The Contracted Ever After novel Chapter 3

Cordelia looked around, finding no one else in the office.

"I'm talking to you." said Ronan.-

"What?"

"Marry me." Ronan repeated.

Cordelia's mind slowly returned to the topic "Marry me." She was a bit shocked. She had thought about marriage before, but with only a month left until her college graduation, she wasn't even considering it.

Cordelia wondered, was Ronan testing her? After all, for a CEO, having a relationship with an intern was not necessarily a loss, but it wasn't a good thing either. He might have wanted to know if Cordelia had any plans of crossing the line.

Cordelia felt conflicted. For her, Ronan's warm embrace and his gaze, plus their unexpected romp in the sack, set him apart from other men. But she knew, whether in this life or the next, they could never be together. The reason Ronan proposed to her, a woman who wasn't his social equal, was definitely not because he liked her. Thinking back to Ronan's warning when he returned her phone, Cordelia was certain that he was just worried she would cause him trouble.

So, she lied, "I have a boyfriend."

"Are you two planning to get married?" Ronan asked.

"Oh, not yet. We haven't graduated yet, no financial foundation," Cordelia responded, keeping her cool.

"So, how far have you two gone?" Ronan seemed unexpectedly interested in Cordelia's personal life.

Unsure of what Ronan was thinking, Cordelia answered, "We...are living together already."

What she meant was that she had a boyfriend, they'd done the deed, she didn't want her boyfriend to overthink, and she wouldn't go around talking about sleeping with other men. She would keep what happened at the team building event a secret and put Mr. Evans' mind at ease.

"Living together?" Ronan frowned slightly. She was clearly a virgin that night.