No Knight Needed by Stephanie Rowe

deviant daughter, already co-conspirators against her. “And what?” Katie asked. “Griffin and Jeremy are just supposed to shower with their bathing suits on?”
    “Well, not Griffin,” Clare stuttered, then her face heated up again at Griffin’s wicked smile, and her daughter’s burst of laughter. “I mean, because he’s going to live here! But no boys, and not in your room—”
    Griffin set his hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay, Clare. I won’t get naked if you don’t want me to.”
    “Jeremy will,” Katie said. “I can’t stop him. Boys just like to be naked and—”
    “Enough!” Clare glared at them both. “You both are going to eat lentil soup and liver tonight.” She pointed at her daughter, her hand trembling, but she had to know. She had to understand the truth and face it. “Have you ever kissed Jeremy?” She’d given that boy full reign of her house and her daughter for years, assuming that they were just friends. But nakedness? “Have you?”
    Katie giggled. “You’re so uptight, Mom. If you let someone kiss you, maybe you’d realize it isn’t such a big deal.”
    Clare couldn’t bring herself to look at Griffin’s response to that remark, and a cold dread beat at her as she faced her daughter, preparing to ask the question she’d been fearing since Katie was born. “Katie, are you having sex with Jeremy?” Her heart stuttered and a sharp pain ricocheted through her chest. Please God, let the answer be no. “I won’t judge you, but I need to know—”
    “Mom!” Katie looked appalled at the question, sending a stricken glance over to Griffin to see if he was listening. “I’m not having sex with him, or any other guy! Jeremy is always in the bathroom, alone, when he’s changing. I haven’t seen him naked since we were about five! Okay?”
    Clare let out her breath. She knew her daughter well enough to know she was telling the truth. Her body began to shake with relief, and her legs suddenly felt weak. “Okay.” It was okay. Her daughter wasn’t about to get pregnant. It was still okay.
    Griffin raised his brows at her. “Are you all right?”
    “Yes, fine, just an overactive imagination.” Clare shook out her hands and took a deep breath.
    Katie grinned, her eyes radiating with excitement. “But Jeremy did kiss me last night when we thought we were going to die,” she sang. “It was pretty cute.”
    “He did?” Clare couldn’t help but smile at the twinkle on her daughter’s face, remembering that excitement of a first kiss, but at the same time, she felt her heart sinking. Her little girl was too young to be heading down this path. Yes, it was just a kiss, thank heavens, but still. “Do you like him?”
    Katie shrugged. “I don’t know. We’ll see.” She glanced over at Griffin, who had been watching the whole exchange with an increasingly furrowed brow. “Can I have Jeremy and Sara over for dinner? Jeremy is dying to see Griffin again, and Sara wants to meet him.”
    Oh, right. The last thing Clare needed was for Eppie to hear that she was getting Katie and her friends emotionally invested in a serial killing outsider. “No, I don’t think so. Not tonight.”
    Katie ignored her and turned to Griffin, directing her question at him. “Is it okay with you? They’d go crazy if they got to have dinner with you.”
    Clare blinked at her daughter’s dismissal of her. “Hello? Who’s the mom here?”
    Griffin glanced at Clare, then back at Katie. There was an expression on his face that she couldn’t decipher. There was uncertainty, discomfort, but also a sense of surprised delight. Of what? Her daughter’s adulation? He turned to Katie. “I’d like to get to know Jeremy a little better,” he said. “Bring him over.”
    “No!” Clare stepped between them, needing to reclaim her space. Yes, she was pretty sure Griffin wanted to terrify Jeremy into keeping his underwear on anytime he was in her house and she appreciated it, but she could handle