She met her fair share of people passing through the island, but when it came to forming relationships, that was a whole other story. Maybe it was because her job required forming constant false relationships, pretending every evening that she was best friends with a complete—sometimes unpleasant—stranger, that Kelly preferred solitude to partying or doing much in a crowd. She kept her close friends close, and her need for privacy even closer.
She relished the quiet peace of the short walk, and, as the hotel appeared just ahead, began mentally preparing herself for the day ahead.
Chapter Three
Blake
“I’m sorry, sir, but it says here that your baggage has been picked up. It scanned at the checkout about an hour ago.” The woman behind the counter quickly typed on her keyboard, looking at the screen rather than him.
Blake took a deep breath, trying to remain calm. He had already been through this exact conversation with the other clerk, and had ultimately been sent over to this desk to talk about it with this woman.
The company jet wasn’t working properly, and there had been no mechanic available to work on it immediately. So he’d flown commercial, with so many layovers that his intended afternoon arrival had morphed into late evening. And now he found himself at the smallest airport he had ever been in, his luggage lost for over an hour, the clock ticking on the few hours of sleep Blake was hoping to steal before starting fresh the next day. The only thing he had with him was a small carry-on bag. Thankfully, he had one spare suit, exactly for such situations.
“Can you check the cameras? There must be something you can do—I refuse to believe that someone was able to just walk out of this airport with all my things and no one saw them, especially if you’re right when you say that it was scanned about an hour ago. That was just after I landed!” Losing his patience after hours of the same mess, he uncharacteristically thumped his fist on the table as he spoke, and the woman behind the desk gave him a warning look.
“Sir, I understand that you are frustrated with the situation, and I very much apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you, but there is nothing further I can do to help. If you have spoken with security already, that is all we can do. I’m sorry.” She looked at him with raised eyebrows, as though she was challenging him to hit the desk again. Blake knew that if he did, he would have all the security in the airport down on him in an instant, and that was the last thing he wanted.
Mustering a smile, he thanked the woman in a tone that was far too sweet for the situation. She gave him a curt nod, then turned back to her other tasks. Blake hesitated for a brief moment, trying to decide if it would be a good idea to say anything else. With a final exasperated sigh, he grabbed the lone bag on the floor next to him and headed for the door.
He hailed a taxi as soon as he got outside, then sat down in the back seat with a grunt.
“Where to?” the driver asked.
“Take me to the best hotel that is within fifteen minutes of here.”
The driver looked at him curiously. “Everywhere is within fifteen minutes, sir, except for the new hotel they’re putting up on the West Side, but I hear that isn’t going to be done for several months yet.”
Blake blew air through his teeth in exasperation, praying this bit of news was no more than hearsay.
“Is that so? Well, I’m here to take a look at the progress, as a matter of fact. They better be on schedule.” He sat back in his seat and looked out the window, narrowing his eyes to slits.
The driver turned around in his seat and put the car in drive, laughing and shaking his head as he did so.
“I hope you get the answer that you want, but I wouldn’t put too much hope in that,” he said. “Laidback applies to just about everything around here, including construction. Especially construction, I should say. We’ve got hotels that have been being built for years.”
Blake didn’t reply. The way his day was going, he didn’t want to discuss what else could go wrong, fearing that if he did that would somehow tip the universe off. They drove along in silence, the driver making a comment every now and then. Blake didn’t feel like talking to the man, and he wanted to tell him so, but he bit his tongue.
He really didn’t want to be the snobby rich man who had flown commercial, lost his luggage, and pitched a fit. It wasn’t characteristic of Blake, and furthermore, a meltdown by a prominent developer would probably be the talk of the small island. Really not something else he needed to deal with.
The driver had been right; it took less than 15 minutes to get to the hotel, 15 minutes during which Blake vaguely noticed the beautiful scenery backlit by the setting sun, but mostly texted various clients who he’d been going back and forth with throughout the day. He was surprised when the driver announced they’d arrived, but one plus—the only plus—of not having a suitcase was that it took no effort at all to slide out of the cab, pay, and head inside.
Immediately, he noticed two things about his surroundings: the gaudy luau décor, with fake tropical plants set against a backdrop of even tackier fake gold surfaces, and all the women walking around in next to nothing. They were beautiful, sure, but he didn’t go for the fake pneumatic look any more than the cheesy stuffed parrots tucked into various corners of the lobby.
Blake smiled slightly at the utter tackiness of the place. Even though Parker Industries had every intention of building an upscale venue here, Blake had a special spot in his heart for the tackier side of Vegas nightlife, where he’d spent more than one drunken spring break. The décor brought back all manner of memories.
In a far better mood suddenly, he walked up to the counter.
“Reservation for Blake Parker,” he told the redhaired young man sitting behind the counter. The kid looked up at him for a brief moment, then turned to the large monitor in front of him.
“There you are,” he said after a moment. “We have everything ready for you, Mr. Parker, including the gym equipment you requested.”
