His voice was no longer husky. Instead, he sounded furious for some reason. “Yes,” she finally replied, glancing at the bottle of spray cleaner in his hands.
Speaking of hands, he lifted one of hers up, examining the blisters. They didn’t look nearly as bad as the first day she’d met him, but the skin was still raw and covered with barely healed blisters.
“This contains phosphoric acid, Faye!” he growled, turning her hands over, examining all sides. “This is something that should be used to clean industrial equipment, and there should be more than just safety gloves between you and it. Hell, you should be wearing full body protective gear as well as a mask to prevent lung damage when using this stuff!”
Faye wasn’t sure what to say. She hadn’t ever argued about the chemicals that had been in her cart. Everyone’s hands on the cleaning team looked rough, although most of the other team members were more used to the cleaning products and didn’t have any actual blisters anymore. They all sported impressive scars though, so Faye understood that, at some point, their skin had been just as torn up as hers.
“This stuff is toxic, Faye!” he snapped and walked out of the bedroom, gently but firmly tugging her with him but being careful to keep his hands on her arm and not touching her hands any longer.
He marched into the kitchen, his features set in furious lines.
The man in the dark suit, who Faye assumed was the butler, instantly pushed away from the countertop where he’d been talking and laughing with another staff member. But at the sight of Zantar stepping into the butler’s area, the man appeared horrified before he regained his composure.
“Is there something…?” he started, only to be interrupted by Zantar.
“Get the hotel manager up here now!” he snapped.
The butler blinked, startled by the furious command. But the man was a professional and recovered quickly. It took him perhaps two seconds before he bowed and replied, “Yes, your…”
“And I want the hotel doctor up here too. If there isn’t a doctor on staff, then call someone immediately!” He lifted Faye’s hands in the air, showing the butler the blisters and scratches, the raw, painful looking skin. “This is inexcusable! No one should be forced to endure this kind of pain simply because the hotel demands that the cleaning staff use toxic chemicals to clean the suites!”
The butler, normally so formal-looking and uppity, was stammering now.
Faye shrank back, sure that she was going to be fired over this little incident. Cleaning staff did not raise a ruckus about their duties. They clocked in, cleaned their assigned rooms, clocked out and did it all over again the next day.
“Zantar, this isn’t necessary,” she whispered, trying to convey with her eyes that he was out of line.
His own gaze shot down to her and she actually backed up at the fury in those dark depths. “It is very necessary!” he growled. He turned to look at the butler. “Where is the hotel manager? And a doctor?!”
The butler literally tripped on his feet as he stumbled backwards at that command. He rushed through the doors at the back of the pantry, obviously eager to be away from Zantar’s wrath.
Faye jerked her arm away from Zantar. Poking him in the chest, she glared up at him. “If you get me fired from this job, Zantar, I swear I’m going to…!”
She stopped as she tried to come up with something truly vile to hold over his head.
He leaned forward, his eyes daring her. “You’ll do what?” he asked, the anger gone from his voice which had turned soft and sexy once again. When she still hesitated, he lifted a dark eyebrow. “Please Faye, I’m eager to hear what sort of punishment you will impose on me for standing up for your rights, and the rights of every other staff member in this hotel, to not be tortured by an acid-based cleaning solution that shouldn’t be near a human body.” He leaned closer and she could smell his minty breath. “Ever!”
She swallowed, not sure where to go from there. He wasn’t backing down. Her students always backed down when she started to issue threats. She could be quite intimidating when she needed to be. And being an art teacher, in a classroom filled with some students that truly didn’t want to learn anything about art, she’d learned to be adept at keeping students on task.
“I’ll do something horrible, Zantar! And I will be very angry!”
He laughed softly, his eyes boring into hers as he shook his head. “I’m not afraid of you, little one.”
“I’m not little,” she argued, then looked at his broad shoulders, acknowledging the fact that she was little compared to him. “You’re just big!”
He chuckled. “You’re very correct, Faye.”
Their conversation was interrupted when the butler rushed back into the area, followed closely by the hotel manager.
Faye had only seen the hotel manager at a distance, but she knew that she didn’t like the man. He was even more uppity than the butler and literally sneered at the members of the cleaning staff if he ever had to pass them in the hallways during his work hours.
“I understand that there is….” The manager started to say, only to be interrupted by Zantar as he lifted the bottle of cleaning solution in the air.
“Why is the cleaning staff using this to clean the hotel?” he demanded, his voice snarling now. “This is a toxic chemical and should only be used in industrial settings.” He stopped, then turned and lifted Faye’s hands. “This is what the chemical does to unprotected skin!”
The hotel manager’s mouth was tight with fury, but when he looked over at Faye’s hands, his jaw went slack with horror. “Dear heaven!” he whispered. “What happened to you?”
Faye tried to pull her hands away, and the hotel manager understood that she was not responsible for this complaint. He pulled himself upright, nodding to Zantar. “Quite right, Your…”
“And where is the doctor?” Zantar demanded, interrupting the manager once again. “I want a doctor to take a look at Faye’s hands and then she or he needs to examine your entire hotel cleaning staff. I suspect that they might even have lung or liver damage caused by the toxic fumes.” Zantar’s eyes narrowed as he looked down at the man. “And I’m sure that the hotel will cover the medical costs for every person this doctor examines, correct?”
The hotel manager’s mouth opened and closed. His eyes moved over to Faye and she swallowed, terrified that she was going to be fired as soon as Zantar went off to his next meeting.
“Of course!” the manager replied, bowing to Zantar. The guy actually bowed!
Faye glanced up at Zantar and mentally agreed with the guy. Zantar was a pretty intimidating man. However, before this moment, she’d always considered the engaging look in his eyes to be more alluring than the intimidation he tried to convey to the rest of the world.
Zantar barely glanced at her before looking towards the butler. The man immediately lifted his hands and nervously slipped away as well.
“Come,” he ordered, tugging Faye out of the butler’s area and into the big open space that might be called a “great room” in a house. Faye had no idea what it was called here in the penthouse. The hotel probably had some crazy name for the space, but Faye jerked her arm out of his grip, causing him to spin around to glare down at her.
“I need you to stop!” she hissed, glancing around to make sure that none of the other hotel staff were within earshot.
“Stop?” he growled. “You’ve been seriously harmed because of poor hotel management and you want me to stop?”
“You’re going to get me fired!”