Page 51 of Her Tempting Protector

“What?” She couldn’t have heard right. “What is sex medicine?”

“I have no idea.”

“And beer? Maybe in Khartoum, but in that little town?”

“I’m telling you, I met a wheeler-dealer who would have made the guys from Ocean’s Eleven look like pikers. This kid hustled me.”

“How can you say he hustled you when he delivered?”

“Carys, I bring a couple hundred dollars in American money with me on most assignments. That’s about any of us need on a mission, that’s over-the-top, really. He ended up getting most of my cash, and I felt fine giving it to him, the little shit.”

She giggled. She could hear the admiration in Cullen’s voice. Then Adam started to whimper.

“I think he caught on to your ruse.”

“Hey, little buddy. Dinner’s almost ready. Can you hold out for another sixty seconds?”

A louder cry came out. Carys loved hearing it—there was nothing sadder than a baby who was so malnourished, he couldn’t even cry.

“What’s next on the agenda?” she asked.

“We eat.”

“I know, you’re feeding Adam.”

“No, I’m talking about you and me. It’s nine o’clock. I want us to eat, then we’re going to sleep until two. I want us on the road at three a.m. That will put us on the highway to Khartoum two hours before dawn. We’ll be less likely to be noticed.”

“I don’t understand. Won’t people notice us then, as opposed to during the day when there are more cars on the highway?”

“Our truck is going to be really suspicious with the windows blocked out in the back. If I thought it would be less suspicious to have them unblocked with Shada lying there, I’d go for it, but we’re screwed either way. So, we need to fly under the radar, which means at the witching hour.”

Shada began to relax in Carys’ lap, and in return, Carys’ shoulders slumped in relief. The saline was working. She adjusted the drip down.

“Carys, did you hear me?”

“What?”

“I knew you weren’t listening. What’s going on back there? Is Shada doing better?”

She heard the worry in Cullen’s voice, and that too warmed her heart. The amount of care, concern and actual love that radiated through this little slice of Africa tonight was amazing.

“She’s doing better. She’s not out of the woods. But with the saline you got, she’s going to make it to Khartoum.”

“Good, because she came too far for this little guy to be without a mom.”

“You sound like that would be the end of the world,” Carys said quietly.

“It would be.”

Wouldn’t that be nice to feel that loved by a parent? She didn’t know how that felt. She’d been raised by Rosa, and her mom and dad didn’t want her to form too much of an attachment to the housekeeper, but they sure as heck weren’t offering much from themselves. She could tell that Cullen’s upbringing was just the opposite. His parents gave him the love that Shada was trying to provide to her children. Of course, she wasn’t providing any sort of protection, at least not yet.

“You’re thinking pretty hard over there. I can hear you. You’re going to disturb the scorpions.”

“Don’t remind me,” Carys shuddered. It was the main reason she’d taken watch in the truck bed and not beside the truck. She’d heard too many stories about the increase of scorpion stings along the Blue Nile with all of the mining.

“So, tell me what you’re thinking about. Tell me a secret,” Cullen coaxed.

She heard a rustle on the other side of the seat, and she peeked over. Cullen had Adam tucked up against his shoulder. He was rocking him and rubbing his back. He was trying to get him to burp. What was it about men and babies? Or was it just this man?