Read His Promise (Married in Montana Book 1) for Free Online Page A

wondered if he saw the old furniture, the plain table, the lamp that had belonged to her parents. It was neat and tidy and clean, but it was nothing fancy. His legs brushed the coffee table, and he pulled the edge out and sat down. It was solid wood and sturdy—he obviously thought it would hold his weight. His knees surrounded hers as he leaned forward, resting his hands on both sides of her legs.
    “Kim…” he started, but she reached up and put a shaky palm over his mouth.
    “Don’t say it. I can’t bear to hear you say you got over me. I feel like such a fool, coming to you today.”
    He pulled her hand down but didn’t let go of it. He held it in his. Did he pity her? Was that why he was there? “I didn’t say I got over you,” he said. His voice was so low and sexy, and he was watching her, his expression filled with emotion and something else that terrified her. It wasn’t a fear of him but a fear of finding something she’d never had.
    “I don’t understand.” She swallowed. “You said…”
    “I said I got past it. The hurt, the betrayal. When you love someone so much and you trust them, it’s that trust that holds the relationship together. When I went off knowing that you were going to be here waiting for me, you have any idea how much it hurt, calling you, hoping you’d understand how important this opportunity was for me? It didn’t mean forever. It was just a little while longer. Talking with your mother about this trip and where I was going, and for her to say she’d have you call…and then you didn’t call. I had to go, because it happened so quickly. We were leaving, and I was wondering and worrying the entire time, flying over there. Then I hear Craig Edwards has set his sights on you and is spending time with you. I almost lost it, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do, halfway across the world. I almost got on a plane to come home to see you a dozen times. I would have thrown away everything I worked so hard for.”
    “But you didn’t come,” she said. Why hadn’t he come? It was selfish, wanting him to have dropped everything to hop on the first plane over. She felt her eyes dampen and burn when the thought hit her that maybe she hadn’t been important enough to him after all.
    “I had every intention…until one day this kid walked into our camp. There were so many orphans and broken families who’d lost everything. It was something I’d never seen before. The boy stood in the middle of the camp alone, and there was a line of younger children waiting for food, others medicine. There was so much need and not enough of anything. My professor, who’d made the arrangements—he’d been a doctor for twenty years, teaching, giving. I mean, he was an amazing man. He saw the kid, too, standing there.
    “Just as I was about to walk over to him, Dr. Jackson yelled out at me to stop. Everyone was suddenly on edge. It was one of those moments where time slowed. I watched Dr. Jackson walk with his hand out in this calming gesture as if he’d recognized something, and I was standing there frozen with a bunch of kids, and he said calmly to me, ‘Bruce, move the kids to the other side of the camp.’
    “I didn’t want to leave, but at the same time I wanted to get the hell out of there. Jackson was saying something in one of their local dialects, and then I realized the kid was holding a grenade. I was moving the kids, telling them to run, and the entire camp had cleared except for my teacher standing there with that boy. Someone had trained a gun on the kid, and there was so much yelling, and Jackson was saying no, no, he had this. The boy looked so lost, and I don’t know how, but whatever he said to that desperate little boy, he convinced him to put the grenade in his hand. There was Dr. Jackson with a metal bomb that could kill so many in one hand, and his other arm was around the boy, holding him.
    “So no, I couldn’t leave, because in that moment, I saw a man risk