3. YOU ARE ENGAGED?

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~FIONA CARLSON~

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I walked into the office feeling like a thief.

Monday have always been the longest day of the week but today felt even worse than it normally did.

I slept with Dante Russo.

He had asked me to call him Dante from now on but I wondered if it was applicable when we were at the office. Then again, when else were we going to meet?

I did not know what he had in mind but I was not at all interested in continuing whatever happened over Saturday night and Sunday morning.

I was not going to lie and say that this was not the best sex of my life. But I had more things to worry about in life than carnal needs. My sister's tuition, rent and grocery and all other bills depended on my paycheck and I could not play with that.

"You are late."

I jumped out of my skin at the voice of the devil in my thoughts, his Italian accent thicker than usual. 

My eyes fell on Mr. Russo, clad in a black Armani suit and looking like the Italian God that he was.

"Sir, I am an hour early." I squeaked out, sounding like a parrot.

He raised a brow.

"I thought I made sure that you will be calling me Dante." He straightened from where he leaned against my desk. "Do I need to reinforce?"

"W-what?" I stammered, taking a step back as he took one forward.

"Do you need a reminder of the number of times you screamed my name, Fiona?" Mr. Russo asked, taking another step forward. And I took another step back.

"N-no." I stuttered.

"That does not sound too convincing." As much as I wished I had the courage in me to smack that smirk off of his face, I couldn't help but admire that it just added more charisma to his presence.

"No." I mentally gave myself a pat on the back for finally sounding convincing enough even though I was already envisioning my boss taking me against the translucent glass wall of my mini-office. 

Mr. Russo pouted - mockingly but cut, nevertheless - and covered the distance between us, wrapping his arms around my waist. 

"Did you miss me?" He asked the pout in place. "Or were you drowning in the guilt of sleeping with an engaged man?" 

I choked on my own spit. 

"YOU ARE ENGAGED?" 

Mr. Russo flinched like he did when we met at the club on Saturday. Which reminds me, I need to go find Ray and make her my friend. I have never felt such great energy from someone in so long and I really need that right now. 

"You are engaged?" I lowered my voice for his sake and tried to get him to loosen his hold on me but it only made him resist my attempt. 

"You didn't know?" He asked and the mocking look still remained. "You are the one who sent her gifts at my behest and you still didn't know?"

"I send a lot of people gifts at your behest." I continued to struggle against his hold, his proximity and the scent of his perfuse diffusing into my nervous system. "Who is it?" 

"Norah Lumine? Ring a bell?" 

If the news of his engagement did not come as a shock, then this did. 

"But is Norah dating Chad Friggman?" I blurted out. 

What was happening? 

His eyes widened at the question. Was I wrong? Oh shit, first I sleep with an engaged man and now I question his relationship with his fiance. 

Goodbye, my job. 

Mazy and I were going to be reduced to the street because of the one time in four years when I decided to let loose and have some fun. 

"You knew about that?" He asked. 

"It's an open relationship?" I asked in return.

He loosened his arms only for his hands to travel down to my ass-cheeks which he squeezed as if it was a stress-ball for him to relieve his tension.

"How long have you known that Chad and Norah are dating?" He asked, not answering my question. In his defense, he was just somehow rephrasing his initial question which I did not answer. 

"I don't know. My teen sister is a fan of Friggman and she and her friends were gossiping about their secret relationship in the car so I thought..." 

"So everyone knew except for me." Mr. Russo chuckled humorlessly before pulling me towards him, my breast bumping into his. He lowered his lips to touch mine but I turned my head.

"I am sorry Mr. Russo but I did not know you were in a relationship. That's why I slept with you but I am not going to get involved with a committed man!"

"I broke off the engagement with Norah on Saturday." He said. "Before I fucked you for the first time."

Mr. Russo grabbed me by my tight ponytail and made me face him. 

"Now... Why don't you take my name with that sexy mouth of yours?" The way the word 'sexy' rolled off of his tongue in that Italian accent is enough to get any girl weak on her knees. And I was no exception to the rule. 

"Dante..." I whispered timidly. 

"I can't hear you, cara mia." 

Does this man want my heart to stop?

"Dante, we should not be doing this in the office," I said with more firmness in my voice. God knows how I managed to gather up the courage to say that to his face when he was looking at me so intensely with those ebony ink pools. 

"Why not? I own this company." He sounded so proud of his own cockiness that I could not help but snort. 

His eyebrow raised, the cockiness escaping his face to be replaced with a new sense of curiosity. As if he was unaware that I could dare to laugh in his face like that. 

"We can't because there are rules you set in this company." I shrugged and somehow used his confusion to get out of his hold. 

I put a safe distance between the two of us. 

"Are you alright?" I asked. 

"What?" Now he seemed more confused than ever.

"You said you didn't know about Chad and Norah. That must have been a shock. Are you alright?" I asked again. 

He seemed at a loss for words. 

"I am fine." He said at last before abruptly walking out of my office and into his. 

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