When Kaia had walked across that graduation stage years ago, she had forged two silent, ironclad vows in the heat of her resentment. First, she would never allow a man to shrink her world or steal her voice again. Second, if the universe ever forced her into the path of Chase Ceemer, she would flay him with the truth, detailing every jagged edge of the wreckage he'd left behind.
So far, she had managed only to tremble.
The fine hairs on the back of her neck rose in a prickle of alarm as his breath brushed her skin. It was a phantom weight, an old and terrible gravity pulling at her. That familiar, sickening twist of trepidation coiled in her gut, maddeningly tangled with a spark of unwanted attraction. She gripped the edge of the desk, fighting the static in her brain to find her footing.
"Y—you remember," she stuttered, the vow of strength crumbling into a soft, broken syllable.
"You didn't really think I'd forget you, now did you, my little Katharos?" He let out a low, dark chuckle that vibrated through the small space between them.
That name. It hit her like a physical blow. It had been the soundtrack to her nightmares for a decade, a brand she thought she had finally scrubbed from her skin when she left for college. She had run miles, states, years away from him. But he had been a shadow she couldn't outpace. He had followed her then, and like a recurring fever, he had followed her here.
The air in the office felt thick, as if he were a vacuum consuming every molecule of oxygen and replacing it with himself. He was all she could inhale: deep, woody bergamot and sharp mint with that deceptive, sweet finish of watermelon. Her palm throbbed, a dull ache radiating from where her nails had finally breached the skin. The walls felt like they were leaning in.
"Hey, breathe," he said. He reached out, his fingers tapping her cheek with a light, mocking ghost of a touch.
The contact was electric. Kaia jolted as if the skin of his hand were white hot, a searing brand on her face. She scrambled backward, her heels clicking frantically against the floor.
"I'm sorry... can't do this... I need to go," she gasped out. She didn't wait for a response. She bolted, her shoulder catching the doorframe as she fled toward the sanctuary of the elevator, leaving Chase reaching into empty air.
"Kaia, wai—"
The rest of his command was swallowed by the closing silver doors.
The city blurred outside the taxi window. Kaia sat in a cramped corner of a cafe on the far side of town, the hiss of the espresso machine providing a rhythmic backdrop to her panic. She couldn't go back to the apartment. Her mother's eyes were too sharp, her questions too pointed, and Kaia was currently a raw nerve. Taking the cab had been a reckless drain on her dwindling funds, a luxury she couldn't afford, but in that moment of flight, survival had outranked her budget.
"Ugh, Kaia. It wasn't supposed to go this way," she groaned into her hands. She stared at the swirling foam of her latte, her fingers tracing the ceramic rim. A single, hot tear escaped, tracing a path down her cheek before she wiped it away with a sharp, disgusted motion.
The shame was a heavy cloak. She was twenty five years old, a professional with a degree and a life, yet three minutes with him had stripped her back to the fragile fifteen year old girl who had been tragically, foolishly in love with her own tormentor.
The table beneath her hands began to thrum. Her phone vibrated with a rhythmic, insistent hum. She glanced at the screen. No name. No ID. She let it buzz until the silence returned.
"How do you plan on working for him for three months if you can't even stand to be around him for three minutes?" she muttered to the empty chair across from her.
The phone sprang to life again. The same unknown caller. Kaia bit her lip. Perhaps it was a recruiter. Perhaps one of the dozen resumes she'd thrown into the void had finally landed. She took a steadying breath and pressed the phone to her ear.
"Kaia speaking, how may I help you?"
"I didn't think you'd still be one to run away, Kaia."
His voice was smooth as polished stone, sliding through the receiver and making her spine stiffen.
"Chase!" she grunted, her hand tightening around the phone. "How did you get my number?"
"You're my secretary, Kaia. Of course I have your number. Where are you? We're supposed to be having lunch right now."
"I'm not having lunch with you, Chase. I work for you, I'm not yours to do with as you please," she snapped. The venom in her tone felt good, a small flickering flame of the woman she had promised to be.
"And yet, you're not in the office," he countered calmly. "Look, Kaia, I can find you in five minutes if I wanted to. No matter where you go. But I'm giving you the opportunity to come to me yourself, because I'm trying to do better and I want to show you that."
"I don't care about anything you do, Chase. You have no right to tell me what to do."
"We'll do it your way then," he said. The line went dead with a soft, final click.
"Ugh. Who does he think he is?" She slumped back in her seat, the audacity of the man stinging more than the memory of his bullying. He should be on his knees. He should be begging for a shred of her forgiveness for the years he'd stolen. Instead, he was playing God with her schedule and making demands.
She didn't care. She would sit here, drink her cooling coffee, and figure out how to survive ninety days of him without losing her mind. She needed the paycheck, but she didn't need him.
Kaia reached for her phone to leave, her mind already drafting a stern list of workplace boundaries. But then a voice drifted across the table, a voice that wasn't a memory or a digital transmission.
"You are mine."
Kaia froze. Her heart skipped a beat, then began a frantic, thudding gallop. She looked up, her eyes widening in pure shock. Chase sat in the chair she had just been staring at, looking as if he had been there the entire time.
"What?" she whispered, her voice failing her.
"To do with as I please," he answered, his eyes locking onto hers with a predatory focus.
Kaia's shock curdled into a cold, hard anger. "How did you find me?"
"I told you I could find you no matter where you are, Kaia," he said, leaning back with effortless grace.
She closed her eyes, forcing a deep, slow breath into her lungs. She had to end this now. "I'm only here because of my mom. I plan on working here for only as long as it'll take for me to get another job in Boston. Then I'm gone. We don't need to do whatever this is. I've moved on and I don't need us to have any relationship other than Boss and Employee. So, don't ask me to lunch or to go shopping with you, or I'll sue you for harassment in the workplace."
She stared him down, her scowl fixed. There. It was said.
Chase didn't flinch. Instead, a slow, dark smirk spread across his face. "Ooh... I guess you have changed a little. You're feistier now. Hmm, I think you always were though, but you were doing a good job of hiding it all those years. I saw through it all. I always do."
He reached out, his index finger beginning to trace a slow, methodical circle on the wooden tabletop. It was the movement of a snake marking its territory.
"Stay and work with me after the three months elapses as my Head of Marketing," he said, his voice dropping into a serious, icy register. "Give me a chance to show you that I've changed. No running away from me, no hiding, and definitely no suing."
"Or what?" she spat, her jaw tight.
"Or I could just call Kaitleen and tell her all about high school," he hummed, his eyes never leaving hers. "Something tells me she doesn't know."
The threat hit home. Kaia felt her lips tremble. She bit down hard, refusing to let him see the moisture gathering in her eyes.
"For someone who claims to have changed, it doesn't seem that way from where I'm sitting."
Chase's stare seemed to soften for a fraction of a second, but she dismissed it as a trick of the cafe's dim lighting. Chase was a master of the game. He wouldn't really blow up their parents' marriage just to spite her, would he? He was bluffing.
She grabbed her bag and turned to leave, her heart hammering.
"Hello, Chase darling? How is Kaia's first day going?"
The voice of her mother echoed through the air, tinny and clear. Kaia jerked back, her blood turning to ice. Chase was holding his phone, the speaker active. He looked directly into her soul, his gaze frozen and unwavering.
"There's something I think you need to know about Kaia and I," he said into the phone.