Room Service for the Billionaire

BOOK: Room Service for the Billionaire
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Room Service for the Billionaire

By Selena Storm

 

Second
Kindle Edition

Copyright
2014 by Selena Storm

All
rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in any form, in whole or in
part, without written permission from the author.

Cover image provided
by: ©
Viktoriia
Kulish
|
Dreamstime.com

Room
Service for the Billionaire

 

Amber closed her eyes tight as her
mom’s old minivan pulled up to the front of the hotel. The brakes squealed as
her mother rolled to a stop in front of the fancy four-star hotel. Its gold
framed double glass doors seemed to beckon to Amber before she’d even left the
van.

“You have everything you need?”
her mom asked as Amber smoothed her navy blue pencil skirt.

“I think so,” Amber nodded. Her
mom swooped in and straightened her apricot colored ascot before giving her
daughter one last hug.

“You’ll do fine,” her mom assured
her. “Just drink lots of coffee and try not to nod off if it gets too boring.
And honey,” he mom smiled at her. “I’m so proud of you.”

“Thanks mom,” Amber blushed as she
got out of the car. It was nice to know her mother was proud of her even though
Amber wasn’t that proud of herself. Just the sight of the doors made her
stomach drop.

It wasn’t the job that upset her,
but what her first real job reminded her of. It was barely six months ago that
Amber was starting college. She had taken a year off after high school to work
and save up money for school. When she started college at twenty she’d decided
to stay close to home to save money. Amber was lucky enough to have a good
school close enough to her home that she could take the bus every day. She and
her mom had saved up for years for her to be the first woman in their family to
go to college, but just when she was settling in the bad news had come down
like a hammer.

She had been in class when her
mother called with the news. The factory her mom had worked at for twenty-five
years was closing. There had been no warning; the doors were simply locked when
she and her coworkers had shown up one morning. Later they would find out that
the owner of the factory had been lying about his profits and taxes for years.
When the government found out he was fined so heavily that he had no choice but
close down. Half their town was out of work in an instant.

Though she hated it, Amber knew
she couldn’t keep going to school with her mom out of work. They’d used up all
their savings to put Amber in college in the first place. At least they hadn’t
missed the deadline to drop out and get some of their money back.

With school out of the question
Amber set her sights on finding a job to help with the bills that were piling
up. She and her mom tried to apply for different jobs at first so that they
wouldn’t be competing with each other, but there were so few openings that they
gave up on that. Both of them applied for anything and everything that became
available. It was the hotel, The Empress Plaza, which found them in the
steepest competition.

The opening was almost full time,
promising at least thirty hours a week and benefits. Amber and her mother both
applied and both got interviews. It was a night desk job and the hotel went
with Amber because, as the manager had admitted, they felt a younger woman
could stay awake better than a woman nearing fifty.

“Ah, Miss Gleeson,” the night
manager, Mr. Peters, greeted her as she entered the lobby. “Are you ready for
your first shift?”

“Yup,” she gave him a winning
smile, though she wasn’t sure if she could fake it all night. The night manager
was an older gentleman with thinning hair and a growing waistline. He was
pleasant, probably too pleasant, but Amber didn’t want to start her new job off
on the wrong foot.

“It’s a Tuesday night,” Mr. Peters
began, “which is the perfect time to start your training. It’s generally our
slowest night and we only really ever have business men checking in at this
hour. That’s the hardest part, but most of these guys are here so often that
they can and will walk you through it. Other than that, it’s answering the
phones.”

“I can do that,” Amber smiled.
At
least they are starting me off on an easy night
, she thought to herself.
She’d been worried that they’d be throwing her into the deep end and firing her
if she couldn’t swim. Amber knew she could handle it, but a bit of stress left
her shoulders when she found out that the night should be easy.

“This is Tonya,” Mr. Peters
introduced her to the woman who was already behind the desk. Tonya looked to be
about thirty-five or so, but was elegant in her navy uniform and her hair was
pulled back into a smart bun. Instantly Amber regretted leaving her blonde hair
down.

“Hi,” Amber said as she brushed
her hair off her shoulders. “Nice to meet you.”

“You too,” Tonya smiled. “I’m in until
midnight, after that it’s just you and Mr. Peters. You should probably have the
necessities down by then.”

