Celeste Bradley - [Heiress Brides 03] by Duke Most Wanted Read Free Book Online

and hard and circular.
    “It’s a coin.”
    “Ah, but what coin?”
    She ran her fingers over the relief, then weighed it in one hand. “A guinea.”
    He took it away and replaced it with something spherical and hard. His fingers were gentle and quick on her wrist, on her fingers. She could feel the faint horseman’s calluses—
    “Sophie, what is in your hand?”
    Brought back to the moment, Sophie cleared her throat. “Oh . . . an apple.” She took a bite, then grinned. “Most of an apple.”
    He took it from her. She heard the crisp sound of his teeth biting into it—did his lips touch where hers had? When he put something else into her hand, she let it sit in her lax fingers for a moment, half-hoping he would close her fingers about it for her. When he did, she savored the touch, then scolded herself for such thoughts. Really, it was a silly game!
    Then she realized that she could not tell what she held, not even when she used both hands, running her fingers over it again and again. “A . . . stick?” It was smooth but hard and branched twice. “Some sort of carving?”
    “Hah,” he said, so close that his breath puffed on her cheek. “Sophie doesn’t know everything.”
    She grimaced. “Neither does Graham.” Yet she couldn’t help rising to the bait. She concentrated, runningher fingertips over the pointed tips of the thing—not sharp, not really. She brought it to her cheek and ran it over her skin. “Polished . . .” She realized that it had warmed in her hand, the way wood might. It was lighter though, like . . . “Bone?”
    He chuckled. She felt it all the way through her body, the deep masculine sound of it shivering through her belly, making her thighs press closer beneath her skirts.
    “Close,” he said. “But no.”
    She forced herself to concentrate on the piece and not on the fact that she could now feel the heat of his body on her skin, just where he leaned close to her side, not quite touching . . .
    Then she had it. “Horn!” She brandished it blindly. “It’s a horn!”
    He laughed aloud, though she felt him duck. “Indeed, although technically I think it’s an antler.” He took it from her. “I put in it my pocket last night at the house and forgot about it.”
    “Ah. A trophy from the mighty hunters?” She waited, for Graham never let pass an opportunity to make jest of his brothers or father.
    Another object, small and circular, warm from his hand or perhaps his pocket, landed in her palm. She closed her hand over it. A ring? She absently slipped it onto her finger. It fit.
    She wriggled her fingers and laughed. “How does it look?”
    Silently, his warm fingers took possession of her hand and slipped the ring off. Sophie had the feelingshe’d said or done something wrong. “Is it meaningful?” She hadn’t meant to make light, but then again, it was a game. Wasn’t it?
    “Just something old,” he said slowly. Then, “Give me your hand again.”
    His touch felt different this time. Less playful, more . . . forceful? Then he brought their hands up and lay her palm on his face.
    She drew her breath in slowly. For all their hours of intimacy, they’d never touched more than hand to hand. Now her hand cupped his sculpted jaw, her fingers tentative on the unshaven stubble there. The bristly texture surprised her. She’d thought beards would be soft, like animal fur. Then she realized that his jaw worked beneath her hand.
    She pulled it away slowly. Something serious was afoot. “Graham, are you all right?” She started to lift the blindfold. “What is it?”
    “Nothing . . . nothing at all.” Graham pulled her fingers away from the blindfold and returned her hand to his cheek and held it there.
Not yet. It is not real yet
. Closing his own eyes, he concentrated on the feel of Sophie’s cool hand on his cheek.
    Sophie lived so safely, so sheltered. So much unknown. Did she even know the difference between a man’s skin and a woman’s? Had she ever felt a