4. Rejected

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.