Page 24

The woman looked up over half-moon glasses with a fixed pleasant smile that she’d no doubt honed over the years to greet customers. She looked close to retirement age, with steel-grey hair tucked into a sleek chignon. It was obvious she’d in the business for many years and didn’t look like she suffered fools gladly.

‘Oh,’ she said, and stared for a moment or two longer than was decent and Callie swore she actually saw a swathe of red bloom in her cheeks.

Oh, for crying out loud! Was there no end to Sebastian’s effect on the opposite sex?

‘Most certainly, sir.’ She practically preened. ‘Has sir booked a double or maybe a suite?’

‘No!’

The woman glanced at Callie fully for the first time, a little startled by her vehemence which sounded like a foghorn in the muted marble surroundings where the only noise was the trickle of the nearby water. Callie was beyond caring. It was bad enough that Rodney had booked them on the same flight.

Same rooms were out of the question.

‘There are two rooms on the booking,’ she said, a little more controlled this time. She had double – triple – checked.

The woman eyed her for a moment longer, glanced at Sebastian and then back at her. Callie saw a fleeting oh honey why? in the woman’s gaze before she nodded.

‘Certainly, madam. Oh yes, here it is.’ She produced two forms and handed them one each. ‘If you would both please fill out here and here.’ She pointed with her pen to indicate the places. ‘Then sign at the bottom.’

Tapping on her computer keyboard as Callie and Sebastian scribbled their details, she asked, ‘Same floor be okay?’

Callie opened her mouth to say no. That she wanted to be as geographically distant from Sebastian as possible. Going away with him hadn’t seemed like such a big deal back at her desk at Jambalyn, where their business-as-usual veneers were well practised. But suddenly, away from the safety net of work, she wasn’t sure it was that simple.

Suddenly it seemed like a really freaking big deal.

‘That’s fine,’ she said briskly, handing her completed form back. There was no need for Sebastian to know how much his nearness bothered her.

The woman spent a few more minutes completing the formalities and handed them their keys. ‘Eleventh floor.’ She tapped the numbers. ‘They’re opposite each other.’

Sebastian smiled at her. ‘Thank you…’ he paused, reading the woman’s name badge. ‘Marion.’

Marion pinked up again and Callie gave a mental eye roll as she turned away, but not before she heard the older woman’s breathy, ‘My pleasure, sir’.

He caught up with her as she entered the lift, their eyes locking as the doors shut. ‘Are you okay?’

‘Fine.’

Except she wasn’t. She was… frustrated. She’d spent two months on a relatively even keel after a wonky start with Sebastian and now they’d left home turf her body had taken leave of its senses! Outside Jambalyn it was like he’d lost his ‘off-limits’ force field and she was being dragged into his gravitational pull again.

Along with every other woman in his vicinity.

‘You don’t look fine.’

The lift dinged and Callie almost sagged against the wall in relief to not have to continue this conversation. ‘Saved by the bell,’ he murmured as she strode out ahead of him.

Callie’s pumps sank into the luxurious carpet, muffling any sound as she quickly located her room conscious of Sebastian following at a more leisurely pace. Preferring not to be reminded that, for the next three nights, only the width of a hallway and two doors would be separating them, she turned her back on his door and entered her key-card hoping to be in her room by the time he finally arrived.

Alas, it was not to be, Callie’s card choosing that moment to be recalcitrant. She cursed it under her breath as she jammed it repeatedly in and out, watching desperately for the little green light. It didn’t, unfortunately, grace her with its presence although Sebastian did and she almost cried at its continuing stubbornness.

He stepped in, his front close, but not touching her back as he placed his hand over hers. ‘Allow me.’

Callie wanted to object but the touch of his hand, his clean male smell and the sheer utter breadth of him wrapped her in sticky tentacles. She bit her lip to stop herself from whimpering.

‘Bloody things,’ she said with an unsteady voice. ‘I always get the dodgy ones.’

He chuckled. ‘It’s easy when you know how,’ he murmured. ‘You just have to be patient. Gentle. Slide it in slowly…’

Callie watched mesmerised as he held her hand fast on the card and inched the thin piece of plastic into the slot. Her stomach clenched.