Saving Cinderella! (3 page)

A
LEX
felt as if she’d just jumped out of an airplane and realized she didn’t know how to pull the cord on her chute. A thousand questions were firing in her brain as she and her friends headed to her room. What had just happened? She had expected Wyatt to ask her to give him a play-by-play of her experience with Belinda. Instead he’d offered her a job and an obscene amount of money. She remembered that much. But mostly she remembered how every time Wyatt had looked at her, her entire body had reacted as if she’d just discovered, at age twenty-eight, the difference between men and women. And why some women got into hair-pulling contests over a virile man or tattooed men’s names on their bodies.

Wyatt was going to be a problem. And not because of anything
he
would say or do. Oh, no.

It was all her.
She
was the problem. The man made her hands shake with awareness of her body. She’d practically had to sit on them to keep them still, and she couldn’t have that. Her relationships with men had always been awful, starting with her father’s and stepfather’s abandonment of her. She still remembered running after her stepfather’s car, begging him to stop. It had been the beginning of a life of over-achievement,
of volunteering to help men with their problems, only to get her heart broken. But her last awful experience with Michael had been the worst. A child had been harmed by that relationship, so she was through. And since she loved being independent with no need of a man, her instant reaction to Wyatt should have been a blaring warning that she was in danger of making a major mistake. The only sensible thing to do in such a situation was—

“Run back to San Diego.” She muttered the words beneath her breath.

“What did you say?” Molly asked.

“I said that you don’t have to worry about me,” she told her friends as they entered the hotel room she was sharing with Jayne. The truth was that she could handle the worrying about herself part of things just fine.

“You can’t come to Las Vegas for a weekend and end up staying,” Jayne said. “Alex, that’s insane. You could get hurt.”

Alex shook her head. “No, I can’t. I have new rules for myself. Parameters. If I took this, it would be just a job.”
One she’d have turned down instantly if Wyatt hadn’t made it difficult to say no.
“I love your hair, by the way.”

Alex, Molly and Serena had pitched in to give Jayne a salon treatment, and she’d had her waist-length hair cut short. Alex knew it was because Jayne’s fickle fiancé had loved her long hair.

“Thank you, but that won’t work,” Jayne said.

“What won’t?” As if Alex didn’t understand.

“She means that you can’t distract us,” Molly said, frowning. “Alex, we’re worried about you. We know running into Michael and his daughter hurt you last week. If you stay here alone…well, we don’t want you to stay here alone.”

Alex’s throat began to close up. Molly, Serena and Jayne had been there for her when Michael had broken her heart and her spirit. They’d had her back…always.

“Thank you, but don’t worry. I haven’t decided yet what I’m doing.”

“Decide no,” Serena said. “This is too big a change to make so quickly.”

“Yes, it is,” Alex agreed. “I totally agree.”

Jayne and Molly and Serena looked at each other.

“You’re going to do it, aren’t you?” Serena asked.

“I probably shouldn’t, but when he was whispering to me…”

Alex’s breath caught at the memory of Wyatt’s breath lifting her hair, tickling her ear.

Molly snapped her fingers in front of Alex’s face. “Come back, Alex.”

Alex blinked. “I wasn’t daydreaming. I was thinking.”

“About…?” Jayne prompted.

“She was thinking about Mr. McKendrick whispering in her ear. In that very sexy way,” Serena said.

Serena didn’t miss a trick. It was best not to let anyone focus too much on how irresistibly sexy Wyatt was.

“This has nothing to do with Mr. McKendrick’s hotness factor. The thing is…he offered me three times my current salary,” Alex said. “Then he upped it again.”

Jayne’s eyebrows rose. “I think we better sit down while you tell us what happened. You only stepped out to get a menu.”

“Talking about this is a great idea,” Molly agreed, sitting on the bed. “Talking you out of it would be even better.”

“Spill it, Lowell, and make it good,” Serena said.

Alex sighed. They had a point. Going through what had happened would clear her thoughts. As it was, the whole episode was a blur of excitement.

“Okay.” She sat down cross-legged on the bed. “It all began with the pregnant concierge going into labor…”

A smile lifted Serena’s lips. “You certainly know how to begin a story.”

