Maid for the Rock Star (17 page)

"Yes, miss." He sounded as annoyed as she felt.

She shouldn't. She really shouldn't. But Penny had gone too far. "It wouldn't have anything to do with the chef and the maid I saw earlier, banging in the laundry room?"

"The what?"

"I was walking past the laundry room and couldn't help but notice the couple. Her name was either Penny or baby, judging by the groaning of the man she was with. And he still had his chef's hat on."

Audra heard muffled swearing. "I'll have to tell that to my boss. I wouldn't know. Can I get you anything else instead? The threadfin salmon's good. I'm making it tonight and I'll make sure you get an extra big fillet."

She agreed and ended the call.

"So the staff can't sleep with guests because they're too busy banging each other? And you like to watch?"

Audra whirled around to find Jay reclining on the couch. "No," she said. "I didn't actually see them. Another girl did. But she's been meeting up with him during work time most days and the rest of us end up doing her job. She was supposed to be on laundry duty but instead of doing the washing she let the chef do her and they messed up all the clean laundry, so none of us have clean uniforms and now we have twice as much work to do. That's what took me so long to come up here from Reception. I shouldn't be telling you this. You'll think we're a dodgy, shagging bunch of –"

Jay shrugged. "Hey, rock star, remember? Most of the people I work with sleep around. Can't say I've ever done anyone in a hotel laundry, though. Something to put on my bucket list."

Selfish, arrogant, promiscuous prick. No thought of what the poor hotel staff would have to clean up after he'd had his way with whichever random girl, who'd only ever be a few minutes of his life – a tick of a box, and then she'd be gone. He wouldn't remember her name or anything else. Just that he'd achieved another conquest. So full of shit it was surprising it didn't come out of his ears.

"Audra. Hey, Audra!"

She focussed on the fridge, where Jay now stood with the door open. "What?"

"Can I get you a drink? I know you like the mango beer."

Audra shook her head. "No. You're not supposed to drink and I shouldn't, either. I'm supposed to be watching for slurred speech and all the rest, but I won't notice if we're having alcohol."

"No booze? You're no fun. What'll you do if I drink one anyway?" He upended a beer bottle into his mouth, grinning widely.

Audra marched forward and snatched it away from him, only to find the cap still firmly in place. "Do you want to die?" she asked, fighting to hold back tears.

"No. Not today." Jay sighed and grabbed two cans of soft drink. "If you ever breathe a word of this to anyone, I'll deny it. I haven't drunk this stuff since primary school." He returned to his seat on the sofa and cracked open both cans. "Come over here and join me in a drink, then. And you can tell me who died in a car crash to make you cry when I so much as mention it."

"Or what?"

"Or I'll grab a beer and drink that instead. Your call, weather girl."

He remembered. "Meteorologist," Audra corrected.

"Whatever. Sit. Talk. And when you're done, maybe I'll know how not to make you cry again."

It sounded fair. Audra settled onto the sofa opposite him and sipped her can of lemonade. "He didn't die, but he came damn close," she began.

THIRTY-THREE

Jason couldn't help laughing. "So let me get this straight. Your little brother's old bomb of a car had dodgy brakes, cracked cylinders and stalled more often than it started, but he still drove it, crashed it into a tree on his way to a party and just walked away, booze in hand, leaving the wrecked car in the middle of a roundabout, wrapped around a tree? And still went to the party like nothing had happened? Fuck, that sounds like something I'd do!" He thought he might have actually done something like that in high school, except he hadn't crashed the car, he'd just left the clunky old thing by the side of the road.

Audra managed a small smile. "Yeah, I guess it is funny when you put it like that. He was late, so the party was well underway by the time he got there. He just joined in drinking with the rest of them. The next morning, I came to pick him up like I'd promised, and he was passed out like most of them were. The thing is, he didn't wake up, and in the morning light, we could all see there was blood in his hair, but no one knew how he'd gotten hurt." She paused, as if debating whether to say something. She made her decision and continued, "I drove him to hospital. They pumped his stomach, said it was alcohol poisoning, slapped a dressing on his head and said he'd be fine. So I took him home and he went to bed to sleep it off. I heard strange sounds a few hours later and I found him having a fit on the kitchen floor." She passed a hand before her eyes. "It was frightening. Like he'd been electrocuted. All jerky and...shit." She grabbed a tissue and swiped at her eyes. "I took him back to hospital. We couldn't...couldn't afford an ambulance or health insurance to cover it. So I had to drag him into the car. When we got there, his lips were turning blue and I didn't know what to do. I just parked in the ambulance entry and...and..." She covered her streaming eyes with her hands and her shoulders shuddered with what Jason realised were sobs.

So much for a funny story. He'd made her cry again, too. Awkwardly, he shifted to the seat beside her. "I'm sorry," he began. "I'm sorry about your brother. How long ago did he...did he..."

"Today." Audra sniffled. "A year ago today."

Fuck. Making jokes on the anniversary of her brother's death. Well, wasn't he a fuckwit and a half.

"They kept him in hospital for weeks. He kept saying he wanted to come home, but they wanted to do one more scan..."

Wait – what? Dead people couldn't talk.

