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defending her gift to someone who so obviously discounted it. But this was a cop. Maybe if she talked to him the way she talked to Linn, she could at least get through.
    “It isn’t groundless.” She touched the untidy stack of college applications. “And he wants to know everything, upsetting or not, which is why he’s letting me stay here.” She glanced at the closet. “As for this mystery person, you’ll see a change in the kind of clothes she’s buying. The things she’s bought recently—with the tags still on them—are very adult. The kind of clothes that are designed to get attention. And it’s clear she wants that attention to be male.”
    Griffin crossed the room and leaned on the wall just inside the closet, next to a rack of shoes. She moved past him and lifted the taupe jersey dress off the rail by its hanger. “Look at this one, for instance. Spaghetti straps, backless, with a built-in bra that could hold back the American River. Dolce & Gabbana’s done some serious engineering here for the purpose of capturing a man’s attention and holding it.”
    “Are you so good at knowing what holds a man’s attention?”
    “Well, I’m betting we’re talking about a man who needs youth—young body, young skin, young attitude. Who picks a girl who won’t judge him because she’s not very experienced yet. And the more I think about it, the more I wonder if you weren’t right about him and the kidnapper being the same person.” Tessa stopped, suddenly realizing what he’d asked. “Was that a personal comment?”
    “Take it however you want.”
    “What I want isn’t relevant. What you meant is.”
    She couldn’t read his expression, but there was an odd, heated light in his eyes.
    “I was just curious,” he said. “Just wanted to confirm you can’t read a man’s mind. When you’re in bed with him, for instance.”

6
    G RIFFIN WATCHED SHOCK , then confusion, then challenge ripple across her expression. He didn’t know why he was goading her. He was supposed to be watching out for his boss’s interests, waiting for her to slip up and show herself to be a fraud.
    Unfortunately, all she was showing was a damn good grasp of human behavior and a skill at observation that was as good as his.
    Better, even. He hadn’t even thought about what sales tags meant on a woman’s clothes. What he was thinking about was what the dress on the hanger would look like on Tessa. How the smooth fabric would look against her fair skin. And what kind of spectacular results the designer’s engineering would produce if it cupped breasts like hers.
    “Of course not,” she said. “Who wants to hear a whole lot of mental grunting, anyway?”
    Stop fantasizing about her breasts, you idiot .
    “Maybe you ought to pick a different kind of guy,” he suggested. “One who thinks in sentences.”
    She turned her back on him, which, he was discovering, was how she communicated she’d been offended.
    “You know, we have to work together for however many days this takes,” she said from the other side of the room.“You might consider being civil and keeping this on a business, not a personal, level.”
    She was right. How could he fantasize about her on one level and label her a criminal on another? What kind of man did that make him?
    The truth was, he simply wasn’t ready for her to be right and for him to be wrong.
    “I know you don’t believe in me, and that’s fine,” she went on. “My sister doesn’t, either. But I do have something to contribute, and if you’ll let me do my job maybe it will make it easier for you to do yours.”
    Right again. He hated that.
    “So can we please call a truce and get on with it?”
    To remind himself he was a decent guy, he kept his gaze on her face. Her eyes were just as wide and blue as he remembered from two years ago, and the short haircut accentuated her pointed chin and terrific cheekbones. And that mouth with its full lower lip and dented upper—
    No, don’t