The Twelve Nights of Christmas

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‘No, you probably don’t care—’ Evie’s voice rose ‘—because you’re not the one who was lying there naked with your bottom on full view! And stop trying to scare me! This whole thing is bad enough without having to wonder whether you’re going to explode any minute.’ She covered her face with her free hand—the other was still clutching the throw, holding it in place. ‘Oh, my God—if that photo goes in the papers—everyone I know will see it—Grandpa will see it—he’ll be mortified—’ Melting with embarrassment, she looked at him helplessly. ‘You have to do something. You have to stop it. You’re completely loaded—can’t you pay them or something? Do whatever it is they want you to do.’ The thought of being seen naked in public was the most hideous thing that had ever happened to her. Worse than being demoted. Worse than losing her job. Worse than being dumped by Jeff.

Evie cringed with horror as she tried to work out what angle the flash had come from and remember exactly how she’d been lying.

It took her right back to the nightmare days of hiding in the corner of the girls’ changing rooms trying to wriggle into her gym kit with no one noticing.

‘If you genuinely care, then perhaps you should have thought of the consequences before you agreed to lie on the bed.’

Evie ground her teeth. ‘I lay on the bed because I didn’t have anywhere else to lie, OK? I told you—I lost my flat. I was in a fix and when Carlos made that offer—’ she licked her lips ‘—it just seemed too good to be true. Turned out it was too good to be true. Look, it doesn’t really matter whether you believe me or not. What’s important is stopping that photograph. Please pay them off.’

His gaze was steady. ‘They don’t want money.’

‘Then what do they want?’

He turned away from her but not before she’d seen the dark shadow flicker across his face. ‘They want to make my life…difficult.’

‘What about my life?’

‘They’re not interested in you. You’ve played your part. You’re expendable. I’m sure you can find some lucrative way to use your five minutes of fame.’

‘Do you honestly think I want to be famous for the size of my bottom?’

‘If you are genuinely distressed about the idea of being pictured, why did you agree to this?’

‘Are you thick or something? I didn’t agree to it!’

There was a crashing sound as the door to the suite burst open behind him and three uniformed hotel security men pounded into the room, horribly out of breath.

Evie suddenly wished she could vanish into thin air.

Rio took a slow, deliberate look at the watch on his wrist. ‘I have been in this hotel for seventeen minutes,’ he said in an icy tone, ‘and no one has challenged me. That is sixteen and a half minutes too long. The security code for the Penthouse hasn’t been changed since the last time I stayed here as a guest, which is presumably how a complete stranger managed to access the suite. The security camera at the rear entrance is pointed away from the street. A journalist managed to get access to my suite. Is this how you protect the guests in your care?’

Evie watched as Arnold’s forehead grew shiny with sweat. The security chief was one of the few people who had been kind to her since she’d arrived in London and she felt a tiny flame of anger warm her insides as she saw him squirm.

‘We didn’t know you were arriving in the middle of the night, sir. We were expecting you later this morning and—’ His jaw dropped as he saw Evie. ‘Evie? What are you doing in the Penthouse?’

Evie tightened her grip on the silk bedspread. ‘I had nowhere to sleep last night, Arnold—’

Rio’s eyes narrowed. ‘You know this woman?’

‘Of course. Her name is Evie Anderson.’ Arnold’s expression softened. ‘She works here as a receptionist—I mean, a member of the housekeeping staff.’

Evie was just beginning to hope that Arnold might vouch for her integrity when the door to the Penthouse opened again and a portly woman in her fifties arrived, breathless and flustered. It was obvious that she’d dressed in a hurry and her skirt was on back to front and the buttons on her shirt unaligned. Clearly woken from sleep, one half of her hair was flattened to her head and the other was in wild disarray.

Evie groaned in horror. No. How had Tina found out?

‘Mr Zaccarelli—we were expecting you much later to-day—I’m so sorry no one was here to greet you—’ Oozing deference, the woman’s discomfiture was almost painful to watch. ‘I’m Tina Hunter, Director of Guest Relations. We’re going to do anything in our power to make sure your stay here is memorable.’

Tina’s eyes widened with horror as she turned her head and saw Evie.

‘Evelyn? What do you think you’re doing?’ She turned back to Rio, squirming with mortification. ‘I’m so sorry. She’s given us nothing but trouble, that girl—thinks she’s better than the rest of us. It’s my fault for giving her a second chance, but that’s me all over. I’ve always been a soft touch. Evelyn, I want you to collect your things and go.’

Shocked by the injustice, Evie stared at her. ‘You haven’t even asked for my side of the story.’

Tina’s cheeks turned scarlet. ‘You’re naked in a guest’s bedroom. That’s enough for me. Let me just say that I find it incredibly tacky that you would try and force yourself on a billionaire.’

