Vicki Thompson - Notorious

“What sort of problem?”

The clerk frowned at the screen. “I need to get the manager out here to talk with you. Excuse me a moment.” He picked up a phone and punched in a number. “Mr. Garfield’s at the desk. No, I don’t think he’s been up there yet. Right.” He hung up the phone and turned to Noah. “Sorry for the inconvenience, sir. The manager will be right out.”

Keely wondered if the delay, whatever was causing it, would make Noah more self-conscious about his request for a spare key. Apparently not, because he turned to her and shrugged.

“Mr. Garfield.” A guy only slightly older than the desk clerk arrived and held out his hand over the counter. “I’m Martin Ames. Could we step down to the end of the counter for a moment? I need to inform you of our problem.”

“Okay.” Noah looked at Keely. “Let’s go see what this is all about.”

She hesitated. “Are you sure you want me to—”

“Yeah.” He smiled and angled his head toward the end of the counter. “Come on.”

“All right.” Congratulations, Noah, she thought as she followed him. From all appearances he was bringing a call girl up to his room, but he didn’t seem to care whether the staff assumed that or not. His friends were a different story, of course, but his reluctance there was understandable.

Ames came out from behind the counter and glanced pointedly at Keely before returning his gaze to Noah.

To Noah’s credit, he made no effort to explain Keely’s presence. “What seems to be the problem?” he asked.

The manager looked uncomfortable. “We’re a new hotel, as I’m sure you know, and in the rush to get it open on time, apparently the hiring process wasn’t…what I mean to say is, the screening of applicants might not have been quite thorough enough. At least in the housekeeping department.”

“And you would be telling me all this because…?”

“One of the housekeepers vandalized your room.”

Keely gasped.

“What?” Noah stared at the manager in obvious disbelief.

“It was a case of mistaken identity,” Ames said quickly. “The woman’s in custody, and we’ve learned from the police that she’s mentally unbalanced. It seems she formed an imaginary attachment to one of our guests, and when her interest wasn’t returned, she attempted revenge by damaging his room and its contents. That would be bad enough, but she became confused and hit your room by mistake.”

“What about my stuff?” Noah asked.

“I’m afraid it’s pretty well ruined. She took a knife to your clothes and suitcase and smashed your toiletries. The police took it for evidence, so I’m not sure how soon you can retrieve it. But from what I saw, there’s not much point in getting your things back.”

“My God.” Noah shook his head.

“We take full responsibility, of course,” Ames continued. “If you’ll give us an estimate of what you lost we’ll write you a check immediately. And of course we’ve moved you to a new room, and you won’t be billed for your stay. If you should choose to move to a different hotel, we’ll pay for that.”

“No, I won’t move. My friend is getting married here tomorrow night.”

“Ah.” Ames nodded. He seemed to be avoiding looking at Keely. “Then let me take you back to the desk and issue you a new key.”

“Two keys,” Noah said.

“Oh.” The manager slid a glance over toward Keely. “Of course.”

Keely could see that the discussion was drawing to a close. She was outraged on Noah’s behalf. Her L.A. apartment had been vandalized once, and she knew the sick, violated feeling he was probably dealing with right now. Given the mental anguish, she didn’t think a different room and some money to replace his belongings, some of which might be irreplaceable, was enough.

She cleared her throat. “Excuse me, but are you moving Mr. Garfield to another room that’s similar to what he had?”

“Exactly like what he had,” Ames said with a satisfied smile. “And there will be no charge, of course.”

“I think he should be given a substantial upgrade,” Keely said.

Ames blinked. “An upgrade?”

“Now, Keely,” Noah said, “the same sort of room will be—”

“I don’t think so,” Keely cut in. “You’ve been traumatized, whether you’re willing to admit that or not. And I’ll bet your feelings about this hotel are very negative right now.”

Noah gazed at her. “I wouldn’t say I’m overjoyed with the place.”

“See?” Keely turned to Ames. “I would suggest that you give Mr. Garfield an outstanding experience to take away with him, something that will at least partially cancel out the horrible thing that happened. I’m sure you have some luxury suites in this hotel. I would imagine at least one of them is vacant.”

Ames straightened his tie and glanced toward Noah. “How do you feel about that, Mr. Garfield?”

Noah met Keely’s gaze.

She lifted her eyebrows in a silent challenge. There was no doubt in her mind that he deserved this perk, but the Noah she remembered probably wouldn’t have taken it. He would have scoffed at the idea of “luxury” accommodations, as if a rough-tough cowboy didn’t need that kind of pampering. She’d love the chance to show him how wrong he could be.

Gradually a smile touched his lips. “I think the lady’s absolutely right,” he said. “Give us the best you can manage, Mr. Ames.”

NOAH WOULD NEVER HAVE agreed to a fancy hotel room for himself. After all, he only planned to sleep in it, so extras would go to waste, as far as he was concerned. But he was glad to get the nicer room for Keely’s sake. God only knew the type of place she’d been living in recently.

Besides, a bigger room meant they’d have more space to spread out. He imagined the suite might have two bathrooms and maybe extra sleeping arrangements. If he wasn’t bumping into Keely every five seconds he might stand a better chance of keeping his vow not to make love to her.

Ames gave them a new key folder and directed them to a special elevator.

“I’m so glad you told him you wanted a better room,” Keely said as they stepped into the mirrored elevator. Soft guitar music began to play as the brass doors slid shut.

Noah laughed. “I’m sure he didn’t want to give it to me. These are the rooms they reserve for the high rollers.”

“So what? If they’re going to screw up and hire a psycho maid, then they can compensate the poor guy who gets his stuff trashed. I’m really sorry about that, Noah. Did you lose anything special?”

“I’ve been trying to remember exactly what I brought. I don’t think any of it was that important.” Noah was having a hard time concentrating on the vandalism incident when more potent subjects stood right in front of him. As he faced Keely in the elevator, the mirrored walls gave him many stimulating viewing options.

On the left and right walls he could admire her figure in profile—the impressive thrust of her breasts, the narrow waist, the long slender legs made even more sexy by the high-heeled sandals. The back wall of the elevator gave him a different perspective. When she shifted her weight, the blue flowered material of her dress quivered against her firm bottom and flounced against her thighs. There was something very enticing about the backs of her knees….

And without warning, he was imagining Keely naked in this elevator, surrounded by mirrors. He could see her lifting her arms over her head, stretching, turning this way and that, while the mirrors reflected every spectacular inch of her. His breathing grew shallow.

“…forget to give him that,” Keely said.

“Hmm? What?” Noah felt his face heat as he realized he’d missed half of what she’d just said.