Free The Gideon Affair by Suzanne Halliday

seconds earlier he’d been thanking the angels for her presence in his life.
    Grabbing hold of her wrist, he gave a sturdy yank that sent her tumbling onto the sand at his side. Her startled cry and the way she chided him for the playful attack was the perfect reminder of how lucky he was to have such a remarkable friendship with her.
    When she teased him and asked how long he knew she’d been lurking and if he wanted to talk, a thousand details of his shitty day came into focus.
    Yeah. He wanted to talk, but he would have to see her eyes. She couldn’t hide her feelings from him. He wasn’t sure if she understood how easily he read her, but he needed to look at her, really look at her, if they were going to have a serious conversation.
    “Lose the sunglasses,” he drawled after a long pause.

    The changing vibes coming off Edward made Paige proceed with caution.
    That and her own wildly careening impulses prompted the yellow flags of warning in her mind. It was all she could do to remain still when he was so close and she could feel his tension. This compelling need to protect and comfort the man at her side made her want things she shouldn’t entertain.
    Things like touching him and not a slap on the shoulder or a wink-wink nudge either. No, she wanted a full-on tactile exploration. The sort that would leave them breathing heavy and hanging by the slimmest thread of self-control.
    His gruff voice interrupted her thoughts just in time.
    Stroking her wrist with the briefest of touches, he commented, “What happened to the fitness tech?”
    She huffed out a, “Hmph,” and shook her head. Displaying the wrist that was now naked, she bluntly snapped, “Too much information.”
    Edward’s good-natured laugh was a reminder of how he’d teased her endlessly about obsessing over stuff like fitness, insisting she was the most active person he’d ever known—something Paige seriously doubted.
    Crossing her legs, she leaned forward and played with the shifting sands, grumpily admitting what a mistake the device had been.
    “Yeah, well … being in shape is all well and good, but I seriously did not need that thing monitoring my sleep pattern or registering every nighttime heart rate increase.” Oh, my god. What had made her say that?
    Please, please, please let that comment pass. PLEASE .
    Without warning, Edward flung his arm around her neck and dragged her half onto his lap for a merciless noogie administered to the top of her head.
    Laughing gleefully, he teased, “Y’know, it’s the same for guys. Sleepless night? Simple solution. A quick moonlit tug and off to dreamland.”
    Her cheeks felt like they were on fire. Leave it to Edward to identify the real meaning of her off-hand remark.
    Struggling upright in the vain hope of retaining her dignity, she firmly stated, “I have no idea what you mean,” in a bitchy voice that her inner librarian would find amusing.
    Nudging her so hard she nearly tipped over, Edward kept up the playful kidding around.
    “Hmph, so maybe tug isn’t the right word.”
    She peeked from the corner of her eyes and found him biting his lip with amusement.
    “Edward,” she warned. “Drop it.”
    The salacious look he turned on her was almost Paige’s undoing.
    “Too late,” he growled. “Got a full visual going on inside my dirty mind, babe.”
    His gaze went to her feet then quickly journeyed to her hands. “Pink toes. Mmm, I like very much by the way.”
    Pooh. Did she have spare undies in her backpack ‘cause with one growl and a look, she was embarrassingly wet. How did he manage to do that so damn easily?
    “But the matching manicure? Shit, Paige. Thinking about those beautiful fingers sliding along your …”
    “Shut up!” Her frantic screech drowned out the sound of the seagulls overhead and made Edward boom with laughter.

B reaking out into the happy dance almost happened right there on the beach because Paige’s accidental admission to a bit of self-pleasuring was