Changed her mind? She would never be able to look him in the eyes again, much less carry his child.
“No. I’m sorry, I'm almost finished here,” she said as she threw the used towels into the laundry bag and grabbed fresh ones without turning back to them.
What the hell was she thinking? If they told Andrea about this, she would fire her before they even finished talking. She’d be stuck looking for another dead-end job to pay the mounting bills and her father’s debt.
Her fingers shook as she buttoned her shirt and tucked it in. She was sweaty again, so she’d cooled herself down for nothing. Embarrassed herself for nothing. She redid her hair and took a calming breath before leaving the bathroom.
The men were still standing near the door and still looking pissed off. She couldn’t meet their eyes, instead looking down at her well-worn work shoes.
“I’m sorry,” she started. “The heat is too much today. I was just trying to—”
“Just keep your clothes on. No one else needs to see that.”
“Yes, sir. I’m sorry,” she repeated.
The sexy man walked past her, and she caught a whiff of his amazing cologne. She’d been right to assume it had been his scent that had driven her crazy when she’d walked into the room. He headed for the drinks cabinet, and she watched him throw a shot of something down his throat from the corner of her eye.
Even the way he drank was sexy.
“Are you just going to stand there, or are you going to do the job you’re paid to do?” the man standing near the door asked.
She looked up at him and almost glared.
How did she go from mortification to lust to anger so quickly? She would never see these men again after they checked out, and even if she did, none of the things that had happened a million times already in her head would ever happen in real life.
“I’ve finished,” she lied.
“Really? It doesn’t look or smell like you’ve done anything in here except make our bathroom dirty with your...”
The man’s voice trailed off, and his gaze went to his boyfriend, who looked intently at his drink as if lost in his thoughts.
“Just do your job,” the man at the door grumbled before walking past her and heading to one of the bedrooms.
She expected the blue-eyed man to talk to her, to try to convince her to be his surrogate again, but he put his drink down and followed.
They were in the bedroom alone.
Just two people in a relationship, spending some quality time together.
And she wanted to hurt the man who’d walked in first.
She didn’t realise she’d crossed the distance to the bedroom door until she saw her hand about to turn the handle. She gasped and pulled it back, clutching it against her chest to stop herself.
What the hell was she thinking?
She crossed to her cart and grabbed the handle to push it out of the room. There was no way she was going to stay there. There was no way she would clean while they did whatever the hell they were doing in that room. She was acting ridiculous. It would be for the best if she removed herself from the situation, even if they reported her. It was the hotel policy not to clean while the guests were still in their rooms, anyway.
She was almost at the door when that deep voice stopped her.
“What can I offer you to make you agree to this? Name your price.”
She turned to face him and saw his anger again. Why was he insisting when it looked like he didn’t want the baby in the first place? And why did he have to look at her so coldly?
“Nothing. I don’t want anything from you,” she answered.
Nothing in the world would make her abandon a child the way her mother had left her, even if she was just going to carry it for someone else. Not even the threat of the greasy loan shark to whom her father had wanted to sell her.
The man’s eyes filled with fury, and somehow that hurt. She wasn’t being unreasonable. They were strangers, and she didn’t owe him anything. Why was he so angry about that?
She turned back to her cleaning cart and pushed it the rest of the way to the door.
“My shift is over. I’ll clean your room first tomorrow,” she said as she opened the door. “I hope you enjoy your stay at the Royal Hotel.”
She would make sure they were outside the suite first. A big part of her hoped they would be gone by the next day. She wasn’t a prude, but that had never happened to her before. It wasn’t right for her hormones to rage like that over someone she could never have, even if there was a magnetic pull towards him.
Crazy. It was best to put that behind her. Instead of thinking about that man, she should have been thinking about her more immediate problems. She needed a solution before that loan shark went back to their home.
Her phone vibrated in her pocket as she waited by the staff elevator. It was an email from Human Resources. She didn’t need to read it to know what it was about. Andrea had probably been smiling when she sent her name to them for the warning.
It would be the last time. She would be the best damn employee the Royal Hotel had ever had; they would have no choice but to reward her. A raise, maybe. Perhaps as many overtime hours as she wanted.
That was how she would raise the money for Gerald’s debt and keep Britney safe from it. Her dad had been right; she was resourceful. She could pull it off, even if it meant they wouldn’t have much saved when Britney finally graduated.
She didn’t need to be a surrogate for that couple.
But why did she feel like she was letting the angry stranger down? She didn’t even know his damn name.