But Jayne wasn’t smiling when the story ended. “Careful, sweetie. I smell heartbreak if you stay. Wyatt McKendrick looks like a man who’s run through a lot of women. Rich, sophisticated women.”

And Alex wasn’t either rich or sophisticated.

“But he’s offering you your dream, isn’t he?” Molly asked. “The chance to open your shop sooner. That’s the appeal, isn’t it?”

“Partly,” Alex said. “Without this chance I might never make enough money to open the shop. But it’s more than that. All my life I’ve ended up in situations where I had no power and no stable home. After my father and my stepfather left, my mother struggled to support us. Sometimes we got evicted. We never had a real home. Later, there were men. Always temporary. Robert, the athlete I tutored, who left me for the prom queen; Leo, the painfully shy guy I mentored and turned into a woman-magnet only to have him slip away with someone he’d known all his life. Then Michael… He was struggling to be a single father. I was helping him. I thought we were going to make a home together, but we’re not.”

“Alex,” Jayne said. “That’s what worries me. I read somewhere that McKendrick’s is competing for an award and…we know you so well. You’re too darn warm-hearted. You jump in to help and end up getting hurt by men who don’t appreciate what you’ve done for them.”

“Which is exactly why I’m safe this time,” Alex said. “Jayne, I’m aware of the mistakes I’ve made in the past. Those men I helped and fell in love with but who didn’t love me back—they
were my training ground. The scars I picked up will protect me, because now I know that if I want a home—and I do, more than anything—I’ll have to make my own. From now on I’m declaring my independence from men who never offer forever or stability, anyway. I’m going after what I want, and when I get that shop I’m putting my whole heart in it. The money Wyatt is offering me could help speed up that process.”

“What about your Web site?” Molly asked.

“I can update that from anywhere.”

“You’ll probably be living at the hotel. That won’t be anything like a home. You know how you cling to that little apartment you’ve lived in for four years.”

“I know, but I won’t be here long.”

“So you’re staying?”

“I don’t know. It’s difficult. I’d miss all of you and…
wow
…this has happened so quickly that I’m not thinking straight. I do know that during those moments when I was manning the concierge desk it was exciting and…powerful. A little taste of what it’ll be like running my own place. It was totally crazy, but I liked it.”

“And then along came gorgeous Wyatt McKendrick, offering to let you have that power every single day,” Serena suggested.

Alex and Serena studied each other. She knew that Serena was worried about the possibility of Wyatt hurting her if she stayed here without her friends as a buffer.

“If I stayed, it wouldn’t have anything to do with Wyatt,” she said. “I only spent a few minutes with him.”

“So in those few minutes what did you think?” Molly asked.

“He runs a great hotel,” Alex said. Good answer.

“How about those eyes? I love amber eyes,” Serena said.

“But they’re green.” Alex frowned…and then groaned.

“Alex…” Jayne said, but Alex shook her head.

“If it makes you feel better, if I
do
decide to take this job, it won’t be because Wyatt has gorgeous eyes.”

“But I’ll bet it doesn’t hurt,” Molly said sympathetically.

No, it didn’t. And that might be a problem. If she stayed, she would have to keep a constant watch over her traitorous body and emotions. Fortunately she’d already been exposed to the dangers of making emotional mistakes. She was getting quite good at the recovery and moving on part, and she was determined to conquer the avoidance part, too. All she had to do was remember one thing: Wyatt was the kind of man who would break her heart without even being aware of it. So there could be
no
fantasizing about him. At all.

“Just…don’t make this decision in haste,” Jayne said.

“We wish you’d come home with us,” Molly added.

A part of Alex agreed. Home was a known quantity. Her apartment was tiny, but unlike this job it wasn’t temporary. Her real job offered no excitement but no dangers, either.

“I’ll probably leave with you,” Alex agreed.

Unless I don’t, she thought. Inwardly, she sighed and started counting to ten. She kept counting until her urge to decide quickly, take the money and worry about the potential pitfalls later, subsided.

