Page 28 of My Grumpy Alpha

I start to slowly back away.

“I don’t have that good of an aim or catch, so maybe I’ll just approach if asked, and I’ll email the schedule to you—”

“—Do you or do you not assist me?” Eli jumps to his feet and slams his hands onto his desk.

Gabe looks unfazed.

“Yes.” I nod slowly.

“I do.”

“Great, then print it off like an assistant would and come in here and read it to me, send a copy to Gabe, copy me and yourself in, do you think you can manage to do that?”

“Yes sir, yes, right away.” I scramble out of the room and chug half the latte before I set it on my desk.

He’s terrifying.

Menacing.

Rude!

The door shuts behind me a minute later. Gabe walks up to me, his sigh palpable.

“He really is a great boss he just… needs a break, he has a lot of stress.”

“So he chooses to stress everyone else out and project all his grumpiness on his employees?” What a great human being!

Gabe makes a face and crosses his arms over his black shirt. Just where did this guy come from? He’s tall like Eli, looks like he lives to run and go to the gym and has a kind smile. He pushes away from the table and puts a hand on my shoulder.

“It gets easier to deal with, send his schedule over when you can and let me know what you want to order for lunch.” He walks off like his partner's behavior isn’t a problem.

By the time I’m done emailing everyone and printing things off, my stomach hurts from being so hungry, I quickly message Gabe and tell him that anything would do at this point, then knock on Eli’s door.

“Come in,” he says gruffly.

Here we go. I open the door and walk toward his desk and sit in a nearby chair, crossing my legs.

When I don’t say anything, he frowns at me.

“You’re not camping out, you can stand if you want, you look uncomfortable, besides I can feel your hunger from my desk.”

I exhale, get to my feet and walk to the middle of the office. He gets up abruptly and walks around the desk with his tree trunk thighs and menacing height. I start to back away and put some distance between us when my heel gets caught on the rug; I start flailing backward until strong, warm arms suddenly catch me before I crack my head against the marble flooring.

It's Eli.

But he was in front of me, how’d he catch me from behind?

His eyes are so blue and hypnotic. His hands warm, they almost take up my entire upper back.

“Are you okay?”

My eyebrows shoot up.

“I think the fall was less surprising than you asking that question.”

His firm mouth draws into a small, barely there smile.

“Guess I deserved that, it’s just hard to control sometimes.”