“Speaking of that,” Mr. Peters
said to the two women. “I’ll leave Tonya to start your training. I have some
work to do in the office. Please call me if you need anything ladies.”

With the boss gone Amber thought
for a second that she might be able to relax, but that thought didn’t last
long. Tonya went straight to business getting Amber set up with a passcode for
the computers and only a few minutes later Amber’s first guest arrived at the
front desk to check in.

Tonya took the first guest and
walked Amber through it while continually apologizing to the guest for the
delay. Amber thought that he didn’t look upset and they weren’t taking long at
all, but Tonya continued to say sorry every thirty seconds.

“Did I miss something?” Amber
asked when he was safely on the elevator.

“No, you did fine,” Tonya told
her, though Amber really hadn’t done anything to help.

“It’s just that you kept
apologizing,” Amber fiddled her fingers as she spoke. “I thought maybe I messed
something up.”

“Not really,” Tonya shrugged at
that. “Most people expect an apology for any sort of inconvenience, no matter
how small. I find if I apologize before they have a chance to complain I
usually won’t get screamed at.”

“Does that happen a lot?” Amber
said, a new kind of anxiety settled into her gut when she thought about a guest
yelling at her.

“Yes and no,” Tonya thought on it.
“The business men are always in a rush and only get mad when they’re delayed.
Even then, they rarely yell. It’s usually families that are the biggest
problem. Stressed parents will yell about anything. We don’t get a ton of them
through here, the guys here for meetings are our bread and butter. Oh,” Tonya said
as she looked at the latest person to come through the door. “And discretion is
paramount.”

Amber was about to ask what she
meant, but the instant she saw the new guest she understood. The woman wasn’t
here to check in. While she was nicely dressed and looked almost professional,
under her makeup there was something harsher there. Amber couldn’t put her
finger on how she knew the woman was an escort. She just knew.

Tonya exchanged a knowing nod to
the woman and let her pass through the lobby. She waited until the woman was on
the elevator before saying anything.

“Business men who are away from
their wives get lonely,” Tonya diplomatically informed her new coworker. “We
aren’t here to judge, that is so long as the women avoid mulling around the
lobby. Occasionally we call them cabs and sometimes we are asked to bring
certain toiletries up to the guest’s room. You are to never, ever mention to a
guest that you had any inkling that they had a woman join them in their room.
Understand.”

“Very much so, yes,” Amber nodded.
It made her a little sad to know that part of her new job involved helping men
cheat on their wives.
Not helping,
Amber tried to console herself.
Just
being willfully ignorant of it.

The rest of Tonya’s shift was
spent helping Amber check in the handful of guests that came through the doors.
The hotel was only at about thirty percent capacity which made finding rooms
for every guest pretty simple.

“It’s when there’s a convention in
town that things get hairy,” Tonya said as she signed herself out of the
computer terminal. “When we’re booked full and people think they can just walk
in without a reservation. Then there’s trouble. Ah, here’s Mr. Peters, just in
time.”

“Ladies,” the night manager
greeted them. “How is Miss. Gleeson’s first night going so far?”

“Good,” Amber piped up, but
quickly she realized he was talking to Tonya, not her.

“Satisfactory,” the woman told
him. “She’s learning quickly. Some subtleties of the trade will have to be
learned as issues come up, but she’s got the basics.”

“Excellent,” Mr. Peters nodded.
“Have a good night Tonya.”

“You too,” Tonya said to her boss
without giving Amber the same courtesy. She was just a little bit snootier when
the boss was in sight.

“Now, Miss Gleeson,” Mr. Peters
said as he turned his attention back to his latest hire. “I’ll be over there,”
he said with a point towards one of the plush chairs by the fireplace of an
otherwise empty lobby. “I need to go over some documents. If you need anything,
just ring the bell.”

“Okay,” Amber smiled. She was nervous
to be almost on her own, but at least he was only a few feet away if she needed
him. There hadn’t been a new check in for almost an hour and the schedule Tonya
had given her showed there wasn’t another plane due at the airport outside of
town for at least another thirty minutes. At most Amber thought she’d only have
to worry about phone calls, which were pretty simple to handle so far.

