|| W I T H O U T - M E || A STEVE ROGERS AND TONY STARK FIC

5

"Then what does he want?" He wants to ask her name, he wants to find out who this girl is because she has a softness to her that he'd seen in Sharon but there's something different about this one. She's with Sharon. She has to be. She has to be. He can't help but keep telling himself that she's against him. That she's lying and that Tony has Sharon in the tower and she's waiting. Ready and waiting to take him down again. To tap into his head more than she already has. The bitch. "Do you know what happened with Sharon? Are you lying to me?"

"N-No, sir. I would never lie to you. I- I do know about what happened with Sharon and I'm sorry about it but I- I don't know what made you think that I would lie to you." She looks down and folds her hands, her face turning red, embarrassed that he'd think she's lying to him and think that she's so stupid that she'd get herself kicked out because of his not liking her if she were to be lying.

"What's your name?"

"K-Katrina Martins, sir." She doesn't look up at him, "I'm just an intern. I'm... Well... Maybe not an intern... I'm a new agent here at the tower. Mr. Stark said that he'd allow me to stay here if I just ran his errands for him and did as he said."

"Look at me when you're talking to me. I won't bite." He moves closer to her and throws his towel over his shoulder, taking a sip of his water. Steve's tank top is soaked but by the look of the red on Katrina's face, he decides to leave it on. "Katrina, look at me please."

"I'm sorry, sir." She whispers and looks up at him, though he walks on by her and waves her to follow him.

"Call me Steve." He says, "My friends call me Steve and if you're gonna be living here, then call me that. I don't want you to think that you have to walk on eggshells."

"Yes, sir." She follows behind him and catches up to his side. "I just... I don't want to upset anyone during my stay. I'm only here temporarily because of the training. Plus, I uh..."

He raises his brow when she puts her left hand up. There's a diamond ring on her finger. He hadn't realized that when he looked at her the first time. Steve should have looked for that first thing before he thought anything about how she was probably going to flirt with him. She's engaged... She's obviously not here for me that way. Maybe she isn't lying... He still thinks that she's lying about not being one of Sharon's little henchmen. "So, engaged."

"Yeah..." She blushes, wondering if he was thinking about being with her. Wondering what was going through his mind because what if her hero was just about to ask her out and she just ruined it. The ring is real, the engagement is fake. She's supposed to use it to her advantage, to keep the men off her until she's comfortable around them. Nick Fury told her and Tony about the plan because Tony is one of her close friends.