Jackie Braun - Weekend in Vegas!

Most likely she was at her desk, very efficiently managing his guests. Issues with some of those visitors might be arising. And, even though it wasn’t her job to handle customer disputes, some of his employees had been going to Alex lately if he wasn’t available. Her ability to make people feel good, the way she smoothed things over easily, had people bending the rules. When he was at hand no one did that, but when he wasn’t…

Wyatt slammed the book closed. Maybe he should have brought Alex with him. He wondered what she would think of the Haven.

She’d probably think it was a decrepit pile of rock and wood that needed to be torn down. She’d think less of him then. And that would effectively kill his fascination with her.

Next time, he promised himself. Next time he’d bring Alex. But for now…

“Rest time’s over, McKendrick.”

She should be feeling better about how her day was going, Alex conceded. She’d come up with two new activities to make McKendrick’s stand out from the crowd. And, despite the fact that there’d been an article in the local paper yesterday about Champagne sponsoring some sort of exclusive event this weekend, the crowds at McKendrick’s were just as big as ever. People looked relaxed and happy. She’d had nothing but good vibes from those approaching her desk this morning.

She’d hardly even noticed that Wyatt had left two hours ago, taking some rare time off, she told herself. Despite the fact that the hotel seemed emptier without him around, she was okay with that…wasn’t she? It was normal to feel a little different when there was a change in one’s routine.

Of course she had noticed that a few women gave him hopeful waves as he left. She’d even wondered if there might be another woman sharing his day off, and felt a stabbing pain near her heart, but she’d forced herself to try to ignore it.

She was almost succeeding, too, when she looked up to see a young maid headed toward Randy, then veering off when she saw that he had people at his desk. Alex had none, and the look of relief on the maid’s face was palpable.

“I just passed the ballroom, and two of the workers doing the renovation are fighting,” the young woman said.

“Physically?”

“No, but there’s a lot of yelling. The customers can hear them. And the security guys are on the tenth floor, helping a woman who fell getting out of the bathtub. I didn’t know what to do, so I came here.”

“Thank you. It was the right thing to do,” Alex said, and she took off toward the ballroom. She could hear raised voices before she even opened the doors.

“Don’t worry,” she told the crowd of people that had started to gather. “It’s probably just a minor disagreement between friends. I’ll straighten everything out.”

She pulled open the tall double doors and walked into the huge, mostly empty room. At the far end, workers were involved in various tasks, but just twenty feet inside the room, two big muscle-bound men were right up in each other’s faces, yelling and swearing and getting louder and more red-faced every second. They didn’t even look away from each other when she entered the room.

Alex took a deep breath. She had no idea what to say or do. Her heart started tripping as she drew closer. No doubt she should call someone else, but who? The longer and louder these two got, the more agitated the customers outside the doors would become. If this accelerated into an actual fist fight, wouldn’t that look great in the morning papers? She could practically see the headline: Blood spilt at McKendrick’s . The owner of Champagne would waltz away with Wyatt’s award.

She frowned. She was so not going to let that happen. She wanted Wyatt to win. At the moment she didn’t even care why it mattered to her. She’d worry about that later. But for now…

Alex took a deep breath. She waded into the fray. “I don’t know who you two are,” she said, raising her voice just enough so that it carried, “but I’m here on Mr. McKendrick’s behalf, and if you don’t stop this right this minute, your firm will lose its contract. I’m giving you fair warning. I’m walking right up next to you, so if anyone hits anyone, I’ll probably get hit, too. That will be assault, and you won’t even be able to plead that you didn’t know that I was here.”

She kept moving as she spoke. “Who are you, anyway?” she asked. “And, no, I don’t want to know what you’re fighting about. I just want it stopped. Right now.”

By now she was only three feet away, easily within the peripheral vision of the men. One of them blinked. He turned toward her. “This doesn’t concern you.”

“Yes, it does. My job is to make sure my customers are happy. You’re scaring them.”

The other man turned toward her. He looked her over, head to toe. “So you work for Mr. McKendrick. Who exactly are you, luscious lady?”

Alex realized that if the man wanted to, he was close enough to reach out and touch her. She took a very slight step back.

“I’m Alexandra Lowell.”

“And she’s none of your business.” The deep, steely voice came from behind Alex. She turned to see Wyatt, eyes blazing, bearing down on them. “I suggest you two men return to your work immediately,” he said. “I’ll discuss this with you and your supervisor shortly.”

The man who’d asked who she was scowled and grumbled something unintelligible, but both of them turned. They started to lumber back to whatever they had been doing before all this began.

Wyatt waited until they were out of hearing range. “Break time?” he said, and Alex looked up into his glittering eyes. He was angry and not trying to conceal it.

“I’d say that’s a yes. But I should…”

“Find someone to man your desk? It’s already done. Let’s talk,” he said, his tone perfectly calm.

But Alex didn’t miss the tense line of his jaw. She turned and followed him out of the ballroom and down the hallway. He threw open the door to a conference room, pulled her inside and then shut the door behind them.

“What was that?” Wyatt asked, trying to leash his anger.

“That was me trying to avert a crisis.”

“That was you trying to get your pretty face and body rearranged. Again. Presenting yourself as a punching bag to enraged men is getting to be a habit, Alex. Do you know what one swing from one of those men’s fists could do to you?”

“This is nothing like that other time. Protecting that little boy was…well, anyone would have done that.”

Wyatt seriously doubted that. “So how is this different?” He gazed down into those sky eyes, waiting for her answer and for his heart to stop racing, but it didn’t. Watching her confront two full-grown angry men, listening to one of them try to hit on her…he wanted to swear.

“Two reasons. For one, the hotel’s reputation was at risk this time.”

He lost the battle not to swear. “Alex, you’re an amazing woman. You’re doing great things for McKendrick’s and you’ve become a customer favorite.” My favorite , he thought, but he couldn’t utter those words. He shouldn’t even be thinking them. “But I don’t want you to get hurt helping me.” I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to be another man taking your help and then not giving anything back .

“Wyatt, I’m fine,” she said. “Look.” She held out her arms, as if to show him that she was all in one piece.

He raised an eyebrow. “Don’t try to schmooze me, Lowell. You know what I mean. You’re not to confront any more angry men. For any reason. Got that?”

For a second he thought she was going to do the right thing and meekly agree, the way any other employee would have. But Alex raised her chin and looked him square in the eye. “I’m sorry. I can’t agree to that. If I’m going to run my own shop, one I operate alone, I have to be able to handle any situation. That was the second reason I had to get involved.”