Her New Worst Enemy Read Online Free PDF Page B

turned back to see him still there.
    “Are you going to watch me undress?” It was meant to be a joke, but it had a strange
     effect on her and she felt her body flood with longing; her panties growing damp.
    Gideon cleared his throat. “No, of course not. I’ll get started on the dinner. Risotto
     okay for you?”
    “Great.” He turned to go, “Gideon? Thanks. For all of this I mean.”
    “No problem.” His mouth curved into a lopsided grin and he strode out.
    Ellie exhaled and rested her head against the polished wood of the wardrobe door.
     Torture. That was what it was. She shook herself vigorously and grabbed a soft duck
     egg blue t-shirt to try on.
    • • •
    Gideon paused on the landing and leant on the rail, looking down into the hallway
     of the house that still held so many painful memories for him. Seeing Ellie looking
     through his sister’s old stuff, then answering her question about Harriet brought
     back more of the old feelings he’d tried to forget.
    Even though he understood why Harriet had left him there, he couldn’t forgive her
     for never contacting him again. It was as if she’d lumped him in with their grandparent’s
     heartless behavior and blamed him for how things had turned out. Or maybe he was too
     painful a reminder of what they once had.
    They’d never been particularly close — their age difference hadn’t helped that — but
     they were still family. He hadn’t tried to find her out of pride. She clearly didn’t
     want to have anything to do with him, so he’d decided he didn’t care about seeing
     her again.
    Being back here brought back flashes of the pain and loneliness he’d felt for a lot
     of his young life. It made him mad to see how cavalier Ellie was about pushing her
     family away when all they wanted to do was help and support her.
    Perhaps he should be a bit more forceful about pointing this out to her? After all,
     he had a lot of experience on the flip side.
    Walking back to the dressing room, he decided to be straight with Ellie about how
     he felt about Harriet and hope she took something away from it that might make her
     think about her own family.
    The door had swung back on its hinges so it stood half open, and as he approached
     he could see Ellie as she pulled a t-shirt over her head and dropped it casually onto
     the floor.
    Blood pounded through his veins as he took in the curve of her pale shoulder against
     the soft light that poured in through the window.
    He stopped short, caught in the sensual grip of the moment.
    She turned so her profile was to him and his eyes dipped to the swell of her breasts,
     encased in a simple white cotton bra. He felt himself harden uncomfortably, his breath
     coming in short bursts while his libido raged at him.
    She had an amazing figure, just as he’d predicted. All gentle curves; with long, lean
     legs and magnificent, pert breasts. He found himself itching to march in there and
     unsnap that bra so he could get his hands on her.
    This was ridiculous. He was spying on her like some teenage peeping Tom. It had to
     stop. He backed away quietly in case his movements drew attention to his lingering
     and softly padded downstairs, focusing on a particularly tricky business problem,
     an issue with the heating system, the nine times table, anything to banish the image
     of Ellie’s tantalizing body and his own body’s hard response to it.
    • • •
    The wonderful aroma of the risotto hit Ellie’s nostrils as she walked into the kitchen.
    She was wearing some of the new clothes she’d selected, but had put her baggy sweater
     back on because they were all tight fitting and she felt a bit strange about wearing
     them in front of Gideon. She gave him a surreptitious look but he seemed engrossed
     in what he was doing at the stove.
    She poked around the cupboards and drawers, examining the supplies, to give herself
     something to do while she waited for the food to be ready.
    “We probably haven’t got