Chapter 130 Mrs Ashborne
“There appears to be an error ma’am. You requested an upgrade, but there was no invoice confirmation.”
My cheeks heated up, burning in embarrassment. All around me, tired customers were beginning to turn, eavesdropping.
I glanced at Kathy, and before she could speak, I turned back to the receptionist. “I never requested an upgrade.”
Kathy walked forward and slid her ID across the table. “My office handled everything. No one requested an upgrade, to be best of my knowledge."
The receptionists shared a look between themselves, and then the one attending to us turned her monitor around to show us where the request had been logged into their software.
I moved closer, scanning the details on the screen. This update was made at 6:23 am two days ago.
It was impossible for me to have called them to request an upgrade at that time, because my legs had been pinned to a certain dragon’s chest while he rammed into me from behind.
“We sincerely apologize for this. But we would have to…” The receptionist tipped her head behind me.
“Excuse you…” Kathy looked as horrified as she was offended. “You cannot treat her that way.”
“I’m so sorry.” I apologized in haste, nudging Kathy to let it go as almost everyone was staring at us at this point.
My heart was racing, my palm sweating as my skin pickled with intense self awareness. I absolutely abhorred this type of attention. Especially outside the US where we were already tagged crazy Americans.
”I would like my old room back. The reservation will be settled at once." My cheeks were on fire now, and those tears that were never away for long were moving upstream.
I could not even bring myself to use the word invoice or payment. Mom would be scandalized if she could see this right now. A Grunder openly discussing money and invoices like a local trader.
Dad would raise hell with Tamar and all her bosses. Dedicate a whole day to requesting queries, because these sorts of things were supposed to be arranged ahead of time.
I almost never used my cards, not even at the mall. The Grunders had accounts with all the important stores, and settlements were processed by our bank manager quarterly.
To now be stranded in the heart of high-class Asia, in a hotel the president was rumored to have used once, and having this sort of conversation was… a humiliating ritual. And I could think of only one person who would want to embarrass me this way.
The receptionists bowed now, and then leaned in to whisper, looking just as embarrassed at the whole situation. “I'm afraid that is impossible ma’am.” She said in her faintly accented English. “We are at capacity right now.”
“Night take me.” Kathy turned away from the desk, already bringing her phone up to her ear.
“Thank you.” I gave a polite bow and stepped away from the queue immediately. The next person moved forward, lightly kicking my suitcase.
I was curling my fist around the handle when a gloved hand snatched the suitcase from me. I blinked as my head jerked up.
It was a woman, likely in her thirties. She looked efficient in a high ponytail and crisply cut suit that hugged her tall frame.
“Please come with me, Mrs Ashborne.” She said quietly, but I gasped, whipping my head to look in Kathy's direction. She had her back turned to us, whispering angrily into her phone.
I turned back to ask the mysterious woman who she was, but found her already walking away, pulling my suitcase with her.
I hesitated for a second. There were no skin walkers in South Korea, and the woman looked too well-dressed to be a thief. Besides, she called me Mrs Ashborne, something no one is supposed to know.
With a final glance at Kathy, I hurried after the woman, and got into the elevator with her. We rode to the very last floor and when the doors slid open, I saw two men in charcoal suits and radio earpieces hooked to their ears standing in the hallway.
Fentone came to Korea? No. Fentone did not know me as Mrs Ashborne. But since when did the dragon have a need for human-looking bodyguards?
She stopped at a door, knocked once and then opened it.
“Thank you, Samhain.” That deep bass said from somewhere in the room. I walked into the suite, almost twice the size of our bedroom back home, bathed in golden light with a glass-walled fireplace standing at the center of the suite.
But I could not see him.
“Little wife, the window.”
The woman, Samhain, gave me a small smile, tilted her head, and turned out the door. I moved past my suitcase and climbed a single step up to the central part of the suite.
I saw him then, still in his uniform. The jacket and hat were gone though, leaving just the navy pants and white long-sleeved shirt.
The light from the fireplace cast shadows in a way that darkened the area where he was standing by the window. My throat dried up.
“Want to unpin my hair?”
“Yes.”
“Do it.”
I stopped behind him, and without having to stretch in my heels, I slid the pin out of his low bun and watched his hair cascade down his back. He stood still the whole time.
“Stand beside me.”
I moved carefully till our shoulders were almost touching, wondering whether Kathy had noticed my absence yet. “No one knows I am here...”
“Samhain will handle it,” he said, and I realized then that this woman must be the P.A. he had been in a virtual meeting with that morning, while I choked on his dick.
I bit my inner lip, unable to stop the sudden rush of heat to my cheeks.
“Can you see her?”
I turned my attention to the window, staring at the flurry of snow raining down into the courtyard at the hotel. They had set up a Christmas tree as large as one of those in New York, and a few guests were around it now, taking pictures, holding hands or just staring at it.
“Yes.” Celeste was easy to spot in the crowd. More from the condescending distance she kept from the other guests than any other of her physical features.
“I have been trying to think of an appropriate punishment for her. Something fitting for her stunt, but I cannot seem to arrive at one.”
I turned to him with a slack jaw.
“I would rather avoid an option Hale would throw a fit over and call extreme. He and Finn are in Seoul, by the way. Their flight was one of the many affected.”
He turned to me finally, staring at my stunned face. “I expect an answer today.”
I swallowed, uncertain who I was dealing with right now, the man or the dragon.
“I’m not certain she is responsible.”
“I am. She is.”
“I… I was not harmed.” I inhaled for composure. “I do not want her punished.”
He caught my chin between his fingers, “Do you remember what I told you the last time?”
I opened my lips to respond when a knock sounded on the door.