"Eventually, they had to discharge him. They couldn't find anything wrong. But he couldn't drive and he didn't have a car and he couldn't go back to his apprenticeship. I had to stay home with him and keep an eye on him, watch him for...symptoms of concussion. Like I'm supposed to be doing for you, instead of telling you sob stories you don't need to hear." Audra turned her teary eyes on Jason and gave an enormous sniff. "It's still not too late for me to call my supervisor and say you want someone else. Someone who won't go to pieces."

She saved her brother's life. Why the fuck would he want anyone else watching out for him?

Jason shook his head. "Nah, I think I'll take you, thanks. You know what you're looking for. Just as long as you call the Flying Doctors and don't try to drive me to the hospital. And guard me from that matron. She wants to get her hands on my dick."

Audra clapped her hands over her mouth. "I almost spat out my drink. Did you just say she wants your – "

"Dick. Cock. Penis. Say the word and I'll show you, in case you need to see it."

Audra opened her mouth and Jason grinned in anticipation.

"Room service," the recorded Englishwoman's voice announced over the intercom.

"Fuck," Jason swore. He stomped to the door and yanked the trolley inside, to the surprise of the kitchen hand wheeling it. "Go away." Jason made shooing motions at the kid. He wheeled the trolley into the lounge room to find Audra cheerfully setting the dining table with cutlery. If it weren't for her reddened eyes, he'd swear he'd imagined her tears.

"You said steak, so I hope this is okay." Audra set a plate on the table, piled high with huge prawns. "The steak's under the prawns." Her own plate held a slab of fish surrounded by a jungle of salad. "Thank you for this. The food in the staff dining room isn't this nice. Definitely no salmon unless the chef's burned it." Audra dropped onto a chair and transferred a forkful of greenery into her mouth.

Jason took a seat behind his steak. It did look good, he had to admit. A million times better than hospital food, for sure. He grasped the steak knife and swore.

"What?" Audra's wide eyes were on him.

"Nothing." Carefully, he kept his face blank, but the more his fingers tightened around the knife, the more the gashes on his hand hurt. Gritting his teeth, he clumsily cut himself a bite of steak and shoved it into his mouth. At least it tasted all right. He started slicing another piece.

"I can help you with that."

He met Audra's eyes and lowered his gaze quickly to his plate. Did she think he didn't have the guts to tackle his own steak? It was just a bit of pain. Not like he was a baby. There were just cuts on his hand. Cuts covered by gauze. And one that was now bleeding...

He forced himself to look away, his stomach rebelling even at that tiny spot of red. Fuck. Stay conscious, don't throw up. Fuck. He was going to, whether he wanted to or not. "Not hungry. Going to go...to the..." he mumbled, shoving away from the table. He stumbled for the bathroom and barely made it before he vomited violently. He stayed on his knees for a while, until he was sure he wasn't going to bring any more up. Fuck, what would she think of him?

He flushed away the mess, rinsed his mouth, then brushed his teeth to get rid of the taste of bile. Reluctantly, he dragged himself back to the dining room.

Audra glanced up from her almost empty plate. "Are you all right? Can I help?"

"No." Jason felt his body swaying and forced himself to stay still. "Tired. Going to bed."

Audra looked uncertain. "Do you...do you really need me to sit by you while you sleep? To keep watch?"

What, and have her see if he threw up again? "No. The nurses didn't stay in my room in the hospital. Just...I'll leave the door open. So you can hear if I need your help." Fuck. What if he had a fit like her brother? He wasn't ready to die. "Don't let me die."

"I won't." Sincerity seemed to gleam in her eyes. Of course he believed her.

"Thank you." Jason stumbled to bed, praying to any deity who'd listen to let him wake up again. He needed to thank this girl in true rock star style and he needed a body to do it. Not to mention hers.

THIRTY-FOUR

Audra finished her dinner, then tidied away all the dishes and left the trolley outside. Now what? She didn't want to watch any of the pay-per-view movies at Jay's expense. If she'd brought her laptop, she could've worked on her job application, but her computer was on the other side of the island and she didn't dare leave Jay to go get it. Whatever he said, he wasn't okay and she had no intention of letting him get as close to death as Leon had. She knew first aid now, and could resuscitate with the best of them.

Figuring she could kill a few minutes in the bathroom, she decided to brush her teeth. Audra made lazy circles with her toothbrush as she scanned the room, looking for something to do. There wasn't a frog in sight, not even in the enormous spa bath. She wondered what it was like to bathe in a tub so huge. Talk about luxury. Even getting the shower for more than five minutes at home had been a miracle. Here, Jay had a tub big enough for her to swim in and she'd have it all to herself. If he was asleep, surely he wouldn't mind if she took a bath. Surely...

Five minutes later, Audra gave in, grabbing a bathrobe from one of the guestrooms to cover herself as she padded across the tiled floor to the decadent bath. She reached for the hotel shower gel, then thought better of it and grabbed the rose bath mixture that came in the honeymoon pack. If Jay hadn't brought a female friend back, no one else would use it. And he couldn't get his stitches wet. In went the bath oil, rose petals and all, before Audra turned on the taps. She climbed in before the water was ankle deep, settling with a contented sigh.