Byzantine Heartbreak Read Free Page B

even named the boy. How exactly did they settle the naming issue, in end?”
    With two fathers, both determined to leave their bloodline stamped on the boy by name, if not by genetics, the child had gone nameless for weeks as the debate had raged around him. Neither father had been willing to compromise.
    Nayara gave a soft laugh. “Rob and Christian gave the name to Tally, of course. I pointed out that the boy, when he grew, would earn his own name, just as Rob is already earning his name—”
    “Which is?” Ryan asked curiously. Damn, but he had been out of the operational side of the agency for too long. He’d been too busy playing politics with humans. He needed to plug back in.
    “Half the agency is still used to calling Rob ‘Charbonneau’ and Christian and all the French speakers around here have pointed out that the people in the village where he first settled would have given him the name, because of his looks.”
    Ryan ran his hand over his own cropped mane of hair. “Black Celtic. It comes with the genes.” Then he rolled his eyes. “Hell, no. Not ‘Black Robert,’ surely?”
    Nayara grinned. It was an impish expression, for her. One she rarely showed.
    “Makes him sound like a pirate,” Ryan complained.
    “It suits him better than Charbonneau,” Nayara replied. “He really doesn’t look all that French.”
    “When you thought he was French, you didn’t think that,” Ryan pointed out.
    Nayara rolled her eyes. “Anyway, Jack Robert Constantine Talison is thriving and growing, thank you.”
    Ryan absorbed the different parts of the boy’s name and realized he was smiling. “Jack is one of Christian’s names, I remember. Jackson Hamilton, I think. Robert is Rob’s, Constantine is for when Rob was Constant Charbonneau Villeneuve and the family name is Tally’s.” He chuckled. “They covered everything.”
    Nayara nodded. “But that isn’t the thing that is bothering me. It was good news that Fahmido provided.”
    “So what did you do next?”
    Nayara shrugged. “The usual. Appointments, tasks, troubleshooting, calls, meet—” And she stopped, her lips parting and her eyes taking on a far-away glaze.
    “What is it?” Ryan nudged gently.
    Nayara blinked, her gaze refocusing on him. “I...it’s...nothing, Ryan.”
    “What thought just occurred to you?”
    She gave another tiny shrug. “Nothing.”
    Ryan sat his full weight on the window ledge and crossed his arms. “You’re not really going to try lying to me , are you?”
    He watched her hesitate and realized she was weighing up doing exactly that: lying to him. Stunned, he wondered what it was she was considering hiding from him.
    “Give, Nayara. Now I know you’ve remembered, I’ll dig it out of you with whatever tools I can think to use, if I have to,” he warned her. “Especially if I think the station is in danger. You’ve already suggested it might be.”
    “No,” she said quickly. “It’s not. Not at all. It’s just the opposite. I’ve remembered and it’s stupid. It’s actually embarrassing. It’s personal.” She bit her lip, glanced at him, then her glance skittered away and he realized that she really was feeling awkward.
    “Since when could you not tell me anything?” he asked.
    Her gaze swung back to meet his eyes squarely and she just looked at him. No coyness. There was challenge there.
    Suddenly, Ryan realized what she would not share. His gut tightened. “You like someone,” he said, fighting to keep his expression neutral.
    “I don’t know if I like them. I barely know them outside of business,” she said and Ryan could see she was picking her words with care. “Sometimes I find them most irritating.” She frowned.
    “Do you at least want to give me the gender so you don’t have to keep circling around the pronoun?” Ryan asked.
    Nayara’s smile was wise. “And so you can build fantasies around me? Hoping it is a woman, Ryan?”
    Hating it’s anyone at all , he thought. He made