Page 33 of Relentless Pursuit

“Like what?”

“You’ll figure it out when I’m breaking them for you.” He kissed her. “You’ll know.”

He smirked when he thought about the fun they could have as he trained her to let go and give in to his dominance. The possibilities were endless.

Chapter 9

Kayla tossed the salad as Caroline marinated the steaks. Her sister-in-law had called and invited her to dinner when she had arrived home from Julian’s. She gladly accepted. She liked spending time with Jack and Caroline. It was also fantastic to have a home-cooked meal every once and a while, especially when it was cooked by a professional chef. Caroline ran one of New York City’s trendiest restaurants. She and Jack had recently moved from the city to a surrounding suburb, but both commuted to Manhattan. Now that Kayla lived in the city, she often had lunch with one or both of them. She’d had a wonderful experience at college, but it was good to be home with her family.

“Are you settling into your apartment?” Caroline asked. “You’ve been in the city for a few months now.”

“I like it,” she said. “Having my own space is awesome.”

“Is the job any better?”

“Not really.” Kayla placed the wooden salad bowl on the counter. “I just keep telling myself it won’t be forever. I just need to appease Daddy.”

“He’ll come around. I think it’s the right move to stick it out. Show your father you can be responsible. After a few months, if you still don’t like it, then you can switch it up, but at least he can say you tried.”

“That’s what I was thinking, but there’s this jerky guy who won’t leave me alone.”

“Who?”

“His name is Mitch Hampton. He’s kind of my boss, and he’s hit on me a few times.”

“That’s awful,” Caroline said. “You need to tell someone.”

“No, I’ve told him I’m not interested. He backed off a few days, but last week he asked me to have a drink with him.”

“I’m sure your dad would understand why you don’t want to stay in that environment.”

“I know, but I don’t want to run at the first problem, you know? I’ve been scoping the paper and looking online. I want to have a plan in place before I tell my father I’m not staying at the station.”

“Well, Jack and I are here if you need anything. Don’t let that jerk make you feel uncomfortable.”

“I won’t. I think he’s harmless.”

“So, have you met anyone else?” Caroline mixed the potatoes that she was going to stuff back in the skins for her famous twice-baked potatoes. “Like a guy other than the dirtbag boss?”

“Who has time for a guy?” Kayla had been spending an awful lot of time with a certain guy, but that was a story for another day. She’d been trying hard all afternoon not to focus on the last twenty-four hours, but she was failing miserably.

“You’ve met a few girls since you’ve been here, so I thought maybe they would introduce you to someone.” Caroline mixed in some more sour cream. “Not that you need a serious guy or anything, but it might be fun to go on a date.”

“Maybe.” Kayla didn’t want to talk about this now. “You’re making a lot of food for the three of us.”

“Oh, didn’t Jack tell you?”

The doorbell rang just as Caroline finished filling the potatoes with her tasty mixture.

“Tell me what?”

“He invited Julian to eat with us.”

Julian?

“I’ll get it,” Jack called from the family room.

“They haven’t seen one another in a few weeks. We usually get together with him and his flavor of the month, but he’s in between women at the moment, so Jack thought it would be less awkward if we just had him for dinner here.”

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