Chapter 5
Faye was almost humming as she left the museum that morning, heading down the street towards the hotel. No, she didn’t want to work this afternoon. But she needed the money. She’d get paid in a few days but, until that money hit her account, she’d be living off of peanut butter and cheap bread. Her financial situation wouldn’t be so dire if she hadn’t needed to purchase a new laptop. Her trusty old laptop had died last week, and it had been imperative that she purchase a new one. Back in Georgia, she knew a guy who sold refurbished laptops and would sell one to her for less than he charged other customers, simply because his daughter had been a student in her classroom a few years ago. But here in Minar, the capital city of Skyla? She wasn’t sure where to purchase a used laptop, much less someone trustworthy who would have refurbished the computer properly. So she’d bought a new, inexpensive laptop that wasn’t very fast, but it got the job done.
Unfortunately, that also meant that money was pretty tight now. She’d get through the next few days until payday though.
Still, she wasn’t going to allow her financial stress to ruin a perfectly beautiful day! Lifting her face up to the sunshine, she smiled as the warmth revived her. It was hard being inside the cold museum for the first few hours of the day. There were no windows and, as usual, Mr. Latro preferred the air conditioner to be set at frigid temperatures! Why did he want the space so cold? She’d learned to bring a sweater for those few hours that she lost herself in the paintings.
Thankfully, she was out of the frigid air. Regretfully, she still had a shift at the hotel in which she needed to work.
Sighing, she trudged down the sidewalk, not as energetically as earlier, but still determined. While she waited to get paid, maybe she could sneak something to eat from the hotel kitchens. If there was food left over from an event, the staff were generally permitted, even encouraged, to eat the leftovers.
“Hi everyone!” she called out as she stepped through the employee entrance. How many more days until her days off? Too many, she thought as she worked her way towards her locker. Quickly, Faye pulled on her uniform, stuffed the rest of her belongings into the locker and shut everything away before making her way to the cleaning carts. She did a fast inventory, accepted her room assignments then…!
“Wait!” she called out to her boss. Pointing at the assignment sheet, she looked at Tamas. “Why am I in the penthouse today?”
Tamas shrugged and looked down at his clipboard. “Asila is out sick today, and you’ve done a great job in the other rooms. I’m promoting you.” He looked at her over his thick glasses. “Just for today. Don’t get used to it!”
Faye laughed, delighted with the easier schedule. “Great!” she told her boss, then did a little jig as she walked out of the locker rooms.
Ten minutes later, she pushed her cart through the special doors to the penthouse suite. She didn’t use the main doors. Those were exclusively for the guests. Nope, she and the other hotel staff were required to use the less auspicious staff doors. They were scratched and dented, very lackluster. The maintenance personnel didn’t fix these issues because there wasn’t any reason to impress the hotel staff.
“You’re new!” a man in a dark suit snapped. His dark eyes moved up and down over her figure. “I heard that Asila is sick today. Are you up to the task of cleaning the penthouse?”
Faye swallowed the sharp, angry retort. She was just a cleaning team member here, she reminded herself. She wasn’t a teacher here and there was definitely a hierarchy of staff members in the hotel. Cleaning team members were absolutely the lowest on that hierarchy!
“Just tell me where you need me to start, and I’ll be fast and thorough.” She realized that was the right thing to say when the butler nodded sharply.
“Start in the master suite. It’s on the second floor, all the way to the end. You’ll see the double doors at the end of the hallway.”
Faye nodded and pushed her cart towards the staff elevator. Moments later, she pushed her cart out into what was possibly the most beautiful room she’d ever seen. It was done all in shades of white and shimmering silver. It was somehow both extravagant and practical, with thick throw blankets on the end of the bed as well as over chairs that looked to be deep and comfortable. A body could curl up in one of those chairs and never need to get up, she thought with a wishful sigh.
