Michael

The next day, I entered the hotel with an extra spring in my step.

“Good morning,” I said to the front desk agent.

The woman looked like she was going to faint, but then nodded quickly.

“Good morning, Mr. Murphy,” she said tentatively, adding a little smile to the end of the words.

I kept going, considering her puzzled reaction but then quickly forgetting it. This morning, I couldn’t think of anything except Eden.

And my victory.

I wondered if she knew that I knew, then determined she probably did.

Eden was no dummy, so she knew that very little happened in my hotel without me knowing about it. So her firing the guards after our contentious conversation definitely would not escape my notice.

She’d have to come and tell me that, and now I also had a chance to show Patrick I had done as he asked and managed the situation.

Of course, the fact that all of this had happened through no action on my part took away some of the shine, but only a little. I wasn’t a stickler for rules. I cared more about results, and in this case, like always, I had gotten what I wanted.

I checked my watch as I passed the general manager’s office, a little surprised when I found it empty. Eden was always here by this hour, so I assumed she was hiding out. I didn’t like that, but I wouldn’t push the issue. She’d come to me when she was ready, so there was no need to rush.

I sat behind my desk and waited.

Four hours later, my patience was completely shot.

I’d barely moved all morning, certain that at any second Eden would arrive.

That anticipation, every sound drawing my eyes toward the door expecting her, had taken what was left of my good mood from the morning and ripped it to shreds.

That was probably intentional on her part. After all, she knew how to get under my skin almost as well as Sean, and she knew making me wait would drive me nuts.

A smart tactical decision on her part, I decided, but one that still pissed me off.

This hotel might be her own personal crusade, but she was also my employee, and the happenings in my establishment merited my review. I’d tell her just that as soon as I found her.

I stood and walked toward the door, my anger brewing.

I pulled it open, but stood frozen when I saw Eden on the other side, her hand lifted as though she had planned to knock.

After I swung the door open, her eyes widened, and she dropped her hand, an embarrassed smile that was shockingly cute covering her face.

Seeing it made me want to smile back, an unfamiliar impulse, one that I ignored.

“Are you coming to see me?” I said gruffly.

That smile was gone in an instant.

“Yes,” she said, her brows lifted, “which is why I was preparing to knock on the door.”

“It’s about time you showed up. Come in,” I said.

I turned abruptly and walked back to my desk, trying to bring myself back under control.

Instead of sitting, I stayed standing, only a few inches away from the chair that faced my desk.

Eden didn’t sit either and instead stood next to the chair, facing me.

I was much taller than her, but she didn’t seem perturbed by that. Still, I could see that while she was dressed as usual, her jacket emblazoned with the M. emblem, her knee-length skirt neat and pressed, she was a little frayed around the edges.

I frowned as I studied her, not liking to see her like that and feeling an insistent need to know what was wrong and an even more insistent need to fix it.

“Why do you look like that?” I asked.

She frowned, stood stiffly, as if offended.

“Like what?” she asked.

“Like…” I looked her up and down, “that,” I replied.

“Well, I’m not entirely certain what ‘that’ is, Mr. Murphy, but I had a very long evening, as I’m sure you know,” she said stiffly.

If I wasn’t mistaken, she looked a little hurt. Strange, especially since Eden was usually only angry or exasperated when she talked to me, but I ignored that and the fact I’d cared so much, and refocused on the matter at hand.

“No, I don’t know anything. Is there something you want to tell me?” I said.

She smiled quickly, but dropped the expression, and I could see that she had agreed with at least the first sentence.

I ignored the little spike of anger and looked at her expectantly.

“Well, I had a very long evening because I had to let a couple of employees go,” she said.

“Really? Who?” I asked, feigning ignorance as she so often did, enjoying having the tables turned for once.

She narrowed her eyes at me, her gaze burning, which gave me a sense of satisfaction.

“The evening security guards, Steve and Bob,” she said.

“Really? The two I asked you to fire?”

She nodded stiffly.

“And what finally made you see reason?” I asked.

She thinned her full lips, her eyes staring daggers at me. When she spoke, her voice was tight. “I received some new information and it changed my decision.”

“What information?” I asked.

My tone had changed slightly, some of the playfulness I was feeling gone. I needed whatever information she had. I also didn’t like being in the dark, couldn’t ever afford to be.

Eden frowned, but for one of the first times since I had known her, it wasn’t directed at me.

“It seems that Steve and Bob weren’t content with one position,” she said.

“Meaning?” I asked.

“Meaning they were working elsewhere as well,” she said, her expression darkening even further.

“We don’t have any policies against that,” I said, remembering how I had sought to make one, and how she had argued against it.

“No, we don’t.”

“So what’s the problem?” I asked, starting to get pissed because this apparently went deeper than I’d first thought and even more pissed Eden had fought me on this. I wouldn’t react until Eden explained, though.

“It seems that one, or both of them, would clock in and then leave to go to another job,” she said.

“And leave my hotel unsecured?” I asked, leaning forward as the implication of what Eden said started to settle in.

Eden looked alternately angry and sad as she slowly nodded.

“I’m afraid so. When I discovered this information, I didn’t see any other recourse but to let them go,” she said.

She seemed genuinely upset about it, and I had the unexplained desire to comfort her.

I didn’t.

Instead, I processed what she had told me, the facts immediately becoming clear.

That made a lot more sense. When an attempt had been made on Patrick’s life, the hotel had been without security, which left him, Nya, Eden, and everyone else here at risk.

That kind of oversight could not go unchecked, and I’d make sure it didn’t. Later, after I finished enjoying this moment.

I let my lips curl into a half smile, saw from the scowl that crossed her face that she noticed.

“I didn’t realize you found hotel safety a matter of amusement, Mr. Murphy,” she said.

“I don’t, and I guarantee you this will be addressed. But I couldn’t help but notice the irony of the situation, something I’m certain you didn’t miss either,” I said.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she responded, the words petulant, and also unconvincing.

I stepped closer to her without quite realizing why and then began to smile.

“I think you do,” I said.

“Oh really?” she responded blandly, though the volcanic explosion in her eyes revealed what she was really thinking and instantly had me hard as a rock.

“I’m very glad that you finally came to your senses,” I said, ignoring the insistent desire to kiss her.

Eden, on the other hand, looked like she wanted to slap me, but instead she simply said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. All I did was exactly what I was hired to do. I found the issue and saw to it that the issue was corrected. Nothing more,” she said.

I smiled slowly this time. “Of course not. But there’s something you should remember,” I said.

She furrowed her brow, lifted it in question. I waited until she asked.

“And what’s that?” she said grudgingly.

I leaned in, got close to her, closer than I had ever been. She lifted her eyes to meet mine, and I could see her surprise and her curiosity. For once, I had her complete attention.

“That I assume respect. Demand obedience,” I said, pausing for a moment before continuing. “And I always get what I want, Eden. Always.”

Her eyes darkened as she processed my words, her face dropping in a deep frown.

Eden didn’t bother to say anything as she turned on her heel and left.