Free Promises Keep (The Promise Series) by Sarah McCarty Page A

lady in distress.”
    “I am not a lady, and I am not in distress.”
    “Uh-huh.”
    She was tempted to point out that the only distress she was in was caused by him, but her brief stint with lunacy was apparently over. Angering him while he had her in his arms was no longer desirable. The man was a keg of dynamite. She could tell that from the energy pulsing beneath his skin. She just couldn’t figure out what would set him off. An unknown enemy was a dangerous one. She forced the anger out of her tone.
    “Mr. McKinnely, I appreciate all you’ve done for me, but I’m truly all right now. If you’ll put me down, I’ll be on my way.”
    If she wasn’t mistaken, the look he shot her was reproachful.
    “I’ll put you down as soon as Doc says it’s all right. That was a hell of a shot you took.” His eyes ran the length of her body. “And there’s not much of you to go around.”
    Not much to go around? Where on Earth did he plan on…spreading her? She lifted her chin, put on her most off-putting expression, and stated with cool implacability, “I assure you, Mr. McKinnely, I am perfectly fine. Bruised at the most.”
    A muscle along the side of his jaw snapped tight. “That’s something we’ll let Doc decide.”
    “Where do you get this ‘we’ from? I should know how I feel.”
    He ignored that. He shot a glare out the window as he hitched her up in his arms. “It shouldn’t have happened at all.”
    “At last we agree on something. Now, if you could just see your way to being reasonable.” She pushed tentatively at his chest. Nothing happened.
    “I’m always reasonable,” he said as he shifted her weight in his arms.
    That was debatable. Mara took a calming breath. She could see that he was taking special care not to jostle her more than necessary. Still, it hurt. The minute she gasped, she had his full attention and an apology. She wanted neither.
    “Mr. McKinnely, I can see that you are a true gentleman. I’m grateful you stepped in and put an end to that cowboy’s insult.”
    “Sweet-talking me isn’t going to get you anywhere.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “You’re right fond of that expression, aren’t you?” He grabbed a black shawl that was hanging on a peg and draped it over her, before continuing, “I’m not putting you down until Doc says it’s okay. And leave that on.”
    Mara kept on pushing at the shawl. “It’s hot enough to fry an egg out there.”
    “You might be in shock.”
    “For the last time, Mr. McKinnely, I am perfectly fine.”
    He snagged the edge of the shawl with his fingers, stopping its tumble. “I’m not taking any chances.”
    “Nobody is asking you to.”
    “I made you a promise, Miss Kincaid. I intend to keep it.”
    All this hassle was because of some promise she didn’t remember? Lord help her! “What promise?”
    He paused in reaching for the door. This close, Mara could see the wrinkles fanning out from his eyes above the sharp plane of his cheekbones. His Indian ancestry was evident in the darkness of his skin and the blue-black sheen of his long hair as it fell on either side of his face in a thick curtain, framing his rugged features. She followed the flow of his hair from his wide forehead to the sharp edge of his cheekbones, down the flat planes of his cheeks to his full, purely masculine lips. And there she paused, her attention caught by the way his mouth lifted slightly at the corners as if in anticipation of a smile. It just seemed so at odds with what she’d heard about him. What her fear said about him. What she knew about him. This was a very, very dangerous man.
    She looked at his mouth again and then back at his eyes. At the lines that she knew in her gut were caused by laughter rather than long hours spent in the sun. And adjusted her assessment. Cougar McKinnely was a very dangerous man, but apparently, he was also a dangerous man who liked to laugh.
    He dipped his head until his nose tapped hers, bringing her attention back to