Page 24 of Her Tempting Protector

“Wrong, I’m twenty-nine. Good try, though” he grinned. “Plus, I have two younger sisters, which ages a man. Especially my sisters.”

She rolled her eyes.

Wait a minute, I never roll my eyes. Quit flirting!

“So, we finally agree? You’re a youngster. You need your beauty sleep because you’ve been trying to doctor the Southern Hemisphere. I should be the one who finally gets to cuddle this little guy.”

Cullen’s words might be all fun and flirty, but she could see the steel in those tempting blue eyes.

“He needs skin contact. He needs to feel your body heat and your heartbeat. It’s best if he could be next to his mother, but she needs her rest. But he’s weak. I brought powdered formula and boiled water.” She looked down at her watch. “I fed him an hour ago. Are you good to change his diaper?”

“I’m a pro,” Cullen bragged.

“These are cloth.”

“Carys, I noticed that. You need to sleep. I need to be closer to the door. Hold him for a minute.” She took him back and watched as Cullen tugged off his T-shirt. He went over to the water pot on the stove. He poured out a cupful and magically had some of her antiseptic soap and used both to wash. He pulled something out of his duffel, and she saw that it was a shirt. “It’s clean,” he assured her as he used it to dry himself. “Now, you know you can give me the little guy.”

She was so tired. Once again, Cullen came over and took the newborn from arms that felt like lead. “Thank you,” she slurred.

“Go to sleep, Doc. I’ve got your back.”

SEALs. Gotta love ‘em.

Then everything fell away.

* * *

Her head was exploding with pain. He was trying to rip out every strand of hair as he forced her mouth closer to his body.

It wasn’t real, was it? She was dreaming? She was in Africa, not in Santa Flores. Carys slipped deeper into her dream.

God, the smell of him was making her gag. She fought the need to throw up.

Smack!

Pain burst across her cheek from where the man’s meaty hand had backhanded her face. Her head was stopped from snapping back because of the hold he had on her hair.

“Whore!” he screamed in Spanish. “You better not bite me. We will kill everyone in this hospital if you don’t please me.”

She heard the other escaped convicts laughing and jeering behind her. The broken concrete under her knees dug into her flesh, eating into her kneecaps.

Think! You’re a doctor. This is just one more emergency to solve. Think, Carys, think!

The leader smeared his semi-erect penis against her burning cheek.

More tears. Why was she crying? She didn’t want him to know that she was scared and hurting. He shoved her closer to his groin and she saw her red-gold hair tangled with his wiry pubic hair. It was a nightmare. He yanked again.

She was tipping over, she grabbed at his thighs, otherwise, her face would smash into his crotch. Her fingers on her left hand trembled as they dug into the hairy flesh of his thigh, but the Claddagh ring on her right hand scraped against metal where his pants were still partially pulled up.

It was the pommel of a knife sheathed to his thigh. She didn’t think, she just moved. In less than a second, she wrapped her arm tight around his leg then shoved the tip of his knife up into his scrotum. She was pleased and horrified to see his blood drizzle down his inner thigh.

“Kill her!” the leader screamed at his now silent team. She felt spittle rain down on her.

She heard one of the men behind her say that the bullet could end up killing him.

“Come closer and I’ll cut off his cock,” she croaked out in raspy Spanish.

“I told you to kill her,” the man in her embrace shrieked. “You’re two feet away. You can’t shoot straight? Kill the bitch.”