Can't Help Falling In Love (13 page)

Everyone in the room swiveled to look at her again, and KT winked. She could read
the question on every face. They wanted to know why she was there at all. She felt
like she should introduce herself, maybe make some reasonable explanation of why she’d
help clean rooms instead of lounging poolside or hitting Graceland, but she couldn’t
come up with one other than the truth, so she just nodded once.

“Do not forget to vacuum the hallways and make note of things like flowers that need
to be replaced. Miss Willodean wants the hotel to sparkle for the Elvis Week crowd.
I do not expect you will see much that needs to be done in the common areas because
we do a very good job here.” She paused and looked over at Tony. When he nodded, she
said, “Do not forget to knock loudly before entering any room. I have a list of the
vacancies and early checkouts. We can start with those and finish after the official
checkout.” Consuela handed out a list to the other maids wearing the required Hawaiian
shirt and to Tony before she clapped her hands. “Do I have any questions?”

KT raised his hand. Consuela said, “Mr. KT, you may ask as many questions as you like
while you are scrubbing the toilets.” She pointed at a cart loaded with towels and
cleaning supplies and said, “If you please.”

KT wrapped his hands around the cart’s bar and started out of the room. He paused
in front of Randa and said, “It was quite a pleasure to meet you, Randa. I hope to
have the opportunity to speak with you again sometime this weekend.”

Randa glanced over at Tony. Except for the wrinkle of his forehead, he looked disinterested.
She smiled slowly and wet her lips. She tried to purr as she said, “Oh, KT, I certainly
hope so too.”

KT gave her a wicked grin. He glanced over his shoulder at Tony and shook his head
slowly. “You may have a real problem here, man.” Then he winked at Randa and walked
through the door Consuela held open. “Let’s go, Miss Sway. Those toilets aren’t going
to scrub themselves.”

Consuela let out a gusty sigh and followed him out of the room.

The others left too, and Randa wasn’t sure she wanted to do this anymore. Tony’s frown
had grown, and she wondered why she couldn’t be all hot and bothered over someone
like KT, a man who smiled his way through life.

Plus, it would be fun to bring an actor home. She would have a fifty-fifty chance
her father and brothers would love him. And KT would have her mother charmed as soon
as he opened his mouth.

Bringing Tony home? There would be shouting and a strong possibility of the vapors.
And that was just her father and brothers. There was no guessing her mother’s reaction.

Honestly, on the right day with the right attitude, that could be fun too.

Not that she had to worry much about it. Tony didn’t even want to go to the third
floor with her. He’d marched through the door, jabbed the elevator button, and was
pushing the cart on without glancing her direction. Clearly, if she wanted to get
into those rooms, she’d better pay attention.

She stuck her hand between the doors as they started to shut then jumped in the elevator.
She glanced up at Tony’s face as the doors slid shut. He stared so hard at the screen
showing the amazing list of Elvis Week activities that she was surprised it didn’t
start to smoke or at least tremble in fear.

She started to say something chipper. She had no idea what it would be, but the heavy
atmosphere in the tiny space was getting to her. As she opened her mouth, Tony said,
“He’s soon to be engaged or married or something. Taken.” His voice held a dangerous
rumble, and Randa felt a flash of heat shoot through her. The rumble was sexy. Even
when he was being an ass.

She tried one of his disdainful sniffs. “Oh, well, then I still have plenty of time.”

He opened his mouth to say… something. She had no idea what it would be. She
only knew she was saved by the bell. Literally. As soon as the elevator bell dinged,
the doors slid open, and she stepped out on what looked to be the beach.

T
ONY LECTURED HIMSELF
silently as he shoved the cart off the elevator. Jealousy was stupid. For a lot of
reasons. Not the least of which was that KT Masters was a man so far gone in love
that he was damned annoying most of the time. He wanted the rest of the world matched
up and never hesitated to prescribe love, true love, to cure every ailment. Sure,
Randa was enough to make a dead man sit up and take notice. And KT was in love, not
dead, but she was only doing what Randa did: making conquests by whatever means necessary.
Any man who got tangled up with her would have to understand that. Or he’d lose his
damn mind. Since he was counting again while she slowly spun in a circle to take in
the wonders of the third-floor hallway, it probably looked like he already had.

