Nori's Delta (Delta Team Three #1) - Lori Ryan Page 0,25

out of the room. Duff gave Heath and her a silent nod before following her team.

Their group had taken over the entire floor of the hotel. She’d be staying in this room with her team across the hall in two of the rooms on that side of the hotel with the Deltas in rooms surrounding them.

Eleanor wondered if Heath would be staying with her overnight again. She felt better waking with his arms around her the other night. She woke from a nightmare where this time, she hadn’t been able to shake off the man who tried to grab her at the airport. She’d seen Heath running for her but it was too late as the man pulled her into a van and the van drove away as she struggled helplessly against his strength.

But Heath had been there when she woke and had held her as she’d drifted back to sleep, something she knew she wouldn’t have been able to do if he hadn’t been there holding her.

She turned to him now to find him picking up her small suitcase and shoulder bag.

“Come on,” he said, tilting his head toward the dividing door between her room and the room next to it.

“Where are we going?” She followed even as she asked the question.

He opened the door and Zip was there on the other side, holding that side open.

“We’re moving you to another room. We’ll bring you back here in the morning, but in the meantime, the room everyone thinks you’re in is going to be empty,” Heath said as Zip closed and locked the dividing door.

Duff opened the door that led to the hallway and silently waved them forward. Heath put a finger to his lips to tell her to be quiet and then slipped out the door with her bags in that stealth way they had of moving without making a sound.

She followed with what she hoped were quiet enough steps as they slipped out and turned right down the hallway. He went to the second door from the end on the left-hand side of the hall and it opened from the inside.

Jangles stood sentry inside, holding the door for them before slipping out himself with a grin and tap of his fingers to his temple for her.

“Flirt,” Heath groused as he put her suitcase on the bed.

Eleanor shook her head but she couldn’t help but smile. “He’s just being nice, Heath.”

He only shook his head and she knew she wouldn’t win that argument.

“Heath, I—” she paused. She wanted to say something about what had happened between them when they’d last seen each other years before. About how they’d left it all. She needed to clear the air.

“No.” The word came from him, husky and thick as he turned to face her.

He wasn’t touching her, wasn’t even near her, but there was tension thick and heady in the air between them.

“No, we shouldn’t talk?” She managed to get out.

“No need. The past is the past. I have a job to do now and so do you.”

She watched him and finally gave a nod. Heath was stubborn. Always had been. If he wasn’t going to let her talk to him about their past, she would have to wait until he was ready.

She moved to her suitcase and began to fidget, looking through it for the things she would need to get ready for bed. Would he leave and sleep in one of the other rooms for the night? She didn’t need to have a guard on her at all times, but God she wanted it.

She didn’t want to let him know how shook up she felt from the attempt to grab her at the airport. Her hand slipped and her toothpaste fell to the floor.

Heath was there, picking it up and handing it to her. The move brought him close again and he stood, inches from her for a minute. He was watching her mouth and she knew if she leaned in on tiptoe, he would close his mouth over hers and kiss her the way he used to.

Only she knew it would be nothing like it used to be. He wasn’t the young kid he was when they were together before.

Everything about this man said he knew what he was doing in the bedroom. He was intense and in control. He was no mere boy now. He had the experience of the world behind him and Eleanor had a feeling that experience would tell him how to touch her.