My Bossy Protector

by Charlize Starr

  Copyright © 2018 by Heartbeat Reads - All rights reserved.

  In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.

  My Bossy Protector

  A Best Friend’s Brother Romance

  By: Charlize Starr

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1 - Simon

  Chapter 2 - Ivy

  Chapter 3 - Simon

  Chapter 4 - Ivy

  Chapter 5 - Simon

  Chapter 6 - Ivy

  Chapter 7 - Simon

  Chapter 8 - Ivy

  Chapter 9 - Simon

  Chapter 10 - Ivy

  Chapter 11 - Simon

  Chapter 12 - Ivy

  Chapter 13 - Simon

  Chapter 14 - Ivy

  Chapter 15 - Simon

  Chapter 16 - Ivy

  Chapter 17 - Simon

  Chapter 18 - Ivy

  Chapter 19 - Simon

  Chapter 20 - Ivy

  Chapter 21 - Simon

  Chapter 22 - Ivy

  Chapter 23 - Simon

  Chapter 24 - Ivy

  Chapter 25 - Simon

  Chapter 26 - Ivy

  Epilogue - Simon

  Epilogue - Ivy

  Specially Selected Bonus Content

  Doctor's Fake Fiancée

  Hungry Cowboy

  Hot Boss

  My Cowboy's Mail Order Bride

  The Prince's Virgin

  Hungry CEO

  Hungry Boss

  Daddy's Business Friend

  The Boss's Secret Baby

  Shattered Daddy

  About Charlize Starr

  Selected Other Books by Charlize Starr

  Join the Heartbeat Reads Readers Club now if you want to receive 3 EXCLUSIVE hot contemporary romance short stories for FREE and get notifications of new releases and promotions.

  Chapter 1 - Simon

  When I woke up, the girl from last night was still in my bed. I racked my brain to remember her name. Kerry? Kelly?

  I moved and she stretched her arms, turning to face me with a groggy smile. “Good morning, sleepyhead,” she said in a soft, sultry voice. Immediately, I knew she wanted to stay.

  “Mornin’,” I replied, playfully tapping her nose before I slipped out of bed.

  “Where are you going? Come back here. It’s Sunday!” she called after me. Our clothes from last night were jumbled up and strewn across the floor. I stepped into my walk-in closet to find something fresh to wear.

  “Unfortunately, I work Sundays,” I said, pulling out a shirt and a pair of jeans. After putting them on, I returned to the bedroom to see that she was still naked. She hadn’t made a move to get out of bed.

  I had to admit that she was gorgeous. Her dark chocolate-colored hair fell in waves around her shoulders and above her perfect breasts. She had her arms stretched out, purposefully putting her body on display. She wanted to remind me.

  “When does Simon Hutch actually take a break?” she asked, batting her eyelids seductively.

  I buttoned up my shirt and left it hanging loosely over my jeans. “I’ll take a break when I die,” I told her with a smirk.

  I wasn’t actually going to leave the house without a shower, but I needed to be fully dressed so that she’d get the hint. I wanted her to leave.

  I liked to spend the morning by myself – have some time alone. The rest of my day was always busy, leaving me without a moment to take a breather. It was in the morning that I could take an hour to drink my coffee in peace, make myself an egg-white omelet and toast, and then sit out in my balcony to take in the view of Shoreline Lake. It was my moment of calm in a hectic day, and I wasn’t lying to her: I worked seven days a week.

  “They warned me you were a workaholic,” Kerry said. I’d decided on the name. I was pretty certain that was it.

  “They? Who?” I asked, standing by the bed with my hands in my pockets. How had she not yet gotten the hint?

  “My friends at the bar – the ones I was with last night,” Kerry replied.

  “They know me?”

  “You have a reputation,” she said, biting her lip.

  “I won’t argue with you on that. I do work a lot. Like now. I need to get to work in . . . ” I looked at my watch. “Exactly twenty-five minutes.”

  Kerry pouted her lips, sitting up in bed and pulling the sheets along with her. “Why don’t I stay here? Maybe make us some lunch while you can finish up what you need to do at the office,” she suggested, using her sexy, sultry voice again.

  Tempting, but what was this? Were we playing house?

  “I’m going to be stuck at work all day. Sorry,” I said, shrugging my shoulders.

  Kerry’s brows crossed. She seemed offended, and I didn’t blame her. After the sex we had last night, the least I could do was have breakfast with her, promise to call her . . . But if she knew about my reputation, then she should have also known that I didn’t do any of those things.

  I’d been living in Palo Alto for over four years and I hadn’t been involved in even one real relationship.

  Kerry swung her bare long legs over the edge of the bed, clutching the sheets to her breasts. “Are you seriously kicking me out?” she snapped, her tone beginning to turn sour.

  “I have to go. I’m sorry. I don’t mean to insult you,” I replied.

  She stood up, huffing and puffing with irritation. “I can’t believe this. I thought we had an actual connection, Simon! And now you won’t even have a coffee with me!” Her voice sizzled as she collected her clothes from the floor.

  I bent down to pick up her skirt and she snatched it out of my hand. “You don’t have to be nice to me now. I know exactly the kind of asshole you are!” she snapped.

