Novels by Emarial

~ Damien's POV ~ I stood there with the card still in my hand long after Roman had walked away. The words stayed fixed in my mind even though my eyes no longer focused on the letters. The noise from the street, the flashing lights of the security vehicles, the murmurs from the gathered crowd, everything faded into the background until it felt distant and unimportant.Fear crept in again, the same cold fear that had gripped me earlier in the evening when her phone kept ringing without answer. I worried I would fail to protect Eva the same way I had failed to protect my mother. The thought lodged in my chest and refused to leave.What most people never knew was that the Blackwood family operated like a dungeon for every child born into it. You either became ruthless or you got killed off. There was no middle ground, no room for softness.My mother, Elizabeth, always saw the good in people. She had spotted a woman injured on the side of the road one rainy night and stopped to help.

~ Damien's POV ~“Put me down right now, Damien. My ass is literally in the air for everyone to see.”I kept walking down the hotel corridor, her body draped over my shoulder. “It wasn’t like you cared back at the club.”She wriggled and made a protesting sound. The thin dress rode higher on her thighs. I used my free hand to tug it down over her bare skin. The elevator doors opened. I stepped inside. Roman followed, Marty still over his own shoulder. No one spoke during the ride up.When we reached the suite I opened the door and slammed it shut behind us. The sound echoed throughout the quiet corridor. I carried Eva to the bed and set her on her feet. She swayed the moment her toes touched the carpet, one hand grabbing my arm to steady herself. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes looked glassy from the alcohol. The little dress clung to her, showing everything and wrinkled from the ride.She kicked one shoe off. It skidded under the coffee table. The second followed and landed cr

~ DAMIEN'S POV ~I was on a call when I checked my watch for the first time.One hour and fourteen minutes.Eva had said she was going to check on Marty and would not be long. I had assumed thirty minutes at most. I finished the call and told myself to wait.But I was not someone who waited well.I used the time to go through my Paris property files, which I had been sitting on for two days now. If the competition board was going to keep us here, I was going to make the stay worth something. I had seven properties in Paris, one in the seventh, two further out, and none of them were currently set up for extended use. That needed to change.Also, I had been watching videos.This was not something I would be admitting to Roman or anyone else, but for the past week, I had been going through content online about what women apparently wanted from the men in their lives. Most of it was useless. Some of it was not. I had been taking notes in my head and had several plans forming that I was

~ EVANGELINE'S POV ~The drive back from the party was quiet.Marty sat beside me in the car and said nothing the entire way, which was how I knew how bad it was. Marty always had something to say. Silence from him was not peace; it just meant he was deeply pained over the actions of Roman tonight.When we got back to the hotel, he waved at me in the corridor outside his room."Goodnight, Eva.""Come and sit with me for a bit," I pleaded. I didn't want him to be alone. He looked so sad yet was acting tough."I'm tired.""Marty.""I'm fine." He smiled, but the smile looked forced. "Goodnight."He went inside before I could say anything else. I stood in the corridor for a moment, then went to my own room.But I was not settled. Marty's face kept playing in my mind. I changed out of my gown, had my bath, and sat on the edge of the bed and tried to think about something else, but couldn't. I kept seeing Marty's face when Roman called him an employee. Fuck! I should not have left him alo

~ DAMIEN'S POV ~The moment Jessica said the words, I understood coming here had been a mistake.Not because of John. My respect for my mentor was real and had been built over the years. But watching Jessica stand there with that fake smile, speaking about what she and her brother had done to Eva as though it was a minor inconvenience worth laughing about, I understood something clearly.She believed I would not react here.She had calculated that my respect for John would hold me in place, that I would stand here and tolerate whatever she chose to do because the setting protected her.However, what she had not calculated was that there was nothing in this room I valued more than the woman standing beside me.I looked down at Jessica's hand on my arm with irritation. I wanted to snap it twice and then scrub that place until it bled.Instead, I removed it.I pushed her back as I did it. I made sure it wasn't aggressive enough that anyone could call it deliberate from a distance, but wi

~ EVANGELINE'S POV ~We had barely been back an hour when Roman appeared at the suite door with an envelope.He held it out to Damien, looking unsure. "From John Boldwin. His eightieth birthday celebration is tomorrow evening. You are invited."Damien took the card and looked at it briefly before setting it on the table."We will attend then.""Tomorrow?" I looked between them. "He is giving us one day's notice for a formal event? Isn't that weird?""Old Mr. Boldwin has always done things this way," Damien said. "He enjoys the element of surprise. It is not personal, so don't worry about it.""Everything with this family feels personal to me." I sat down. "In case you have forgotten, Jessica is a Boldwin. Her brother James and she sat on that judge's panel. Their father is now inviting us to his birthday celebration the day after we had dinner with my father." I looked at him. "You don't find that even slightly suspicious?""I find everything suspicious," Damien replied. "However, I d