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climb into the car through the open door and turned back to Ciera. He stepped closer to her, one side of his mouth curling upward. Ciera caught a whiff of something spicy and manly, which ignited the desires she had buried.
    “So you’re an artist?”
    “I am, sort of. I draw a little, but most of my clients hire me for doing cover art. They’re independent authors trying to scrape a living from their gifts just like me.”
    “I think you have a lot of talent, and I’d like to discuss it with you. Will you come to the party?”
    “Nathan.”
    “Will it help if I say I’m a karate master?”
    She gawked at him. “Are you?”
    “No, but I am ex-military. I think I can take you if I need to,” he teased.
    Her heart thumped painfully. “Oh… Wow, okay. Sure. I’ll come.”
    He presented her with the card again.
    “I’m sorry about Melly. She’s too sweet to cry.”
    “That’s how she gets her way, the crocodile tears.” He leaned forward, bringing his face so close to hers. She forgot to breathe. “I bet you wrap men around your finger all the time.”
    Ciera rolled her eyes. “Who me? No, not lately. Not ever.”
    “That’s hard to believe.”
    She shrugged. “What time?”
    “Four.”
    She waved the card at him as she started away. “See you then.”
     
     

Chapter Three
     
    Ciera shook her head when she arrived at the address Nathan had given her. No wonder he wasn’t worried about her having his address. The place wasn’t his house at all. He had arranged to have the event at a facility that catered children’s parties.
    As soon as Ciera entered through the front entrance, high-pitched screams blasted her. She paused to look around and spotted at least a dozen children running, laughing, and screaming as they climbed on the slides and ran through the maze.
    “You must be Ciera.”
    Ciera spun around at the deep but feminine voice that was almost accusing. The white woman standing behind her had folded her toned arms over her chest. Slender with long auburn hair, she surveyed Ciera from head to toe, and Ciera imagined, found her lacking.
    “Nathan said ‘a friend’ might stop by, but since I’ve never heard of you before today, I’m wondering who you are. So, who are you?”
    “Who I am is none of your business,” Ciera shot back, not liking the woman’s attitude. “I’m here for Melly’s party, and like Nathan said, I’m a friend.” After shooting her mouth off, it occurred to Ciera this woman might be Nathan’s wife, and if she was, she had a right to be pissed at some strange person showing up. Whether that was true or not though, Ciera wasn’t going to be spoken to like she was trash that blew in off the street.
    The woman glanced around and stepped closer. Her straight back and precise way of moving put Ciera in mind of her dad. Not another military person. She’d had her fill, and when she had met Nathan he’d said something about it. She had dismissed it because she had given up being impressed with that background a long time ago. Ex-soldiers were heroes, and she was deeply grateful for their service. Everything about dealing with them wasn’t peaches and cream though.
    “I can spot your kind a mile away,” the woman said.
    Ciera bristled. “I know you’re not going there.”
    “You see a man with his disabled little daughter, and you think you can use her to slip in and get yourself a new boyfriend. Well, it’s not going to happen here. So you can go back to where you came from.”
    “Listen, bitch—” Ciera began.
    “Ciera, you came.”
    She clamped her lips together, and the glare morphed to a smile as Nathan approached. His smile settled over his features, and she’d forgotten in the few hours since she’d seen him how amazing his eyes were. While she tried to pull herself together, a tiny body zipped past him and hurtled toward Ciera’s knees. Melly threw spindly arms around her legs, looking up at her.
    Ciera bent down. She had an urge to scoop