Free Sex & Sensibility by Shannon Hollis Page B

gonna drive me stark-raving mad.
    Tessa said it might be me, but probably not. Why is Christina trying to get attention? I practically work from home so I’ll be here for her. We eat supper together every night. How much more attention does a girl need? Does she want me to take her on a trip or something? I have to go to Singapore anyway—maybe she’d like shopping on Orchard Street. It would be pure purgatory for me, but I’d make the sacrifice.
    If she’d just come home.
     
    G RIFFIN WRAPPED UP the day’s details with Jay Singleton over dinner, though details was a bit of a stretch. Singleton seemed satisfied, though, which surprised the hell out of Griffin. But then, if you had no clues at all, a theory was better to go on than nothing.
    He suggested hitting up Christina’s gal pals at the country club for information, but none of them could figure out how to do it without alerting the immediate world that she was missing. At least it was a possibility, as soon as someone came up with a story that would work.
    After dinner, Tessa declined the offer of drinks. “I’m going to the cottage,” she said. “Since she vanished during the night maybe it will help to see things at that time, from her perspective.”
    Which sounded like total B.S. to Griffin, but his job was to shadow her, so shadow her he would.
    The wisteria vine shading the patio outside the cottagecreated wavering trails of shadow on the flagstones as they crossed to the front door. The night was damp, and he breathed in the scent of freshly cut grass and the perfume of the purple wisteria, mixed with the tang of seaweed washed up on the beach several hundred yards away. The marine layer sitting offshore breathed cool air ahead of itself as it moved in for the night, giving relief from the heat of Indian summer.
    The scents of the night, the quiet, the sensuous sway of the woman walking ahead of him…at any other time this would be a perfect setting for a night of lovemaking.
    He shook off the thought. The night was creating a false sense of intimacy, that was all. This sense of waiting, of anticipation created by the wash of waves in the distance and the sweet scent of flowers, was just an illusion. The only thing he was waiting for was some kind of information provided by Jay’s rent-a-mystic, here. That was it.
    It was strange how confidently she moved in the dark, though. Had she memorized the place when they’d been here earlier?
    “Want me to stay on the step again?” His voice sounded rough in the breathing silence, even to him.
    She glanced over her shoulder at him as she pushed open the door. “No, it’s okay. Don’t turn on the lights, though.”
    “Why not?”
    “Sometimes you can see better in the dark.”
    O-o-o-kay. You in this case obviously did not mean him. He preferred light. Clarity. Facts. Things that could be catalogued and checked into an evidence locker, things that didn’t lie or hold double meanings.
    He moved cautiously behind her, expecting at any moment to stub a foot on a table leg or run into a chair. Themoon had not risen yet, but still, a little silvery light filtered in through the windows, just enough so that he could see her moving softly, slowly, touching things as she had before. Just a light caress of the fingers, one that gently asked, Do you have anything for me?
    He wondered if she touched her boyfriend like that after she hadn’t seen him for a while. Do you have anything for me? Because of course she had a boyfriend. A woman whose hips swayed like that and who could make a man think about falling on his knees and nuzzling her just by the simple act of sitting down surely had to.
    Too bad the guy, whoever he was, was going to have to do without her until they found Christina. Too bad he couldn’t enjoy the sight of that sweet, pear-shaped derriere or that dimpled smile. Griffin had spent the whole time in the upstairs hallway trying to imagine what her breasts would look like without the confines