The bathroom was just as heavenly, with a massive bathtub that would comfortably fit six or seven people. It was deep, like a small pool, and framed by a large window that looked out over the capital city. From this high up, there wasn’t any possibility of people looking in on the bathers, but still, the concept was quite decadent. There was white marble everywhere, with black trim and faucets. The whole effort was stark and lovely.
“Not here to admire everything,” she whispered to herself and pulled out the cleaning supplies. She’d grabbed a pair of rubber gloves from the kitchen yesterday and the barrier between her hands and the cleaning supplies had helped significantly. Thankfully, this pair of gloves hadn’t melted yet. Just having one day without the harsh chemicals on her skin had helped some of the blisters heal up. Keeping that in mind, she was careful when she scrubbed the white marble today, not wanting to lose that barrier by scraping the rubber on anything that might tear it and allow the chemicals to touch her skin.
She’d just finished the bathroom when she heard talking. At first, she’d assumed that it was that uppity butler coming to snap at her, tell her that she wasn’t cleaning thoroughly enough or that she was taking too long. Carefully, Faye stuffed her rubber gloves into the pockets of her cleaning uniform, then hurriedly pushed the cleaning cart out of the bathroom and into the bedroom. Faye had done an excellent job in there!
“Faye?” a harsh, raspy masculine voice demanded.
Faye lifted her head sharply, her eyes widening as she took in the tall, powerful form of Zantar as he stood in the middle of the bedroom.
“Zantar?” she whispered, her lips going numb as she took in his tall form, minus the jacket and vest he’d had on only hours before. Underneath the crisp, tailored dress shirt, she could discern the lean waist and flat stomach as well as his long, powerful legs. She realized that she’d never seen his legs before because they’d been sitting at the table or she’d been too overwhelmed by his presence to notice anything other than his rugged features. His dark, forbidding eyes had always made her anticipate trying to make the man smile.
“This is where you work?” he demanded, moving closer to her.
Startled by his approach, she stepped back, but the cleaning cart was behind her and she was trapped. “Um…yes. But…I’m not here trying to stalk you! I promise! I was only assigned to the penthouse suite for today’s shift. There’s no way I could have known I’d be here, and you can ask my boss. He’ll tell you that he assigned me to this area himself. I didn’t urge him to assign me here.”
He put a finger to her lips and Faye had the insane urge to stick out her tongue, to taste that finger. It was tempting. The man was tempting! He was big and tall and powerful! And the bed! Oh, good grief, the bed was so close!
Faye had to remind herself that she wasn’t the kind of woman who slept with men on a casual basis. Good grief, she wasn’t even the kind of woman to sleep with a man on a formal basis! So this…everything here was completely out of her realm of experience.
“I know, Faye,” he replied gently. Unfortunately, his voice was the only part of him that was soothing! The rest of his body, big and muscular, was too close. She could smell him! And boy, did he smell good! A little spicy, a bit of the woods in the background and all male. Definitely male!
His hand slid around, cupping the back of her head. “I didn’t make the connection that you worked in the same hotel in which I am staying.” He paused, his eyes lighting with mischief even as the rest of his features remained stern and uncompromising. “You might assume that I’ve orchestrated your presence here in order to seduce you.”
Her heart pounded at the idea. “Did you?” she whispered, her voice betraying her hope at the possibility. She quickly cleared her throat. “No! Of course you didn’t manipulate the cleaning teams’ schedule and have me sent up here. That’s silly.” She stepped back, or tried to, but the cleaning cart was still pressing against her back. She shook her head, trying to figure out what she was doing. Or what she should be doing. Surely there was some funny comment she could make that would ease the increasing tension rising between them.
“I will just…get out of your way,” she told him.
“You don’t have to hurry out of here,” he replied, his voice even huskier than moments ago. “In fact, I think…” he stopped abruptly.
Faye had been staring at the middle of his chest, fascinated by what might be underneath the expensive material of his shirt when he stopped speaking. Instantly, she knew that he was distracted by something and lifted her gaze to find him reaching behind her. A moment later, he held one of the cleaning bottles aloft. “Is this what you and the others in the hotel use to clean the rooms?” he demanded.