I glanced around my room a little bit frantic. I backed up a bit and stood beside my bed. “Come in.”

Ian tore through the door, the rush of wind snuffing out the candle, and stood looming over me in my small side of the hut. The door swung behind him and shut with a crack, startling me.

And just like that, Ian Aberdeen rushed me.

He grabbed my face and neck with his rough hands and brought me to him, practically lifting me to his lips. He devoured my mouth with his and I moaned into his mouth, spurring him on. His tongue found mine and it was warm and tasted of cinnamon.

A rush of adrenaline spiked through my body and pooled in my belly. I wrapped my arms around his neck and he brought me closer to him, threading his fingers through my hair, rooting his fists at the back of my head, pulling lightly as if it was taking all his control not to throw me down on the bed. This made my eyes roll into the back of my head and I tightened my already closed lids.

He tore his lips from mine and we stood panting, the stars barely shining through the cracks in the door but enough to light up his face. I recognized his painfully strained expression. He didn’t know if what he’d done was okay with me, and I found myself so attracted to him for being so considerate. To reassure him, I ran my hands across his forehead to smooth out the lines.

“Ian,” I whispered before he attacked me again, hushing me on the “n.”

I gripped his shoulders as he harshly kissed my lips then followed my jaw line down my neck, making my head fell back. “Sophie,” he sighed between each kiss, making my toes tingle. His mouth found mine again and I kissed him back hard, breathing him in as best I could. My hands found his hair and I pushed them through the length until they met his neck then climbed back up, entangling my fingers in the damp mass. It felt like I couldn’t get close enough to him. I wrapped one leg around his calf and he groaned into my tongue, vibrating the back of my throat. I shivered.

“Oh, God,” I breathed into his mouth.

He smiled against my teeth and it was the sexiest thing I’d ever felt. “You taste like cherries,” he told me. His voice shivered against my skin, making me smile back.

He rested his forehead against mine. “You taste like cinnamon,” I countered.

He pulled himself away and immediately I hated it. “Goodnight, Sophie Price.”

He backed away from me slowly, never breaking his stare or his smile. He opened the door and let it fall shut again. “Sleep well,” I heard through the cracks.

I brought my fingers to my smiling lips and ran them across the swollen skin. “You too,” I answered so softly I barely heard it myself.

I’d been kissed before, many times, but never like that.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

I woke up in the middle of the night and felt like I’d fallen asleep next to a blasting heater. In a sleep-induced haze, I figured it was just the warming temperatures outside. As strange as it seemed for Uganda’s summer to be during America’s winter, I was expecting it but I realized with a start that the unusual warmth was just a bit too hot.

I lazily opened my eyes and they were met with a dull pair of brown ones. I shot up.

“Mandisa!” She wasn’t responding to me and my heart leapt in my throat. “Mandisa, baby.” I pushed her growing hair out of her eyes and tried to get her to look at me, but it did no good. I jumped to my feet and pushed my door open. It was still dark out. “Ian!” I yelled, panicked.

Immediately, a disheveled Ian appeared next to me. “What’s happened?” he asked.

Tears began to spill. “It’s Mandisa,” I explained, pointing to my bed.

He ran to her side and felt her head and neck. “She’s burning up.”

“The kitchen!” I said, thinking of the nearest running water source.

Ian scooped tiny Mandisa in his arms and he practically swallowed her small frame.

We ran around the baobab tree to the kitchen and I started running the cool water, plugging the drain. The stainless steel tub was large enough to submerge her.

I tossed a bunch of kitchen towels in the sink to cushion her and Ian rested her in the water. The cool water was shocking enough she should have protested but not a peep came from her tiny lips and I found myself taking my panic to the next level.

We frantically doused her to get her temperature down.

“Sweetheart?” I asked her after a few minutes but she didn’t respond. “God, Ian,” I breathed out.

“I’ll get Karina,” he said and ran off toward hers and Charles’ cabin.

I continuously covered her in the cool running water and prayed like I’d never prayed before. I begged her under my breath to respond to me, but she just stared blankly ahead and my heart sank into my stomach.

“Where is she?” a sleepy Karina said.

“In here,” I heard Ian explain.

Karina came to my side quickly and brushed the hair from my shoulder with her hand, assuring me the way a mother would. “Ian,” she said, looking down on Mandisa. “Grab my kit, please?”

Ian ran from the room and returned with Karina’s big bag of remedies she kept handy at all times.

She pulled out a needle and looked over at me. “It’s just an acetaminophen injection because she won’t chew medicine.”

I nodded as if my approval was even needed, but Karina gave me that respect anyway. She filled the needle and Ian helped me lift her shoulders. Karina dried and swabbed the little fleshy part of Mandisa’s arm with alcohol then injected the medicine. I felt an almost immediate sense of relief knowing we were tending to the outside and Karina was tending to the inside.

