Page 100 of Knocked Up by My Fake Fiancé
He glares at me for a beat, then recoils, fear finally winning out over bravado.
"Grayson," someone breathes. I glance up and see Jenna standing there — part horror, part incredulous surprise on her face. Her mouth opens.
"Let's get you taken care of," she says to the fallen man, not to me. Her calm is clinical. She signals servers, who help the stunned, grumbling Texan to his feet and shepherd him away, nursing his face and his ego.
She doesn't say anything to me. She only shakes her head — a tiny, disappointed shake — and walks off. The dam breaks. People drift back into their conversations as if nothing had happened, the human capacity for normalcy reasserting itself in minutes. The symposium resumes; the show goes on.
I don't see much of Jenna after that. She disappears backstage, commanding people, fixing small disasters, smoothing the edges. She's brilliant at it. She's in her element.
But normal never quite returns. The room hums with an altered frequency. I can feel eyes on me as if I'm a fuse waiting to be lit. People glance my way like they're watching a hand grenade, trying to decide whether to step closer or away.
My father will hear about this. Fuck. This might very well cost me the permanent CEO role. Maybe it already has.
And to be honest — a darker, harder part of me doesn't regret it. If it comes down to choosing between a board role and someone who disrespects the people I care about, I don't know which I'd pick.
Then it hits me like a physical thing: the truth I've been fighting to keep buried under contract clauses and rationalizations. The feelings I have for Jenna aren't some casual extracurricular. They're real. Deep. Messy.
I'm so fucked.
CHAPTER 29
Jenna
My drive home from the symposium gives me plenty of time to think about everything that just happened.
The fact that Grayson punched one of his own guests — and apparently a very important client at that — because of me is… well, insane. He broke the man's nose just because the guy implied I'd slept my way into my job.
It's crazy to even think about.
Hadn't Grayson already anticipated that kind of reaction? I know I did. He had to have known this sort of thing might happen once we made our relationship public. Although, to be fair, that Haigel guy was way out of line with what he said. I remember pointing out early on that people would talk about me like that, and Grayson seemed fine with it then. Why the hell is he acting crazy about it now?
I pull up at a red light, grateful that traffic's light enough today to let me get lost in thought without having to play dodgeball with Manhattan drivers.
Even though the man's words hurt, I'd been ready for them. I knew I'd get crap like that — that I'd have to work twice as hard to prove my worth, even when my work should speak for itself. I also knew it wouldn't always matter. Some people will always seewhat they want to see, and some men are just plain misogynists. They don't believe a woman can run her own company on her own merit.
So yes, what he said stung, but it didn't cut deep.
Grayson's reaction, though — that's what got to me.
It shifted something between us, unearthed the emotional landmine we've both been trying to avoid stepping on. Up until now, everything between us has been easy. We have sex, we banter, we argue, we make up — rinse and repeat.
We're just having fun while we wait for the contract to end.
At least, that's what I tell myself.
But the look of pure rage in Grayson's eyes called me a liar.
Now I'm questioning everything I thought I knew about him… and about us. I thought this would stay simple — a business arrangement with benefits. I never imagined he'd go that far for me, especially not breaking a client's nose in front of an entire room of investors.
Why?
The question echoes in my head like a metronome. Why, why, why?
I don't want to read too much into it. I'd sound delusional even thinking that Grayson might have deeper feelings for me — maybe deeper than he's ready to admit, even to himself.
No. Surely not.
That's ridiculous. Don't even go there.
