Nori's Delta (Delta Team Three #1) - Lori Ryan Page 0,7

that had happened melt away. But then she reminded herself she had no right to take any comfort from this man. Not to mention, they were in the middle of trying to get her to a very important negotiation. One she couldn’t mess up or muddle with distractions.

She stepped back and broke the embrace. She should have her mind on her work. She had known coming into these talks that this was going to be messy. The United States had always had a strict policy of not negotiating for hostages. And while that was still the case, they now made the distinction between negotiation for hostages and communicating with them.

So she was being sent in to talk to Onur Demir about other things, but discussing the health and well-being of those hostages wasn’t out of the question. And stressing to him that her government would be more likely to broker a deal with him for support of his cause if those hostages were released wouldn’t violate protocol.

Of course, that got messy and there were plenty of people back home who thought she shouldn’t be here. But she went where the President and her State Department bosses told her to go, and they’d told her to come talk to Demir.

Heath’s voice when he broke into her thoughts was raspy but there was a gentleness to it. “You should get some sleep, Nori. We need to move again soon and you’ll feel better if you get some rest before then.”

“Eleanor,” she said.

“What?”

She lifted her head to meet his gaze. “Eleanor. No one calls me Nori anymore.”

His grin was slow and so damned sexy she almost forgot for a minute that fifteen years had passed since they’d seen each other. That she had no claim on this man anymore. No right to be thinking the things she was thinking about him. No right to feel the reaction her body was having to his touch.

“Eleanor, then,” he said softly.

His words were simple, but they snapped her back to reality and she stepped away from him. She wasn’t Nori and they weren’t in high school anymore.

She was Eleanor Bonham. She worked for the State Department and she was about to negotiate an agreement that could mean the difference between maintaining the strides they’d made in the fight on terror or losing it all.

It was probably silly, but the recitation of who and what she was, grounded her. She crossed to the bed but stared at the mattress instead of laying down. “I don’t think I can sleep.”

She sank to the floor in front of the bed, leaning her head back and closing her eyes. She heard more than felt him come and settle beside her. Even as he sat, he was still on duty, on guard. She could tell.

It was more than just the fact that he still had knives and guns strapped to him in more places than she could count. It was the way he was constantly scanning even the small space around them. It was the way she could tell he had an ear cocked to the outside even as he seemed to give her his attention.

“Don’t worry, Eleanor. We’re going to get you in and out of this summit with Demir and get you home to your family. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

She didn’t reply but she felt the tightening in her gut at his words. She didn’t have a family to go home to. Not really, anyway. But that wasn’t a conversation she wanted to have right now.

“So, what are the others out there doing? You said they need a plan. There’s no plan for how you’re going to get me across the border into Kazarus?” She stood again as she spoke, walking the few paces to the other side of the room before turning and walking back.

Shouldn’t elite forces like his have plans with backup plans, and then some?

If he was bothered by her questions, he didn’t show it. Then again, she had the feeling he didn’t let anyone see anything he didn’t want them to see.

The man before her was highly disciplined and clearly every bit the elite warrior special forces were said to be. Pride at who he’d become swelled through her. Not that she’d had anything to do with it, but still. He was clearly damned good at what he did.

“We know where we’re headed and how we’re going to get there. We need to set some things in motion on the ground to