Page 17 of Gamble
Thankfully, Elijah wasn’t having the same problems checking in and he had his key in hand, ready to head up to his room just as her two other friends arrived next to her.
“What the hell is taking you so long?” asshole asked. His tone of voice grated on Elijah’s nerves just as much as his shitty driving had earlier.
He was ready to pass by and get as far away from them as he could when the red-headed beauty burst out crying.
“They don’t have a reservation for me and won’t check me into Tristan’s room. This entire weekend was a mistake. I’m going back to L.A.”
Elijah expected her friends to cheer her up and come up with a solution, but just before he was out of earshot range, he heard the asshole berating her for crying and embarrassing him.
Something made Elijah stop and turn around to watch the drama play out. His sixth sense was telling him that something was wrong… more than just a mixed-up hotel reservation.
As he got his first good look at the unhappy woman’s face, his breath hitched. He’d been right. She was beautiful, but not in a fake, glamour kinda way like her friend, but more in a girl-next-door authentic beauty way that had his dick stirring in his jeans.
“You’ll just have to hang out in our room, I guess, until he gets here,” the other woman offered.
But the asshole only made things worse by adding, “How are we supposed to have any fun with her in our room all night?”
The beautiful redhead flinched as if he’d hurt her instead of just using his shitty words to do his damage.
Elijah had no idea why the trio had caught his attention, but they had. Elijah didn’t know these people’s relationship or who Tristan was, but Elijah’s Dom radar was set to HIGH, and alarm bells warned him the red-head needed help—help she wouldn’t get from the rude pair with her.
It was none of his business. He should just go upstairs and forget about them, and he would have if she hadn’t glanced his way. His gaze locked with her sad eyes as she swiped at her tears, and even though he knew nothing about her or her situation, he knew without a doubt that she was lost—emotionally, if not physically.
Letting his gut decide, Elijah took long strides back toward the desk. As he approached, the beauty’s light eyes widened, realizing he was headed into her personal space.
Ignoring her and the couple with her, Elijah instead spoke to the front desk agent who had been trying to help her.
“Hi,” he paused, glancing down at the employee’s name tag before looking back up and adding, “Ryan. I couldn’t help but overhear the dilemma surrounding this young woman’s reservation. I understand you might not assist her, but would you mind calling your manager over. I’m sure we’ll be able to get this all sorted out.”
“Uh… my manager is super busy. I don’t think?—“
“Okay, then perhaps you will help after all if your manager is not available,” Elijah said with the dominant tone of voice that made the dungeon monitors who worked for him quiver.
“Um… I don’t know what…” Ryan stuttered, uncomfortable with Elijah’s take-charge attitude.
“Oh, I’m sure we can put our heads together and come up with a solution, don’t you?” Elijah offered, putting a knowing smile on his face. “Now, my friend here has a reservation, but someone made a mistake, and her name wasn’t on the reservation with Mr. Goodrich. I’m sure he didn’t mean to exclude her, and he wouldn’t want to cause her any trouble.”
It was a gamble on his part. He had no intention of paying for the beauty’s hotel room, let alone some asshole who hadn’t even had the decency to show up, but considering he’d overheard that the room was non-refundable, he suspected it was already paid for anyway.
“Payment isn’t the problem. I can’t just give his room away without his permission.”
“Of course not,” Elijah said just as he felt soft hands on his bicep. He didn’t dare look in her direction. He knew she was confused about why he was getting involved, and he was wondering the same thing.
“I’ll tell you what. Let’s have you take my card as a backup form of payment for the room. That way if Mr. Goodrich shows up and gets upset that you’ve checked my friend here into his room, you’ll have another form of payment to reimburse him with.” Elijah handed over his card to make his point.
“We don’t do it that way…”
“True, but I also know that it’s an option available to you. Let’s just make it happen, shall we? Elijah may have phrased it as a question, but he definitely gave him marching orders.
The agent typed into the computer for another full minute. As the seconds ticked by, Elijah thought that the guy could takeas long as he wanted since he was enjoying the red-head’s hand resting on his arm, pulling and trying to get his attention.
When she leaned in closer, he caught a whiff of her vanilla shampoo as she whispered, “Why are you doing this?”
Not wanting to let the front desk agent realize that they’d never met before, Elijah put his left hand over her hand resting on his arm, patting as he returned, “Just let me handle this.”
But it wasn’t the beauty that threatened to ruin things… it was the asshole next to her. “I don’t know who you are old man, but you need to butt out.”
Elijah had just about enough of the jerk, even before he felt the hand on his arm squeezing. He suspected it was a subconscious move on her part, but it told him he’d been right when he picked up on her uneasiness with the aggressive jerk standing on the other side of her.