‘Excuse me?’ Almost speechless with outrage, Evie exploded. ‘Look at the guy! Even if I wanted to, I’m hardly likely to be able to force myself on him, am I? He’s built like a—’ Her voice tailed off and colour poured into her cheeks.

Tina was shaking with anger. ‘Get your things.’

‘I don’t have any things. Everything I owned was in a bag and I left it in the basement. Carlos was supposed to arrange for it to be brought up here so that I could change into dry clothes. Funnily enough, it never appeared.’ Evie scraped a strand of hair behind her ear with a hand that shook, afraid that this was going to be the moment that she finally lost it.

She felt tears scald the back of her eyes as she made a last-ditch attempt to extricate herself. ‘Carlos ordered me to sleep here last night, not that I expect any of you to believe me.’

‘Of course we don’t believe you!’ Tina exploded. ‘Why would the Manager of this hotel give a member of the housekeeping staff permission to spend the night in the Penthouse? A room that costs twelve thousand pounds a night.’

Evie paled. ‘How much? That’s outrageous.’

‘What’s outrageous is you standing there behaving like Lady Godiva. You need to find yourself another job, young lady. Since you’re so free with your body, I’m sure there are no end of options open to you if you’re seeking new employment,’ Tina snapped. ‘And don’t look so shocked. You’re standing there half naked, so this “I’m an innocent girl from the country” act is wearing a little thin. You may look wholesome, but I think we all know different. Why do you think I moved you off Reception? We had such a crowd around the desk, the hotel almost ground to a standstill.’

‘I was being friendly! You told me I was the public face of the hotel and I assumed you’d want that face to be smiling, not miserable! You’re so unfair—it’s Christmas and there’s not a single drop of Christmas spirit or compassion in any of you. And I’m naked because my clothes were wet, not because I want a career as a porn star.’

Tina pointed towards the door. ‘You’re fired. Get out.’

‘What, dressed like this?’ Evie gaped at her. ‘No way! This is the throw from the bed and I’m not giving you reason to sue me for theft on top of everything else, not to mention indecent exposure as I trail along the corridors. I think you’re all vile. None of this is my fault, but I’m going to be the one who suffers. I’ll get dressed and then I’ll leave and I hope you all have a really Happy Christmas!’ Thinking of her grandfather’s reaction when he saw the photograph of her naked and kissing a stranger, Evie gave a strangled moan and shot into the only room with a lock on the door.

Wholesome—

Rio stared at the locked door, his mind moving faster than the speed of sound as he swiftly formulated a plan that could turn this situation to his advantage.

Square-jawed, purple in the face, Tina turned to the security men with the purpose of an army commander preparing for a forward push. ‘She’s locked herself in. Open that door and escort her off the premises. We’ll do what we can to keep this out of the papers.’

Rio roused himself. Fired by the challenge, always at his best under pressure, he took control.

‘Out,’ he ordered harshly, striding towards the door of the suite and holding it open. ‘All of you. Now.’

They all looked at each other and Rio gave a smile that shifted the atmosphere from one of tension to one of terror.

‘Organise a staff meeting for one o’clock this afternoon.’ Like a laser-guided weapon locking on his target, he transferred his gaze to the security chief. ‘At that meeting I want the name of the person responsible for the fact that the security cameras in the street were pointing the wrong way. I want a report on how security at the hotel can be upgraded so that I have a guarantee that any intruder entering this building will be challenged within thirty seconds of entering the premises—’

‘But this is a hotel, sir; people come and go—’

‘If you’re not up to the job, just say so, and I’ll replace you with someone who is. My personal security team will assist you in preparing the report, if you wish to stay.’

Arnold quailed under that icy stare and Rio continued.

‘It’s your job to differentiate between guest, gawker and criminal. That’s the job I pay you to perform. And you—’ Rio shifted his gaze to Tina. ‘You’re fired.’

Tina gaped at him, her jaw slack, her unmade-up face an unflattering shade of scarlet. ‘You can’t just fire me—’

‘I own this hotel. I can do anything I like.’

‘You have no grounds—’

‘Bullying and staff intimidation are grounds enough in my book,’ Rio said coldly, ‘and that’s just the beginning. I have a full report on my desk, which includes recommendations on staffing. Your name appears on almost every page. Do you want me to go on?’

Tina gulped and opened her mouth but no sound came out.

Without a flicker of expression on his face, Rio opened the door wider. ‘That’s it,’ he said pleasantly. ‘You can go now. And on your way out ask someone to come and remove this Christmas tree. While I’m staying here, I don’t want to know it’s Christmas. Am I understood? No baubles, no berries, no tree, no tinsel.’

One by one, they shot past him and Tina paused, clearly panicking about her future. ‘What about Evelyn? She’s the cause of all this. She should be removed from the premises.’

Rio, who had been rapidly formulating a backup strategy since ‘whiter than white’ had exploded into the ether, sent her a look that had her scurrying out of the door.