He cleared his throat. “Third floor’s Hawaii. Second floor’s Memphis. First floor
you’ve seen.”

Randa nodded. “Yeah, I thought I knew what to expect but I had no idea.”

Tony grunted out a laugh. “Yeah, I see that reaction a lot.” And Randa, with her pink
and orange flip-flops, too-long skinny jeans rolled up to keep from dragging on the
floor, and a bright orange tank top fit right in. The walls were painted the color
of the sky and the carpet looked like sand. One side of the hall was ocean and the
other side was mountains. Surfers and hula girls dotted the hallway and lush greenery
lined the halls lit by fake tiki torches.

“Is it my imagination or do I smell the ocean?” Randa’s nose twitched as she asked
the question.

“Genuine imitation sea breeze. Nothing’s too good for the Rock’n’Rolla.” Tony waited
for her to meet his stare. “The guy gets under my skin a little bit.” Tony shrugged
a shoulder and pushed the cart over to the first vacant room on the list.

He could hear the
flip flop
of each step she took. In a soft voice, she said, “He seems harmless. And it’s nice
of him to help out.”

Annoyed at KT and Randa again at her easy compliment, Tony glanced over his shoulder.
She was craning her neck left and right as she waited for him to open the door, no
doubt asking herself how in the world they’d top the décor in this hallway. Maybe
this would be all it took to convince her that a new Whitmore hotel couldn’t compete
with the Rock’n’Rolla.

And then she’d leave.

Tony didn’t feel as relieved at the thought as he should’ve. Getting attached to her
was a terrible idea. He’d gone from his usual level of KT amusement to red-hot jealousy
with one flirty smile from Randa. He was afraid he was already too far gone to make
this an easy break when she left. She was the kind of woman who’d stick in his mind
for a long time.

Just like that he was irritated; a little at her for being nearly irresistible, but
mostly at himself for not being smarter about this. He knew she was trouble when she
walked in. He should have gone with his instincts and sent her on her way. Now he
was going to have a Randa itch he couldn’t scratch and she’d probably move on to her
next conquest with a snap of her fingers.

At least he didn’t have to watch her with KT now. They had a job to do. He rapped
twice on the door and said, “Housekeeping.” After two seconds, he swiped the key in
the lock and shoved the door open. He pushed the cart in and sighed in relief. Not
too bad. If all the rooms were like this, they’d finish quickly and he could go home
and get some quiet in before he went to help Laura with the late afternoon check-ins.

Maybe he could work on forgetting how Randa smelled while he did so. He had a feeling
the bright smell of the hotel’s shampoo would bring her to mind for a long time. Damn
it.

As he watched Randa stare in wonder at the beach bungalow theme of the room, he memorized
the way her hair fell on her shoulders in a golden wave. Her hands were propped on
her hips, and he wanted to run his hands down the smooth skin of her bare arms. When
she walked over to the window and bent over to see what was below it, his eyes were
drawn to her butt like a magnet to true north. He figured skinny jeans were a dangerous
proposition for a lot of women. Every curve she had was outlined. And he wanted to
trace them with his hand.

“So where do you want to start?”

Right at the top. He wanted to slide his hands into the pocket of her jeans and squeeze.

But she was talking about the room.

She walked over to flip on the bathroom light and tried to whistle. She did a lot
of things well. Whistling wasn’t one of them. This one was a breathy wheeze but he
got the idea.

“You thought black was something. All the bathrooms on this level are gold. Solid
gold.”

Randa shook her head. “Who decorated this place? Liberace?”

Tony shrugged. “This is all Willodean’s style. And it’s actually classier and better
organized than it was when I started. We just finished a room renovation so everything’s
in the best shape.” Tony watched her closely. He couldn’t actually see the calculations
on her face, but he thought she was measuring the square footage.

Randa walked over to the cart and took a look at the contents. “Where does she get
her ideas? Is there a place in Hawaii with a gold bathroom?”

“It’s all Elvis all the time here.” He stopped on the other side of the cart. “I expected
a big fan like you would know where the gold bathroom idea came from.”

Randa shook her head. “Gold records?”

