He carried his sleeping daughter into the hotel he owned... and the women at the front desk decided his worn jacket mattered more than her empty bed

"Yes," Marcus said, his voice dropping into a register that made the violin music in the lounge sound suddenly distant. "For a room-availability issue."

Claire let out a small, sharp breath through her nose, a sound calculated to let him know exactly how inconvenient he was being. "Sir, as I already mentioned, the general manager, Mr. Sterling, is hosting the medical gala in the penthouse ballroom. He does not come down to the floor for standard walk-ins without a confirmation number."

"I am not a walk-in," Marcus said calmly.

He shifted Sophie slightly. The movement caused her stuffed bear to slip from her arm, tumbling onto the polished marble floor. Renata watched it fall with cold indifference. Marcus couldn't bend down to pick it up without risking dropping the bruised airport roses or disturbing his daughter's fragile sleep.

Before he could figure out a way to reach it, a hand clad in a sleek black leather glove scooped the bear from the floor.

Marcus looked up. Standing beside him was Eleanor Vance, the senior vice president of operations for the Whitfield Hotel Group. She had arrived early for the quarterly audit, her elegant gray trench coat still damp from the November rain, her sharp eyes taking in the scene with immediate, professional calculation.

"Is there a problem here, Claire?" Eleanor asked, her voice like velvet wrapped around steel.

Claire’s posture went instantly rigid. "Good evening, Ms. Vance. No problem at all. This gentleman claims to have a corporate reservation under 'Whitfield,' but the system is clear, and we are entirely at capacity due to the medical conference. I was just directing him to the Marriott down the street."

Eleanor didn't look at Claire. She looked at the worn brown leather jacket. She looked at the bruised red roses. Then, her eyes traveled to Marcus’s face, and the color drained from her cheeks so fast she looked like one of the marble columns supporting the ceiling.