Page 31 of His Rules

“We never mention the other night to anyone. Ever. And I do mean forever.”

He smirked once again. “I assure you that won’t happen, Ms. Taylor. What we shared is just a distant memory, an act that will never be repeated. Go spend time with Ms. Bennett. Then we’ll sit down and have a nice, long chat.”

I gritted my teeth, finally nodding, fury all I felt at this point.

Maybe I could quickly turn my feelings into hate.

“One last thing,” he stated before I had a chance to leave the room. “You will follow my rules. Every. Single. One of them.”

CHAPTER 9

Kacey

Rules.

Every. Single. One of them.

What did that even mean?

I’d been fuming about it for two solid days. He’d never mentioned them again in our littlechatwe’d had that had lasted for forty-five minutes before he’d dismissed me. What frustrated me the most was that I hadn’t gotten up the nerve to ask him either.

I certainly wasn’t a meek girl, but around Sebastian I’d felt a little like a befuddled child. That wasn’t acceptable.

“Hey, Dad.” My father usually worked long hours at the hospital. It was more of his home than the beautiful estate I’d grown up on. I sipped on my wine, absently flipping through the same paperwork I’d been looking at for two days. When he walked into the kitchen, I closed the folder.

Boosting my courage enough to tell him about all my changes was necessary.

“Hey, darling. I didn’t expect to see you. Aren’t you going out with your friends tonight?” He walked into the kitchen, his face highlighting the grueling work ethic he’d adopted days after my mother’s death. Often it felt like I barely knew the man. We’d been ships passing in the night.

I’d had a nanny almost immediately, a series of them over the years. A few had quit after only a week because I’d been such a little hellion. I’d lashed out because I couldn’t understand why my mommy wasn’t coming home.

Maybe I still didn’t.

My father was a brilliant heart surgeon, but hadn’t been allowed to operate on his own wife. No one had known about her condition. She’d died on the table during open heart surgery and my father had never forgiven the surgeon who’d taken his place.

My dad had blamed himself every day since.

Two days had passed since I’d accepted the job with Aeronautical Enterprises. Two days of wondering if I’d done the right thing. Two days of intense meetings, a copious volume of paperwork and self-doubt. Two days of being forced into close proximity with Sebastian, a man I’d slept with and was my father’s best friend.

Two days of being unable to find the courage to tell my father I was moving back home. I had no idea what was up with me, but I had to own up to the decisions I’d made.

“We’re meeting for drinks in an hour.”

He grabbed a beer from the fridge and slid onto the barstool across the kitchen island from me. “That’s good.”

“You look tired, Dad. You’re working too much.”

“I’ve had a few tough days. Nothing I can’t handle.” He rubbed his eyes and it occurred to me how many more lines were showing on his face. My mom and dad had conceived me when they were both very young, and up until now I’d seen my dad as a superhero, remaining eternally young.

It was just another reminder why sleeping with Sebastian had been such a bad decision.

“You need to take a few days off.”

“I plan on doing that. When are you returning to New York? Maybe we can squeeze in a day together.”

That’s the way it had always felt. Squeezing in time spent with my father. Even holidays had been mostly short lived. But I loved my dad more than anything. He’d been my rock.

It was now or never and since I’d already given my two weeks’ notice at my old job, I had no other recourse. I was moving back home. “What would you think if I moved back?”

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