Page 23 of Her Tempting Protector

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“Carys, give him to me.”

Carys felt like she was swimming through an ocean. Her eyelids wouldn’t open. But as soon as she felt somebody taking the little boy out of her arms, her eyes were wide open.

“No! Don’t you dare,” she hissed.

“Shhhh, you’ll wake up Shada,” the giant kneeling at her side whispered. “You need to sleep, Carys. Let me hold the baby. Just sleep, okay?”

It was Cullen. Cullen Lyons. She remembered everything now. How long had she been fading in and out of sleep? “I’ve got him. I’m a doctor. Going without sleep is what I do.” Why did it feel like her words were thick honey being poured from a spout with too tiny of a hole? She tried to smile at the man, but it was too much of an effort.

She yawned.

Great, now she could open her mouth wide.

Ever so slowly, without disturbing the newborn, Cullen’s huge hands cupped his head, back, and bottom, then lifted and cuddled him up next to his chest. Carys gulped when she really took a look at him. Cullen was no longer wearing all the outer garments that had included his bulletproof vest, he was now down to his T-shirt. He must have done that to make the baby more comfortable.

Now she had an image of heated honey as she darn near melted at the man’s feet. She tried to sit up to hide her embarrassment.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he rumbled. “Lie back down, you need to rest, Honey.”

Carys thought she might burst into flames when he called her honey.

What, was he reading her mind now?

“I need to go check on Shada.” She pushed up on her elbows, intent to get up.

Cullen gently nudged her back down. It felt like a caress to her overheated body, or was it her imagination that was overheated?

“Carys, I just checked on her. She’s out like a light. Now I understand why you’re holding this little guy, there’s no way she could.”

“Then I need to go check on her dressing.”

“I just did. I figured it was safe for me to do it, since there wasn’t a chance in hell she was going to wake up and freak out that it was some strange man. I peeked, no seepage, so we’re good. I might not be the team’s official medic, but if you know how SEAL teams work, then you know that we all have training.”

She yawned again as she nodded.

“Carys, you need real sleep, not this catnap shit.”

“Do you know how many weeks I lasted on catnaps when I was a medical school resident?”

“I’m thinking that was a few years ago, and I’m sorry to say that, like BUD/S was a ways back, so was residency. Sorry, Lady, neither of us is as young as we used to be.”

She snorted. “Yeah, like you’d still be on the teams if you weren’t in top form.”

Even in the little bit of sunlight that was coming through the shack’s roof, she could see him flush. “You’re right,” he admitted.

She managed a wry grin. “Knew it. But you’re right, I’m not as young as I used to be,” she sighed. “God knows I’m a lot older than you. You’re just a babe in the woods.”

You better remember that too, Carys, she admonished herself.

“I doubt that,” Cullen disagreed.

“I’m thirty-three,” she said, figuring that would stop all this silly flirting.

“You’re a youngster.” He waggled his eyebrows.

She looked at him carefully. Based on his job and his rank… “You’re twenty-seven, right?”