“But that’s all right, isn’t it? You didn’t come thinking you’d find information that would lead you to a court of law. I think you came to prove in your own mind what happened. That the fire wasn’t your father’s fault. And it sounds as if you’re doing exactly that.”
“I am. And it couldn’t feel better. I always believed my dad was a hero. That’s what he was, Griff. A terrific man. You’d have liked him, honestly.”
“I don’t doubt it.”
What a night it had turned into. The sucking heat of the day had finally eased. The sky was deepening, darkening. Even the birds had gone silent, and stars buttoned the sky with fancy silver studs. It was a night to romance her, not dwell on troubling subjects…but he liked it that she trusted him enough to talk about this. “Lily, I’m really surprised that you three sisters were separated.”
“There wasn’t a choice. No one could take all three of us.”
“I understand how suddenly adding three children could be a financial burden for a foster family. But I’ve lived here for several years now, long enough to know folks. Even if you had to be separated, fostered in different homes, I’d think an effort would have been made for you to stay in Pecan Valley. Your home. Instead of being shifted all over the country. I’d think normally, that a social service agency or court would think it best to keep you around people who knew you, where you didn’t have to be uprooted from schools and friends and all.”
She considered. “I don’t know. As a little girl, I didn’t think of it as a question. It’s just the way it was. But Sophie and Cate and I all felt the same. Because of that fire, we not only lost our mom and dad, but each other. It was…traumatically lonely. I’m not kidding.”
“I don’t doubt it-and that’s just the point. This is a community that comes together. Yeah, there are weird folks, just like anywhere else. Plenty of problems. But it’s hard for me to believe that the authorities didn’t try and keep you three together.”
“Maybe they did, and I just didn’t know. Anyway, that’s water over the dam. And there’s something else I want to bring up with you.”
“Okay. Shoot.”
“It’s a little…awkward.”
“That’s okay.” He didn’t know what she was going to say, but he was increasingly troubled. Nothing was adding up. There seemed no explanation-or source-for the buzz of gossip blaming Lily for the current fires, for her being “like her dad.” There seemed more and more unanswered questions about the fire from her childhood-and no explanations at all for why there’d been two arson fires since she came back to town.
The more that happened, the more Griff felt he was missing something. That Lily was missing something. And that, if this situation escalated any further, someone could be hurt-or killed, just like in that long-ago fire.
They had to figure out what was going on.
He leaned forward, thinking to turn off the jets of water. They’d both been in the tub long enough to be waterlogged. He was thinking about fires and problems, thinking about what awkward thing she was going to spring on him-when suddenly, in a swoop of water and slick, warm arms, she slid against him. Bared her neck to press her wet, soft lips against his.
An explosion couldn’t have startled him more.
Slinky as a mermaid, she folded herself against him, water lapping the tops of her breasts when she slip-slid onto his lap. Her left hand slowly stroked up his arm, feeling the slope of his shoulders, then sliding around his neck. Her next kiss was a naked offer. An invitation.
His brain was sucked under so fast he couldn’t remember how to breathe. “Hey,” he managed. “What started this?”
“You were frowning,” she said. “And I decided you’d had enough to frown about today.”
“I can’t argue with that.”
“I’m sick of trouble and worrying. I’ve been knee deep since I got here. I’m tired of it.” Her voice didn’t sound remotely tired. She nibbled down his neck as she continued to…discuss.
“Me, too.”
“So I think it would be a good idea to do something that erases all that trouble and stress from our minds.”
He did, too. He’d even had seducing her in mind, if not tonight, then imminently soon. He just didn’t expect…well. His wholesome, fresh-faced teacher was skidding strokes down his chest, through wet hair, over appendix scar, past navel, down, right into his trunks. Her slim hand found him, painted agony down the length of him with her fingertip, then closed around him. Tight. Snug. Owning him.
“Why,” he murmured, “am I worried right now?”
“Because I’m a very scary woman? A woman who’s about to take away all your choices. All your stress. All your responsibility. It’s going to be hard for you to deal with it.”
“It’s already hard.”
“Yeah. I noticed.” The smile she shot him wasn’t Lily’s. The arch of her brow, the sneaky smile, then the way she slipped the bathing suit straps off her shoulders-this wasn’t a woman he could trust. This wasn’t anyone he’d let into his life before. This was a woman who could start fires in a man that, just maybe, no one in heaven or hell could put out.
“Lily-”
“Uh-uh. No talking. I like talking to you. I even love talking to you. But right now, this isn’t about you, Griff. It’s about me. This is the summer when I get to stand up and take what’s mine.” She lifted her head just after taking a small nip out of shoulder. “You don’t have to be mine next year or next week or tomorrow. Just right now.”
Okay, okay. He knew she was talking big. It wasn’t her normal nature to do one-nighters, to throw all caution to the wind, to not give a damn about consequences. And although he wasn’t exactly infamous for mentioning consequences to a woman he wanted, he invariably took care of things so there weren’t any. Right now, though, they were in the hot tub, and if anything was supposed to happen or going to happen, he assumed it’d happen in the bedroom, where he had protection.
Where he had control, for that matter.
Right then, he could have used some control.
Somewhere a phone rang. Somehow she coaxed him out of the water, onto the flat deck surface, where their wet, slick bodies cleaved from chest to thigh, belly to belly, lips to lips. At some time, the sky had lost all color, gone silky black and dangerously concealing. And his blood seemed to be pumping from a hot, dark well.
He couldn’t catch his breath. It was the woman who was supposed to feel that way, not the guy. Sure as hell, not a guy like him, who’d enjoyed women from the day he was born-so the problem was her. The difference was her.
The danger was her.
She kissed. Rubbed. Danced against him with her breasts, her pelvis, the hum in the back of her throat. She reached something…lonely inside of him. Something needy and sharp. Something beyond sex and pleasure.
The deck was hard; he shifted so his weight wasn’t driving her into that bruising surface. It was just a matter of twisting them around, but he heard her guttural laugh when she climbed on top. It was a chuckle of power. Maniacal female power.
Yet he saw the innocence in her face. The flush of shock and pleasure when he tightened his hips, stroked upward with infinite care until she was seated tight on him. Then came the ride, unlike any other. Her eyes turned soft and lost, focusing on him, only on him.
You’d think she’d never done this.
You’d think he hadn’t. He sure as hell couldn’t remember anything like this, ever, not the need-clawing with feral desperation. Not the emotional connect-like he’d die if he couldn’t have her, couldn’t be with her, like this, forever. Not the scalping blade of pleasure-ripping through him, tearing fast, shredding any knowledge he’d had of release in the past.