Free The Gideon Affair by Suzanne Halliday Page B

all this crap.
    The words came far too easily. She excelled at having presence of mind. That ability to think on her feet was a big part of why people found her so capable. Thank god, it served her right now.
    “Well, sweetie,” she mockingly sneered. “I put up with your moldy ass because I love smog, pretention, PinkBerry, and a brutal drought. Next question?”
    Relief swept through her when Edward leaned in and put his forehead against hers.
    “Damn,” he muttered thickly. “And here I thought it was ‘cause you’re hopelessly in love with me.”
    He was joking. Right?
    With unerring accuracy, she dropped her arm from his shoulder and went straight for the water bottle planted in the sand at his side. One flick of a finger on the cap and it sprang open just as she upended the bottle and cold water drained down the back of his head, sliding down his neck and into this shirt.
    Jolted by complete surprise, he barked, “What the fuck!”
    Pushing her away, she winked in his shocked face and wrinkled her nose.
    “Just cooling you down, loverboy. Reminding you that I’m not one of your awestruck fans. Or a horny co-star.”
    His face fell at her jest, as if she struck a nerve.
    Well, that was not good.
    A troop of wildly stomping roughriders marched through her belly sending waves of anxiety into every corner of her being.
    “Okay,” Paige drawled. “My bad and that makes us even.”
    Nodding as he finished wiping the water off his neck, he growled, “Look,” but he was looking everywhere but at her. “I fucked up today.”
    She snorted and elbowed him playfully trying to break his dour change of mood. “So, what else is new?”
    “This is serious, babe.”
    “Yeah, Edward. I get that. Cut me a damn break, okay? Remember—I’ve been watching you for a while, and I’m not stupid. You don’t hang by the shoreline in a pair of incredibly expensive tailored slacks, which, by the way, you’ve completely ruined, for no good reason.”
    More head nods. Well, at least he was aware of what he was doing and that it seemed more than a bit odd.
    “Has Mickey called you?”
    The alarm bells started clanging in her mind. If he was asking about Mickey, then that meant some serious bullshit must have gone down.
    “No. You told me to turn off my phone. Remember? Something about having earned a day off.” She all but harrumphed at the end. It had been his damn idea, after all.
    “Yeah, right. Well, um … you might want to turn it back on because I’m pretty sure he’s halfway to an award-winning meltdown right about now.”
    “What did you do?” No use in beating around the bush. All indications were that he’d stepped in it pretty good.
    Edward rubbed his big hand on the back of his neck and grunted. “Fuck.”
    “Perhaps another time, “ she pithily remarked. “Now … What. Did. You. DO?”
    A tremendous wave crashed ashore sending a soft mist of sea spray into the air. The gentleness of it was so opposite to how she felt.
    “The studio arranged a couple of sit-downs today. No print, mostly bloggers.”
    Now see … this was exactly why she could never have a real day off. Not when they were in L.A. Too much potential for fuckery, a point so perfectly demonstrated by the damn studio hauling some last-minute crap out of their butts.
    “How bad was it?”
    She saw the relief in his expression at her question and wondered if it was because he feared she would be mad.
    Keeping his gaze partially shuttered, he answered slowly. “Um, yeah. About that … well … it’s like this.”
    And then he stopped talking.
    Now, later on, maybe she’d rewind this moment and try to figure out why she did what she did, but at the moment, her every action and reaction felt completely natural.
    Bellowing, “Jeez Louise, spit it the hell out, would you?” Paige whirled in the sand and jumped on him, pushing Edward flat as she straddled his middle and playfully slapped at his chest.
    With her hands around his throat, she