Access All Areas: HarperImpulse Contemporary Fiction. Charlotte Phillips

looked up at him.

      ‘Thank you for saving me,’ she said, smiling. ‘Not that I needed saving.’

      He nodded politely at her as he retreated from the room to cover up the surge of heat that had seared down his spine under her green gaze. Damsels in distress were his particular weakness. Luckily for him she’d turned out to be the least distressed damsel he’d ever come across. He had enough on his plate without distraction of the female kind.

       Chapter 2

      Anna let her backside rest on the edge of one of the berry red velvet sofas in the lounge just long enough for Joe Marshall to retreat through the polished double doors.

      The instant that dark grey gaze was gone she stood back up and headed for the door herself, and never mind that she’d give her right arm for a calming cup of tea right now. Afternoon tea was like everything else in this place - extortionate – and she needed to keep her eye on the prize.

      A quick glance around the door to check that Columbo had really gone and she took a sharp left down the corridor toward the dining room, left the hotel by a side door and sprinted to the back of the building where the staff entrance was. Her crowd of supportive pavement passers-by had long since dispersed.

      Lucy met her in the sparse staff room. Opulence didn’t extend to this part of the hotel. The walls were festooned with staff rotas and notices and there was a kitchen area in the corner with a battered old kettle. The chairs looked as if they might have been part of the hotel dining room once upon a time. Now they wouldn’t have looked out of place in a skip.

      ‘Let me just get this straight,’ Lucy said, handing her a mug of steaming coffee and sitting down in the threadbare chair opposite. ‘I get you the hot tip, I get you into the sodding room across the hall, and then you blow the whole lot by hanging out of the window for half of London to see? Are you mad?’

      ‘I was trying to see into the suite through the balcony doors. I was using my initiative. You try staring at a locked door for three hours,’ Anna protested. She took a defensive sip of her coffee. ‘And you didn’t mention there would be a security presence.’

      Lucy looked momentarily blank and then her eyes widened.

      ‘You mean the hot new guy.’

      ‘He’s new?’

      She deliberately ignored the ‘hot’ part of that comment. OK so his dark and brooding good looks wouldn’t have looked out of place in an aftershave commercial but she didn’t have headspace or lifespace for men right now. Even ones who pushed themselves to the limit to stop her from jumping off a window ledge. A wistful pang tugged at her stomach as she recalled how he’d gone from pavement to hotel room in seconds flat to save her. She ignored it. He probably only did that kind of rescue act for basket cases. She knew better than anyone that knights in shining armour didn’t really exist and no one was going to sweep all her problems away any time soon. After the colossal let down that had happened last time she got involved with a man, the single years yawned comfortingly ahead of her.

      ‘Got here a week ago,’ Lucy said. ‘He’s an ex-bodyguard to the stars. Supposed to lick the staff into shape when it comes to security.’ She pointed her teaspoon at Anna. ‘He might be dreamy but you can’t let him distract you.’

      ‘Honestly, how many times? I’ve sworn off men.’

      Being let down by a man you thought was your future husband did that for a person. Andrew had been long gone before the fact had actually registered with her. When she’d finally pulled him up on his constant excuses and distance it turned out he’d got a whole new life going on. New girlfriend, social life, the works. It had all gone unnoticed because she was too preoccupied with supporting her ailing parents and he hadn’t had the guts (or in the bastard’s words, the heart) to tell her. The thought of her parents brought yet another pang of desperation to save her home.

      ‘Maybe it’s a sign,’ she said. ‘That we should rethink things a bit.’

      ‘Bollocks!’ Lucy said. ‘It’s a sign that you should have stuck to our original plan and staked out the suite door. The idea itself is perfectly sound.’

      Anna hesitated a beat too long.

      ‘What?’ Lucy said.

      Anna shrugged.

      ‘The whole privacy invasion thing doesn’t sit massively well with me, that’s all.’

      Lucy sipped her coffee.

      ‘What about that last picture you made some money with? That soap star. Didn’t hear you mention scruples then.’

      ‘That was different. It was posed. The celebrity agreed to it. Right place, right time. There was none of this cloak and dagger stuff.’

      Lucy gave her an incredulous look.

      ‘Save your guilt, for Pete’s sake. Betsy Warrender plays the press like a maestro. She’ll probably thank you for it, she’ll be coining it in with all the publicity. Let’s face it, she’s in her forties with three husbands behind her. Landing Kip Bevan is like a badge of honour for the older woman.’ She shook her head. ‘Nope, the only person you need to worry about here is the security guy. The good thing for us is that he’s just finding his feet. He wants to run a tight ship but he’s been saddled with the rudderless mess that is the Lavington’s minimum wage staff. He’s in at the deep end and it should be easy to slip under his radar if you’ve got the right insider information.’ She tapped the side of her nose.

      Anna narrowed her eyes.

      ‘I’ve been meaning to ask you. How exactly did you come by this piece of confidential information? If it’s all so cloak and dagger. You’re a waitress-cum-chambermaid. This place should be teeming with press if the waiting staff know about it.’

      ‘The waiting staff don’t know about it,’ Lucy said in a low voice. That’s why we have an advantage.’ She examined her fingernails. ‘I happen to have a bit of a thing going on with the hotel manager.’

      ‘For Pete’s sake, you’re sleeping with the management?’ Anna blurted. ‘Are you mad? I’ve seen the guy in charge swanning about in the lobby. He must be twice your age.’

      Lucy flapped a dismissive hand in her direction.

      ‘I’m not mad. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement.’

      ‘Excuse me? You mean it’s got nothing to do with actually liking the guy?’

      ‘It’s not serious. The way I see it, you can invest everything you’ve got in a relationship and it can still bite you on the arse.’

      Andrew crossed Anna’s mind, bringing with him the usual surge of resentful regret.

      ‘He’s fun, he likes to treat me, the sex is great…’ Lucy carried on, counting off a list of benefits on her fingers ‘…I get all the best shifts, I’m first in the queue when it comes to booking time off, and I don’t have to pick up his socks. It’ll end when I want it to. No hassle.’

      ‘What if he ends it first?’

      Lucy shrugged.

      ‘Then I’ll have some more free time. I really think we’re straying way off-task now. I’ve got the tip and it’s irrelevant how I got it. We both need the money, let’s just get the hell on with it.’

      ‘And what about the security guy?’

      Lucy looked her up and down dubiously.

      ‘What?’ Anna folded her arms defensively.

      ‘You just need to blend in a bit more.’ Lucy stood up and crossed to the row of lockers along the side of the room. ‘I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. This is a