Sawyer had no idea what had set her off this time, but he almost grinned, anxious to find out. Now that he’d decided against denying himself, he wanted to absorb her every nuance instead of fighting against her allure.
“Am I allowed to ask what you’re cooking, or will you threaten me with that spatula again?”
She tilted her head, saw he wasn’t going to argue with her and nodded. “Grilled ham and cheese. Do you know Gabe was about to give that box of cookies to Casey? Or at least, the ones he hadn’t already eaten. If we’re going to do this interrogation, we might as well eat properly rather than shoving sugar down our throats.”
Sawyer looked at Gabe in time to see him sneak a cookie from his lap and pop it into his mouth. He laughed out loud.
“You think that’s funny? And here you are a doctor. You should be telling them about healthy diets and all that.”
“Honey, have you looked at my brothers? They’re all pretty damn physically fit.”
She tucked her chin in, and a delicate flush rose on her cheeks. “Yeah, well, I noticed, but Casey