An Unexpected Engagement

Chapter 14

Natasha

I admire the ring back on my finger with a strange sense of unreality spreading through me.

How did he get there?

I'm still trying to figure it out, twenty-four hours after Steve put it on my finger again.

He simply put the ring on my finger and went back to his office on CEOs Olympus, leaving me completely confused.

Steve was a venomous snake. That alone explained the way he'd manipulated everything to get me to take that ring back and the farce it represented.

And now, not satisfied with the skein of lies to the Rogers family, I have also extended the lie to my own family!

Well, Steve couldn't have guessed that I would agree to a fake engagement to make my grandmother happy. Or maybe he did. There must be something different in CEOs' minds. Like an above-normal intelligence that made him mind-read or something. That would explain a lot: his huge professional success in such a short time, for example. Or the fact that he was fabulous in bed.

Oh dear, had he understood that by accepting the (now double) charade, it was implied that we would have sex again?

I should have explained that part better, I think as I sip my umpteenth coffee. I was actually a little nervous about having dinner in my
I was home today and had had my fill of coffee, considering that drinking whiskey during work hours was prohibited.

Certainly I didn't need any more reasons for Erin to hate me.

I still felt the rope was around my neck. Thank God I arrived on time today!

“Hi, Natasha.” Alan enters the breakfast room all smiling. "So, would you like to have lunch with me today?" Since yesterday it pierced…

- I'm sorry for yesterday. Since I was late, Erin kept picking up on me. “The truth was, I was so shaken by the day's events that I wasn't even hungry.

“I heard Steve was here in your sector,” he speculates. "I've never seen him around here."

I turn red. As if Alan could guess what was going on, something impossible.

"Have you been?" I didn't even see it. I take some more coffee, looking away.

- No? Benjamin said he saw you near your table, talking to you.

Oh shit, that computer japa was a big mouth!

Did he see the ring part? Probably not, otherwise it would have already spread.

“Oh yeah… He was asking about Erin.

"May I know what they're doing here?"

Speaking of the devil!

I almost jump when I hear Steve's voice in the coffee room door.

What is he doing here?

He runs an irritated gaze from me to Alan suspiciously.

What did he think was going on? That Alan and I were having sex on top of the coffee machine?

"Drinking coffee," I reply dryly. — And you, what are you doing here?

Alan chokes on his coffee and I realize he couldn't respond like that in front of others.

Shit!

“I mean, can we help you with something, boss? I smile sweetly.

"All right, Felton?" Steve asks as Alan coughs nonstop.

"Yes, I'm sorry," he replies all red.

"Don't you have work to do?"