Chuckling, I went around my desk to clean up the broken glass. “You can send in my appointment.”
Nora
Going back to my desk after lunch was a no-go. There was no way I wanted to face off with the staff just waiting to ask me a thousand questions about why Carter had called me to his office.
Plus, I’d have to tell them I was going right back up there the second I put my purse down.
Down in the lobby, security waved me through with barely a passing glance at the ID around my neck. It had been that way since Carter showed up my second day and personally escorted me in. And then did so again today.
Now the guards practically tripped over themselves making a path for me to glide through easily, which honestly made me all kinds of uncomfortable.
It wasn’t as if I were some VIP. I was an intern, for crying out loud. And it was embarrassing as hell. All the other employees saw the way I walked right into the building with a free pass. Some stared openly, others whispered, and some flushed with anger because a lowly newbie intern was somehow getting better treatment than them.
Carter wasn’t kidding when he said this wasn’t going to be easy.
Stepping onto the elevator with a drink carrier filled with iced coffees and a white paper bag holding Carter’s lunch, I hit the top floor. Turning so I could see the woman who’d stepped in right after me, I smiled. “What floor?”
She started to speak, then saw the illuminated button I’d just pushed on the panel. Her eyes widened a little, then refocused on me. “You’re the new intern?”
My stomach dipped, but I forced my smile to remain bright. “It’s nice to meet you. Which floor can I press for you?”
“Oh, um, never mind. I’ll take the next car,” she hurried to say and rushed out of the elevator as if I smelled.
Wrinkling my nose, I called after her, “There’s plenty of room in here!”
“You go on ahead,” she insisted, waving her hand at me.
Another female employee approached, heading for the elevator. Putting my arm out, I kept the doors open for her.
The woman who’d just run off grabbed her arm and tugged her back. She leaned in and whispered something, making the other lady cut me a glance. I knew just by the look on her face that she wasn’t getting into this elevator.
“The ice in my coffee is melting,” I said, stepping back so the doors could close. “No one likes watered-down coffee.”
Both women stared as the doors closed between us. The second I was alone, I sagged against the back wall and let out a breath. Good Lord. What kind of reputation did Carter have?
I couldn’t figure out if these people were jealous or scared.
Maybe it was both.
Carter definitely had a cool dominance about him. He was shrewd and clearly had a brilliant mind. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t be the CEO of a million-dollar company at such a young age. He was also extremely good-looking and mysterious. He took a helicopter to work, for crying out loud. I wondered if people here knew when he flew off, it was to his own private island.
How many women in this company have tried to get close to him? Did any of them succeed?
Jealousy tore into me when I thought of any woman sitting in his lap the way I had this morning. “You better slow your roll, Nor,” I muttered to myself. “You’re only here for the summer. Carter is not boyfriend material. He’s just a fantasy.”
The elevator slowed, so I straightened off the wall and adjusted my bag, which I’d slung across my body so I wouldn’t have to fuss with it while I carried the coffee and food. Stepping out, I also turned to make sure my skirt was around me properly and not exposing anything it shouldn’t.
Steeling myself for another private escort from Carter’s guard dog, aka Meghan, I looked toward the counter.
Meghan and her desk mate weren’t alone. The steady clapping of my heels against the floor ceased abruptly. Squeezing my eyes closed and drawing in a deep breath, I reopened them, refocusing exactly where they’d been.
Ugh. He was still there.
Meghan’s partner noticed me just standing there staring and gave me an odd look. I knew she was going to call me out, and honestly, it made me panic. Turning back toward the elevator, fully intending to rush away, I hit a roadblock. The doors had already closed.
Damn.
Slowly, I pivoted back around. Lifting my chin, I dared the unnamed assistant to say anything and started walking again, confidence in my steps.
Maybe he wouldn’t notice.
Maybe he would—
“Ms. Williams, you’re back.”
I nearly winced when she basically shot an arrow at me with her words.