  I stepped away from her, holding my hands up in surrender. “I’m sorry about this. I just have a busy life. My priorities lie elsewhere,” I told her as she rolled her eyes while she slipped on her crop top.

  “Simon? Are you awake?” Another girl’s voice called.

  Kerry glared at me. “There’s another girl here? What the fuck, Simon?” she hissed.

  I, too, was surprised by this. I didn’t know what to tell her.

  Shay burst in through the door, standing there with her hands on her hips. She didn’t have a reaction to the half-naked girl in my room and neither did she back out. She just stood there with her eyes narrowed at me.

  “Oh, good. You’re still here. I hoped to catch you before you left,” Shay said in a snappy voice.

  What had I done to piss her off?

  “Shay, give us a minute, please,” I said, but she stood her ground.

  “Are you fucking serious right now?” Kerry hurried to put the rest of her clothes on, struggling to roll her thong up her legs.

  Shay stood at the door, looking around my bedroom with a bored expression on her face.

  “I’m sorry about this.” I turned to Kerry, who looked embarrassed and angry at the same time.

  “Whatever. This is insane. I’m outta here,” she snapped and stormed to the door to get past Shay. Then she stopped, turning to me again.

  “Do you even know my name, Simon Hutch?” she asked.

  I clenched my jaws. This was not going well. “Kerry,” I replied.

  She let out a shrill cry. “My name is Louise!” she raged. Then she left, running down the stairs. We heard the front door bang shut.

  “Why do you keep doing this, Simon?” Shay asked, rolling her eyes at me.

  “Good morning to you too, Sis,” I said.

  Chapter 2 -
Ivy

  I couldn’t afford to live alone in this apartment anymore. I’d known this day would come ever since I forced Marco to move out, but I didn’t think it would come so fast.

  I’d just returned home, sifting through the stack of utility bills on the kitchen counter. I’d left them lying there for a few days, not looking at them in fear of what I would find. The money in my bank account was quickly depleting as my bills multiplied.

  Feeling exhausted, I put away the stack and made myself a cup of tea. I needed to get a grip on things: for starters, my monetary situation. If things continued on this way, I would have to move back in with my parents – something I wanted to avoid.

  This had been my plan: finish college, get an internship at some cool company in Palo Alto or New York (somewhere far away from here), turn that internship into a job through sheer hard work, and have a neat little savings sitting in my bank account by age twenty-seven.

  Instead, I was twenty-three and I still hadn’t left this town. I had student loans to pay off for college and no prospect of finding a job that could even begin the process.

  The only real blessing in all of this was that I was able to rid Marco from my life. He wasn’t an easy guy to shake off.

  It had started as a rebound. After having my heart broken, I met Marco three years ago at a nightclub. I thought he would be an easy fix for the way my soul was hurting. Marco was smoking hot and into me. We slept together that first night we met, and even though the sex wasn’t as exciting as I thought it would be, it was good enough. Then he was calling me every day, checking in every few hours to see how I was doing. I mistook that interest as something sweet. I thought that for once I had found someone who would stick with me – who’d take care of me and let me take care of them.

  I was fresh out of college, looking for jobs in other cities, and Marco seemed to be the perfect distraction until I could leave town.

  Those jobs and internships never actually landed. I kept looking and getting rejected. The tech industry was competitive, and I went to a mediocre college and earned mediocre grades. A small-town girl like me didn’t stand from the crowd. I eventually realized I had made a big mistake: this was not the path I should have chosen for myself. But it was too late.

  Out on my own with student loans hanging over my head, casting a deep shadow on everything in my life, Marco became the perfect cushion to fall back on. He had simple ambitions in life. He worked as a mechanic at a garage, made a modest living, and was always there to answer my call. We moved in together within four months of dating. I told myself it was only going to be a temporary solution to such a lull in my life’s ambitions. After a few months of living with Marco, I’d find my dream internship and be out of there. I knew I wasn’t in love with him, and I thought he wasn’t in love with me either.

  The first few months of living together were blissful. I picked up a receptionist’s job at a local accounting firm just to get by while I kept applying for jobs elsewhere. It was only six months later that I realized Marco was against my plans. He didn’t want me leaving. He wanted me to stop applying for jobs in big cities. He said he was going to buy a ring – that we’d get married and start a family. He even insisted that he’d help me pay off my student loans.

  I was aghast. Marriage with him? Children with him? Living in a cramped apartment and working as a receptionist for the rest of my life? None of the prospects seemed attractive. I had to get out of the relationship, but when I tried, Marco lost his mind.

  He wasn’t going to let me leave. He was ferocious. He broke plates and vases and mugs, ripped our pillows apart, and threatened to keep me locked in the apartment if I tried to leave him. I was in shock. I was desperate and scared . . . I had no choice but to do as he said. I hoped that I might somehow find the strength to get out of our toxic relationship.

  For the next year and a half, I tried to find an opportunity to leave him. I couldn’t even sleep beside him. I’d lie awake in bed every night, hoping it would all just go away. How had it all happened to me? I was supposed to be an ambitious, educated young woman with her whole life ahead of her. How had I gotten stuck with this man?