First, a stranger had asked her to carry his child, and then her father had tried to sell her. Maybe she really did come across as a pushover. She wiped the sweat off her brow while waiting outside Andrea’s small office. Andrea was in charge of housekeeping, but she liked to act like she was in charge of the whole hotel. She could have gone to the manager first to ask for more hours, but Andrea would feel slighted and would make her life more miserable. She would even find any little reason to get her fired. That’s why she had to suck up to her even though she’d pissed her off that morning and with the warning from Human Resources. Her phone vibrated in her pocket again, and when she pulled it out, she saw her father’s name flashing on the screen. Her father only called her to ask her for money or to pick up more beer on the way home. Andrea came around the corner talking to one of the other cleaners, so she cancelled the call and made sure she still looked tidy. Sweat dripped d
The car screeched to a stop near the trailer. Layla didn’t bother switching it off as she rushed out of it. Several vehicles were blocking their trailer and the neighbour’s trailers, and several mean-looking assholes stood around. Two of them blocked her way when she tried to run up their short driveway. “Nothing to see here, kid. Get back in your car,” one of them sneered. She assumed the man she had seen that morning was their boss. Why were there so many of them, and why had he returned so soon? Maybe she should have just taken a chance and called the police, but she hadn’t wanted to hang up on Brit in case she could hear what was happening in the background. She was still gripping her phone tightly, but the silence on the other end ripped her apart. “What are you doing? This is my home,” she shouted. “Oh, there’s two of you,” the man said with a grin. “Then, by all means, please go in.” She didn’t stop to think about what he meant as she pushed past them and wrenched the
Layla’s head was pounding. She winced when her eyes opened against the light and tried to cover them, but she couldn’t move her hands. Sounds of a moving car and quiet sobs filtered through her muddled head. And then it all came rushing back. She forced her eyes open again and found her hands tied behind her. Someone had also tied her feet together. They must have thrown her into the back of a van because it wasn’t just her head that was painful. There was something sharp digging into her back. “Layla?” At the sound of her sister’s scared voice, she turned her head and saw her on her side, also tied up. “Shh. It’s okay,” she whispered. But Brit wasn’t stupid. She would know it wasn’t okay. Neither of them knew who this man was and where he was taking them. They didn’t even know if he would keep them together for much longer. Fear filled her and muddled her thoughts even more. Brit was all she had, and she had failed her. “I don’t know what they did to Dad,” Brit whispered. “I’
She was still bleeding. The metallic scent of fresh blood assaulted Jax's nostrils, and the moment he stopped the car in front of the hotel, he shoved the door open and got out without looking back. She’d been hurt, and all his wolf wanted to do was make her feel better. Take care of her as a mate should. The scent had Jax so wound up he had to ball his fists and concentrate on keeping Cain under control. It had taken everything in him not to chase after the last of the men who had taken her from her home and tied her up. He wanted to rip them apart like the others for daring to touch her. He hadn’t lost control like that in a long time. If he gave in to Cain, the demented wolf would do just that. It would take little effort to hunt them down. The attendants opened the hotel's wide double doors the moment they saw him approach the entrance. But he could sense Layla’s hesitation behind him as if somehow this cursed bond had already taken root even though he had no intention of mark
Layla pulled the folder towards her and then looked back at the man. She didn’t even know his name, but he’d offered her this baffling deal. Brit was terrified. Her little sister was trying to act strong but she could see it. Their lives had changed for the worst tonight. Costas would still try to find them and use them. Going on the run was their only option. But she had no money, and as small as it was, Brit's college fund was sacred. She couldn’t dip into it if she had another option. And even if she did, it wouldn’t take them far. “Please sit down, Layla,” the man said. He was right. He was her only hope to save her sister. But would she give a child away to save another? She sighed as she pulled a chair across from him and looked down at the folder again as she sat. The knife she had commandeered earlier was comforting in her pocket, but she sensed it wouldn’t do much good here, or Jackson wouldn’t have let her keep it. “How do you know my name?” she asked. “I looked into
Layla sat in the back of the car exactly an hour later, feeling like Jackson King had bulldozed her. Everything had happened too quickly. Jackson had come back into the room with a gigantic man dressed in all black, who he’d introduced as the head of Brit’s security. Who was Jackson to pull something like this that fast? Why did he have bodyguards on call? His earlier statement about needing to keep her safe went around in her head until it dawned on her that she’d dropped herself into some deeper shit than merely Costas Markopoulos. When she imagined someone in the Mafia or other criminal organisations, they looked just like Jackson. An air of authority around them and expensive suits that were a world beyond Costas’ cheesy suit, hairstyle, and gold chains. Though Costas had turned their lives upside down, it felt like he was nothing compared to Jackson King. She'd screwed herself over by agreeing to this. She could feel it in her bones. Fear seeped through her whole body as she r
Jackson had already sent a message to Diedre, the pack witch, through his Gamma, so the woman was already waiting in the lobby when he walked into the packhouse. “This isn’t right, Jax. You’d have to confine her to her room or the basement because she would know the truth the moment she stepped out of the house,” Dylan said as he followed behind him. He refrained from rolling his eyes. Dylan had been mindlinking variations of that the whole drive home—he was giving him a headache. But he couldn’t get mad at his Beta for repeating something he had enforced for years since he had taken the throne. If they were lucky, it wouldn’t take long to get her pregnant and maybe by then, Cain would accept sending her back to the hotel. “You should have just let her run off. She’s going to be a handful—” “Enough!” he growled. It was Cain who made that command. Dylan felt it and shut up, but even with that submission, he still had to push his wolf back down to stop him from going after his fri
Layla inhaled a sharp breath when she heard his words. He didn’t even look like the words he’d said bothered him. A prisoner?And then Jackson closed the door. The sound of the locking door spurred her into action, despite how dangerous the whole place felt. She rushed forward and tried the handle, hoping she had just heard things, and this man hadn’t really just locked her in a room. But the handle didn’t turn. She tried it several times before she banged on the door.“Let me out, you fucking bastard! This wasn’t our deal!” she screamed.Panic welled in her chest again. She’d put herself in this situation because she’d been desperate to keep Brit safe. Jackson had known she would agree to anything. He had taken advantage of her. For someone who had claimed to hate people who went back on their word, he was doing the same thing. He’d said she wouldn’t be a prisoner! Jackson had made her think she would be free to come and go.She banged on the door again, ignoring the pain it caused.