Maid for the Rock Star

Part 10

TEN

Audra slowed her steps as she reached the front door of the villa. Reminding herself that every word would be recorded, she forced herself to put on her professional smile. Even if she was out of uniform, she'd be the consummate professional she needed to be. She swiped her ID and allowed the intercom to notify Jay that she was waiting outside.

The door opened and he stood in the doorway. "f**k me!" He looked her up and down, wide-eyed.

Here we go again. "Mr Felix, I've already said no, thank you." She turned to go.

"No, wait!" He grabbed her hand.

Assault. She had an excuse to get him arrested. If she wanted to.

"Please." His brown eyes begged. "I'm sorry. I expected you to be in your shapeless uniform again, not –" He waved at her singlet top and shorts. "– this. You surprised me."

Audra wished she'd worn one of the laundry bags over her clothes. Then maybe he wouldn't be staring at her breasts. "Is there something you need, Mr Felix? Something that is within my job description to provide?"

He reddened. "It's my phone. It's not working."

She nodded and waited for him to step aside to let her in. She led the way to the kitchen, where the intercom phone was. "This one?"

"No. Mine." He waved his smartphone. "I can't get reception."

"That's because there isn't any. The year the resort was built, the phone tower came down in a cyclone. They replaced it, only for the next storm to knock it down again. It cost too much to replace, so no one ever did." Audra lifted the intercom receiver. "You can make outside calls with this. Just press zero for an outside line, then the number. It'll be added to your hotel bill when you leave."

"Okay." Jay took the receiver from her and frowned at his phone. He stabbed the buttons on the intercom and clamped the receiver between his shoulder and his ear. "It's not ringing." He handed it back to Audra, who held it to her ear. A recorded message told her to leave her name and number after the tone and someone named Jo would get back to her.

"Your friend's phone isn't switched on," Audra told him, wondering how much she'd have to explain.

"My sister. She made me promise to call her. I need to talk to her!" Audra recognised the panic in his eyes. It was the same look her brother got when the world overwhelmed him and he forgot to take his pills. Her heart twinged with something that might be sympathy. For Jay Felix? Never.

"Your sister. The one who was here today?"

He twisted his shirt between his hands. "Yes."

"The one who flew out today. And when you fly, they don't allow you to switch your mobile phone on?"

"Yes." It took a moment before her words sank in. "You mean I can't call her because she's flying?"

Audra kept her voice steady. "Yes."

Wrong answer. "So what am I supposed to do? I need to talk to her! She said...she said..." His panicked eyes darted around the room, not fixing on anything.

She said to call her before he did anything stupid. Too late. And she'd made it worse. Audra sighed. "She said to call if you got lonely, didn't she?"

He nodded, then sighed. "I f****d up. You don't even like me and she's going to kill me when she finds out what I said to you today. I'll keep calling her until she lands and switches her phone back on." He paled. "What if she's driving? Or she stays in a hotel where there isn't any mobile access? What if I can't get hold of her until tomorrow or later in the week? I need someone to talk to." He seized her hand again. "Don't go. Please."

For a long moment, Audra stared into brown eyes that could have been her brother's. Tad was the reason she could never leave her shaver in the bathroom, after the first time she'd had to clean up the blood he'd dripped everywhere from the shallow cuts on his arms. If this prick got seriously into self-harm, she'd have to clean up his mess, too.

Audra told herself that her motivations were entirely selfish, as she said, "All right. I'll stay for a bit. As long as you don't demand s*x of any kind, don't try to treat me like a p********e, and don't stare at my boobs the whole time."

He managed a watery smile. "I'll try. But your boobs...the...you have to promise you won't go to the press. Whatever I tell you, no one else will ever know, right?"

Unless they hear this recording. Audra pressed her lips together. "That's right, Mr Felix," she lied. "All hotel staff are covered by a non-disclosure agreement. I can't sell guests' secrets to the press or I'll lose my job." That part, at least, was true.

"Jay. You can call me Jay." He met her eyes and then glanced away. "Let me get you a drink. We only have these weird fruit beers left. None of the normal ones. What'll you have?"

Thanking the hotel's policymakers for forgetting to ban drinking on the job, she accepted a mango beer and settled in an armchair. Savouring the taste with her eyes closed, Audra asked, "So what would you like to talk about, Jay?"