Novels by collinpeters766

Erica's POV "You own Vale Hotels.""With my son. Yes. Which means that I am, on a good day, here for about forty hours a week." He rubbed his forehead. "I'm in Dubai one week, Singapore the next. I leave before she wakes and I return after she's asleep. I'm not telling you that to excuse it. I'm telling you because it's true. If Naya stays with me, she will be, in all the ways that count, alone. More alone than she was with her mother." He shook his head. "She'll be neglected, Miss Vandell. Not through cruelty. Through absence.""Dad," Naya whispered."It's all right, sweetheart. She should hear it." He turned his gaze to the window, where Malcolm stood with his back half turned. "My son is getting married. In a matter of months. He'll be building his own life, his own home, and God willing, he'll be happy. He has been wonderful with her. But he can't stay and watch over a teenage girl. He shouldn't have to."I felt the weight of the words settle on me. They were true. That was the w

Erica's POV The phone hit the desk. He crossed the room in four long strides and caught her against his chest so hard that she gave a little gasp, one big hand cradling the back of her head, the other wrapped around her shoulders as though he'd never let go. His eyes were closed. His mouth moved against her hair, and I caught only fragments. Thank God. Thank God. You're all right. You're all right.I looked away. It felt wrong to watch. Across the room, even Malcolm had gone still, his arms slack, the fury drained out of him."I'm sorry, Daddy," Naya sobbed. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you…""Hush." He pulled back just enough to cup her face, thumbs wiping at her tears. His voice was deep and rough. "Don't apologize. Not to me. I'm not angry. I was only… Naya, I thought…" He broke off, swallowed, tried again. "Where were you?""With a friend. I was safe. I promise I was safe."He kissed her forehead, hard, and then, finally, his gaze lifted over her head and found m

Erica's POV "Left at the next light," Naya said.I flicked the indicator and obeyed. We had been driving for twenty-five minutes through a city gone quiet and amber under the streetlights, and with every turn the buildings had grown farther apart, the hedges taller, the gates fancier. Naya sat in the passenger seat with her knees pulled up and her sneakers on my upholstery, which on any other night I would have addressed. Tonight I let it go."Then straight until you see the stone lions," she added. "Don't take the first road. Everybody takes the first road.""Stone lions," I repeated."They're ugly. Dad hates them. They came with the house."Came with the house. I kept my eyes on the road and my mouth shut.I had spent the entire drive talking myself down. You are taking a scared child home to her father. That's all. You are not going to marry anyone. You said something stupid because a man made you angry, and you will explain it calmly and apologize, and then you will fix the actua

Erica’s POV Oh God. Did I just say that?Behind me, Heather inhaled so sharply I thought she might pass out.Malcolm stared at me. For the first time since he'd walked through my door, he actually looked at me. His eyes were wide and dark and something raw moved behind them, something that looked a lot like disbelief and a little like panic."Erica," he said slowly. "You can't be serious.""I'm perfectly serious.""He's my father." His voice dropped, strained, urgent. "And I'm your client."Your client.There it was, said out loud at last. The one fact we'd both been pretending didn't exist."Wait." Naya's voice was small and sharp. "Hold on." She looked from him to me and back again, her face scrunching in confusion. "You two know each other?"Neither of us answered.I couldn't. I refused to look at him. Instead I turned away, crossed the room, and stood in front of Naya, taking her cold hands in mine."Sweetie," I said softly, ignoring the burning weight of Malcolm's stare against

Erica's POVThe pounding on the door didn't stop.It was heavy, a fist hitting wood like it had a personal grudge against my front door. Every blow rattled through the floor and up the soles of my feet. Heather had gone completely still at the other end of the couch, one hand clamped over her mouth. My own heart was doing something violent against my ribs.Malcolm. Malcolm Vale is standing on my porch.I started to rise, to do something, anything, but Naya was already on her feet, the blanket sliding off her shoulders."Don't panic," she said, and her voice was so steady, so oddly grown-up, that I almost didn't recognize it. "I'll take care of it.""Naya, wait…""It's okay, Erica. He's all bark." She tried for a smile that didn't quite land. "Trust me. I've been handling him my whole life."She crossed the living room, rolled her shoulders back like a fighter about to step into a ring, and pulled the door open."WHAT," Malcolm's voice detonated into the house, "do you think you're doi

Erica's POV Something inside my chest cracked quietly down the middle.I had spent months telling myself the boundaries protected me. That anonymity was the safest gift I could give my clients, and the safest thing I could keep for myself. And here was a kid who needed the exact opposite. Who needed proof that the person holding her was actually there.I reached out and took the mug from her hands, set it on the table, and pulled her into my arms.She folded into me instantly, small and boneless and shaking."You're not in trouble," I murmured into her hair. "You hear me? Not with me. You did something risky, and we're going to talk about that, but I'm not angry. I'm glad you're warm. I'm glad you're here.""Really?" she said into my shoulder."Really."From the other end of the couch, I heard Heather sniff once, sharp and quick. When I glanced over, she had turned her face toward the wall and was pretending to study a very interesting spot above the television.Not a word, I thought