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Elijah wasn’t sure, but it sounded like the beauty was about to cry.
The hotel employee didn’t seem phased. “Is there some way you can contact Mr. Goodrich and have him add your name to the reservation?”
“I’ve tried reaching him several times, but he’s traveling on business,” she pointed out.
“Well, like I explained already. I cannot check you into his room without his permission. If you have him add your name, you could come back.”
“What? And wait in line again?” she complained, clearly frustrated. “Fine, then just make a whole new reservation for me and put it on my card. When I reach him, I’ll just have him cancel his reservation.”
“I’d love to help you, but unfortunately, we’re completely sold out for the next three nights. We have a huge technology convention in town. Not to mention, it’s already after three and so I’m afraid Mr. Goodrich will be charged for tonight regardless since it’s past our cancellation deadline.”
Thankfully, Elijah wasn’t having the same kind of 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 whole 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 instead 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 red-head flinched as if he’s physically hurt her instead of just using his shitty words to do his damage.
Elijah had absolutely no idea why the trio had caught his attention, but they had. He had no idea who these people were to each other or who the hell Tristan was, but Elijah’s Dom radar was currently set to HIGH, and alarm bells were telling him the red-head needed help—help she clearly wasn’t going to 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 make his decision, Elijah took long strides back towards the desk. As he approached, the beauty’s light blue 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 that you might not be able to 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 be able to 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, clearly 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 it was a mistake that her name was not put on the reservation along with Mr. Goodrich. I’m certain that leaving her off the reservation was just an oversight on his part and he wouldn’t want to have her inconvenienced.” Grabbing his wallet from the back pocket of his jeans, Elijah whipped out is American Express Platinum Card and plunked it down.
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 probably confused about why he was getting involved, and honestly, he was beginning to wonder 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.”
“We don’t normally do it that way…”