Have I mentioned how much I disliked Meghan?
Only a hundred times? Make this one hundred and one.
I’d almost made it past him—almost past the entire counter to escape into the hall. It was a good try. A solid effort.
Plastering yet another friendly work smile on my lips, I turned toward them, avoiding looking in his direction. “I’m just heading back for another meeting.”
“Nora?” Alan questioned as if it’d been years since he’d seen me last.
I wish.
Sliding a glance at my ex, who was not supposed to be in Miami, I kept my voice cool and uninterested. “Alan. What are you doing here?”
“You know him?” Meghan butted in. She seemed shocked, and that grated on me. Did she think I lived in a box before this?
It’s not like I wanted to talk to Alan, but I didn’t particularly want to talk to Meghan either. And here I was, looking at them both.
“Yes!” Alan claimed instantaneously.
Put off by his enthusiasm, I drew back slightly.
“Tell her, Nora. Tell her who I am.” His eyes were hopeful, and he nodded at me as though I were a toddler that needed encouragement to wash my hands after I peed.
Pursing my lips, I debated. I could handle this in one of two ways:
1.) As composed and respectable Nora.
2.) As a jilted ex-girlfriend.
It had been nice knowing the respectable and composed Nora Williams, but she was just too heavy a burden to bear.
“This is Alan. He’s a two-timing cheater who uses force when his shriveling charm doesn’t work. Better call security.”
I started to walk away.
I could have sworn I heard both assistants gasp.
“Nora!” Alan roared.
For a second, a split second, I was back in my apartment and his hands were on me. The sinister look that sometimes darkened his eyes made my stomach knot.
I turned around bravely. “Oh, and one more thing…”
Alan relaxed, rolling his shoulders back like he knew I had come to my senses.
“That tie doesn’t match your suit.”
A sound of shock ripped out of him, but I didn’t look back. I was afraid I’d see that look. The one that sometimes scared me.
“You can’t just go back there!” Meghan demanded.
I rolled my eyes.
She chased after me, frankly sounding like a clown on stilts. “Ms. Williams!” Her hand closed around my upper arm.
Wrenching free, I gave her a look. “Don’t touch me.”
“You—”
“Didn’t you hear the CEO earlier?” I asked. “He said I could come and go as I pleased.”
“I still need to notify him that you’re here.”
“You’re going to see the CEO?” Alan erupted, shock lacing his tone.
My God! Why was he still here? “Go home, Alan. I don’t want you here.”
Sliding a cool glance at Meghan, I practically dared her to challenge me. “Go ahead. Call him.”
“Nora!” Alan shouted after me.
My footsteps sped up and I turned the corner, the ice in the coffees banging against the sides of the cups.
Seeing commotion, Knox straightened and turned. “Ma’am—”
“Wait a minute, Nora!” Alan bellowed, his voice
much closer than before.
“I told you, you can’t go back there!”
“I know her. She’ll explain to Mr. Anders.”
Wrinkling my nose, I turned to see both Meghan and Alan stumble to a stop close by. “You’re here to see Carter?”
Something passed behind his eyes, and suddenly, it felt like I hadn’t swallowed the last of my lunch and it was sitting like a bolder in the middle of my throat. Involuntarily, I stepped back.
Clearing his throat, Alan smiled. It was a fake smile, one that relayed that he thought I was stupid enough to think it was genuine.
“I came to see you, of course. Couldn’t stand how we left things. When Dad found out where I was going, he asked me to have a meeting with the CEO.”
“You didn’t make an appointment,” Meghan said, surly.
What in the world was Alan trying to have a meeting with Carter for? Why was his father involved? These people were giving me a headache.
“I told you Nora will vouch for me.” Alan turned back to me. “I didn’t realize you knew the CEO.”
“I’m an intern here.” I sniffed.
“Shouldn’t you be in the mailroom?”
Meghan snickered.
Something inside me slumped. Why did Alan always want to make me feel miniscule? And why did it always work?