Strolling back to the bathroom, he stared with brooding concentration at the closed door.

Wholesome.

The problem might just turn out to be the solution, he mused.

‘All right, Sleeping Beauty. I’ve slain your dragon. You can come out now.’

Chapter Three

He’d fired Tina!

With her ear pressed to the smooth wood of the door, Evie listened with her mouth open, unable to believe what she was hearing.

Afraid to make a sound in case he realised she’d been eavesdropping, she tiptoed away from the door and leaned her burning cheek against the cool marble wall of the bathroom, her knees weak and shaking.

He’d seen right through Tina and fired her on the spot. Obviously, the rumours about him being super-bright were true. All right, so he was ruthless and wasn’t afraid to axe jobs, but still—maybe he wasn’t so bad…

Still in shock, Evie let out a long breath. She felt as though she should feel sorry for Tina, but it was hard to feel sorry for someone who created an atmosphere of intimidation. She remembered the threats, both spoken and unspoken, the way she transformed confident staff into doubting, apologetic wrecks. Since her demotion to housekeeping, Evie had mopped up more tears than she had floors.

Had he heard the rumours? Was that what he’d meant by seeing Tina’s name on every page of his report?

Who else was on his list to be fired?

Realising that she had to be right at the top, Evie closed her eyes.

There was no doubt in her mind that she was going to be next and she didn’t even care any more. All she cared about was that stupid, horrid photograph. Perhaps she ought to ring Cedar Court and ask the staff to make sure that her grandfather didn’t see any newspapers or television.

But her grandfather loved his newspaper. He did the crossword every day.

If they banned it, he’d just want to know why.

Hyperventilating again, Evie clutched the edge of the washbasin and forced herself to breathe steadily.

She’d thought life couldn’t get much worse, but suddenly it was a million times more disastrous.

Her grandfather would panic if he knew she’d lost her job and had nowhere to live, but it was nothing to what he’d do when he saw pictures of her naked and kissing a stranger. She could just imagine what Mrs Fitzwilliam would make of that. I hear your precious little Evie has turned into a bit of a goer—

‘You have ten seconds to come out of that bathroom.’

The deep male voice held sufficient authority to confirm all Evie’s darkest suspicions about his intentions. He was obviously dealing with his problems with the brutal efficiency for which he was famed, and she was the next problem on his list. The worst was still to come.

She looked round desperately, searching for an escape. Apart from flushing herself down the toilet or trying to squeeze down the plughole, there was no way out of this bathroom.

Why, oh, why, had she taken up creepy Carlos’s suggestion of sleeping in the Penthouse? Why hadn’t she followed her initial instinct that it was a bad idea? And why had Rio Zaccarelli decided to arrive at the hotel early when the rest of London was asleep? The man obviously was a machine.

‘Two seconds—’ The hard, cold voice made her jump and Evie stared helplessly at the door, trying to think what to do. She needed a plan. She needed to think what she could say that might help her situation.

While she was in here, she was safe. What could he do? He was hardly going to break the door down, was he?

There was a tremendous crash, the sound of wood splintering and Evie screamed as the door crashed open, slamming against the sleek limestone wall of the luxurious bathroom.

Rio Zaccarelli stood in the doorway rubbing his shoulder. ‘What is the matter with the staff in this place? When I give you an order,’ he thundered, ‘I expect you to follow it. And I don’t expect to have to demolish my hotel so that I can hold a conversation with one of my employees.’

Stunned that the door was still on its hinges, Evie gulped. ‘I—you—are you OK? I mean—I’ve seen people crash through doors in the movies but I always assumed the door is made out of cardboard or something. I’ve never seen anyone actually do it with a real door. That must have hurt.’ She looked at his powerful shoulders doubtfully, wondering whether all that muscle would act as a barrier to pain.

‘Sì, it hurt.’ He rolled his shoulder experimentally, checking for damage. ‘Which is why, next time, I’d appreciate it if you’d just do as I say and open the damn door.’

Evie gave a choked laugh, clutching the silk throw against her. ‘Why? So that you can fire me in person?’

‘Who says I’m going to fire you?’

‘You fired the tyrannosaurus.’

‘Tyrannosaurus?’ Still rubbing his shoulder, he frowned, his expression dark and menacing. ‘I presume you’re talking about that officious woman with the unfortunate hair. That’s what you all call her?’

Evie froze. ‘No, of course not,’ she lied. ‘We call her Tina.’ Or meat-eater, because she feasted on hotel staff for breakfast.

‘She didn’t seem too impressed with you.’

‘No.’ It was impossible to argue with that. Utterly defeated, Evie felt the last dregs of spirit drain out of her. What was the point in defending herself? It was over. ‘I think it’s fair to say I don’t have an enormous number of supporters in high places.’ Tina had demoted her. Carlos had tried to grope her and, when she’d rejected him and humiliated him, he’d set her up.