Page 56 of The Angel and the Agent

“Sorry,” he started to move away, but she drew him back.

“I never said I didn’t like it,” she said. She slid her arms around his neck. “What do you think is the protocol for the morning after the wedding night?”

“If we were stateside, we’d probably open presents and start our honeymoon,” he said.

“We didn’t get presents.”

“Lousy, good for nothing friends and family,” he grumbled. “Being completely ignorant of our nuptials is no excuse for their stinginess.”

“And we’re kind of already on our honeymoon,” she said.

“I am definitely going to give our travel agent a bad review when this is over,” he said.

“So I guess we’ll have to forge a new path. Are there any cards in your pack? I’m cutthroat atUno.”

“No, sorry. I usually always bringUnowith me on assignment. You’d be amazed how it brings terrorists together.”

“Not likeMonopoly.”

“Don’t mentionMonopolyhere. It’s why I can’t go back to the Congo,” he said.

She rested her foot on his calf, sliding it gently up and down. “I could teach you to crochet. Oh, wait, we don’t have a hook.”

“We should probably work with what we’ve got.” His fingers stroked down her neck.

“What’s in your bag?” she nipped his jaw.

“Spy stuff. We could disassemble my weapon, clean it, and put it back together.” He closed his eyes and appeared to be concentrating hard on the conversation.

“I already did that. I woke in the night and couldn’t sleep, worrying about it. I can’t abide a dirty gun.” She kissed his ear.

“I know I’m supposed to say something quippy here, but I can’t. My brain can’t with the thinking anymore. Please put me out of my misery,” he pled.

“How can I do that when I don’t know what you want?” she teased.

“You, I want you,” he croaked.

She wanted to tell him he had her for as long as he continued to want her, but the words felt too heavy. Instead she kissed him and tried hard to convey everything she was feeling. A long time later, when she had to shake him hard to wake him up again, she thought maybe she’d succeeded.

Chapter 20

“Iwas promised a smooth ride,” Amelia said. Once again they had scored another vehicle that seemed to be lacking shocks. Though, to be fair, it may have had shocks at one time that all broke after so many hard trips over rutted roadways. Last night’s rain had left even deeper ruts and, in some places, washed away portions of the road entirely. Their driver seemed unfazed by all of it, maintaining the same high rate of speed regardless of the road’s condition.

“This is only the first part of the trip. He’s taking us to a bigger city where we’ll have access to a better car and a better road,” Ethan yelled. The wind carried his voice away, but Amelia got the gist.

“Don’t know why you want to trade out cars, mate. This one could get you through a war and back,” the driver yelled. He was Australian and, unlike the French-speaking natives they’d encountered, seemed to want to have input on everything. Every time Amelia or Ethan spoke, he gave his unwarranted opinion. His name was Jones. Amelia had no idea if it was a first or last name because he had introduced himself as “Just Jones.” “LikeCher?” she’d asked, and he had given her a blank look with the reply, “No, it’s Jones.”

“Jones thinks we should keep this car,” Amelia relayed.

“Jones thinks a lot of things,” Ethan replied. Jones had spent a long time detailing for them why he thought it was a bad idea for them to honeymoon in Cameroon, as had been their official story. He had also spent a long time expounding on how he would solve the most recent Ebola outbreak in the Congo. Amelia had missed most of that discussion because at the first mention of the disease, she’d pressed her palms over her ears, tuning in at the end to hear him say, “And that’s what I’d do with all the leftover blood.”

“You’re so adorably squeamish,” Ethan said.

“No, I merely maintain the crazy belief that what’s inside of you should stay there,” Amelia said.

“You’d never survive here then,” Jones added. “One time I saw this bloke’s leg get…”

Amelia had no idea how the story ended because she pressed her palms back over her ears until he stopped speaking. “I could have used the monkeys help much more with him than with you,” she noted.

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