Kim gritted her teeth. The reason she was in this predicament was because she didn’t want her parents to help.
Running fingers through her hair, she stared at him. “So, what? I leave with you, take my work, and what?”
“Consider it a live-in position.”
“A man of such high power can leave his job?”
“I’m the boss, Kim. I do whatever the hell I want, and I want you.”
She closed her eyes, and she froze as he took a step toward her. Lifting her head, she found he stood a little too close. “How often were you watching me?” she asked.
“I know you’ve not had a steady boyfriend. You keep everyone at arm’s length, refusing to give anyone a chance. Did I really cut you that deeply?”
“This is not about you, Kurt.”
“Okay. I’m offering you a chance.”
“I have an apartment.”
“Your lease has run out. You’re flat broke, and you’re proud. This place is finished, you know that. Give me a chance.”
Looking around the room, she saw the crumbling building around her. She hated the thought of going back to her parents a failure. She had a goal, and she was determined to meet that goal. Sure, her parents would help her out, but like he said, any achievement would be met through them.
“How do I know that this is going to be through my merit, and not yours?”
“Sometimes in life you have to take a chance, Kim. The key to greatness is knowing when to take the hand that has been offered. I’m offering to introduce you to the right people, but the rest will be up to you. I know how to take you to the next level, or at least the people who can do it. After that, it will be up to you.”
“You won’t ask for any favors?”
“No.”
“And all you want is for me to move in with you and paint?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t know.”
“I’m going to offer you a million dollars to come to my house and paint.”
“That’s too much.”
“For the year. I want you to be at my house for the next year, painting, giving me a chance.”
“You want me to be a whore?”
“When we fuck, it will be because you want it to happen. No other reason.” He tilted his head to the side, and she found the action strangely erotic. He was assessing her. The way he looked at her, it was like she was naked, and he knew exactly how to read her. “I want you to paint for me, and live with me.”
“This is completely crazy.”
“You’re going to agree. You’re too stubborn not to.”
****
Damn, he’d missed her. Kurt finished packing away her stuff, looking around the shitty apartment she’d been staying in. If her family even knew what she’d put herself through, they’d have put a stop to it. Ten years had been a long time of waiting, of planning, and if he was honest with himself, he’d been trying to move on from her. Kim in that last year of high school, had taken his world, twisted it, turned it, and completely obliterated every part of him. She had shown him exactly what it meant to be a bully, and how his actions could come back and bite him in the fucking ass.
Kurt had spent many days cursing his behavior. Each time he went to her, Kim always had that fear in her eyes. He hated that more than anything.
He never wanted to hurt her.
Since growing up, getting a decent pair of balls, and fighting in the main corporate world, Kurt had learned a lot. He’d learned to fight for what he wanted, and also the error of his past mistakes.
“Your parents would be horrified if they saw this,” he said.
“I know.”
“Why do you have to be so stubborn?”
She stared up at him, pulling the strap up on her shoulder. “When you were working for your father, did you get special treatment?”
“No. They worked me harder.” He wouldn’t admit that it had been harder than he anticipated. People at his father’s place thought he was an entitled prick. In the beginning, he had been. It had taken months to convince them that there was more to him than met the eye. Through the time he worked for his father, not once did he complain, or try to get special treatment. He took everything they gave him, and he made his father’s company more profitable.
“Oh,” she said.
“The guy that bullied you. The guy that hurt you, and treated you like shit, that guy is gone. Long gone. He’s not coming back.”
“Kurt, I don’t know what to do with this,” she said. “I’m scared, okay?”
“Look, I’m not going to hurt you. I just want you to fulfill your passion for painting, and to know you don’t have to worry about me.”
“Sex?”
He smiled. “That’s going to happen.”
Kim smiled, too. “I can’t even believe you think that’s going to happen.”