Jenny & Jay - Volume 1
Johnny Simmons thrives on competition-whether in the pool, in playful bets, or in charming his way through life. He's used to being in control, but when Jane Shepperd enters his world, she proves to be an unexpected challenge.
Assigned to his study group, Jane is sharp, unfiltered, and unimpressed by his usual charm. Their first real interaction is filled with witty banter, subtle tension, and a clash of personalities that leaves Johnny both frustrated and intrigued.
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Chapter 7
"Are we picking up anyone else?"
"Yes, our study mate. Paul invited her, and since it's raining, I'll drive her."
"Hi. Thanks for taking me," Jane said easily. Her shirt was new, but the pants were from this afternoon.
"You're the new girl, right?" Shannon asked.
"Yes." The usual brevity.
"Pretty Boy, what are we going to watch?" Shannon asked, dramatically stroking my neck. "Something cute, right?"
In the rearview mirror, Jane rolled her eyes.
"I don't know. We'll decide there," I said, uneasy about the whole situation.
Listening to the radio, we arrived relatively quietly, though Shannon occasionally squealed, "Oh, this song is so cute!" which irritated me by the end. I didn't dare look in the mirror during those moments-I wasn't curious about Jane's reaction.
We arrived and went up to the meeting point, as agreed-waiting for each other at a group of couches in front of the movie ticket counter. Jane greeted everyone and then quietly sat at the edge of the couch. Shannon started chatting with the other girlfriends. Aaron and the short-haired girl were already there, as was Daryl with his leather-clad girlfriend.
Paul showed up next, followed by a fragile, short young girl who resembled him.
"Hi," he waved, then stepped over to Jane. "Glad you're here. This is my sister, Susy. Everyone, this is Susan, my sister."
Jane stood up and smiled kindly, shaking hands with the girl. The others greeted her and then returned to their interrupted conversation. After Brian arrived with his cousin, we sat down to check out the options.
"I vote for the action movie," Brian shouted. He had come with his cousin today, who was visiting for a few days. She was about Amber's age-a fuller, short-haired brunette dressed in dark clothes.
"That's good for us too," we boys agreed unanimously.
"Oh no, we want to watch this romantic movie, right girls?" Shannon said loudly, and the girls, including Paul's sister, started nodding-except for Jane, who just raised her eyebrows.
"So, little girl, what do you vote for?" I turned to Jane. Susy sat next to her and quietly started watching.
"Well," Jane stood up from the couch, "since I came alone and you boys are in the minority, I offer a deal. I won't vote for the romantic movie if you agree to the space travel sci-fi."
"So we should vote for what you want?" I asked sarcastically.
"Yes, because it's the lesser of two evils for you," she said calmly.
"Well, then I vote for the romantic movie," I said suddenly. I couldn't let her win. "So no matter what you vote for, you'll lose."
"Alright, then let it be the romantic movie," she shrugged indifferently.
"Why does the new girl decide what we watch?" Shannon asked, confused. Some of the girls were just now piecing together the essence of the conversation.
"It wasn't her decision, kitty-it was mine," I straightened up.
"Okay, give me the money, I'll buy the tickets," Brian stood up.
Before the two of us got in line, I stepped over to Jane and said, "See, little girl, you have to know how to lose," I grinned smugly.
We bought the tickets, and I distributed them so that Shannon was on one side and Jane on the other. Brian looked at me, puzzled, but didn't say a word.
The girls lined up for drinks, but Jane stood alone to the side-she didn't buy anything. Susy and Paul stood together, Paul taking great care of his sister. Probably a family habit.
Paul came out of the line with two drinks and handed one to Jane.
"Susy changed her mind on the way and is drinking something else. I hope you'll accept this."
"Thank you," Jane smiled and accepted the cup.
We went in, and everyone sat in their place. We had bought tickets in two rows to make it easier to talk to each other. Brian sat behind me with his cousin. Aaron and Daryl were behind Jane, each with their girlfriend. On Jane's other side, Paul sat-his sister beside him.
