Sullivan is a straightforward man. She had heard people say it a lot in the past. You could ask him if he didn't like someone and he would blatantly agree to it.
It's what he had done on national TV before. When an interviewer had asked him about his horrible reputation and if he had plans to salvage what was left. Sullivan had responded by telling the man to focus on the sexual assault and domestic violence case charged against him by his own wife. It was more than horrendous because everyone was pale-striken shocked.
Apparently, it was a closed and private court case but Sullivan had spoken about it on camera like it was a simple 'good morning'. The man had no filter nor did he bother hiding how he felt about others.
So Anna was quite surprised when he returned her question with another. She opened her mouth to speak but closed it again before letting go of his pinky. Is this turning into a habit for her now?
Holding his pinky?
Another thing the man was famous for was his dislike of being touched. Many talked about how his OCD is probably why he doesn't like women or even men. Why he has no current sexual life—as he had answered in an interview a few months back—even though Sullivan had once confirmed that he didn't have OCD.
Yet Anna touched him and he didn't shrink away or tell her to never touch him again. She was starting to wonder if she should press on the matter or just leave it be.
That one time she had been stuck with him, she had seen his eyes and the way he stared at her and it scared her. That crazy glint in his eyes had made her run far from him. Plus the fact that she didn't like how it made her feel. As a married woman at that time who loved her husband more than anything, she hated to admit that he had once made her heart flutter by just staring at her.
"Never mind." She rubs her hand against her jeans and takes a step back.
"Anna…" he called and she raised her head. "...I can always tell you why."
That too she knows. But there was this fear. Fear of wanting to admit to it. Because if she admitted to it then she would not be able to stay here as she couldn't do that to him.
And if she couldn't stay here, she would have nowhere else to go.
Her voice was small when she spoke. "You don't have to." She cleared her throat. "By the way, I…I am.. I know that I am living with you…"
"Annabelle, speak freely."
She nodded and then cleared her throat again. "I am really grateful for what you have done for me and…and what you are doing.."
"Don't flatter me. You can speak freely."
"Okay then. I just think we should set some boundaries if we will be living together, you know." She stole a glance at him but quickly looked away, unable to stare for too long lest she finds an emotion that will tug at her heart in his lovely eyes. "We are two grown up adults living together and we are not…we are not together."
Sullivan was enjoying her awkwardness more than he thought.
"And I just feel like if we set rules, it will be better." With her being twenty six and he thirty eight, capable adults who had needs and desires. "So there should be no…"
"Kissing?" Sullivan beat her to it and she felt heat creep up on her face but she quickly nodded. He took a step closer and Anna looked at him. "But you kissed me Anna." she twitched her head as she brought her finger to touch her lower lip subconsciously. He doubted if she even knew she was doing that. "Where do I file that? Under what attitude? Or does the boundary stop there? At kissing?"
Blushing, she nods her head again, a high pitched 'yes' leaving her mouth before she could think. Anna flushed and smacked a hand over her running mouth making Sullivan smile as his eyes twinkled. He had no idea it would be this fun to tease her.
He stepped closer again and her chest inflated. "Really?" He leaned to her face level and glanced at her lips. "Does that mean I can kiss you again?"
"No!" She blurted, taking a step back. "Please stay back, your face is clouding my rational thinking."
Her response made Sullivan's chest flutter, the strange feeling putting him in an even better mood as he chuckled. It was short, low yet burning and it made Anna feel warm to hear the sound of it. Micheal Sullivan smiling and chuckling. All in one night and she had been the one to command such reactions out of him.
She really deserves an award for that.
"I did that because…"
"Because of your ex and sister in law?"
"Yes."
He rubbed his chin gently, her gaze slipping to the groomed beard as she remembered the feel of it against her face. Tingly, but in a good way. In a way she liked. In a way she wouldn't mind having…
"But it doesn't change the fact that you kissed me Anna."
She glared at him now. "And you kissed me back!" She pointed her index finger to her lips. "Is this something you do randomly?" He shakes his head. "Then why did you kiss me back?"
"Because it was you who kissed me. It was you Anna. Not anyone else." To Sullivan, his reason made sense but maybe to Anna it wasn't enough but she needn't dwell on the matter anymore.
"Fine! Let's just say we are equal." Sullivan wanted to protest. She couldn't wake this in him and call it equal. She couldn't introduce him to this and get to easily slip away from it. But Anna wasn't his to own and he couldn't be selfish towards the lady. They had no future together anyways. "So boundaries, yes."
"Yes, boundaries." He repeats staying for some second before finally leaving.
Anna relaxed on the bed the moment he left, a hand to her chest as she tried to calm her breathing. Sullivan is a dangerous man in terms of matters of the heart. If she wasn't extra careful, she will slide into the Sullivan charm faster than she can blink.
Later that night, Anna moved around in bed wondering if she would be able to find sleep in a strange environment. If she will have nightmares from that night but all that filled her mind was the kiss and Sullivan's gentle teasing tone of the action.
She thought so much of it, she didn't even know when she fell asleep. Meanwhile Sullivan couldn't find sleep as he kept pacing outside her room. His steps, completely feather like.
Once he waited and knew she was asleep, he slowly slipped into her room, crouching by her bedside, watching the rise and fall of her chest. The soft hair that fell over her face and the duvet that was crumpled from her moving around too much.
Is this what bliss felt like to a man? It has been so long since he last felt this happy, this…jumpy, he almost didn't know what to do about it.
Surly, Anna knew how he felt about her but the lady was dodging around it and for some reasons, he was a bit glad because if she encouraged it in him, Sullivan knew, he would be quick to forget the main reason they couldn't be together. And it would be easy for him to slide back into his past self—for the protection of Anna.
As he sat there, watching her sleep and mumble, his chest filled to the brim with contentment, Sullivan waited for morning. To the time when she would be up and talking to him again.