  It was Shay who had helped me out of the relationship. We’d been best friends since kindergarten. She called the cops on him one night and he had no choice but to leave. We packed his bags and left them outside for him to collect, and Shay told him that if he ever came near me again, he’d be arrested. Surprisingly, it worked. He hadn’t stopped calling me, and sometimes I thought he followed me home from work, yet for the time being, he was keeping his distance.

  But for how long? It had only been a few months. How long would it be before Marco lost his mind again and came after me?

  Chapter 3 - Simon

  Shay made coffee while I cooked up omelets for the both of us. Then we carried our breakfast to the balcony so we could eat with a view of the lake the way I always did.

  “It’s so beautiful out here,” Shay said, taking a sip of her coffee.

  “It’s good to see you, Shay,” I told her and she smiled.

  “So you haven’t noticed,” she added, smirking.

  My brows furrowed. “Noticed what?”

  “Brian asked me to marry him,” she replied and held out her hand so that I could see the diamond ring sitting on her finger.

  “Oh my god, Shay! Congratulations! When did this happen?” I jumped off my chair to give her a hug.

  She hugged me back tightly. “Two days ago. I thought I’d come down myself and tell you in person,” she said.

  I pinched her cheek the way I used to when we were kids. She was three years younger than me, but I always felt much older than her. To me, Shay would always be my little kid sister.

  “I’m glad you did. Brian’s a very lucky guy. I hope he knows that,” I told her and she nodded.

  “He does, and he’s a good guy, too. You like him, don’t you? You approve?” she asked, cutting a piece of her omelet.

  “Does it matter if I approve?” I asked.

  Shay shrugged. “Of course it does. You’re my brother. Your opinion matters to me. But in any case, it’s too late now. I’ve said yes,” she said, giggling with excitement.

  I was pleased to see her happy. She deserved it.

  “Have you set a date yet?” I asked.

  “The twenty-second of October, nine months from now. I want you to clear your calendar and make sure you have at least a week off for me. I’m giving you ample notice,” she said, narrowing her eyes at me.

  “I wouldn’t miss it in the world, Shay. You know that!”

  “You’re always busy, Simon. I have no idea where in the world you are half the time,” she remarked. She was the second person today complaining about my schedule.

  “I’m sorry. I promise to keep in touch more often, and I won’t miss the wedding,” I replied.

  Shay smiled and sat back in her chair. “Anyway, that isn’t the only reason why I’m here. I have something else to ask you,” she continued.

  “Anything, Sis.”

  “It’s about Ivy. I would like for you to give her an internship at your company,” Shay said.

  I heard Ivy’s name and my shoulders stiffened. I hadn’t heard or said her name aloud in over four years. It felt strange.

  “What are you talking about, Shay?”

  “You know exactly what I’m saying. It’s your company. It can’t be very hard for you to find an appropriate internship opportunity for her,” she continued.

  I clenched my jaws, looking away from my sister. I didn’t want her to see the trouble that was brewing in my eyes. Ivy? Here in Palo Alto? In my office?

  “I don’t know . . . ” I began to protest.

  Shay clasped her hands tightly on her lap. “In these past four years, Simon, I haven’t asked you for anything. You left town, came out here, and started your own company. You’ve made millions of dollars during this time. You live in a house like this. You want for nothing . . . Despite all this, I have ne
ver come to you asking for anything. I’ve never even blamed . . . ” She let her voice drift away, and when I looked at her, I could see that she was very upset.

  “Okay, Shay. I’m not trying to anger you,” I countered, but she shook her head.

  “I don’t want to hear it. I’m not one of those girls who believes every word that comes out of your mouth. I’m your sister. You can’t charm your way out of this. I just have one simple request for you, and I expect you to follow through with it for me. Consider it your wedding gift to us,” Shay stated firmly.

  “You want me to give her a job in my company?”

  “I want you to give her an internship. Just for a few months so she can get a firm footing in this industry, and then she’ll be out of your hair. It’s not like she doesn’t deserve it. She went to college; she has a business degree. Don’t tell me she can’t do the job!”

  Shay was determined, and I knew I couldn’t win this argument. She was making very fair points.

  “Okay, I’ll try and find something for her,” I replied.

  “No. You will find something for her. She needs to get out of that town and you will help her. I’m going to go back and tell her to pack her bags. It’s a done deal, Simon,” Shay declared.

  I stared at my sister. She was right. Over the past four years, she hadn’t asked for anything, no matter how much money I made or how successful I got. Despite what had happened, she still stuck by me. She didn’t allow anything to come between us.

  “Okay, I’ll do it,” I said.

  Finally, she allowed herself to smile. “Good. I’m glad. I knew you’d come through,” she remarked, then stood up to give me a quick hug. When she sat back down again, she had a mischievous glint in her eyes. “So, who was she? Louise?” she asked.

  I didn’t want to discuss my one night stands with my sister, even though she was quite well aware of my habits.

  “Just someone I met at a bar last night. It’s not important. Tell me about Brian. Are you happy?” I asked her.