That was a damn good guess. For someone who didn’t know a thing about Elvis or Graceland.

He shook his head. “Lisa Marie.”

Randa pursed her lips. “Had a golden bathroom?”

Tony opened a trash bag and put it in the can on the side of the cart. “The plane.
Has gold fixtures in the bathroom.” He glanced up at Randa’s face. She was thinking
hard. He could tell by the small frown on her forehead.

“Oh, of course. The plane… named after Elvis’s daughter. Got it.”

Tony didn’t shake his head. Didn’t sigh loudly. She sucked at pretending to be an
Elvis fan.

“Which you will see when you actually make it over to Graceland.” He watched her closely.
“I’d have expected a big fan like you to make more than one visit. What are you waiting
on?”

“I want to get the full Elvis Week effect, you know. This may be my only trip. Besides,
it was on my list of things to do today, but I decided to help out instead.” Randa
raised her eyebrows to make sure he got the message then pointed at the bathroom.
“How about I scrub, you vacuum. We’ll make the bed and move on to the next?”

It was a good plan. He was surprised she’d offered it. He hadn’t expected her to be
any better at scrubbing toilets than KT Masters.

“Fine.”

She’d surprised him again. They worked well together. He’d sort of expected her to
complain or ask a million questions or stall or something to get out of doing the
hard work. But she didn’t. She asked questions the first time she did something. Otherwise,
she worked. And the gleaming golden bathroom was spotless by the time he did the final
walk through and set a stack of clean black towels on the shelf behind the toilet.
“Good job, Randa.”

She flushed a little and looked pretty pleased with herself. She shrugged a shoulder,
and he had to force himself to watch her face. “Thanks. I mean, it’s not brain surgery.”

He tilted his head. “Sure, but a lot of people would do a half-assed job because it
wasn’t. And it’s not your job at all. I wouldn’t think you’d have a whole lot of experience
at work like this.”

She rubbed her nose and yanked open the door so he could push the cart out in the
hallway. “Any job’s worth doing well, I guess. Love it or hate it, I’ve still got
to do my best.”

Tony walked past her, close enough to smell the hotel’s ginger shampoo and something
that was all Randa. “Sounds like your father talking.”

“It’s the Whitmore way.” One corner of her mouth curled up. “Make sure you tell KT
what an awesome job I did, okay?”

He frowned down at her and yanked the vacuum cleaner a little closer. When her eyebrows
rose a fraction, he had the idea that was the exact reaction she was hoping for.

They worked efficiently down the list. At each new room, Randa had to pause to absorb
the décor. They went through a surf shack, a deserted island, a romantic grotto that
was sometimes used as a honeymoon suite, and one room that looked like the bottom
of the ocean floor.

As Randa pulled the door shut on a tropical rainforest complete with dripping waterfall,
she looked a little shell-shocked. “You know, it would be a lot more cost efficient
to pick one or two of these themes and stick with them.”

“Sure, but it would be a lot less fun. I already told you there are some things more
important to Willodean than making money. Having fun is pretty close to the top of
the list.” Tony shrugged and stopped in front of the last room on their list. He’d
have to call down to the front desk to check on the rest of the guests scheduled to
check out that morning.

Randa shook her head and waited for him to knock. “I just don’t get it. I mean, she’s
in business to make money. Fun’s good, but there should be some way to find the best
mix of both.”

Tony rapped, called out, and swiped his key when there was no answer. “I think she
thinks she’s got plenty of money. And there’s never too much fun. Besides, I’m not
sure she sees this as a business.”

Randa frowned. “How does she see it then?”

Tony started to wonder if he was telling too much. He’d gotten pretty comfortable
with her as they worked. She was good company. Hard-working. Efficient. “It’s almost
like this place is her… gift, maybe.”

Randa watched him and he could feel the heat of a stupid blush in his cheeks. Him.
Blushing. Unbelievable. “Like she’s been given so much and this is her way to help
others.”

He turned away, plugged in the vacuum, and flipped it on. There was no talking over
the noise now. By the time he finished vacuuming the suite, Randa had already scrubbed,
wiped, polished, emptied, and refilled the golden bathroom. She was getting faster.
Or he was stalling— one or the other.