Free Irresistible Stranger by Jennifer Greene Page B

recliner had a body swallowed in it. He had no idea how she’d managed to curl herself into that small a ball—much less how she’d escaped being smothered.
    When he peeled back the edge of the blanket, he found the gleam of her dark hair in the moonlight. But she didn’t awaken. He scooped her up, blanket and all. That didn’t awaken her either. Her cheek nuzzled against his shoulder, as if she’d been sleeping against him her whole life.
    Halfway through the hall, he almost tripped because part of the blanket slipped, tangled with his bare foot. But he managed to compensate, pushed against a wall—none of that commotion woke her either—and finally made it to the bed.
    He dropped her on his side, his pillow, and when the last of the blanket slipped away, realized she was still wearing clothes. He hesitated. This wasn’t about seduction, it was about…something else. Showing her that he didn’t need taking care of. Showing her that he could take care of her . Or something like that. Still,sleeping in clothes seemed bulky and uncomfortable. So he pulled off her knee-length shorts—or pants—or whatever they were. Then he re-covered her, and finally sank onto the other side of the bed, and discovered the strangest thing.
    His body went bone hard the minute his skin touched hers—that was neither a surprise nor remotely strange. But somehow, just the act of wrapping his arms around her, her just being there with him, felt crazily, insanely right. In spite of the fire and all the troubling questions threatened by that attack of arson, he was able to forget it, really close his eyes this time, and zone out completely.
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    Lily woke to the soak of sunlight on her closed eyelids, her body all cuddled in a nest-warm cocoon—and the erotic, rhythmic stroke of a thumb on her shoulder.
    A man’s thumb.
    Her eyes popped open. In her immediate vision was a bunched-up blanket, a shoe twice her size, a shirt she could have used for a tent and a wide window overlooking a steep, green hillside. Only strips of sunlight made it through the tangled thatch of trees, but the verdant spice of pine scented everything. A bird suddenly landed on the windowsill—gorgeous, bright blue in color, an indigo bunting, she was pretty sure. It cocked its head, looked at her as if to say, “what on earth are you doing in his bed, you crazy woman?”
    And still, that thumb kept stroking.
    She knew perfectly well where she was. Griff’s. But she could have sworn she’d fallen asleep in his livingroom chair. A thousand unexpected sensations all seemed to require her immediate analysis. His bristly chest hair against her back. The weight of his hand. The width of his hips, spooning against her bottom. The hardness of his erection. The size of his erection. The throbbing warmth of his erection.
    She strongly suspected that she wasn’t the only one awake. Not that she was willing to turn around and face him yet.
    â€œI have to think up a strategy,” she murmured, and he picked it up as if they were in the middle of a conversation.
    â€œFor how you’re going to go back to the B and B?”
    â€œExactly. If I were back in Virginia, it wouldn’t matter. I’m an adult. Everyone around me is adult. But here…Louella’s going to grill me as if I were ten years old, the instant I walk in the door. Being absent for a night is one thing, but if I also walk in wearing yesterday’s clothes…” She lifted the sheet. “Uh-oh. I seem to be to be missing some of yesterday’s clothes. Something happened to my capris.”
    â€œI was helping you.” Griff’s voice was still husky with sleep.
    â€œUh-huh. I’ll bet you say that to all the girls.”
    â€œLily.”
    â€œHmm?”
    â€œI don’t say that to all the girls. In fact, there’s a giant list of things that I plan to say and do with you. That I’ve