Page 3 of Forbidden Grumpy Boss

I hear people shouting and feel the earth tremble with the mainshock. My heart’s pounding in my chest, the sound of my own breathing echoing in my ears. My thoughts are a mess, everything blurring together. I think of my mom, of how I never really said goodbye. I think of my father, and I’m furious that my last thoughts are of him. No. I won’t let this be it. Not like this.

And then, through the dust and chaos, I hear a voice.

“Move when I tell you to!”

I can barely make out the figure moving toward me. But when I see those ice-blue eyes, everything slows down.

It’s him.

“You?” I croak out, coughing on the dust. Of all the people to find me here, it had to be Towel Man.

“Hold on.” His voice is steady, and somehow, it calms me. He’s pulling debris off me, his strong arms working quickly. He’s stilldressed sharp—dark jeans, a white shirt rolled up at the sleeves, and a leather jacket over his shoulders. How is hestillattractive during an earthquake? And why the hell am I still noticing that in my situation?

“Can you move?” he asks, eyes scanning me for injuries.

I try to shift my leg, wincing at the pain. “I’ll try.”

Without hesitation, he moves to lift the rubble trapping me; his jaw clenched with effort and his shirt clings to his muscles.

“Now!” He raises the large wooden structure. “Move!”

I crawl out from under the rubble as he raises it just enough for me to make my way out. When I’m safely out from under it, he releases it, and it crashes against the marbled floor.

He pulls me to my feet, steadying me with a hand on my waist. I sway a little, still shaky from the shock. People are still running around even after the rumbling is over.

“You okay?” His voice is softer now, his hand lingering just a second longer than necessary.

“I think so, yeah,” I say, moving my leg to see if it’s not injured. Luckily, it isn’t. “We gotta get out of here.”

The museum’s pillars buckle as another rumble rocks the building. My eyes widen as I realize what’s going to happen.“This place is going to collapse!” I yell as I grab his arm and start pulling him away.

“Ezra!” he yells into the collapsing structure, barely noticing me pulling him. “Ezra! Where are you?!”

“We have to go!” I yell. “We’re going to die if we stay—"

“My brother!” he cuts me off. Towel Man looks around, panic flashing in his eyes for the first time. He’s scanning the chaos around us. “I can’t find him. I can’t find Ezra!”

The dread in his voice sends a chill down my spine, and I see real fear in those sharp blue eyes. The building isn’t waiting around for him to find his brother. I feel another vibration through the ground as another rumbling prepares to hit.

I know he felt it too because he looked at me.

“Maybe he got out already,” I whisper. He tries to turn away from me, but I grab his face to look at him. He saved me. I can’t leave him here. “We’re gonna die here if we don’t leave now!”

For a second, he looks like he might tell me to go. Structures fall all around us. The earth rumbles and quakes beneath us. My eyes wildly hold the gaze of the man who saved me.

“Your brother made it out,” I say with such conviction that I hope he believes it as I grip his arm.

He says nothing else as we both run out of the collapsing museum.

Chapter two

Leah (SPLIT)

This makes no sense.

I watch her from the corner of my eye, and for the life of me, I can’t figure out why, in the middle of a goddamn disaster, I still find her so damn attractive. I should be focusing on my brother—on the fact that he’s missing, that the hotel we were supposed to be in is now rubble. But no, my mind keeps wandering back to her, sitting beside me in my car, her short jean skirt and white blouse still covered in the dirt and grime from the earthquake, her lips slightly parted as she stares out of the window.

Hell, Silas, get a grip.

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