After dinner, Serena and Molly went out to a hotel bar, but Alex and Jayne chose an evening by one of the hotel’s pools. Both of them wanted some quiet time, and the Amber Moon Pool, with its fragrant tropical landscaping, underwater amber lights, low-key background music and swinging hammocks was just the “escape to paradise” mood they wanted. The stress Jayne had been going through and the weekend’s nonstop activity had left her exhausted. She needed to recharge her engine before finishing up tomorrow, and Alex just needed the relaxation of water.

“I need to think,” Alex told her friends.

“You’re supposed to be having fun,” Serena reminded her.

Alex thought back to those adrenaline-charged minutes when she had controlled the lobby of McKendrick’s and she smiled. “I
am
having fun,” she said. Too much fun, maybe, but…

She knew then that she was going to say yes to Wyatt McKendrick’s job offer. It probably wasn’t that dangerous, anyway. He was, as Jayne had said, a man who probably had a lot of women, so he wouldn’t be interested in her. She wouldn’t be spending much time with him. At least outside of her daydreams.

Wyatt was surprised at his impatience to hear Alex’s decision. He had hired and fired lots of people, always basing his decisions on what was best for the hotel. Firing someone was unpleasant. But hiring? Completely a cut-and-dried decision.

It’s just the timing
, he thought. He’d already been cutting things close, trying to locate someone of Belinda’s caliber. Losing her so soon had caught him off-guard. So his mood had nothing to do with Alex’s blue eyes or the curve of her mouth when she smiled.

But when he saw her crossing the lobby, in a poppy-red dress that showed off those amazing long legs, his gut tightened. His male antenna went on full alert. Too bad he was never going to do anything about that.

She smiled at him tentatively. If there was ever a look of “just let me get through this,” Alex was wearing it.

Wyatt steeled himself for her
Thank you, but…
speech.

Instead, her smile grew as she drew closer. “So, what do we do first?” she asked. “If I’m going to do this, I want to be good at it.”

A slow thrum of pleasure slid through his body. “You’ll be good at it.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Didn’t we have this discussion yesterday? The one where you tried to convince me that you might be a criminal?”

“I did not. I merely implied that you didn’t know anything about me.” That pretty little nose lifted in the air. Somehow Wyatt kept from smiling.

“I think I might have mentioned that I intend to find out all about you. I may have seen your raw talent, but I assure you that I’m a very astute businessman.”

“As if I didn’t know that. I mean…look at this place, Mr. McKendrick.”

“It’s Wyatt. All my employees call me Wyatt.”

She raised a brow. For half a second he thought she was going to give him a lecture on sound business practices. He half wished that she would, just for the entertainment value of it.

Instead she shook herself, as if forbidding herself to give that lecture. “Well, okay. Wyatt. But anyone can see that this place is a palace, and you’re the man who keeps the lights lit. It’s obvious that you know what you’re doing.”

“And you’re worried that you won’t know what
you’re
doing?”

“If I leave my job to do this and things don’t work out, I’ll be worse off than I was before I said yes.”

“Things will work out. I’ll train you.”

“If you do that, you might as well do the job yourself.”

He arched an eyebrow.

“What?” she asked.

“I’ve never met anyone who tried so hard to convince me
not
to hire them.”

“I just want to make sure we understand each other.”

He looked into her eyes. “Okay, here’s my part. I need a concierge and I’ve decided you’re it. Barring a major miscalculation on my end, you’ll slide into the job smoothly. Now, you tell me your part.”

She stared right back. “I intend to be the best darn substitute concierge you’ve ever seen.”

“Only the best
substitute
?”

She lifted one delicate shoulder in a shrug, an action that wasn’t meant to be erotic but turned Wyatt hot. “Well, I didn’t want to sound like I was dissing Belinda.”

“I’m sure she’d appreciate that.”

“How is she?”

“Mother of a baby girl named Misty.”

“Oh, I
love
that name. I’ll bet she’s a sweetheart.” The look of naked longing in Alex’s eyes served as a warning to Wyatt. Alex could apparently make him burn just by lifting her shoulder an inch, but she was not a woman he could desire. She was the hearth and home type, and he’d never be that guy. He’d missed that imprinting process.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

“Yes. There’s just one thing.”

“And that is…”