The movie started, and Shannon took it very naturally that my drink was hers too. She leaned on me in the chair, stroking my neck throughout the movie. I didn't let her do more-I wasn't in the mood.
The movie was terrible. If I were at home, I'd switch it off after ten minutes, but here, I couldn't. The couple on screen suffered through an on-again, off-again relationship, and we were struggling in the auditorium.
Jane must have noticed my suffering because she quietly leaned toward me. Her subtle, sweetly tart perfume hit my nose.
"I don't know who lost, Pretty Boy," she winked.
I shivered from head to toe-but not from Shannon's touch.
I wanted to continue the conversation, but Jane gave no sign of it, just leaned back in her seat.
I struggled through the movie, occasionally watching Jane from the corner of my eye. It seemed like she had fallen asleep, but I wasn't sure.
Fortunately, the movie ended.
With comments like "Jay, you're dead next week" and similar farewells, the others left, and Jane stepped over.
"I see your date is still ongoing. Susy and Paul will take me home-I really don't want to intrude."
"You're not intruding-I'll take you home," I started to protest, but Shannon whined and interrupted.
"Pretty Boy, we still have plans for tonight."
"It was nice meeting you," Jane turned to Shannon. "See you on Monday."
She stepped over to Paul and Susy, and they left.
"Come on, let's go too," I said to Shannon, and we headed down to the car.
I drove her home in silence-I simply didn't want to talk. When we arrived at her house, I stopped, and she didn't hesitate before jumping on me. Normally, I wouldn't have objected, but today, I just wasn't in the mood.
"I'm home alone-come on, let's go inside," she said, sliding onto my lap.
"I'd rather go home today. Maybe another time."
Even I found my own answer strange, but I just couldn't take any more of her today.
"Fine, have it your way. But just so you know, I won't wait around forever-you're not that big of a prize," she said, offended, climbing off me. I leaned over to open her door.
"Alright, Kitty, then don't wait for me," I said, waiting for her to get out.
"Forget it!" she nearly screamed as I drove off.
I didn't care-the whole evening was ruined. I just wanted to go home to the peace of my room.
Well, that didn't happen.
I got home late, but Dad was still eating in the dining room.
"How was your evening?" he asked between bites.
"Shitty," I muttered, immediately realizing it was a mistake.
"Sit down, son. Let's talk."
His voice wasn't commanding, but I knew it was better to sit down.
"What happened?"
Amber and I had a good relationship with our dad. Since we were kids, he knew how to get us to talk if something was wrong. He never used it against us and didn't solve our problems for us. I think that's why he's considered a good professional.
"For the first time today, I didn't want to sleep with a girl, another one almost humiliated me, and I watched a shitty movie that I voted for."
"Why did you vote for a movie that wasn't good?" he ignored my swearing.
"Because I didn't want the new girl to win. We boys wanted an action movie, the girls wanted a sappy one. She-Jane," I emphasized her name, "was without a guy and suggested a sci-fi, saying it was the lesser evil."
"That sounds logical. And you voted for the sappy one so it wouldn't be what she wanted, right?"
"Right. It made me so angry that I kicked Shannon out of the car and came home instead."
"I understand, and I'm sorry. I'm sure you'll have another chance with Shannon."
"But that's the thing!" I snapped. "I don't care. She's so endlessly annoying. This has never bothered me before."
"After the movie, the new girl even had herself taken home by the new guy," I added as an afterthought.
"Well, yes, but there have been similarly annoying ones before," Dad laughed, ignoring the second part of my sentence. "Remember the dog expert?"
"True," I laughed. "That was really funny."
I once dated a girl who thought she knew everything about dogs and wanted to train Theodore. I had a good laugh.
"Laughter always helps-don't forget that. Good night, son," Dad patted my shoulder and headed up to his room.
He was right-I felt better.
I quickly pulled myself together and went to bed.
Dad could always cheer me up, but he didn't offer a solution.
Though, I didn't know what I needed either.
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9.6
For five years, I was Barron Santana's elite bodyguard and loyal shadow. I stood between him and bullets, giving him my youth and my entire heart.
But last night, the CEO announced his engagement to a flawless socialite on national television.
