What He Resists (What He Wants, Book Nine) (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) by Hannah Ford Page B

fact that Noah hadn’t been able to migrate over my addresses.
    Professor Worthington appeared a few
moments later, wearing jeans and a loose sweater, looking more relaxed than he
usually did during class.
    “Have you been waiting long?” he asked.
    “No.”   I shook my head as he slipped into the chair across from
me.   He’d already gotten his
coffee, plain black in a white ceramic mug.  
    A moment of silence stretched between us,
the kind of silence I knew I should attempt to fill with small talk, but I
didn’t want to waste time on the weather or how good the coffee was.   I wanted to know why I was here.
    “I’m sorry for being so forward, Professor,
but I have to admit I’m quite curious as to why you invited me here.”   I congratulated myself on how
professional and formal I sounded, how my voice didn’t shake even after
everything that had happened last night.
    Professor Worthington sighed.   “Have you been happy, Charlotte?” he
asked.
    I frowned.   “I’m not sure what you mean.”
    He smiled.   “I mean, have you been happy working on the Cutler case?”
    “The experience is gong to be
invaluable,” I said.   “I’m so
honored to be included.”
    He waved his hand, like he was shooing my
words away.   “No, I know the
experience is great.   What I meant
is, have you been happy working with Mr. Cutler?”
    His eyes bore into mine, and my face
flamed.   I gripped my coffee cup
with both hands, letting the hot ceramic warm my skin.   I needed to choose my words carefully.
    “Noah can be difficult,” I said.   “But every case has its
challenges.   Why do you ask?”
    “Noah called me this morning,
Charlotte.   He asked me to take you
off his case.”
    “Take me off his case?”
    “Yes.   He said he wanted you to be removed, that he wouldn’t be
speaking with you any more about it.”
    “Oh.” I nodded.   I could feel the words bubbling up to my lips, could feel
them already forming.   I’m sorry he feels that way.   Of course I understand.   I’ll respect his wishes.   I’d love to be considered for any
future cases.
    But none of that was true.
    I didn’t   respect his wishes.
    Noah was being a jerk, plain and simple
– requesting to take me off the case after the things he’d done to me
last night?   Dropping my things off
at my hotel room this morning, without a note or an explanation or
anything?  
    How
dare you.  
    He thought he could just brush me under
the rug like I was a crumb, like I was something that could just be erased, the
way he’d erased all traces of me from his apartment.
    Fuck
that.
    “Professor Worthington,” I said,
thrusting my chin in the air.   “With all due respect, I wasn’t aware that attorneys were in the
business of letting their clients dictate who they want working on their case.”
    He shook his head.   “Charlotte, I understand this might be
–”
    “No.”   I cut him off.   I didn’t care if I was being disrespectful or overstepping my
bounds.   I was sick of this.   Yes, I’d done something wrong by
getting involved with a client -- I shouldn’t have slept with Noah.
    But Professor Worthington had known it
was going on – he might not have wanted to admit it, but he’d practically
pushed me at Noah, almost used me to get Noah to trust us.   I wasn’t going to be punished for
that.   And I wasn’t going to let
the fact that Noah had broken my heart get in the way of the experience I could
gain from working on this case.   Why should I deprive myself of something that could be good for my
career?
    “I understand if Mr. Cutler wishes to
work with you on a more direct basis, but I should certainly still be able to
help with any research or paperwork,” I said, surprised at how in control and
direct I sounded.
    “Charlotte, Mr. Cutler has made his
wishes very clear.”  
    “Again, I didn’t know we were in the
business of letting our clients dictate how to give them the best
defense.”   I