Saving Cinderella! by Myrna Mackenzie

the red rocks, what his touch had been like.
    Grr. He’d merely been helping her from the car. It had simply been two hands touching…and this was the second time she’d had this reaction. What was wrong with her?
    Nothing. Ignore those absurd longings. That’s guaranteed heartbreak. Don’t throw common sense away. You know what’s happened before when you’ve got involved with men you were trying to help, so back away from Wyatt. Don’t think of him as a man. Concentrate only on what Wyatt wants for McKendrick’s.
    “Easy,” she muttered. “Tweaking, positive change, winning a National Travel Award and total hotel domination.”
    A passing guest gave her a strange look. “What did you say?” the woman asked.
    Alex blinked. She was losing it. She’d really said those words out loud, hadn’t she? She could only hope that she hadn’t also mumbled any of that stuff about Wyatt. If she had, Randy would be raising his bets, gambling that she would fall in love with Wyatt.
    “I said that anyone who wants a tour should sign up on this sheet,” Alex improvised, pulling some McKendrick’s stationery from the desk. “Hotel Tour,” she scribbled at the top.
    “Oh, I didn’t know they gave tours,” the woman said. “I haven’t seen half of what’s here. Who’s leading the tour? Are you?”
    Uh-oh. Alex hadn’t thought that far ahead. She just hadn’t wanted the woman to think that Wyatt had hired a strange woman who talked to herself, so she’d simply blurted out that announcement. If she’d had time, she would have found someone better informed than she was to handle the task. As it was…
    “Yes. I hope you’ll consider coming along. This hotel has some amazing nooks and crannies,” she said, even as she cringed at what she was saying. McKendrick’s private spaces that weren’t on the hotel map were a testament to the hotel’s very private owner, but Alex hadn’t yet located everything.
    Time to pick Randy’s brain. If she was promising a tour, then she was darn well going to do it right.
    “I wouldn’t miss it,” the woman said, scribbling down her name. “You should put up a sign.”
    “That’s an excellent idea,” Alex said, and she set about making a temporary sign.
    Within the next hour five more people signed up. Another couple was just putting their names down when Alex felt Wyatt’s presence behind her. She didn’t even question how she knew it was him. There was a change in the atmosphere, as if the air was supercharged. She turned around to find him examining her in that slightly distant, arch, bemused way he had.
    Immediately her nerve-endings started to hum. It was a warning. Dangerous man ahead.
    Wyatt looked at the sign, and when the couple moved away, he leaned in and put his name on the signup sheet.
    “You don’t need a tour,” she said.
    “No, but I’m interested in seeing what this one is like.”
    “I’m going to keep it simple. At least this first time. Later, I’ll explore every inch of McKendrick’s I’ve missed.”
    “Simple and safe can be good, but from what little I’ve seen, that doesn’t appear to be your style. And you’d miss the private solarium.” He grabbed a map and a pen and circled an unmarked place on the map. “It’s a bit difficult to find, but worth the trip. And you wouldn’t want to pass up the private dining rooms that are perfect for the man who wants a place to propose to the woman of his dreams.” His voice had dropped low. “Would you?” he asked.
    She slowly shook her head. “No, but I might need some help finding those.”
    “That won’t be a problem.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    He looked confused. “I do know my way around my own hotel.”
    “No. I meant that I don’t understand why you went to so much bother about the romantic dining rooms. You don’t believe in happily ever after.”
    “Not for me, no. But my customers find such touches appealing, and I try to give them what they want.”
    Alex hoped