Free Irresistible Stranger by Jennifer Greene

outside light on. Griff gave her grief every step of the way, insisting she go home, that he didn’t need a babysitter, that he could get his own towels—when she turned on the shower, she prowled around for a linen closet and clean towels, then prowled in the kitchen until she found a bottle of Talisker’s.
    She wasn’t exactly positive what kind of liquor that was, but when she unscrewed the top and smelled,she knew it was exactly what she was looking for. She splashed a couple shots in a water glass, and put that on the bathroom counter, too.
    â€œIf you’re determined to stay here, you could at least come into the shower with me,” he called from the other side of the smoky glass.
    â€œMaybe next week,” she said.
    â€œWhat? What’s next week?”
    â€œThe point is that you’re not getting any tonight, so just get your mind off it.” She left the door ajar, and went into his bedroom. The master suite wasn’t particularly huge, but the balcony was a pool of moonlight, the room colors a rich blend of silvers and pale grays and charcoals. She plumped his pillows, turned back the sheets.
    She debated what to do with the clothes he’d peeled off—her first choice was to trash them, but really, she hardly had that right. The fire stench was too noxious for them to stay inside, so they got a temporary home in his garage.
    Griff emerged from the shower still protesting—but his voice was starting to slur, his eyes bloodshot from all the smoke. She pointed with a royal finger—her teacher royal finger—toward his room. “I’m not tired,” he said. “And besides that…”
    She didn’t need to tune him out. He was out for the count from the instant his head hit the pillow. Actually, he crashed so deeply that she was a little fearful he’d gone straight into a coma—but his chest was rising and falling, so there was no excuse to keep hovering over him.
    Because she couldn’t find any herbal tea, she pouredherself a thimbleful of that Talisker stuff, found a blanket from his linen closet, and curled up in an oversized chair in his living room. With that location, she was within springing distance of his landline, just in case anyone dared try to call and interrupt his sleep again.
    She expected to nap, but couldn’t. She was too troubled—by the fire, by why arson fires had suddenly started when she came back. By why anyone would target Griff. By that long-ago fire and the memory of her dad’s face in the window, backlit by flames….
    Unsettled by the old nightmares, she scrounged in her purse for her cell, thinking that maybe it was past time to consult with the big guns. She used to either call or email her sisters several times a week—but that was before they’d both fallen in love last year. Their guys were great, but her sisters had been so insufferably, relentlessly happy that they couldn’t talk about anything but her finding someone. Tonight, though, she just plain needed sis time.
    Because it was the middle of the night in D.C., she couldn’t call her youngest sister, Sophie. But Cate was honeymooning in Alaska, and the time there was relatively early evening.
    â€œYou are in such trouble.” Cate not only immediately answered the phone, but started right in with the bossy business. “You haven’t answered your email in days. Sophie said she hadn’t heard from you either. What’s going on?”
    â€œGuilt,” Lily admitted. “I knew you’d yell at me if I told you what I was up to.”
    â€œOf course I’m going to yell at you.” Cate adjustedthe phone, said something to Harm—her good-looking groom—informing him that a girl had priorities. Sex was an important second. But sisters came first. “Now—where are you? And I don’t want to hear that you’re spending your whole teacher summer doing stupid stuff like