Page 6 of Luck Be a Genie

A warm, large hand found the small of my back as Nick closed the distance between us. The sudden warmth of him at my back instantly comforted me, and I leaned back against him. The desk attendant looked behind me, swallowed at whatever expression was on Nick’s face, and then said, somewhat exasperatedly and with what I thought was an inordinate amount of moxie for a human considering the powerful genie behind me, “Our elevator is not a death trap.”

I was about five seconds from leaping across the desk and putting him in a headlock until he agreed to change my room. I’d never had a brother, but human TV sitcoms had prepared me well. I knew all the moves to make them tap out in utter defeat, and I was not afraid to use them on the somewhat elderly man in front of me, no matter his age or the creakiness of his bones.

Nick’s warm bass voice came from behind me, saving the elderly man a noogie. “Who made the reservations?”

The clerk checked the reservation on the computer. “A Mr. Liam Carra.”

“My grandfather would not have booked me a top floor room. He knows better.”

“Well, no,” the clerk explained. “He asked for the best. The penthouse suite is the best.”

Tired.

I was so tired.

I set my luggage down and leaned onto the desk with my elbows, covered my face with shaking hands, and breathed in.

“What seems to be the problem here?”

I dropped my hands and slowly straightened. A gorgeous ebony- skinned woman, darker than Nick’s mocha, was looking at me with a level of concern that was alarming. I must look truly horrible right now.

“My grandfather booked me a suite, but as I’ve explained to Mr. Salovar, I can’t be on the top floor. I’m deathly afraid of heights. I’ll take any other suite available, as long as it’s on the bottom floor.” I tried to say it as calmly as I possibly could, but I could tell the striking woman knew I was at the end of my fraying tether, because she gently nudged the clerk away from the computer and began immediately tapping at the keys in what I hoped was a search for a bottom floor room.

“Hmm, will a lagoon/pool view room be acceptable?”

“Yes!” My eyes itched with pesky emotion. “I seriously could kiss you right now. Thank you!”

The woman looked up from the computer, smiled dazzlingly at me, and winked.

Nick stiffened behind me, and for the first time all day, I felt like laughing. Especially when he followed up his protective—or was it jealous?—reaction with a question.

“Does her suite have an adjoining room I can book as well?”

The woman’s eyebrows rose. “It sure does. Let me get your information, and I’ll book that for you. Same length of stay?”

“Yes.”

She got us checked in, gave us our room cards in separate envelopes, then handed us a laminated map of the resort, as well as a list of times different things opened and closed.

“This is a list of all of our amenities. If you have any questions, feel free to come to the desk, or call the help line from your suite phone.”

“Thank you.”

Nick piled our bigger pieces of luggage onto a luggage trolley and off we went to find our suites.

“Nick, that was a lot of money. Are you sure about this?”

Distracted from his study of the map, he lifted his head and gave me a puzzled expression. “I’m a genie.”

I stopped, stumbled, accidentally stubbed my toe on the trolley, bit back a curse word, and growled out, “Yes, I’m aware of that.”

Nick set his carry-on bag down, knelt, and lifted my foot, slipped it out of my sandal, then rubbed my smarting toe with the gentlest of touches until it felt better. Then he replaced my sandal and stood while I stared at him nonplussed.

“Money’s not an issue for me, Lucks.”

And then his gaze fell back to the map in his hands and he continued on as though he had not just made my head explode. Both from his casual dismissal of money and the tenderness he’d just shown me.

I looked down at my feet and murmured to my suddenly tingling toes, “We can’t ruin his life, so don’t get any ideas.”