His Surrender: A Bad Boy Romance: His Craving Series, #5

By Kylie Parker

Rule #1: Your boss is OFF LIMITS.

I never should have agreed to become Derek Blake's live-in nanny.

But he's rich and powerful, and I need the money.

In exchange, I have to live in his palace of a penthouse.

How's that for a choice?

The only problem?

He's out of my league.

Way, way out of my league. 

Too wealthy. Too sexy. Too…skilled.

And with men like that?

Everyone knows it never works out.

It wouldn't work out.

Right?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kylie Parker Romance
• Release date: Apr 7, 2019
• ISBN: 9781386597377

Book preview

Chapter 1

It’s been two weeks since Gracie’s been back in town, and not much has changed: Madeline is only at the house twice a week and I relish those moments. I’m usually gone to work before she gets in, and staying late after she heads home, but when I finally enter my home, I can smell her. Her apple-blossom shampoo and her fruity-scented body spray permeates the house, and sometimes I sit down in a spot on the couch that she has been sitting in that day and her smell will waft up my nostrils.

I found that I missed her, and it was hard hiding that from Gracie.

I was sitting at lunch and sipping on my water. I had dodged a lunch date with Gracie and Clara in order to meet two very different people. The first was my lawyer, who was helping me finalize a custody plan into which I intended to throw a great deal of money, and the second was the P.I. who had originally informed me that Gracie was back in town. He was doing good work, and I needed him to help me figure out what Gracie’s aim was.

I needed to know why she was all-of-a-sudden back in town and so willing to play family.

My usual was put down in front of me but I found myself turning my nose up at it: a medium-rare steak with garlic broccoli and whipped potatoes. There wasn’t a better steak in this town than the ones at this little hole-in-the-wall place. Plus, I knew that if I was going to stay out of Gracie’s prying eyes, I had to choose places I knew she wasn’t too familiar with. She knew all my usual upscale hangouts because, well, I used to take her to all of them.

This, of course, meant I now had to avoid them.

Mr. Blake.

Rosa, the long-legged snake with the beady eyes of a shark, sat down in front of me before she held up her hand, and before I could bat my eyes good a glass of crimson wine was set before her.

So, let’s cut to the chase, she began, I have an agreement drawn up that says you get full custody of your surprise daughter under the argument that abandoning her on your doorstep is the first step in proving she is an unfit mother. The issue here is that setting a child on your doorstep, especially after she returns, doesn’t make her an unfit mother in the eyes of the court, no matter how much money you throw at it. I will need to fill in a few holes on my end, but if your P.I. can get me concrete proof that she truly is an unfit parent, the courts will have no problems giving you custody of Clara. You’ve done well, staying out of the public eye for the past few years, so your indiscretions in your twenties should be overlooked.

I was a wild man in my twenties: dating, hook ups, sex parties, staying out late and missing important meetings in the morning. That’s what you do as a twenty-six year old who had the kind of money I did back then: I made more money than I knew how to spend, and that included buying my own island.

Yes, I own my own private island off the coast of the Scottish Hebrides.

Is there anything else? I murmured.

She took a sip of her wine and kept her eyes connected with mine. She was studying me as she always did, with great intention and deliberate notice. She was the most ruthless lawyer in the New York City arena, and I kept her on speed dial in case anything went south with any of the businesses I flipped. There wasn’t a contract issue she couldn’t talk her way around, no matter the wording in the official document.

I want this iron-clad. Gracie’s manipulating me somehow, and she’s using her own daughter to do it. That girl is-

I clenched my jaw and picked up my water. Taking a big gulp helped to ease the knot in my throat, but I knew she’d seen the flicker of vulnerability in my eyes. That’s the thing about working with a shark: they prey on anything, whether they are in control or backed into a corner.

A drop of blood all tastes the