Salome at Sunrise by Inez Kelley Read Free Book Online Page A

wrinkled her nose. A twitch above his lip threatened to erupt into a smile. He forced it away, firmed his jaw and lengthened his stride. She quickened her pace. He glanced at her from the corner of his eye. Her brow twisted in concentration.
    Bryton increased his speed, she matched him. He doubled his pace and she scurried to keep up. Dropping the reins, he took off at a run. The flap of her gown on the air smacked loud as she mimicked his tempo. He pumped his arms and threw every ounce of strength into his leg. She blew past him with a laugh. Thirty feet ahead, she turned and waited for him to catch up. The curse he ground out was harsh and short.
    His chest heaved but she simply smiled. “Shall we race more? You will not win.”
    “Yeah, okay, so you’re faster. But you said I’m stronger.”
    A slow nod ruffled her hair. It spilled across her back, thin tendrils streaming in the soft breeze. He almost raised his hand to smooth a lock behind her ear but caught himself, tightening his fist.
    “Yes, physically, I believe you are stronger.”
    “You believe? But you don’t know it?”
    She shook her head.
    “Come on.” Bryton motioned at a tree stump, aged and hard, weathered to gray in the bright spring grass. Salome trailed after him like a sunbeam. He knelt on one side of the stump and pointed across from it.
    She lowered to her knees with a confused crease scrunching her nose. “What is it you wish to do?”
    He put one elbow on the wood. “Arm wrestle.”
    “Wrestle?” Those smoky eyes squinted at him. “You mean like a bear? Why would I wish to wrestle with you?”
    His gaze fell to her bare shoulder and a knot tightened in his chest. The rounded bone seemed delicate under the creamy skin. He wasn’t about to be shown up by a female. Never in his wildest, drunken ramblings would he have challenged a woman to an arm-wrestling match but Salome was not a woman. He forced into his mind the image of that limb shifting, shortening, sprouting feathers. She was magic, damn it, an incantation. So why was he prodding her? “I just need to win.”
    “Why?”
    Why? He didn’t know why. He just did. “Salome, put your arm up here, damn it!”
    She put the wrong arm on the wood and arched her brow. “Now what do we do?”
    “The other one,” he growled. One slender arm replaced the other and she parroted his stance, leaning forward and scowling. Her nose was scant inches from his. Her fiercely puckered mouth and overdrawn brows tugged at his humor but he pushed it below his ego. One was too bruised to let the other free. Positioning her hand in his, he tightened his grip. Small fingers clasped around his and she squeezed.
    Velvet, her hand in his was like warm velvet. Their eyes met. A metal clank sounded in his head, a lock closing, binding him to her as surely as if her touch were iron chains. His parched tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. Waved and sweeping brunette hair framed a face his hands suddenly itched to cup, to bring closer to his own so he could breathe in her sweet scent. Honey wafted on the breeze, wrapped around him like a blanket on a cold winter night. Warmth from her gaze battled the sunshine, and heat spread along his bones. The gentle curve of her rosy lips snagged the breath from his lungs. His thumb slid along the back of her hand, each soft inch searing into his mind with a sizzle. The harsh calluses on his hand tingled.
    “Is this all? We…hold hands? Who wins?”
    The whisper that left him took all his strength. “You do.”
    A wide smile rounded her cheeks. “That was easy.”
    “Yeah,” he murmured, blinking and struggling to remember his name.
    Salome leaned closer and his head angled, his gaze focused on her mouth. Warm breath feathered across his skin. She tilted her head, bringing her chin nearer his. A tiny hitch in her breathing sped jolts of fire down his body. His heart leaped then galloped in his chest. He sucked in her scent, her taste, his eyelids slowly