Pleased, Blake handed over his credit card. Some hotels were willing to take dumbbells from their ubiquitous gyms and loan them to clients for their stay. Exercise helped keep him stay sane, and with the schedule Blake kept, it was easiest to roll out of bed, workout right there in the room, and jump in the shower. Truthfully, Blake was kind of a loner, unlike his brothers, so working out in the privacy of a hotel suite was something he preferred to a crowded gym.
The clerk handed him a pen and Blake signed on the various dotted lines. “Thanks,” he nodded at the kid. “Oh—the airport may deliver some luggage for me at some point today. It went missing.”
The kid smiled. “That happens quite a bit around here. I can’t promise your items will be recovered, Mr. Parker, but if you need anything, just let us know and we’ll do our best to make it happen.”
“Thanks,” Blake said again, glad that the cheapness of the décor clearly didn’t extend to the concierge service. He grabbed his small bag and started toward the elevators, framed on either side by plastic palm trees with more parrots perched in them, a couple of them animatronic.
Just as he arrived, a beautiful young woman with black hair down to her waist stepped out, wearing an off-white dress that was as elegant as the Hotel Andrade was not. Her knockout curves were contained by the dress’s modest design, but in no way diminished. Her tanned skin seemed to glow against the cream fabric, and a simple blue agate stone at her throat caught the light and reflected it. She walked with total confidence, moving with an easy sway to her hips. On the one hand, she blended in with every other gorgeous woman in the place. On the other, there was immediately something about her that made her stand out.
Too tired to look twice to see what it might be, Blake excused himself as he pushed by, but the scent of her perfume nearly made him stop dead in his tracks. The sultry fragrance wrapped around him like a tropical night, a real one that didn’t require lianas and plush parrots to raise his body temperature.
He turned toward her once more, almost automa
tically. Briefly, their eyes met, hers a warm, alluring black, and her full lips lifted slightly in a hint of a smile. Then she walked past him and toward the lobby.
The doors to the elevator closed and Blake sagged back into the faux wood, pushing the button to the penthouse. There was something about her, all right. But he didn’t have time to explore it. He never did, which explained why he was the eternal bachelor when Hawk was in honeymoon heaven and Cole was about to become a dad.
Then a thought slowly started its way through his mind.
He had a thousand questions about the island, and little idea how to get any answers—if he was going to learn where things were and how things operated, he was going to have to engage one of the people who knew what they were doing. He needed someone who knew their way around. Intimately.
By the looks of things, most of these lookalike women were some form of escorts. They definitely weren’t hotel guests; not with the noticeable similarities between them and those come-hither looks at every man. He felt guilty assuming it, but not much, since he’d even noticed some money being outright exchanged between a couple as his penthouse reservation was being processed.
What if … he took her out and showed her a nice evening for her trouble, and at the same time she could give him the grand tour of the island?
It wasn’t his favorite plan in the world, but it was the best he could come up with.
As Blake arrived on his floor and stepped inside his faux tropical haven of a penthouse, he found that, in spite of the faint smell of mildew and the garish green plastic vines climbing the walls, he was smiling.
Strange.
Chapter Four
Kelly
“We get rich men here all the time. I don’t see what could possibly be special about this one,” Kelly said as she set the tray of dishes on the counter next to the sink. Her maid duties didn’t involve dishwashing, but management paid extra if you occasionally pitched in.
Maria looked at her with raised eyebrows. “You clearly haven’t seen him if that’s what you think!”
Kelly laughed as she emptied the dirty dishes into the sink. Her friends hadn’t stopped ranting and raving about the handsome new arrival, the one staying in the penthouse, apparently. “I don’t have to see him. I honestly don’t care what he looks like. I’ve seen my fair share of decent-looking men, and I’m not interested in being forgotten about when he goes back to Australia or wherever the hell he’s from.”
Maria and Miska exchanged a look.
“He’s from the mainland. Blake Parker, of Parker Industries. Guy’s loaded and here on business. At least, that’s what Tony said,” Miska informed her.
Miska and Tony Lumbeck, the hotel’s general manager, had been sleeping together since she had started at the hotel, and if there was ever anything to be learned about one of the guests who was staying at the hotel, she was the one to ask.
“Well, you can gossip about him all day, or you can get your work done. You know Jamal wants all the beds made before ten,” Maria cut into their conversation, and Kelly was quick to head out of the kitchen. What with taking on Miska’s shift, she wouldn’t get any kind of break today and would eat on the run at some point. As it was, she was going to have to hurry if she was going to stay on schedule.
When she stepped out of the elevator on the top floor, Kelly felt her heartrate begin to pick up. She tried not to think about the stranger from the mainland as she was gathering the things she would need to make the beds and clean the penthouse suites, but it was nearly impossible now that she was on the top floor. She had seen the man briefly the day before, when he had gotten on the elevator that she’d been walking off of.
