Compromise Me (Book Two of the Kirkland Family)

Compromise Me: Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Josie Kirkland derived three steps to getting a good man.  First, find a good man.

Check.

Next, make sure that good man was someone her father would never approve of.

Got it covered.

And last...seduce good man within an inch of his sanity so that no matter what her daddy said or threatened, there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about them falling in love with each other.

That’s going to be a problem.

Because no matter how hard or tenaciously Josie tried to get Travis Fisher to think of her as more than a little girl, he just wasn’t getting the message.  

Twelve years was a long time for one woman to be in love with a man...even if she did start this quest at the age of thirteen.  But Josie Kirkland was a master of patience and manipulation, learning from the best.  Her grandmother and mother could love the snot out of their husbands, getting them to do just about anything short of capital murder.  It worked...Josie had seen it first hand, watching her dad and grandfather go from “Hell, No” to “Okay, Dear” in barely half a minute with only a few precisely-timed smiles by their ladies.

And if that ploy didn’t work, Josie’s biological mom -- if anyone could ever describe Beth Wilkerson as a "mom" -- taught her a few lessons on deception and spiteful schemes.  Not that Josie would ever trudge along the same sh*t-trenches with Beth, but at least she knew what it looked liked and how to deal with it.

And of course, Josie’s mentor, and soon-to-be-boss, Aunt Livie, was one sneaky, yet aggressive, lady, who didn’t stop until the deed was done.

Josie knew that with a little persistence and honesty, some sly maneuvering through careful planning, she always got what she wanted.  And she wanted him.  Travis Fisher.

So with that in mind, a twenty-five-year-old Josie Kirkland walked into the Raw Studios building in Memphis, Tennessee one May afternoon, knowing exactly why she accepted Auntie Livie’s job offer...especially when headhunters from three major recording studios in California and New York had stalked her since October.

Because Travis worked there, too.

That...and Raw Studios had been her second home, her home away from home, spending many hours and days there with her mother while Hannah Kirkland wrote and recorded demo tapes for other musicians.  This was her chance, in a comfortable setting not too far from her family, to prove that she’s grown up.

“That my Josie girl?” a husky voice called out as Josie entered the office in the back of the Studios building.

Josie smiled as she walked into Olivia Williams's tiny arms.  “Lands, Aunt Livie!  Did you get shorter?”  Her jaw touched the top of Livie’s head, feeling the gel-spiked hair tickling her neck.

“No midget jokes,” Aunt Livie scolded jovially as she squeezed Josie’s waist.  “You know you’ve got your daddy’s height in you.  What are you now?  Six feet?”

Josie laughed and released her mentor and her mother’s dear friend.  She studied Livie for a brief second.  She looks tired...  “I’m only five-seven,” she said to Livie, masking her concerns, “but I guess to you, anything over five feet must be gianormous.”

Aunt Livie strained her neck to see up into Josie’s face.  “Hell’s bells, girl...it’s good to see you again!”

“It's good to see you, too,” Josie replied, sitting down in a chair so that Livie didn’t get a crick in her spine.  “That last semester was busy...but I’m finally finished!”