Redeeming Rafe by Alicia Hunter Pace Read Free Book Online Page B

pulled her hair up into some kind of little twisty thing on top of her head, and she wore a pale pink blouse tucked into gray pants. Classy. Everything about her screamed class. His eyes settled on the pearls that brushed her collarbones and the hollow of her throat.
    Lucky pearls.
He tried to shake it off and look away, but he couldn’t. There was something about those lustrous little beads against her milky skin that took his breath away, made him want to run his tongue where the pearls lay and maybe take the necklace off her and tease her with it …
    Again, he tried to stop himself, but it was too late. He already had a picture in his mind of circling a rosy pink nipple with a smooth, cool pearl.
    This was unlike him. It must be because he was so tired. He never had gotten a nap. There had been too much to do—cribs to order, furniture to move out of the new nursery, Abby’s luggage to carry in.
    And now there were pearls to look at. And skin. And if Jackson had his way—which he wouldn’t—he’d have Rafe sleeping in close proximity to that skin—and those pearls.
    The pearls were small. What she needed was a long strand that would wrap around her breasts and on down …
    Then, out of nowhere, a small pink hand clutched the necklace at the very place Rafe had imagined his tongue. He deflated—in more ways than one.
    “No, darling.” Abby’s soft, cooing voice was punctuated with low laughter. “I shouldn’t wear pretty toys if I don’t want them played with, should I?”
    No kidding.
    Abby gracefully rose from the rocking chair and pulled the little hand away from her necklace.
    “Alice, sweetheart. Say hi to your daddy.”
    The child gave him a flirtatious little look and said, “Hi.” Then she slipped a thumb in her mouth and smiled around it.
    His blood turned to ice, and he backed up a step. “Hello,” he said formally.
    Abby frowned at him and held the child out. “Would you like to—”
    “No.” He cut her off. “Maybe later.”
    “I see.” Who knew such a seemingly sweet person could sound so holier than thou?
    “My hands are dirty,” he hastened to add. “I don’t want to mess her up. You’ve got her fixed up real nice.” That was true. Alice was wearing a little blue dress with some matching puffy short pants. No socks or shoes, but it was a warm day.
    “Thank you,” Abby said. “Anything would be an improvement over the last time you saw them. Gwen lent me some of Julie’s old baby clothes, but the girls are going to need some new things.”
    “Yeah?”
    “Unless you want your children to wear polyester animal print pants and shirts with things like ‘My Other Ride is a Unicorn’ spelled out in glitter.”
    Rafe laughed. “That’s funny.”
    Abby pursed her lips.
    “Sorry,” he said. “Sure. Buy whatever they need.”
    “Mmm.” How could one little non-word communicate so much disapproval? What did she want? He’d told her to buy what she wanted.
    “So, that’s Alice, huh? How can you tell?”
    Glacier girl thawed slightly. “See?” Abby turned the child and forced him to look at her again. She stroked her left eyebrow. “Alice has a scar here. It’s mostly hidden in her eyebrow, but it’s there.”
    A scar? Yes. She did. A feeling that he didn’t understand went through him, and there was nothing good about it.
    “What happened?” he asked. “How did she get it?” She would have bled and cried.
    “Well, Rafe, I don’t know, having not been there when the injury occurred. But I suspect she fell—probably into a table edge or onto a toy.” She rubbed the place. “You should have had a little stitch, shouldn’t you, baby?”
    “Why do you suppose she didn’t?” Rafe asked. “Get the stitch?”
    Abby swung the child to her hip. “Again, I don’t know. Maybe they thought she didn’t need one. Maybe they didn’t have medical insurance.”
    “No insurance?” After their parents died, Rafe and his brothers had worked hard helping Aunt Amelia