Page 15 of Grumpy Billionaire Boss Protector

My phone vibrates in the pocket of my sage green and white plaid blazer.

“One second,” I say. I take out my phone and wander over to the far corner of the hallway so I can read Michael’s latest message in private.

I heard you sold your car.Michael texts.You didn’t need to go that far. If you need help, just ask. But we need to talk.

I roll my eyes. When is he going to accept that it’s over between us? I mean, he’s already cheated. You’d think he’d be able to move on. I should be the one who’s behaving miserably, not him.

“Too good to join the rest of the interns?” a man’s voice asks from behind me.

I jump, and my heart races uncontrollably. When I turn around, Carter is standing behind me, his hands on his hips as he eyes me like I’m a five-year-old who’s been caught sneaking away from the teacher.

I want to scoff so badly. I hate how cool he looks in that cream-colored suit. This time, he has a plain white shirt tucked into his pants. Of course, it’s all perfectly fitted. How dare he be so damn sexy.

“I only stepped away for a moment.”

“Why did you do it?”

I tilt my head, genuinely confused. “What?”

“Downgrade,” he says, like I should know exactly what he’s talking about. “Why did you downgrade from your last job? Is this related to—”

I lower my brows as my eyes narrow at him. “You might be my boss, but I don’t think my personal life is any of your business.”

He crosses his arms over his chest. “If it’s going to interfere with the project and my company, then it is my business.”

I sigh, but then my eyes widen. Is it possible Michael is spreading rumors about me and the reason why I quit? I have no idea how quickly word gets around, but since Michael knew I quit and he’s upset I haven’t been responding to his texts, I wouldn’t put it past him to try to jeopardize my chances of landing a new job by airing out our personal business. He wouldn’t dare say anything that would affect him though, of course. The only thing he’s sharing has everything to do with me and how I fucked up my own life.

Quitting is not really an option at this point—I’ve made that crazy decision once already. In this industry rumors like this come and go all the time. Even if I got another job, I’d still have the same problem—if this is indeed about Michael.

And this internship pays well enough, and if Carter decides not to hire me in the end, I’d have saved up some money by the end of it.

And there’s still the possibility I could get hired full-time. Nowthoseare satisfying odds. I can’t run away from this. I refuse to.

I lower my head. “Look, whatever you heard about me—”

“Come into my office,” he says. Before I can even blink, Carter turns on his heels and starts toward his office.

I follow behind him, butnotbecause I’ll do whatever he requests of me so easily. It’s because I’m insanely curious.

“Why?” I ask once I’ve finally caught up to him.

He slides his hands into his pockets, maintaining an easy stride with his stupid, long legs. “If you had been paying attention to Amber instead of wandering off to play games on your phone, you’d know why.”

“I don’t play games on my phone,” I retort.

He sweeps a pair of knowing eyes at me.

I turn my chin up. “Not while I’m at work.”

I hate to say it, but I actually feel unusually comfortable around Carter. Perhaps it’s because he helped me escape that day. I could verbally spar against him all day long. He’d probably never admit it, but I think he secretly likes it, too. He would have put me in my place a long time ago if he didn’t enjoy arguing even just a little bit.

Once we return to the executive offices, we stop right outside Carter’s door. He places his hand on the knob and opens it, gesturing for me to go in first.

“Why do I feel like I’m being led to a trap?”

His eyes continue to pierce into me. “Don’t you want to get assigned to an executive?”

My ears perk up at this. Of course I do. This is the part I’ve been anticipating since I found out I got the job. I was kind of hoping I would get to work under Christine, but seeing that Veronica got her instead, I’m dying to know who I got.

---