against it. “But why, Griff? Your family knows how badly you were hurt when Zelda canceled the wedding. You don’t have to camouflage your feelings.”
As Igor disappeared down the dark hallway on a sniffing expedition, Griff walked through the front of the house, turning on lights. “Living room, dining area, kitchen. I don’t want them feeling sorry for me.”
She had followed him into the hallway. “Sympathy isn’t pity.”
“I don’t want sympathy, either. This is the bedroom.” The lamplight showed pink and peach where he’d been expecting green. “Mom’s redecorated since I was here. That’s her stress reliever—wallpaper and paint. There’s a full bathroom attached.” He walked over to open the door.
Arden stayed by the doorway into the hall. “She said she was very worried when you left. That you didn’t call or email.”
Griff thrust his hands in his pockets. “What was I going to say? ‘Having a miserable time, glad you aren’t here’?”
Shaking his head, he joined her in the doorway. “Tonight, because of you, I wasn’t the prodigal son, coming home to be forgiven and taken care of.” He set his hands on her shoulders. “Instead, I came home proud, bringing with me a lovely woman who, as far as they know, is crazy about me. We’re deeply in love and planning a perfect life together. I may have left town a failure, but I came back a winner.”
She wrapped her fingers around his wrists. “They’re not completely convinced, you know. Your sisters, your mother and dad—they’re still suspicious.”
“So we’ll convince them.” Griff bent his head to breathe in the citrus scent of Arden’s hair, then lingered to kiss her smooth forehead. “If I stay here for a while, that should help.” He brushed his mouth over her temple, her cheekbone and the curve of her jaw. “How would you like to spend the time?”
Her breathing had changed. “Parcheesi? Backgammon?”
“Right.” He released her and started down the hallway. “I think there’s a set in the living room—”
“You’re not going anywhere.” She gripped his elbow to stop him, then pulled him around to face her.
Not that Griff made it hard. He’d only been teasing.
So she was smiling as her arms circled his neck. “How about spin the bottle?”
He folded his arms around her waist. “Let’s skip the bottle part.”
“Good idea.”
Still he paused a moment, studying the flecks of green in her gray eyes and anticipating the pleasure promised by her soft, rosy mouth…until, with a desperate little sound, Arden dragged his head down and pressed her lips against his.
Relief swamped him first—he wasn’t in this thing alone, thank God. Then desire surged through him and he drowned in it, pulling Arden tight against him to indulge all of his many fantasies about kissing her. Her sweet mouth surrendered and he took full advantage, tasting and stroking, groaning with pleasure as she made her own demands, satisfied her own needs.
She wore an ocean-green cashmere sweater that seemed to disappear beneath his palms…but not quite, so he slipped one hand underneath to find her skin every bit as silky as he’d anticipated. The new jeans he’d admired because they were tight meant he couldn’t do the same at her waist, but he smoothed a hand over the curve of her hip and the swell of her bottom and was rewarded when she pressed her belly even closer to his. Then she lifted her knee to the outside of his thigh and he pretty much lost his mind. The sane part of it, anyway.
Strong and hard and sure…he felt like an anchor to Arden, a rock she could cling to while her head spun and her knees dissolved. His hands moved on her body, a glorious, intimate pressure she wanted to feel on every inch of her skin. Or that might be his mouth, instead, exploring the arch of her neck and the curl of her ear.
Clearly, they both had too many clothes on, because she couldn’t get his shirttail out of his jeans fast enough to satisfy her craving for the feel of his flesh beneath her fingertips. She needed him closer, needed his weight on top of her to bear down against the aches he was creating there, down low, with just the press of his palm over her breast….
“Ow!” He jerked away, staggering back against the other wall of the hallway. “Damn it, what is your problem?”
Dropped all the way to ground zero, Arden sagged against the door frame, panting and staring. “Wh-what?”
Griff paid no attention. He was shaking his