Page 46 of My Grumpy Alpha

I avoided my bosses at all costs for this reason, so why does this feel different?

“I’ll sign it,” I manage to say in a weak voice.

He smoothly puts his phone back in his suit pocket.

“I figured you would. Now, if you could just do a good job during these meetings, we’ll be good to go.”

“Are we going to talk about—”

“—Absolutely not.” He cuts me off and stares me down with his crystal blue eyes.

“We’ll forget it ever happened.”

I want to say but it did.

I want to say it did for me, in ways I can’t explain. That it should. Instead, he walks out ahead of me and I swear it’s like the entire floor bows to him as he walks. He doesn’t own the universe, but in this moment I realize I slept with the guy who controls this world, one I will never be a part of. So I try my hardest to answer questions, to give him his notes, to take notes, and by lunch I’m ready to start gnawing my own arm off, I stare at one of the office mints and actually think about grabbing a handful and just going for it plastic and all.

It's nearing dinnertime and all I’ve had is a suspicious-looking tortilla with meat on it and water. Poor Eli—loathe as I am to say it—hasn’t eaten at all, in fact, he’s getting more pale by the minute.

Our final meeting wraps up and I can finally see the end of the tunnel.

“That was a lot of meetings,” I say to him once we’re in the elevator.

“Yeah, I think Gabe overbooked, but it’s good we got them all done today since I’m off tomorrow.”

“And where exactly is that?”

“To work remotely.” He shrugs.

“Of course.”

“Right. Of course.” I look straight ahead again when the elevator suddenly stops so hard I collapse against Eli.

He goes into action right away, putting me back on my feet and going to the phone to call emergency services.

I gulp when I notice we’re still ten floors up.

“We could die,” I say, more to myself than him.

Eli looks over his shoulder.

“You aren’t dying. We aren’t dying.” The elevator gives another jolt.

“You know how you hate hair and have a weird fear of it, despite having a lot of it on your head?” I start talking when I’m nervous. I can’t help it.

“Well, my fear is heights and dogs.”

He shakes his head.

“There are scarier things out there.”

“Have you seen Cujo?” I nearly yell in his face.

“Most terrifying movie ever created, and I used to have nightmares from Jurassic Park well into my middle school years.”

He frowns down at me.

“It’s actually scarier to me that you were scared of dinosaurs, they don’t even exist.”