She’d stopped him dead in his tracks—the thought made her smile—but at the same time, she couldn’t deny that he’d also stopped her cold. Those sharp green eyes. That slightly rumpled blond hair. That body. He was tall, and built like a man who worked as hard for a living as he did at the gym. His obviously tailor-made suit fit him perfectly, showing off broad shoulders and hinting at flat abs, probably like a washboard.
Kelly resisted the urge to fan herself dramatically, even though her temperature had actually risen a few literal degrees at the memory. Now, she could see by his closed door that he was indeed in his room, but that he didn’t want to be disturbed. Damn.
Kelly moved quickly through the other penthouses, changing towels and linens, cleaning the bathrooms, vacuuming, dusting, and restocking the mini fridges. She knew how to move both quickly and efficiently, and she was just walking out of the last apartment when suddenly the door across the hall opened.
***
Blake Parker stepped into the lobby. He was dressed in another impeccable suit, but today he looked rested, the lines of strain on his handsome face considerably eased. He spotted her and smiled, his green eyes warming her from head to toe and places in between.
Kelly’s mouth went dry and she immediately focused on the cart in front of her. “Excuse me, I didn’t mean to disturb you,” she said quickly. “If I was too loud—”
“You weren’t. I’m normally up and out before now,” he said, and she didn’t miss it when he briefly looked her over. She was used to it, but somehow she didn’t feel dirty under his warm gaze. Silently, she hoped that he liked what he saw. It was the first time in a while that she’d actually cared, beyond the financial aspect. Having to look good came with the job. No avoiding it, even if she was a hands-off escort.
His eyes returned to her face and his smile widened when he clearly realized she’d caught him. Was that a hint of an apology in his eyes?
Wow …
“Do you work for the hotel?” he asked. “When we bumped into each other in the elevator, I figured you were a guest.”
The fact that he remembered left her absurdly happy.
“Yeah,” Kelly replied, gesturing at her cart. “Your friendly island maid. That’s me.”
“Do you like it?” he asked, which struck her as an odd question, but then again, it was an odd situation, conversing with a billionaire who had probably never washed a dish in his life, much less cleaned out people’s hair from bathtubs.
“I could lie, but who likes cleaning?” she said wryly, and melted all over again as he flushed slightly.
“Sorry. Stupid question.”
Kelly grinned. “Nah. I do get to meet a lot of different people. That at least keeps things somewhat interesting.”
When he spoke again, that low voice immediately whisked her mind away to wild bedroom fantasies. “Do you live on the island?”
Kelly paused in the middle of reaching for fresh pillowcases. “Uh, yes?”
“I need a grand tour of the place. Something that goes beyond the travel brochures. It’s really important for my business that I get a local perspective,” Blake said, raking his fingers through his hair and mussing it so he looked somehow even more mouthwateringly handsome. “Would you have time or be interested in helping me out? I’ll pay you well.”
It was a guy offering her money—the norm—but somehow completely different, just like everything else was about him.
Kelly kept a firm check on the giddy smile that wanted to break over her face, giving him what she hoped was a casually friendly one instead. “Sure, I’d be happy to show you around the island. There are a few places I would prefer not to go, but I can tell you where they are if you want to visit them on your own.”
He laughed and her stomach dropped to her toes at the husky sound. “I don’t need to go anywhere that’s not well-trafficked. I’m overseeing the construction of one of our hotels. My contractor is hard to get a hold of, you see, and even harder with my phone not working properly. If you could show me around sometime this evening, I’d be most grateful to you—and don’t worry, we aren’t going to go anywhere you aren’t comfortable with.”
He laughed once more and with that, her momentary nudge of fear, ever present since her mother’s death, vanished. She could trust this man. Somehow, she automatically
just felt it.
“My shift ends at 5:30,” Kelly replied, when she realized he was standing there silently, waiting for her to say something. “Do you want to meet at 6:00, out front?” She had a tentative client booked, but could send him to one of her friends.
“It’s a date.” He winked and headed off down the hallway, leaving Kelly halfway gaping after him.
From that moment on, the day seemed to hit a standstill. All she could think about, throughout the dishes, the cantankerous clients, the endless beds and toothpaste-filled sinks, was Blake Parker’s wide smile and his warm gaze.
Chapter Five
Blake
“Hello again,” the cab driver greeted Blake as he climbed in. “Small island,” he added with a friendly chuckle as Blake blinked in surprise at the familiar face.
Blake laughed and settled into the seat, even as he realized that he didn’t know the name of the gorgeous woman he’d just set up a date with. “Apparently. Remember where I’m going?”
“West Side?”
“Please. The Magnolia development.” He leaned back in the seat and this time looked at the island as it slipped by the windows, full of palm trees, colorful flowers, and various large birds that he couldn’t identify, lazily meandering on an ocean breeze. “Not a bad place to call home, I guess?”
“There are worse,” the cabbie agreed. “Then again, I was born and raised here, so I’m biased. Only left for a few years when wanderlust hit and I wanted to see some big cities. Came back when I decided my big buildings needed to have some ocean waves in the background.”
Dared to Love (The Billionaire Parker Brothers Book 3) Page 2