Notorious

“I mean it, Keely. No fooling around. We’re going to get your résumé in shape.”

“And I really appreciate that.” She gave him a saucy look. “I’m just worried that my résumé’s not very well suited to what you have in mind. But if you’re willing to massage it a little, maybe there’s hope. I’m looking forward to your input.”

Heat flooded through him. “Stop that.”

“Stop what?” She widened her eyes in innocence.

“You know perfectly well. Your choice of words. Like massage and input. You’re trying to make me think about—” He realized the more he talked, the more aroused he was getting. “Never mind. Let’s go in.”

“Yes. Let’s.”

Noah clenched his jaw and started toward the entrance. He would do this. The object was to set Keely on the right path, while being careful not to amble down the wrong one himself. They were only talking about three days. Surely he could manage to keep his pants zipped for three days.

THREE DAYS IN A PLACE like this would give her plenty of time and opportunity to corrupt Noah, Keely thought as they walked through the glittering lobby toward the reservation desk. She didn’t need to win the war in the first two hours. She should probably cool it.

All things considered, she shouldn’t have allowed matters to proceed so quickly in the underbrush. A kiss would have been plenty for this stage of the game. A kiss would have been quite enough of a sampling, thank you very much. But no, she’d gone completely out of her mind.

Apparently all those years of wanting Noah had created a powerful backlog of needs. If dear Jose hadn’t shown up she would have given away the farm right on the spot, behind a boulder in the front landscaping of the Tahitian. And despite what Noah thought of her shady past, that sort of stunt would be a first for her.

She wouldn’t call it a bad idea, though. In fact, it was a pretty good idea. Extremely creative. But the timing was all wrong. Moving that fast, that soon, would have scared Noah to death, once he’d done the deed and come to his senses. She’d nearly blown her opportunity by overreacting. If she wasn’t more careful, he might reconsider his weekend plan to save her.

And she so didn’t want him to reconsider. After that kiss, if she were a pinball machine she’d be on tilt. The heavenly way his mouth had felt on hers had naturally made her think of how perfect his mouth would feel on her breasts. And she’d charged straight for that goal without thinking of the consequences, forgetting that she might be sacrificing a long-term gain for a short-term thrill.

Yet he was walking toward the reservation desk as if he still had every intention of asking for another key. Maybe after that last demonstration he was even more convinced that he had to save her. Maybe letting her impulses get the best of her hadn’t been such a mistake, after all. Now he really believed she was bad, through and through. Eventually, he wouldn’t be able to resist being bad with her.

Feeling better about the future of the weekend, she decided to cut him some slack. “Why don’t I wait over by the potted palm?” she said. “That way you don’t have to feel so uncomfortable about asking for the extra key because I won’t be standing right beside you looking like your babe-for-the-night.”

He glanced at her, a gleam in his eyes. Then he looked away, and when his gaze found hers again, the gleam was gone. “That’s okay. After the incident with Jose, this will be a piece of cake.”

“Really?” Now, this was an interesting development. She had the urge to dampen her finger and chalk up a point on an invisible scoreboard. In a very short time, she’d raised Noah’s sexual daring a sizable notch. That was something to be proud of. At this rate, no telling what sort of adventures he might be willing to undertake by Sunday night. And though he’d tried to disguise it, she’d seen that gleam of desire when she’d mentioned being his babe-for-the-night.

Noah walked up to the desk, gave his name and asked for an extra key “for the lady.”

Keely was majorly impressed. He hadn’t even tried to pretend she was a relative.

“Certainly, sir.” The desk clerk, a wholesome type of guy, didn’t even blink as he called up Noah’s account on the computer. But whatever he saw on the screen made his eyes widen. “Oh, boy. Good thing you stopped by the desk, Mr. Garfield. There’s been a small problem with your room.”

“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.”