As soon as we clear the door, Amy scrambles off, apparently in a great hurry to be rid of me. I stand somewhere in that giant waiting room space, thing—waste!—and count my breathes in and out.

That was close! What the hell was I thinking snooping around in his office in my first day? If I get fired on my first day, great help I'll be. Stupid. Stupid.

But did they notice?

I eye the closed door to Carter's office. It's silent. Too silent. He must suspect something. I would. If I caught my 'assistant' snooping around in my office out of hours.

'And Avery, what and how you do things here reflects directly on me. I hope you keep that in mind.' His words rings in my ears.

"Shit." I pull out my phone and text Neil. "Quick. He may have caught me snooping around... what do I do? I need something to distract him. What would a ditzy person say?"

I pop the phone back I'm my hidden pocket and pace towards the door, itching to walk in there and apologize. Something like, "I'm sorry, I came in here to say hello and I accidentally knocked things off your table."

My watch vibrates on my wrist and I eye Neil's message.

"Office drama. Too early. Need coffee."

That's a good idea!

I've barely made the decision before I march to the door and push it open a tad and stick my freshly dyed ash blonde hair. I want him to get flashes of Nina when he sees me. Not that we look alike, but our resemblance stood out like a sore thumb if we stood side by side.

Play dumb.

"Eh... Mr Thebes?" I almost use my bedroom voice in an effort to speak softly and break into an uncomfortable cough that certainly gets his attention.

There's a hardness in his eyes as he pulls a thing wire rimmed black spectacles off his face and draws his gaze away from his screen to my face.

He doesn't even bother asking me what. The man looks like he wants to flick me away like an ant crawling up his arms.

"I wanted to apologise." I clear my throat. "I know I shouldn't have been in your office without you, but I'd recently seen in on that magazine spread and wanted to see if the table was indeed that colour naturally." I can feel heart shrinking in shame at my poor excuse. Really? The table? That's what I wanted to 'see'?

"Was that all?" He asks after a beat. "I like my morning—"

"Undisturbed," I finish. "Yes, sorry. I just wanted to say, since I'm just waiting around for Amy, I thought the least I could do was get you coffee... on me... for—" I meekly point at the desk and fan my lashes for the sake of it, before blurting out "Would you like a coffee?" super fast so as to appear like I'm losing my nerves already.

He abruptly slides those glasses back on and pins me with his gaze. "Fine. Get me a coffee."

I feel a strange heat throb behind my belly button. Never has a man looked that sexy weary fucking wire frames! What's wrong with me?

I must be ovulating.

I shake my head—stupid thought worms—and ask "What kind of coffee?"

His gaze slides over to me again and this time lingers a while. A flicker of a smile tugging at one corner of his lips. "Surprise me."

I swallow. "Surprise."

He nods slowly, pulling that frame off his face and resting the butt of one arm on his lips, drawing my eyes to it. Dammit.

Focus. I stare at his face again. Fine. Two can play this game. In fact, I remind my self wanted to play this game with him. That's what I'm here for. To play games until he slips up.

I smile as brightly as I can. "One surprise coming right up." And whirl on my heels, what to give him a good view of my behind as I walk away. Maybe this won't be as hard as I think.

As long as I'm not caught snooping around again.

My watch vibrates on my wrist again and I pull out my phone, sending Neil two thumbs up and a grin with 'Operation Nailing Carter begins'.

I know the moment I send it what kind of comment or rather emojis I'd receive but for now, my focus is on Carter and getting him one fine surprise up so he forgets all about seeing me bent over his desk trying to find hidden drawers and whatnot a CEO might have to keep any naughty things they don't want others seeing locked up.

I grab my handbag from my chair where I'd dumped it when I arrived and waltz over to the elevator.

As I press the call button I ignore the triad of messages making my wrist vibrate. Neil and his raining eggplants and peaches gifs and emojis can wait.

A/N: Sorry for posting this later than usual. It's no easy feat spending all day alone with a toddler who's into climbing things, and demanding snacks.

But, I'm also working on editing LOVE ON A DEADLINE for one final querying and/eventual self publishing later this year that sometimes that takes my time and energy.

So just a heads up... some days, I may be late with my posting, but I'll try my best to stick to Tuesdays.

Hope you're enjoying BADBOY CARTER so far though. ☺️🙌🏼