Page 25

Sergio balls up his napkin and throws it at him. It hits square on, and Jax howls in protest. Sergio winks at me, then jerks a thumb at his own chest. "Sniper."

Yeah, that makes sense.

The lighter mood has even me cracking a smile. "And what do you guys all do here now? You can't be running the whole mill by yourselves."

The place was practically shuttered back when Cayden and I were kids, but supposedly, in its heyday, it employed a hundred guys during the season. These five are strong as hell, but there's still just five.

Deandre shakes his head. "Turned it into a specialty woodworking operation." He points to Sergio and Jax. "These guys deal with the lumber part. I do carpentry."

"I wouldn't just call it carpentry," Adam protests. "He's an artist."

Cayden nudges me. "Like you."

"You're an artist?" Deandre asks.

I squirm. "Sort of. Not really. Not anymore."

"Yes, you are," Cayden says.

"You should come by my workshop sometime," Deandre says. "I'll show you around."

My heart leaps. I haven't had much passion for making art of late, but the idea of seeing another person create something from nothing…that's appealing.

"I'd love that."

A slow, pleased smile spreads across Deandre's face. "Good. Do it, then."

"I will."

"Anyway," Jax says, picking up the thread. "Cayden does a little bit of everything, both at the mill and in the carpentry workshop. And Adam runs the business."

"And the kitchen," Adam reminds them all.

I grin. "And I thank you for that." I gesture at my scraped-clean plate. "This was delicious."

"Happy to cook for you anytime," he says, and there's a saucy flirtatiousness to the way he says it that makes me flush anew.

"Happy to have him cookingforyou," Deandre adds. "If I knew all it took was a pretty girl to have him bringing his A-game…"

"Hey!" Adam protests.

"Don't listen to him," Jax says. "You know he's just talking shit."

"Not the only reason I'm glad to have a pretty girl around, though," Deandre says. He flashes a panty-dropping smile my way.

And if Adam was being flirty, Deandre's being downright seductive.

Wow. I might have forgotten it with all the heavy conversation, but I'm suddenly reminded anew that I'm surrounded by a group of incredibly attractive men. That I'm the only woman here—maybe the only one half of them have seen in quite some time.

Normally, that might make me feel selfconscious. But between Adam's and my encounter this morning and thesimmering sexual tension that Cayden and I have practically promised to explore tonight, I'm feeling…well, sexy. Unusually so.

All the appreciative eyes on me feel like actual caresses on my skin. And I may not be hungry for food anymore.

But I'm definitely, definitely hungry for something else.

My fantasy from last night flashes before my eyes. I'd imagined being taken in turn by each one of these strong, gorgeous, ripped men.

And it was just that. A fantasy.