Free Her Spy to Hold (Spy Games Book 2) by Paula Altenburg Page A

to the beach so Kale could arrange for a rental board. A short time after that, he was struggling into his wetsuit and getting ready to hit the waves.
    A brisk wind blew off the ocean. Irina, beside him, carried a canvas bag containing a magazine, a beach towel, water bottles and sandwiches. He’d insisted she leave her laptop at home. She set the bag on the sand near the rocks at the high water point. Those rocks created a natural barrier between the beach and the road, so that the busy parking lot was hidden from sight, creating a sense of isolation.
    He couldn’t keep his eyes off her. Dressed in a cream-colored, cable-knit sweater that draped off one shoulder, and navy Bermuda shorts, she was slender in a petite, sleekly feminine way that had heat searing through him at unexpected moments, like now.
    He pried his thoughts away from all the movie euphemisms they’d made over breakfast. She’d been playing with him, fighting fire with fire. She was far too skittish around him and had too much pride to be serious. While academically he was no slouch, he was hardly on the same level she was.
    That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to see how far she’d go. He’d meant it when he’d said they both needed a break and she was quite the diversion. He itched to run his fingers over all that silky, lightly-tanned skin.
    Gulls circled and squawked in the wide blue sky overhead. A frown crinkled her pixie nose and turned the full, pink curve of her lips upside down.
    “The signs say it’s not safe to swim here,” she said, shielding her eyes with her hand as she stared out at the stretch of sparkling gray ocean.
    Swimming was off-limits here because there weren’t any lifeguards. He’d done enough surfing in the area to know better than to ignore the posted signs that warned of dangerous currents, but there were three other surfers who looked like they knew what they were doing in the water already. They’d keep an eye on each other.
    He zipped up the front of the wetsuit. “The tide’s on its way in. I’m good for a few hours. But just in case, the car keys are in my jeans pocket.”
    Green eyes swiveled to his. “That’s not funny. I’m serious.”
    “So am I.” It touched him that she was concerned. No one but his mother ever worried about him, and even she had given up a long time ago. He made a few phone calls a year, mostly to make up for the Christmases and birthdays he sometimes missed, and she was happy. “See those rocks?” He wrapped an arm around Irina’s shoulders and turned her so she faced the farthest one of the two points that formed the small cove where they stood. “No one surfs beyond there. As long as the tide’s coming in and I stay on this side of the rocks, I’ll be fine.”
    Doubt curled the corners of her lips downward. “If you say so.”
    She didn’t believe him. That was pretty cute too.
    An unsettling rush of possessiveness took him by surprise when she tipped her face upward as if about to say something more. She was small, the top of her ponytail barely reaching his chest. He dropped a light kiss on her mouth, sweeping his tongue across those full, frowning lips to steal a taste of the salt on her skin from the fresh ocean air. When he lifted his head, her green eyes were wide and bemused.
    He knew the feeling.
    “Do you think we might be carrying this whole pretend relationship a little too far?” she asked.
    The short answer was yes.
    He still had an arm around her. He shrugged before letting go of her to pick up his board, struggling for cool. “What can I say? I’m a touchy kind of guy.” He straightened. “Is that going to be a problem for you?”
    Unsmiling, she gave the cheeky challenge far more consideration than it deserved. “No.”
    Her answer was as honest and direct as he’d come to expect of her. It was his reaction to it that he hadn’t anticipated. His brain dried up and his reeling thought processes shifted straight to his crotch.
    He’d been so