Wave after wave of pleasure crashed into me in yet another wild night of passion.
Michael fully satisfied himself before he rolled off and pulled me tightly into his embrace.
Although he was the one doing all the hard work, the way he constantly adjusted my position to cater to him had already left me sufficiently worn out. So I closed my eyes, and I let him keep me there.
It occurred to me then that this time, I forgot about the pills.
Perhaps Michael’s threats had taken effect, the next few days saw no further movement from Emma and passed without incident. Without her getting on my case, I felt a little more at ease.
After Ronan’s confession the last time, I was a little reluctant to pick up when he called today. But since I had agreed for us to continue as friends, I sucked it up and answered.
“Finally, Anna. I thought you were really going to ignore me,” Ronan said, his voice from the other end full of hurt.
“Why would I when I’ve promised not to avoid you the last time? I was just a little tied up a moment ago.” I let out an awkward laugh as I cooked up something on the fly. “Is there something you need from me? ‘Cause I’m at work right now.”
I was worried that Ronan might ask me out for a meal or the likes, so I used work as a deterrent before he could suggest anything else.
“Why am I calling? Cause I missed you, of course. And tonight, I’d like to introduce you to someone,” he said, still wanting to meet up as though he had not gotten the hint.
“But I’m afraid I won’t have the time to. Lots of work to catch up with. How about next time?”
As it was only quite recently that he confessed his feelings for me, I did not feel comfortable seeing him again so soon, and considering his personality, he might also start saying something inappropriate.
“Are you turning me down here, Anna? Making excuses even when you said that you won’t? I’m really upset, Anna.”
Ronan may like to goof around, but he had a mind like a steel trap.
“Alright, alright. Let’s meet in the afternoon then.”
Knowing that I would not be able to wriggle out of this, I eventually gave in and that made Ronan audibly pleased. I then took care to remind him not to run his mouth before I hung up.
He was actually a pretty nice guy, but I could not have him taking a liking to me as we could never be together.
After work, he texted me the address to a restaurant, which took a long ride on the subway to reach.
I was positively astounded when I arrived at the place he mentioned; as compared to the Jetroinian restaurant we last visited together, this one could very well be a five-star establishment.
That profligate fella must have had too much cash to spare, choosing to dine at a posh place like this.
Coming up to the door of the private room marked 1101, I pushed my way through. Being in such a high-end restaurant for the first time really made me nervous, as this was a place better suited for the affluent than peasants like me.
I had barely even taken a step when Ronan popped out to pull me inside.
“At long last, Anna. Come, let me introduce you to my cousin, the famous business whiz kid, Michael Shaw.”
I shuddered when I heard that name, and became dumbstruck when my gaze fell upon Michael’s face.
Michael…
Learning that he was the cousin that Ronan had been talking about was disconcerting as the two of them could not have been more different from each other.
There was a glint of astonishment across Michael’s eyes when he first saw me before his handsome face cooled off. I bet that he was not expecting for me to be that person Ronan wanted to introduce him to either.
“What’s wrong, Anna?”
Ronan frowned when he saw me staring at Michael and seemed a little concerned.
“I’m fine. It’s nothing…”
I withdrew from making eye contact with Michael when Ronan sat me across from him, as his icy gaze threatened to pierce right through me. Ronan then proceeded to take his own place beside me.
“What do you think, Michael? Isn’t she gorgeous?”
The chirpy man was primarily focused on Michael, seemingly oblivious to the awkwardness between Michael and myself.
“Yeah, she is. You’re pretty capable now, aren’t you, Ronan? Trying to poach my people?”
Michael glanced at me before he tossed back and emptied his wineglass without a sliver of emotion.
His words took me aback and had my heart thumping against my chest. Did he mean to tell Ronan about us?
I looked upon his inscrutable expression with apprehensiveness and anticipation, quietly hoping for him to not keep our relationship a secret any longer.
“Whatever do you mean by that, Michael? Do you two know each other?”
Ronan’s eyes flitted between Michael and myself, looking quite perplexed, while I kept my head low and awaited Michael’s response.
“She works in my design department,” Michael said blandly after taking another glance at me and sounded very distant.
Lifting my head to him, I tried to hide my disappointment as that was not the sort of response I was looking forward to.
“So you work at Joyful Success. What an amazing coincidence.”
Upon hearing Michael’s answer, Ronan smiled a little and appeared more relaxed compared to when he heard the former’s previous comment.
“Yeah. I’ve never heard you mention that Mr. Shaw’s your cousin before,” I said while I eked out a smile. There was no way that I would have shown up here had I known how they were related beforehand.
Heaven forbid. The two of them, cousins? How could such a coincidence even exist in this world? I must have been jinxed to even chance upon something like this.
In the meantime, the look in Michael’s eyes intimated that he might skin me alive, so I was sure that some punishment would be in order when I got home at night.
