Free Irresistible Stranger by Jennifer Greene Page A

jewelry parties and gardening and volunteering endless hours for some godforsaken cause. I want to hear that you’re up to no good. With a man. Preferably a bad boy kind of man. Preferably—”
    â€œYup,” Lily said peaceably. “I’m doing exactly that.”
    The silence between Alaska and Georgia was abruptly deafening.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œFor years now, you two have been urging me to strip off the teacher clothes, quit being nice, quit dating safe guys. So I took your advice—”
    Cate, in a crisis, didn’t fool around. She cut through the drivel. “Where are you? I can get the next plane out.”
    Lily smiled into the receiver, but then got serious. “I’m in Pecan Valley, Cate. I’m looking into our fire. Or trying to. I know we’ve talked about this a zillion times, that we need to put the fire behind us, take charge of our lives. Only you and Sophie have done that. And somehow I haven’t been able to.”
    â€œWait. Honey. Wait. If we knew you wanted to do this—or needed to do this—the three of us could have found some time to come together, go there together—”
    â€œNo. You’d both have tried to talk me out of it.” Lilysnuggled up tighter in the blanket, leaned her head back. “I never thought Dad started that fire. We all repeated the things we were told. That he loved us, but he was desperate, not in his right mind—all that. But I never believed it, Cate. Every time I’m with a guy…I’m thinking of dad. How much I loved him. How perfect we all thought he was. How good. And that if he set that fire, maybe I can’t judge anyone’s character. Maybe I’d just love blindly. Trust blindly. I’m probably not explaining this well, but—”
    â€œYou are, Lily. But I hate the idea of you doing this alone. And what about this man you mentioned?”
    Lily heard her brother-in-law’s voice in the background, and figured she’d interrupted enough. “Cate, I’ll talk to you in another couple days, promise. Don’t worry. Everything’s fine. Give Harm a big hug from me. Love you.”
    She switched off her cell, thinking she’d prowl around Griff’s place one last time, make sure all the doors were locked, make sure he was sleeping, make one more run to the bathroom.
    That was the plan. But the last thing she remembered was snuggling just a moment longer in the blanket. It wasn’t as good as Griff’s arms around her, but thinking about Griff set off a chain reaction of dreams.

Chapter 5
    G riff awoke with his heart pounding, the threatening smell and heat of fire invading nightmare after nightmare. Immediately, of course, he was fine. His bedroom was familiar, dark and cool and safe. And his bed damned lonely.
    He vaguely remembered Lily bossing him around, bullying him into the shower, absconding with his clothes, ordering him into bed. He couldn’t recall ever being so offended…male-ego offended. The bossiness had charmed him. But then, she didn’t even seem to notice when he was naked in the shower, and later tucked the covers around his neck as if he were a boy instead of the sexiest man she'd ever seen in her life.
    It was enough—almost—to destroy a guy’s confidence.
    The bedside digital claimed it was 3:00 a.m. He’d onlyslept two hours, was still groggy with exhaustion. Still, he pushed off the covers, swung his feet to the floor. First thing in the morning, he needed to devote 100% effort to the fire and all the fire’s complications. But right now there wasn’t a prayer he could get any further rest without knowing where Lily was.
    She could have gone home of course, just taken his car. That would have been a no-sweat. And when he checked the spare bedroom, the couches, and didn’t find her, he thought she’d had the brains to do that—but no. The bunched-up blanket in his favorite