Page 70

I knew I should not kiss her.

I knew that the guests were nearby and I was supposed to be taking care of them, but the pull between me and Sammie was too strong.

I was powerless to stop it.

Sammie parted her lips and her sweet, warm breath tickled my skin.

Just as I was about to close the gap between us, I heard my name being called.

‘Romeo!’

‘Merda.’ I sprang back.

It was Victoria.

29

SAMMIE

Romeo had only managed to move a few inches away from me when Victoria turned the corner and found us.

Shit.

‘What’s going on here?’ She put her hands on her hips. ‘Why are you with Samantha whilst all of our other guests have been left alone?’

‘Sammie… Samantha,’ Romeo corrected. I supposed he thought using my nickname wasn’t appropriate right now. ‘Samantha was upset and I was just… comforting her.’

‘Romeo! I warned you! I told you not to?—’

‘I found Edward!’ I jumped in.

There was no way I could let Romeo get in trouble for this.

I should be glad that Victoria had found us now and not a minute later, because Romeo and I were finally about to kiss.

Even though every part of my body was weeping, I had to focus on what was most important: Romeo keeping his job.

Edward had already royally fucked me over. There was no way I could allow him to screw with Romeo’s career too.

‘What?’ Victoria frowned. ‘Did he call you?’

‘No. Jasmine found him on Instagram. And when I did some digging, I saw him with hispregnantgirlfriend and I was upset. Romeo came after me to find out what was wrong. He’s been nothing but a gentleman. It’sEdwardyou should be pissed with, not Romeo. Look.’ I thrust my phone in front of Victoria and when she saw the story, the blood drained from her face.

‘I… Shit. Samantha, I’m so sorry.’

Now so much made sense. When Edward spoke about his ex, he said how amazing their chemistry was and the only barrier was that she didn’t want kids, so now she was knocked up, that obstacle had been removed.

‘On his application he told us they had been separated for over a year,’ Victoria insisted. ‘That is one of the key things we look at during the selection process to avoid any rebounds. We trust applicants to tell the truth. The matches are based on the information we’re given. If we’d known that Edward had recently reconnected with his ex, there’s no way that we would’ve invited him here.’

‘I know it’s not your fault and you did your best, but the hotel shouldn’t just rely on the applications. You should add another layer of checking, like video interviews so you can see how people react when they talk about their exes. That way you might be able to see whether they’re still hung up on them.’

Now that I thought about it, when I’d told Edward about Stella getting back with Max, her ex, he wasn’t as shocked as people usually were. I think he even said something like, ‘It was clear that they were meant to be.’

All during that conversation he knew that he still had feelings for his ex and had slept with her. What an arsehole.

‘That is a good idea,’ Romeo said.

‘Yes,’ Victoria added. ‘We will certainly look into that.’