It isn’t going to work anymore.
“Is there a problem?” Knox asked from his post in front of the door.
“They were all just leaving,” I told the guard.
“I need to see Anders,” Alan insisted.
“That’s Mr. Anders to you,” Meghan quipped.
“Nor,” Alan implored, “ask your boss to talk to me. Please.”
“No.”
Locking my eyes on Carter’s door, I moved ahead. Suddenly, the urge to see him was intensified. I wanted to escape right into his arms.
I was so focused on where I was going that I didn’t pay attention to who I’d left behind.
Big. Mistake.
Commotion erupted at my back. The sheer force of it seemed to knock me unsteady. Or maybe I’d already been that way from the moment I stepped off the elevator and saw Alan.
Either way, I wasn’t prepared when Alan’s palm smacked against my back, his fingers bunching my shirt to pull me back. I cried out and spun away. The bag of food I was carrying slapped against the floor so I could grip the drink carrier with both hands. Alan let me go, but the momentum of my own movements caused me to lurch to the side. Grabbing my arm, he pulled me upright, making me fall into his chest.
One of the coffees in the carrier smashed into his chest, the lid popping off, and iced brew spilled down his white dress shirt.
“Ahh!” he yelled, shoving me and the coffee away.
My ankle turned, the heel under it slipping out from beneath me. The drink carrier went flying one way, and I went the other.
Ice exploded everywhere, and coffee splattered everything it could possibly touch.
My ankle throbbed and so did the heel of my hand, which took the brunt of my fall.
“Nora!” Knox worried, abandoning his post in front of the door and rushing to help me.
“I’m okay,” I told him, pushing up with my uninjured hand. There was so much coffee and ice everywhere that I slid, falling back onto the floor with a slap.
“I got you,” the guard said, reaching down to help me up.
“You ruined this suit!” Alan fumed, glancing up from the mess on his clothes.
That sinister look I sometimes saw in his eyes? It was there in full force.
“Are you kidding me right now?” Knox demanded. Reaching up, he hit a button on something by his ear. “Send me some backup,” he muttered.
The look in Alan’s eyes hardened. “Did you just call security on me?” He switched from the guard to me. It was everything I could do not to wilt beneath the hostility. “You’re going to let him call security on me? This is your fault!”
Alan lunged, and a panicked sound ripped out of me.
Knox stepped in front of me, using his honed body like a shield. “Don’t come any closer.” He warned, his voice deadly calm.
Peeking around him, I looked to see where Meghan was. She was standing on the outskirts of the mess, staring at all of us in shock.
“You trying to block me from my girlfriend?” Alan questioned.
“I am not your girlfriend!” I yelled, cradling my hand against my chest.
Alan tried to rush around Knox, but the guard flipped him onto his back in record time.
Carter’s office door ripped open, and footsteps came rushing out.
“What the fuck is going—” Aaron yelled.
Carter’s voice cut him off. “Nora!”
The second I saw him, all the bravado I’d been clinging to itched to abandon me.
He was beside me in two seconds, hands hovering around me. “You’re covered in coffee…” he said, bewildered. Then he looked down. “Where are your shoes?”
“They fell off.” I gestured to my heels, which were scattered apart, one of them lying in a puddle of coffee.
“What’s the situation?” Aaron asked Knox.
“I’m suing!” Alan announced, getting up off the floor. “This is assault!”
“Man, sit down.” Knox snarled, glancing around at me. “Are you okay?”
I nodded, and Carter’s eyes narrowed.
More men in black suits rushed into the hallway, eyes searching for a situation that needed diffused.
Knox gestured to Alan. “This intruder tried to gain unauthorized access to the CEO and manhandled Ms. Williams.”
“He did what?” Carter’s growl rumbled along the entire hallway, making everyone pause.
“Pushed her right over. Made her spill the coffee she was carrying.”
“She spilled it first!” Alan rebuked.
“Because you grabbed me!” I hollered back.
