from a much larger male cousin, but the brightness of her smile reminded Griffin of how very pretty she was. He wondered what Gage would think of his pen pal if he ever left the danger zone long enough to meet her man-to-woman. "Does his crush go both ways now, Tess?" Skye asked.
Griffin swallowed his groan. Was this the direction the wind blew? Not that he wanted to be bothered with the ins and outs of his sister's relationships, but Deadly Dull David wasn't a bad guy - he wasn't even that dull, and finding his brother-in-law camping on the beach told him that the other man wasn't altogether the absent husband and father his sister believed. But if she was interested in Tee-Wee...
The best part of evading entanglement with a woman, Griffin decided, was that it kept him clear of being at the mercy of someone else's emotions. Jealousy had to sting. Wanting someone for oneself when they pined over another was a condition he planned to avoid his entire life.
"I'm married," his sister said with a little sigh. "Which leaves the admittedly attractive Teague up for grabs. Have you thought of asking him out, Skye?"
"No!" Skye tempered the tone of her voice. "I mean, no. I'm not really, um, looking for a relationship at the moment."
"Who's talking about a relationship?" Tess replied. "You can get...satisfaction without getting ensnared in coupledom."
Ensnared. His sister was sounding more like him by the minute. Poor David.
"Huh," Jane said. "That doesn't sound bad."
Skye straightened in her chair. "Are you telling me that muse plus superstar author doesn't equal one happy pairing?"
"There's nothing between me and Ian," Jane murmured, looking toward the cliff again. Teague White was braced against the rocks, and though in Griffin's mind's eye he was still the scrawny tagalong of childhood summers, he had to admit the guy had gained inches and pounds. He glanced back at the governess and saw her take off her hat.
The expression on her face was speculative. "I might be due some satisfaction," she said.
He frowned. She certainly was not! Hadn't he doled out some satisfaction to her just the other night? Sure, it had been quick and they'd both remained on their feet, but that wasn't his fault, was it? If she'd been a little more patient, he'd have taken her to his room -
But he'd told her he didn't want her in his bed.
And he didn't.
"Could be I'd benefit from getting some kinks worked out of my system...."
Kinks! Tee-Wee White wasn't owed Librarian Jane's kinks. Griffin was the one who had to put up with her demands and with her maddening perfume and her crazy-making footwear. For God's sake, he should be the one who deserved any kinks that rose to the surface.
And what did anyone really know about Tee-Wee, anyway? He used an ax on the job, didn't he? He could be an ax murderer. Or just plain lousy in the sack. Griffin could practically guarantee that.
"If Skye's hesitating, I guess that means you can have him, Jane." Tess glanced over her shoulder at the window where Griffin lurked.
He jerked back. Had she known he was eavesdropping?
Jane gnawed at the bottom lip of her puffy mouth. "It's not really my nature to be the aggressor in this sort of situation..."
Didn't Griffin know it? Be still, he'd said, and she'd done just that. He'd kissed her and she'd been made boneless. She shouldn't just go around asking men to melt her, because that's what she'd done under his hands and under his mouth - and she seemed to be aware of that. Blowing out a breath, he relaxed.
"...but I suppose nothing ventured, nothing gained."
His spine snapped straight. What? Had she actually said that? The same woman who'd also once repeated "Failure is not an option"?
Nobody knew better than he how determined the woman could be.
And Tee-Wee White was an ax murderer.
Tess shifted Russ from her lap to her shoulder. The baby snuggled into his mom's body, as peaceful as Griffin suddenly wasn't. "I know," his sister said. "You could ask Teague to Captain Crow's tomorrow night. On Sundays they have a special menu, live music, dancing. It's a lot of fun."
A little burn kindled in Griffin's gut. He remembered Jane that second night she'd ventured into Party Central. There'd been music then too. Dancing. She'd been dressed in a bikini top and exposing an ungoverness-like amount of naked skin. What she'd run into hadn't been fun.