Page 28 of Forbidden Virgin

Chapter 10

Two weeks later…

“Did Preston sign the contract yet?” Graham asked.

“I just heard from his lawyer. The last draw is a go. They’ll email it later today,” Sheri said.

Graham clapped his hands. “Yes!” Tonight there would be celebrating. He’d take Kate to a fabulous restaurant and start it then.

Sheri beamed with approval. “You worked hard for it.”

“We’ve all worked hard. I’ll give you a bonus for your efforts.”

She winked at him. “I like in-love Graham. A lot more relaxed,” she said, then left his office.

He sat down on the leather chair and opened his email account. Negotiations with Preston had gone smoother than expected, and faster too. Amanda agreed to provide the beverages—Graham could have stiffed her if he wanted and done the deal without her, but he wouldn’t. Besides her temporary cattiness, Amanda’s ambitions had brought Mark one degree closer to nailing the deal. Despite being a former flame, Amanda deserved respect as a badass businesswoman.

“Graham, Kate and Clarence are here to speak to you. It’s urgent,” Sheri’s voice announced through the intercom.

“Let them in,” he said for the sake of saying; when his gaze raised to the door, Kate and Clarence were already entering his office. “Have a seat. What’s up?” he asked.

Clarence sat in front of him, but Kate stood behind him, fiddling with her pendant necklace. “We have a room with a glitch in the system. Every so often, it would show as dirty but if we sent someone to check it, it was actually clean.”

“Go on,” he said.

Kate shifted her weight from foot to foot, and concern flickered in her blue eyes.

“We talked to a couple of housekeepers and tried to understand. We also blamed the new software and had the techie come over for an assessment, but nothing seemed to make sense. Until Kate went to check on it today because we’re hoping to be sold out tonight.”

“And?” he asked.

“I ran into a housekeeper having sex with a maintenance guy,” Kate said, her voice steady.

Graham let out a sigh. Owning four hotels in Hawaii for the past two decades he’d seen it all, including a celebrity overdosing once or twice. Nothing shy of a dead body in one of his hotels alarmed him. “Okay. Are Human Resources taking care of it?” He pinched the bridge of his nose.

“That’s the problem, sir.” Clarence cleared his throat and looked tentatively at Kate. “Kate’s making a big deal and I’ve been explaining to her what the procedures are—

Kate stepped forward. “I can’t let you fire those two. They have bills to pay like everyone.”

Graham picked a pen from the holder and clicked it. “Are you serious? They had sex at the work place. They lied about the state of the room, while other departments tried to figure out what happened. Not to mention the sexual harassment possibilities,” he said matter-of-factly.

“They love each other. I speak Spanish and talked to them.”

“Then they should have waited until they were off the clock,” he said, his voice commanding. He surged to his feet and shook his head. Kate crossed her arms, and leaned against the glass wall like she waited for him to keep talking. Shit.

Clarence’s cell phone buzzed in his pocket. “We need to act soon.”

“Where are they?” Graham asked.

“They’re in the break room now,” Clarence said. “I was going to go straight to HR but Kate here—

“I’ll deal with Kate,” he said to Clarence, but his eyes pinned her to stop. The main vein on her neck pulsed, and his fingers itched to touch it. “You go downstairs and tell HR to suspend them with pay while we figure this out.”

Clarence stood. “All right. I’ll keep you posted. Thanks,” he said, and headed out, closing the door behind him.

“What’s going on, Kate? You’re here to learn and you must know there’s not a way we can keep them both working here,” he said.

She shook her head, hands perched at her waist. “Because they had sex? Don’t you think it’s hypocritical to think this way given our situation and all the places in this hotel where we screwed?”

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