Bound to Be a Bride by Megan Mulry Read Free Book Online

stones set in a Maltese cross that looked like an ill-trained smithy had hammered it. She was not certain a jeweler would even want it. Even so, Isabella felt a twinge of guilt. She had not actually fulfilled her end of the bargain that had secured the cross, a gift from the de la Mina family to their son’s intended bride.
    Isabella had argued with herself about it, then rationalized that the letter from Señor de la Mina had clearly stated it was an engagement present to Isabella herself. She had been engaged, after all.
    “Are you quite finished?” Javier’s stern voice sliced through her thoughts.
    “What do you mean?”
    “You were doing that tedious murmuring again. You may want to practice concealing your thoughts before entering the real world.”
    Isabella was offended by his high-handed tone, but suspected he was right.
    By late afternoon, they had found another protected copse in which to spend the night. The horses were fettered near a stream and Isabella had proved that she was not boasting when she prepared the two rabbits that Sebastián had snared. She cleaned them and cooked them over the fire.
    Isabella noticed again that whenever she ate or licked her fingers clean, Javier seemed to become particularly annoyed, finally huffing and getting up from the campfire. Then, after she had returned from taking care of herself before she fell asleep, Javier was waiting for her with the ropes.
    Her stomach flipped, and she did not want to contemplate whether it was hope or fear that had caused the strange excitement to whip through her.
    “I am not sure that is necessary,” she said softly. Sebastián and Marco had already fallen asleep on the far side of the campfire.
    “We have saddlebags full of valuable supplies and—” He looked away, almost ashamed, then back into her eyes. “I just cannot take the chance of you stealing anything or slipping away and revealing our location.”
    She stared at him and felt the wave of heat come up her body, from her stomach and over her breasts. Her breath became shallow. “Here.” She lifted her hands up, the wrists already together. Even though they were bare, she acted as if she were already bound.
    When she saw the way Javier’s jaw tensed and his black eyes shone, Isabella had the strangest impression that her submission was actually a peculiar form of power that she wielded. Her body was eager to have his hands on her again, and if this ritualistic binding was going to bring that about, her rapidly beating heart seemed to suggest she should leap at the chance.
    She stood like that for a few long moments, the position oddly prayerlike, staring into his eyes. “You should,” she whispered. “I’ve been told I sleepwalk and sometimes speak in the night. It’s probably for the best.” She raised her hands slightly higher, offering them to him.
    His exhale seemed strained, but he did what he had set out to do. She realized now that the methodical wrapping of her wrists was a form of artistry. She smiled as he wound the ropes tenderly around her pale skin, her breasts tightening in her corset, that unfamiliar heat building between her legs.
    When he finished with her wrists, he gestured toward the ground. She looked and saw that he had made a pallet out of two of the horse pads, and the army blanket from the night before was folded neatly at the end.
    “Why thank you, Javier. A bed.” She spoke quietly and sat down slowly, then stretched her legs out.
    He knelt down on one knee, his forearm resting casually across his other thigh.
    “Here. Let me help you get settled.”
    Isabella reclined onto her back, turned onto her side, and pulled her bound hands closer to her chin, as if she were snuggling into them.
    “Do you want to tie my ankles as well?”
    “Yes,” he said, but his voice sounded thick and unfamiliar. Almost greedy.
    He spread the blanket over her, then lifted it away from where it covered her feet. Isabella gasped when his fingers touched the