Karina felt the water in the basin and asked Ian to drain it as Mandisa’s body temperature was making it warm. He did as she asked then plugged the drain once more. “Keep pouring that water over her head, Sophie.”

Ian and I worked methodically, pouring and draining, draining and pouring. Twenty minutes passed and Mandisa was noticeably cooler but still unresponsive.

“Why isn’t she getting better?” I asked.

“The medicine will make her sleepy,” Karina explained before grabbing my shoulder and turning me toward her. “She’s also very sick, Sophie.”

Karina took her temperature and it was within a safer range so Ian grabbed a large towel and wrapped her little body up. I grabbed a clean smock from the laundry that looked like it would fit her and helped Karina change Mandisa into it. When she was all dry, I made Ian take her to my hut to sleep while we figured out where we were going to put everyone.

Karina left to check on all the children in their dorms to make sure no one else had fevers.

“My heart is in my throat,” I said quietly after Ian tucked Mandisa in my bed.

He covered her loosely in my sheet and we silently watched her. He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and the flood of memories from the night before surfaced, reminding me that I was allowed to hug him. I grabbed him and buried my face in his chest, so grateful for his comfort. He ran his hands down my hair and kissed the top of my head, making me sigh.

A low knock sounded at the door and we pulled apart abruptly. It was apparent when our eyes caught that we didn’t want to reveal ourselves to Karina, or anyone for that matter, until we had actually figured out what we were to each other.

“Come in,” I said, and Karina entered.

“Three more,” she explained, all life drained from her eyes.

“Sophie and I will take care of the ill, Karina. We’ve been vaccinated. We talked to Pembrook yesterday and he’s arranged for a plane that should be here in within thirty-six hours.”

“Thank God,” she whispered, grasping her heart. “We’ll set all the ill in our cabin then.”

“Those unaffected should stay in the dorm, but those we suspect may be getting ill need to be sectioned off as well,” Ian said.

“Solomon and Ruth’s, maybe?” I offered.

“Where will they stay?” he asked.

“They’ve left with their children to Ruth’s sister’s house,” Karina told us.

“I can understand that,” Ian offered in disappointment.

“When she wakes,” Karina said, pointing to Mandisa, “move her to our house.”

Ian nodded and Karina was gone.

We looked at each other and so many emotions flitted between us. In Ian’s eyes I read the gravity of the storm that was brewing on our doorstep, selfish disappointment that we couldn’t explore what was going on between us and obvious shame in that he thought of himself when he shouldn’t have been.

I couldn’t blame him because I was thinking the same thing. I grabbed his hand to reassure him that it would happen, that we’d get our day. He smiled softly and that was all the time we allowed to acknowledge that disappointment. We had bigger fish to fry.

The next day and a half was pure chaos. Mercy was the only adult who seemed to be affected unless the virus was still incubating, but that was okay with us just as long as the vaccines came soon. Ian and I spent the next night repeatedly up and down, caring for very ill children, reducing fevers, treating symptoms and working our fingers to the bone in a futile attempt to disinfect.

Every few hours we’d get a new kid. We were running out of fever reducers and saline bags. Our only hope was the shipment and that was arriving later that second evening. We got hold of Pemmy once more and he informed us that I, personally, would have to sign for the shipment at seven.

Karina agreed to help us get the infected children in the best possible place before we left and she would sit with them until Ian and I could get back. In total, we had seven ill children, and four we suspected would eventually become ill. The remaining, we kept as far away as possible.

When we were as prepared as we could possibly get, we made our way to Charles’ truck. Karina had yet to see Ian’s jeep and we wanted to keep it that way. Charles was nervous the news of our attack would send his wife over the edge, so we repaired it as much as we could with what little we had and kept it hidden.

When he started the engine, it was quieter than Ian’s rumbling jeep. I rested the back of my head against the seat and closed my eyes, yawning. When I opened them and peered back at Ian, he laughed.

“You’re exhausted.”

“No shit, Sherlock.”

He laughed louder, making my heart sputter. “Irritable when you’re tired, are we?”

I smiled across the seat at him. “Irritable, are we?” I mocked, pathetically attempting his Sith Ifrican accent, which made him laugh even harder.

“Just a bundle of laughs today,” I teased, drawing out my words from sleepiness.

“Well, I’m a bit delirious with the only,” he pitched his brows toward the roof of the jeep, “seven hours of sleep I got in the past two days.”

I yawned loudly at the mere mention of sleep. I leaned my head against the window. “Classes are cancelled for two days after the kids recover. I’m making an executive decision and I’m going to sleep for both of them.”

“As long as I get to sleep with you.”

My eyes bugged from my head. “Pardon?” I asked in disbelief.