Irresistible Stranger

“I just don’t want to leave you.” There’d never been a simpler truth.

“I’ll see you tomorrow. Or the first moment you have time. But right now, go home, get some serious rest. That’s an order.”

“Lily.” He said her name, heard the promise and wonder in his voice. He wanted to tell her he’d fallen in love, but he could see from her expression, her eyes, that she wouldn’t believe him. Not now. Not yet. So he just left it like that, with her name spoken into the night air. He pressed his lips to her brow, and then climbed into his EOS and drove back home.

On the quiet road, the windows open to feel fresh wind on his face, he thought about what she’d said. Lily had no factual basis to believe the two recent fires were linked to her-but he believed the same. Something was wrong. Badly wrong.

People were whispering about Lily, had been from the moment she arrived, and the gossip had taken an extra- dark turn that day. It stopped when he’d turned his head or turned around, but he’d heard tail ends of it through the daylight hours-that “someone” had said how Lily was “like her dad”. That fire setting was “in the blood”.

It was completely ridiculous.

Besides which, it was completely wrong.

But someone-or a bunch of someones-was putting that talk out there. It was being said, being spread.

He wanted to ignore it, but it was starting to scare him.

Lily tiptoed into the B and B, slipped off her sandals, and trying not to breathe, or make any other sound, she hustled up the carpeted steps. Before she reached the top, she heard Louella call from below. “That you, Lily?”

“Yes, it’s me.”

“So you’re home safe.”

“You bet.”

“Then I’m going to turn off the lights and lock up good. I don’t like what’s happening around this town, I don’t. Can’t understand a…” Her voice trailed down the shadowed hall, making Lily wonder if Louella actually talked 24-7, whether someone was there or not.

But her smile faded as she unlocked her room and slipped inside. The first time she’d seen the room, she’d loved it on sight. The mahogany four-poster, with its mound of soft, white pillows, was the-real-thing comfortable. Lace draped the long, skinny windows. Apparently like other houses this old, the bedroom had a sink against one wall, marble, gorgeous even if the mirror above it was cracked. She loved the room every time she walked in.

But right now, it was the last place in the universe she wanted to be.

She turned on the wheezy fan, shucked her clothes, switched off the light and crashed on the old percale sheets. She wanted to be with Griff, not here. The need to be with him bubbled up like a cry in her heart, a yearning coming from somewhere deep inside. Nothing like their lovemaking had ever happened to her before. It wasn’t the sex.

Okay. It was a little bit about the stupendous sex.

But it was the other part that was even more stupendous-and dangerous. She’d felt so… connected to him. She hadn’t let herself feel connected to anyone or anything, not deeply, since her family was torn apart after the fire. The losses had been too unbearable. Yet something about Griff reached her. He was alone the same way she was. She kept having the sense of her hand reaching his across a universe, finding the only other soul who might just understand her kind of loneliness.

She closed her eyes. Tried to sleep. When that failed, she tried pacing the room in the dark. Then she tried brushing her hair, standing in front of the fan. When she still wasn’t ready to sleep, she switched on the bedside lamp and turned on her laptop. She wasn’t about to call her youngest sister in the middle of the night; she just sent her a short email, asking for a connect when Sophie had a chance.

Somewhere around four in the morning, Lily’s body finally caved. She closed up, turned off, and tuned out. She’d just shut her eyes when her cell phone vibrated.

Sophie’s voice was wide awake. “I’ve been worried to bits about you.”

“What on earth are you doing up?”

“I know it sounds crazy, but it seems to be a newlywed thing. We start talking and can’t stop. Mess around, fall asleep, start talking again. This love thing is exhausting. Now. Forget me. Fill me in.”

Lily peeled out the whole story of her meeting with Mr. Renbarcker. The fires. How she’d come home to find out once and for all what caused their family fire, and hopefully to clear their dad’s name. And she was finding answers, but those answers just seemed to lead to more troubling questions.

“The only truly wonderful thing so far, was talking with Mr. Renbarcker. Everything he said reminded me of dad. How dad was so happy. I remember him laughing, playing with us, being with us. The way his arm would loop around mom when we were all watching TV or walking in the park.”

Sophie picked up that thought. “I could never believe it, either. That dad could have caused that fire. But I didn’t know if all of us were in denial.”

“That’s just it. Why I had to come back. I need to know the whole truth, whatever it is.”

“Which is fine,” her baby sister said. “Only, if you’re finding out things that are making you afraid, I want you to get out of Dodge.”

“No. That’s not the real problem.”

Sophie put on her bossy sister voice. “I hear fear in your voice, Lily.”

“Because I’m petrified.”

“That’s it! Get out of there. Or I’ll fly there-and get Cate to come with me. We’ll both-”

Lily cut to the chase. “I’m not afraid about the fire. Or anything to do with the past. The problem is…well, it’s a man.”

“Say what?”

“A man.”

Sophie tapped her phone, making Lily’s ears pop. “Is this my sister talking? The schoolteacher who goes to jewelry parties and craft shows? The one who’s idea of a fun evening is rereading Jane Austen?”

“He’s all wrong for me. I’m going to leave. He’s going to stay. He’s got a long reputation for loving women and not committing. I never even passed an elementary course in flirting.”

“You slept with him.” Sophie didn’t make it a question.

“It can’t work. I totally know that. So I’m trying to just be cool, enjoy falling off the mountain before the crash. Why can’t I have a wild affair? You and Cate have been telling me to do it for years.”

“Since when did you listen to us? You can’t have a wild affair, because a wild affair isn’t you.”

“But maybe it is. Maybe for once in my life, I need to do exactly this. Have a completely irresponsible, hedonistic, dangerous, crazy sexy affair. Knowing there’s no future. Just doing it because…because I’ve never wanted anything more. Never wanted anyone more.”

“Then why are you scared?”

“What if I can’t get over him? What if this is so…huge. This heart thing. This man. That no other guy will ever come close?”

“Okay. I’m trying to think reasonably here. I won’t call Cate this second. I won’t go out and buy a gun to shoot him. But that’s what I want to do. If he hurts you, if he hurts you in even an eensy, tiny way-”

“Soph, everyone gets hurt. Nobody can save anybody that.”

They were still talking, her sister’s voice as familiar as her own heartbeat, their ways of talking and teasing, their codes as comforting as a band-aid on a sore. Neither were finished talking, when Lily abruptly ended the call.

Outside, she heard the sound of a fire engine siren.

Chapter 8

Lily raced over to the window. The siren sounded close-within blocks-but there was no sign of smoke or fire. Still, even through the trees and darkness she could see second-story lights popping on. Others