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Piper.”
    Piper walked toward the back of the plane and Nigel reached out to touch the top of her head as she walked past him. He didn’t look up from the laptop where he was working.
    “Your daughter isn’t what I expected,” Justine said when they were alone.
    “She’s one of a kind,” Nigel said, with no small amount of affection and pride in his voice.
    Justine felt that gap in her past opening again, reminding her of the relationship she’d had with her father. And she realized as she looked at Nigel that this man was truly different from the other men she’d met before.
    She tried not to let it matter, but it was too late. She was looking at him differently. A part of her knew it had nothing to do with Nigel. Ever since the moment Sam had announced who the client was on this case, she’d been different.
    She just hadn’t realized how much of her past Nigel was going to be stirring up. Hearing the pride in his voice when he spoke of his daughter touched something inside her. That pride reached past the layers she used to insulate herself from caring about anyone, and pulled out the little girl who’d loved her daddy.
    The little girl who’d thought that all men were like her own father. And she was just realizing that some men were. That Nigel Carter, despite his somewhat questionable decision to bring his daughter along with him to Peru, was one of those men who truly loved his daughter.
    “Why are you looking at me like that?”
    “Am I looking at you?” she asked, just to needle him. But she realized that she had been staring and trying to figure out how she was going to put him in his place—and keep him there.

Chapter Three
    N igel couldn’t stop watching Justine as she moved around the cabin. She didn’t stay in one spot, but paced like she had too much energy. She was a live wire, and though he already had too much on his plate with the business situation and his daughter’s safety, a part of him was intrigued by Justine as a woman.
    Intrigued, hell, he was in lust with her. It was her eyes. That fierce intelligence combined with her curvy petite body. He wanted her.
    “What are you staring at?” she asked. Her voice was low-pitched and didn’t carry beyond the two of them. She paused at the door to the cockpit, looking back at him.
    “You.”
    “Don’t.”
    “Why not?” he asked, having the feeling that not too many people questioned this woman. It was in her stance and her attitude. She acted like an Amazon and he suspected that made most people get out of her way. She carried herself like she was a tough-assed tank, but he saw past all that.
    “I don’t like it,” she said, her voice tough as nails.
    He couldn’t help smiling at the way she said it. “So?”
    “Nigel?”
    He almost smiled at the sweet way she said his name, because he heard the steel underlying that dulcet tone. “Hmm?”
    She came a few steps closer, stopping when less than three feet separated them. She put one hand on her hip and the other one hovered just over the butt of her handgun, which she’d holstered on her hip for all the world to see.
    “I’m trained to kill. You know that, right?”
    “Are you threatening me?” he asked, not feeling threatened in the least. He wondered what exactly it said about him that he was turned on by the strength inside her. A part of him acknowledged that with Justine, he’d never really have to worry about her ability to take care of herself.
    “No, just making sure you have all the information necessary to keep yourself healthy.”
    He laughed. He couldn’t help it. Because there was an element of teasing in what she’d said.
    “I’m not just a CEO,” he said.
    She arched one eyebrow. “I didn’t see a Guns & Ammo magazine subscription in your profile.”
    “You looked?”
    “Yes.”
    “What did you see?”
    “Three kids’ magazines and a bunch of boring business journals.”
    “Boring?”
    “Yes, boring…frankly, Nigel, I had expected something a