Alan took a menacing step toward me.
Carter stepped in front of me, and Aaron and Knox stepped in front of him.
“Move,” Carter told his men.
Without a single moment’s hesitation, both guards stepped to the side, offering Carter a clear path to Alan.
“You shove her?”
“Anders,” Alan said, “I’m here on behalf—”
“I asked you if you shoved her.” Carter’s voice didn’t rise a single decibel.
All the men in the hallway glanced away as if they were nervous.
“She’s just an intern!” Alan burst out. “I’ve come about busi—”
He didn’t get to finish his sentence because Carter plowed a steady fist right into the side of his jaw. A low grunt forced its way out of Alan, and he fell into a heap on the floor, splashing the coffee around some more.
Tucking his hands into his pants pocket, Carter stood over him and said, “Don’t ever show your face in this building again.”
Bracing myself, I expected to see the same kind of evil look Alan often wore when Carter turned and looked at me.
It wasn’t that at all.
That lump in my throat began to dissolve when the tenderness in Carter’s eyes caressed me. The tailored, deep-green suit jacket he wore slid off his wide shoulders, and he tucked it around me.
“Meghan,” he called without looking away. “Call someone to clean all this up. And get Ms. Williams a new iced coffee.”
I gasped. “Your lunch!” His jacket flapped around my back when I rushed forward to where the paper bag lay. It was soaked with spilled coffee.
I frowned. “Oh no,” I crooned, holding it up for him to see. “It’s ruined.”
“You brought him lunch?” Alan asked from the floor.
Everyone ignored him.
“I’ll eat later. Come on,” he beckoned, crooking a finger at me.
“I can order you lunch,” Meghan offered. Just hearing the little bit of glee in her tone made me want to kick Alan in both his knees.
“Just get Nora the coffee,” Car
ter replied.
Yes, it gave me immense satisfaction.
“Wait!” I gasped again. “There were four coffees.”
“Four?” Carter asked.
“One for me, you, Knox, and Aaron.”
“You got me a coffee?” Knox and Aaron asked simultaneously.
I nodded. Turning toward Knox, I added, “I got you a sandwich, too, but it’s ruined.”
“Ma’am, you got me lunch?”
“You’ve been standing there all day.” I looked at Carter, disgruntled. “You have to feed him.”
Knox laughed.
“He eats,” Carter muttered.
I started to cross my arms over my chest, but the action made me wince and I pulled back.
Carter’s attention on me intensified. I felt the weight of it from where I stood. Putting his arm around my waist, he guided me toward his office. “Make it four coffees, Meghan!”
“Nora!” Alan wailed.
I leaned into Carter a little farther, and the hand at my waist tightened.
“Let me go!” Alan yelled. Sounds of him struggling gave me no satisfaction whatsoever. Just before we disappeared into the safety of the CEO’s office, Alan gave it one final shot. “I’m Lewis Regal’s son!”
Stiffening, Carter turned back. “What?”
“I’m here to talk about Zero.”
Carter paused but quickly covered it with a rude sound. “You expect me to believe that Lewis Regal’s son just walked up in my building like this, assaulted my intern, and made a huge commotion?”
“I was provoked,” Alan spat.
“Where’s your ID?” Aaron questioned, suspicious.
Alan shook off the guards’ hands and reached into his suit to pull out an ID. He tried coming forward to show Carter, but the guards all stepped between them.
Aaron checked the ID. “So you have the same last name. That proves nothing.”
“Tell them, Nora.”
A beat of silence blasted the hall as everyone turned to look at me. I wasn’t concerned with anyone but Carter.
Sensing how uncomfortable I was, he moved closer and reached out to tuck his jacket around me a little tighter. “You know him?”
I felt like I was choking again, like there was a rock stuck in my throat.
“Yes,” I finally admitted. “I know him. He is Lewis Regal’s son.”
“How do you know him?” Carter questioned.
Mr. Fantasy: (A standalone romance) Page 15