Amy Fetzer - Single Father Seeks...

Carolina bounced up and down in Ciara’s arms, kicking her feet, her cherub face lit up with happiness, as if to say, “See daddy, this is what it’s like to have a mom.”

Bryce’s heart broke then and there.

And he decided he’d put up with just about anything to see his daughter smile like that. But how would he survive with that luscious, mysterious woman right under his nose? And regardless of what he’d said, deep inside, in a place that was lonely and hungry for female company, he wanted to experience another mindless night of desire in Ciara’s arms.

Ciara bathed Carolina, and dried her off before warming baby lotion in her hands and rubbing it in slow circular motions over the sleepy infant. The child was nearly asleep on the changing table and Ciara made quick work of putting on a diaper and fresh clothes.

The infant fussed and rubbed her eyes, pulling at her hair as Ciara sat in the padded rocker, humming softly, the baby nuzzled on her chest. Ciara inhaled the sweet scents, rubbing up and down Carolina’s spine, her own eyelids heavy with a comfort she hadn’t felt in a very long time. She thought and wondered then about her brothers and their children. She hadn’t seen her nephews in years and if her calculations were right, they were in school by now. Then her thoughts drifted to her sister Cassie, who’d finished college summa cum laude and was off somewhere doing something that had nothing to do with her financial degree. Ciara missed them all terribly. She didn’t usually, because she simply chose not to think about them. It had become increasingly easy to block out her past and her family, she thought with regret. She’d never had time to sit back and think of them, her mind had always been focused on her assignment. The cold objectivity was a part of her after all these years. Her lips twisted with self-disgust. That hadn’t stopped her from letting old feelings darn near ruin her career, she thought, and her anger at Mark Faraday settled like a simmering kettle in her chest. She left it there, refusing to waste more energy on him.

Her thoughts drifted immediately to Bryce.

She cocked a look at the sleeping baby in her arms, then stood and carried Carolina to her crib. Laying her down, she tried to remember if at this age they slept on their stomach or back, then laid Carolina on her tummy. Just before she did, Carolina opened her eyes, staring at her so trustingly, and Ciara thought suddenly that nothing she did in her life, nothing for her country, for the CIA, was more important than what she was doing right now. For this child. She stroked her back and the baby’s eyes drifted closed.

How much tenderness had this little girl missed because she didn’t have a mother? Bryce had to be both mother and father and Ciara remembered the different relationships she’d had with her parents. Her mom had been her role model, and made Ciara feel special, as if they shared a secret that men took years to understand. Ciara’s mother had given her pretty things and taught her to take pride in her appearance for herself, not for anyone who might happen to notice. Ciara tried to pass that to Cassie. Yet her dad had been the one who let her hang with her brothers, who won the argument with her mother when she wanted to play soccer. Dad had kept telling her there was nothing she couldn’t do. He’d pushed her to excel, to learn more than one language and make the grade to join the CIA.

Lord she missed them. But they were dead now, killed in a jet crash over Scotland. She hadn’t been able to attend their funeral because she was stuck somewhere in Asia, hiding in a warehouse surveying gunrunners. And somehow, over the years, she’d lost the rest of her family, too. It was a hard fact to swallow, but Ciara admitted silently that though her parents were taken from her, she’d allowed her brothers and sister to fade from her life. Because of her career. Shame rippled through her along with a surprisingly sharp stab of homesickness.

The baby cooed in her sleep, wiggling under the thin blanket, and something hard wrenched in Ciara’s chest. For some reason, she couldn’t leave the baby just yet. Not alone. She was so little.

And for the first time in a long time, someone truly innocent, needed her.

Bryce stood in the doorway, studying Ciara. He tried not to notice how beautiful she looked there bent over his baby’s crib, rubbing Carolina’s back, watching her sleep. Seeing her there struck a chord in him and twisted his insides. She looked so at ease and though Carolina had known the touch of Bryce’s mother and sister, it seemed that a perfect stranger was more soothing than either of them. Instantly he thought of Diana.

Would she approve?

Not if she knew he and Ciara had spent a night together. He’d never told anyone about that night, keeping it private, for himself alone. Telling Diana would have been mean and unnecessary. And caused more problems because she’d been possessive from the start, wanting him to quit the Secret Service for her and their unborn child. Married only a month, and seeing no way around it and feeling equally responsible, he had. Though he resented it at the time, and constantly being around her likely made things worse between them, he didn’t resent leaving the service anymore. Not since his daughter had filled his life and his heart.

“She’s so beautiful,” Ciara said into the silence, startling him, and Bryce realized she’d known he was there all this time.

“Thank you.” He watched her give the blankets a last tuck, then straighten and walk toward him. The tender look she gave his daughter still on her features.

He stared, absorbing it.

“How long have you been caring for her alone?”

“Other than when she was first born, a week.”

“How do you get your work done?” she asked, admiration coloring her voice.

“I don’t. I’m way behind. That’s why I hired Wife Incorporated.”

Ciara shoved her hands into the pockets of her jeans when she really wanted to touch him, run her hands over his taut muscled chest. “And here you get me.”

Bryce saw the flicker of reservation in her eyes and wondered over it when she seemed so confident earlier. Trusting her seemed further away than he first thought. “Carolina seems to like you.”

Ciara gazed up at him, her body sensing his, that current shooting up from her heels. “She’s great.”

Bryce experienced the same heady heat that drew him to Ciara that night in Hong Kong. She was inches from him, in the doorway and knowing he shouldn’t, he lifted his hand to her face. Before he touched her, she stepped back, her tender expression vanished, replaced with an indifferent mask he already recognized.

His brow furrowed.

Her eyes were glacial, hard. Then she turned and walked down the hall.

Leaning on the door frame, Bryce watched her leave, thinking that no matter what they felt when they were near each other, there was a part of Ciara that was isolated, a woman hidden behind a wall. She might be gentle and tender with his daughter, but she wasn’t letting down her guard.

Bryce went back to his office and remained there most of the day. With music playing in his office, he didn’t hear any noise in the house and managed to catch up on the backlog of work. Yet when he glanced at his watch and realized how much time had passed and that he hadn’t heard his daughter or Ciara in a while, he shot out of the chair and rushed to the door.

How could he be so careless? He knew nothing about this woman. And he’d left her and his baby alone together for hours.

Panicked, he stopped short in the hall, glancing left and right. “Ciara?” Thoughts of accidents filled his tired mind.

“Yes,” she called from somewhere in the house. “In here.”

Only a little relieved, he demanded, “Where the hell is here?”