Bound by Honor Read Online Free PDF Page B

“Poor Jess.”
    â€œPoor Dallas,” he countered. “After the fight with Jessie, he took every damned dangerous assignment he could find, the more dangerous the better. Last year in Africa, Dallas was shot to pieces. They sent him home with wounds that would have killed a lesser man.”
    â€œNo wonder he looks so bitter.”
    â€œHe’s bitter because he loved Jess and though she felt the same, she wasn’t willing to hurt Hank by leaving him. But in the end, she still hurt him. He couldn’t live with the idea that she was having some other man’s child. It destroyed their marriage.”
    She grimaced. “What a tragedy, for all of them.”
    â€œYes.”
    She looked toward Stevie, smiling. “He’s a great kid,” she said. “I’d love him even if he wasn’t my first cousin.”
    â€œHe’s got grit and personality to boot.”
    â€œYou wouldn’t think so at midnight when you’re still trying to get him to sleep.”
    He smiled as he studied her. “You love kids, don’t you?”
    â€œOh, yes,” she said fervently. “I love teaching.”
    â€œDon’t you want some of your own?” he asked with a quizzical smile.
    She flushed and wouldn’t look at him. “Sure. One day.”
    â€œWhy not now?”
    â€œBecause I’ve already got more responsibilities than I can manage. Pregnancy would be a complication I couldn’t handle, especially now.”
    â€œYou sound as if you’re planning to do it all alone.”
    She shrugged. “There is such a thing as artificial insemination.”
    He turned her toward him, looking very solemn and adult. “How would it feel, carrying the child of a man you didn’t even know, having it grow inside your body?”
    She bit her lower lip. She hadn’t considered the intimacy of what he was suggesting. She felt, and looked, confused.
    â€œA baby should be made out of love, the natural way, not in a test tube,” he said very softly, searching her shocked eyes. “Well, not unless it’s the only way two people can have a child,” he added. “But that’s an entirely different circumstance.”
    Her lips parted on the surge of emotion that made her heart race. “I don’t know…that I want to get that close to anyone, ever.”
    He seemed even more remote. “Sally, you can’t let the past lock you into solitude forever. I frightened you because I wanted to keep you at bay. If I didn’t discourageyou somehow I was afraid that the temptation might prove too much for me. You were such a baby.” He scowled bitterly. “What happened wouldn’t have been so devastating if you’d had even a little experience with men. For God’s sake, didn’t they ever let you date anyone?”
    She shook her head, her teeth clenched tightly together. “My mother was certain that I’d get pregnant or catch some horrible disease. She talked about it all the time. She made boys who came to the house so uncomfortable that they never came back.”
    â€œI didn’t know that,” he said tautly.
    â€œWould it have made any difference?” she asked miserably.
    He touched her face with cool, firm fingers. “Yes. I wouldn’t have gone nearly as far as I did, if I’d known.”
    â€œYou wanted to get rid of me…”
    He put his thumb over her soft mouth. “I wanted you,” he whispered huskily. “But a seventeen-year-old isn’t mature enough for a love affair. And that would have been impossible in Jacobsville, even if I’d been crazy enough to go all the way with you that day. You were almost thirteen years my junior.”
    She was beginning to see things from his point of view. She hadn’t tried before. There had been so much resentment, so much bitterness, so much hurt. She looked at him and saw, for the first time, the pain of the