To keep myself from reaching for her, I slipped my hands in my pockets as I asked, “Is there a problem?”
“Ya think?”she deadpanned.
“While I’ll admit that I might have overstepped a bit-”
“Overstepped?”she practically yelled.“You announced our engagement to the world, Sullivan.I’d say that making a public declaration like that is more than just overstepping a bit.I mean, for God sakes, you posted it on the internet, and everyone knows that there is never any coming back from that.”
Figuring that honesty was the only way to navigate this, I said, “Well, what was I supposed to do?Not only did you ask for space right after the most incredible night that I’ve ever fucking had, but you didn’t contact me once all weekend long.I had to do something.”
Her blue eyes widened again.“And that something was to announce our engagement?Not...oh, I don’t know, ask me to dinner or something perfectly normal like that?”
“I might have panicked,” I conceded.
“Might have?”she echoed.“There’s no ‘might have’ about it, Sullivan.You announced that we are engaged to bemarried...do you know what that means?”
“That we need to start planning an engagement party?”I quipped, and I really was taking my life in my own hands.
“I will murder you where you stand,” she threatened.“I swear to God.”
“Baby, what do you want from me?”I asked, finally getting serious.“I can’t take it back, and even if I could, I wouldn’t.”
“Why not?What is this, Sullivan?What are you doing?”she asked earnestly.
Choosing honesty again, I said, “I was already attracted to you before Friday night, Mitzi.Even though I’d made it a personal priority to never get involved with anyone that I worked with or worked for me, that still didn’t stop how I felt whenever you were near.I’ve always wanted you; I was just always professional enough not to act on it before.”
“Okay,” she drawled out slowly, calming down.“Be that as it may, I still don’t see how that leads to an engagement after only one night together.”
“I tend to go full steam when there’s something that I want, and I want you,” I replied truthfully.“I want you more than I can remember ever wanting something before.”
She didn’t look impressed as she crossed her arms over her chest.“Because I let you slap me around while calling me names?”
My chin immediately went up.“I was interested in you way before that ever became an issue,” I pointed out.“And to be completely honest with you, if this was all about wanting to treat a woman like trash sexually, then I have more than enough money to pay someone for that shit.So, do not ever dismiss what happened between us again.This is not about sex.”
After a few seconds of processing what I’d just said, Mitzi let out a deep breath, seemingly trying to calm down some more, but I wasn’t sure if it was going to work.No matter what she said, I wasn’t going to rescind the announcement.I wanted to date her, and I refused to let her become some employee-fucking-the-boss cliché.Whatever it took, I was not going to allow her to be whispered about or disrespected, and an engagement would ensure that.
Taking my hands out of my pockets, I placed them on her shoulders, then ran them up and down her arms.“Baby, this doesn’t mean that we have to get married tomorrow,” I said.“We can have a long engagement, dating in the meantime.”
Though she no longer looked pissed, she still didn’t look onboard with all of this.“Sullivan, this is crazy.Not only are you my boss’ boss’ boss, but...but...”
“But what?”
“Ijustbroke up with my boyfriend,” she reminded me.“How the hell do you plan to explain that away?How is there any way to spin getting engaged to you after having left my boyfriend only last week?It makes me look like a cheater or you like a rebound.”
Admittedly, I hadn’t factored that into my plan, and it was a valid issue.“Then we tell the truth.”
“Which is?”
“We’ll just tell people that I’ve always been interested in you, and when I found out that you ended things with your boyfriend, I announced our engagement as a desperate attempt to get you to date me,” I explained.“We’ll trade The Fantasy Factory for a dinner date, and we’ll say that it only took me one night to be all in with you, which is all true.”
She shook her head, still not convinced.“This is just too much.”
“If you ask me, it’s not enough,” I countered.
“Sullivan, you don’t even know anything about me,” she went on.“Yeah, you know my academic history and have witnessed my work ethic, but you have no idea what I’m like outside of work.”
“Hence the long engagement,” I replied pointedly.
My hands dropped when she took a step back, letting out a hollow laugh.“I’m going to be the girl who’s banging the boss, Sullivan.After all that I’ve accomplished, that’s what I’m going to be reduced to.”
