Page 49 of Grumpy Billionaire Boss Protector

I wrap my other arm around her and give her a quick squeeze before pressing my lips to her forehead.

“Stay for a bit longer?”

She pretends to mull this over, but she’s smiling. “Just a bit. Then we have to go back to the way we were before last night.”

“A bit is enough,” I say, lying through my teeth before I bring my lips to hers once more.

Chapter 19

Mia

“Ilikethesehotpink and red fabrics,” I say, pointing to the solid bright red fabric. “Our protagonist seems like she would prefer wearing bold colors.”

Gavin and I are seated at my desk in the open workspace outside of Carter’s office. The other interns’ desks are attached to mine, but only Veronica is assisting us with picking out fabrics and styles for our female lead’s costumes.

“This color would look really good on camera, especially during the outdoor scenes,” Gavin says and grabs a piece of avocado-green, iridescent silk fabric. “She could progressively start branching out her color palette the more time she spends in Monaco.”

“Oh, I like the idea,” Veronica says, sorting through the styles we’ve already selected.

“Wow, I see you aren’t just a screenwriter.” I give Gavin a playful nudge on the arm. “You’ve got an eye for detail.”

Judging by how big his smile gets, he must enjoy being complimented on that. “It’s just stuff I learned in film school,” he says, brushing it off. “Did you pick out everything you like?”

I nod and pass a salmon-pink cotton fabric with white and yellow flowers all over it to Veronica. “I think I’m happy with my selections.”

Gavin gives me a single nod of approval. “Let’s narrow it down a bit, and then we can run it all by Mr. Cogswell when he gets back.”

I give him a thumbs up. “Sounds good.”

“You seem pretty cheerful today, Mia,” Veronica says. She rests her chin on her palm while she studies me to figure out what’s so different about me today. Nothing escapes her attention. I just hope that post-sex afterglow stuff is bullshit. “Did you go on a date this weekend?”

“What?” I let out a chuckle, trying my best to act natural, but I honestly don’t know how I behaved before. I’m drawing a massive blank. “No, nothing like that. Life is just…goodright now. That’s all.”

“She’ll share when she’s ready,” Gavin whispers to Veronica and shoots her a wink.

She smirks, then peers over at me and laughs.

I roll my eyes but join in on their laughter to show them that their teasing doesn’t faze me. As long as they don’t figure out the person I hooked up with is Carter, they’ll eventually lose interest.

“Where is Mr. Cogswell by the way?” Veronica asks, dividing the fabrics and stacking them by color and pattern to make it easier for us to pick out our top choices.

“He’s in a meeting with Lisa Reese-Campbell,” Gavin says.

Veronica raises her brows. “The actress?”

He nods, then leans in closer to both of us. “This didn’t come from me, but I heard they had a little fling,” he whispers. “She used to hang out here a lot after she wrapped up a production of ours she worked on.”

I frown but catch myself before Gavin and Veronica notice. “Really?” I ask. “She seems kind of young.”

Veronica scoffs. “Do you think that matters? I’m pretty sure she isn’t that much younger than us.”

I purse my lips. I’m pretty sure Lisa Reese-Campbell is in her early twenties. I suppose that isn’t much younger than me. My age gap with Carter is relatively wide, too. I don’t have a problem with him being in his thirties, but for some reason, it really bugs me that he’s having flings with women who are younger than me.

I bite my lip. Is it the age gap that bothers me? Or is it simply the fact that I’m hearing about him with another woman? I told myself I wouldn’t get jealous, and that sleeping with Carter was a one-time thing. I can’t let a little gossip get to me.

“Anyway, she hasn’t been around lately,” Gavin says, immersed in selecting his favorite fabrics. “They probably ended theirsituationship.”

“Does he have a lot of those?” I ask as nonchalantly as possible.

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