Just as Amber let herself relax
some and lean her hip on the desk to take some of the weight off her feet the
glass doors slid open. Through the door walked an elegantly dressed man with a
single small suitcase on wheels.

“Hello,” she greeted the man as
she’d been instructed. “Welcome to
The
Empress Plaza.
Would you like a room?”

“Of course,” the man smiled at her
and it almost took Amber’s breath away. The guest was handsome, sexy even, and
wore a perfectly tailored three piece grey suit with a crisp white shirt and a
blue-grey tie. Amber got tongue tied as she looked deep into the tall,
obviously powerful man’s blue eyes.

“Um,” Amber said as she fumbled
with the keyboard. “Did you have any preferences?”

“Occasionally,” the man purred at
her. “I was hoping that you have my regular room available.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Amber
stammered as she tried again and again to key in her code. It had been so easy
with Tonya staring over her shoulder, but now that she was alone she couldn’t
make her fingers work.  “I’m sorry,” she apologized as Tonya had trained
her. “I’m really sorry.”

“Don’t be,” the man gave her a reassuring
smile, but it only seemed to make Amber more nervous. “I don’t mind waiting for
a pretty woman.”

A foolish giggle left Amber’s lips
right as the computer let out a harsh beep. Amber’s eyes went back to the
screen that had turned an ugly bright blue and she felt her stomach hit the
floor.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized again.
“Um, Mr. Peters,” she called to her new boss. “Oh crap, Mr. Peters!”

“Miss Gleeson, I can hear you if
you keep your voice at a normal tone,” her new boss admonished her as he walked
from the lobby to the front desk. “Now what is it? Oh! Mr. Abernathy,” Mr.
Peters almost jumped when he saw the guest who was still patiently waiting
while Amber was sweating out her nerves. “I did not see you come in, I do
apologize.”

“Everyone here keeps apologizing
to me,” the man who Amber now knew as Mr. Abernathy chuckled. “To my knowledge
no one has done anything wrong. Should I be concerned?”

“Of course not, sir,” Mr. Peters
tried to smile while he fumbled with the crashed computer. “Ah, here we go,” he
declared as he got it up and running again. “Yes, you’re regular room is
available. I’ll show you up myself.”


It’s
fine,” Mr. Abernathy held up his hand to say no. “I’ve been here enough to know
the way.”

“Yes, and I do apologize for the
delay again,” Mr. Peters gushed, then he shot Amber a disapproving glance.
“Miss Gleeson here is new.”

“Everyone is new at some point,”
Mr. Abernathy assured the night manager. “And she seems nice to have around.
Miss Gleeson,” he said as he turned his focus back to Amber. “I do hope to be
seeing much more of you when I stay here.”

“You are lucky,” Mr. Peters
scowled at her once the well dressed guest was in the elevator and out of
earshot. “Upset a customer like him and you’ll be looking for another job.”

“I’m so sorry,” Amber apologized
again. “The computer froze and I didn’t know what to do. I don’t even know who
he is!”

“You aren’t aware of Mr.
Abernathy? Clinton Abernathy?” Mr. Peters looked at her with his mouth slightly
agape. “He’s only one of the wealthiest men in the country under the age of
thirty. He stays here once a month or so on business. He is your number one
priority when he’s here, got that? Anything he wants, you do. He says jump and
you jump. Got it?”

Amber nodded and finally let out a
sigh of relief when Mr. Peters left her to return to his papers by the fake
fire in the lobby. She cursed herself for getting
so
flustered over something as simple as a computer mishap, but she knew part of
it was because of the handsome blue eyes that had been watching every move.

Thankfully no one else walked
through the door and when she looked over at her boss she saw his chin resting
on his chest. His round belly rose and fell in soft, rhythmic breaths and Amber
was certain he’d fallen asleep. She didn’t know if she should be surprised or
not; it was well after midnight and besides the bit of excitement her mess up
had caused, there was little for either of them to do.

She knew she shouldn’t do it, but
Amber was bored enough that she reached under the desk and pulled out her
phone. Just as she brought up her Twitter feed the front desk phone rang and
startled her so bad that she dropped her cell on the marble floor.

BOOK: Room Service for the Billionaire
3.09Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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