Delgano: A Dark Contemporary Interracial Romance

“I love you, tubarinho,” he heard, in his mother’s voice. “I love you, my little shark.”

Smiling, he rolled onto his side, tucked Sayeda against him, and kissed the space behind her ear.

CHAPTER

SIXTEEN

Training officially began with a brutal trek through the Sahara. Prior to leaving, they were given thirty minutes to take anything they thought they would need before being told where they were going and how long they would be gone. Prior to this “training,” he’d never heard of a water bottle called a bladder, but when Trevor noticed he didn’t have one, the muscled Aussie had tossed one at his chest and said, “You’ll need several of these, kid.”

As usual, Trevor was right.

The temperatures rose to sweltering peaks during the day and then fell at night until they shivered underneath foil blankets.

Before they left, he stopped at Sayeda’s room.

“Hey,” he stepped inside, one hand tucked behind his back, “we’re just about ready.”

She nodded. “Okay. And did you see the bag on the table downstairs? I made you something to eat for the trip. I don’t know where you’re going, but you might be hungry when you get there.”

“I saw it.”

“Oh, good.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

She picked at the skin on her palm, and he rocked on his heels a few times before he realized what he was doing and stopped.

“What…” She tried to peer around him. “What are you hiding?”

Suddenly self-conscious, he pulled a bouquet of orange roses from behind his back. Attached to the bouquet was a cream-colored teddy bear wearing a polka dot bow tie.

He shrugged. “Honestly, I didn’t know what I was thinking.”

“This is for me?”

“Yes…if you like it.”

She slipped the flowers and stuffed bear from his hand and raised the petals to her nose. The gift was a bit “secondary school, Lovers’ Day,” but all his embarrassment disappeared when she squeezed the bear to her chest.

“I love it. Thank you.”

He pointed behind him. “I should get going. I left you something else, but it’s in the kitchen. Don’t open it until I leave.”

There was no way he could leave without one, even if there was fabric in his way, so he stepped forward, tucked his fingers under her chin, and stole a kiss. When he went to step back, she cupped the nape of his neck to keep him in place a couple of seconds longer.

“I’ll see you when I get back,” he said.

She nodded again. “I’ll miss you.”

“See you later, querida. I’ll miss you too.”

The second gift he’d left her was a copy of Graziella with a note hidden inside.

A quarter of their payment for training had been deposited into a private offshore account in Germany. So, with Hannah’s and Trevor’s help, he set up another account for Sayeda and deposited enough money to tide her over until he returned, though he suspected he might have gone overboard.

Using the logic that if something happened to him while he was gone, he wanted her to be set for a while, he left her a little over sixty percent of that payment. If he didn’t return, he hoped she would decide to leave Zahrat on her own. It was also helpful that he hadn’t been there to see her face when she learned how much he’d left because she would think it was too much; however, once he successfully completed the training, he planned to send her more.