Heartbroken, I got blackout drunk and ended up crashing on the couch of Cassidy Gross, a billionaire tech CEO who saved me from a bar creep.
When I showed up late to work, Barron locked me in his freezing office. He pinned me against the glass, smelling Cassidy's cologne on my clothes.
"Are you already looking for your next meal ticket?"
He snarled the words, treating me like a cheap whore. When I defended myself, he pulled out a silk handkerchief and wiped his fingers, acting as if my very touch contaminated him.
Then, he coldly ordered his assistant to draft my termination papers.
Five years of risking my life for him, thrown away like garbage just because of his twisted ego.
Devastated, I ran out and collapsed in the hallway, sobbing uncontrollably until a kind coworker gently pulled me into his arms to comfort me.
I didn't know Barron had followed me out.
Seeing me clinging to another man, his legendary control completely shattered, replaced by a dark, violent possessiveness.
But it was too late. I was done playing his obedient dog, and it was time to take Cassidy up on his offer.
9.7
Emaline Finley was drowning in massive debt to keep her dying father alive, even enduring a humiliating blind date with an arrogant man just to find a financial lifeline.
But the fatal blow came from her former best friend, Kitty. Kitty, who was already engaged to Emaline's ex-boyfriend, deliberately told Emaline's father that his expensive treatments were bleeding his daughter dry.
Out of extreme guilt, her father threw away his life-saving medication and checked himself out of the hospital to die at home. When Emaline found him, he was coughing up pools of bright red blood, his lungs rapidly collapsing. As the paramedics rushed him away, Kitty called to gloat, mocking Emaline's poverty and telling her to go watch her father die.
Emaline was completely shattered, suffocating under the sheer injustice of it all. She had been betrayed, stripped of her dignity, and was now forced to watch her only parent slip away because of a cruel, spiteful lie.
Just as her world went dark, a wildly wealthy stranger stepped in. Cullen Preston, the mysterious man who had witnessed her humiliating date, paid the astronomical medical bills and brought in the city's top surgeon to pull her father back from death. But his salvation wasn't charity.
"Consider it a dowry."
He bought her father's life, and in exchange, he demanded Emaline as his wife.
7.2
I thought I was just marrying a middle-class commercial pilot who proposed to me in a Brooklyn cemetery to fulfill his grandmother's bizarre dying wish.
But when an arrogant pilot tried to harass me at the airport, my "ordinary" husband suddenly appeared, his eyes like chips of ice.
"Take your hand off my wife."
With that single cold command, he had the airline's top executives groveling and the man practically fired on the spot.
Everyone called him "Mr. Chandler." He handed me an exclusive black Centurion card, claiming it was just a standard "manager's perk." His retired parents, who supposedly ran a small business, visited me wearing Patek Philippe watches. I ignored all the glaring red flags, foolishly believing I had just lucked into a stable, caring marriage after a lifetime of disappointments.
Yet, despite his constant, suffocating generosity, he kept a physical wall between us. After a kiss so desperate and hungry it felt like he had been starving for it his entire life, he violently pushed me away.
"We should take this slow."
I couldn't understand why a man who looked at me with such intense, possessive devotion would treat our marriage like a sterile business deal. Why was he orchestrating every perfect detail of my life while refusing to even share a bed with me?
I had no idea that the man sleeping in the guest room wasn't a pilot at all. He was Harmon Chandler, the ruthless billionaire emperor of the Chandler Group. And he had been secretly monitoring my every move for ten years.
9.0
Once a pampered princess, Alaina now clutched a deactivated American Express card, staring out at Central Park. Her family’s fortune was gone, her life, over.
Her family's Hamptons estate, a four-generation legacy, was seized by Dyer Capital. The name hit her: Hardin Dyer, the poor boy she’d once scorned, had returned.
Hardin marched in, serving a divorce agreement. He'd orchestrated her family's downfall for revenge, giving her 24 hours to vacate his property. Penniless, her father faced prison, needing $50 million. Her mother forced her to beg Hardin, who sneered, offering the money for her body. Alaina ripped up the contract.
Hours later, her father had a heart attack. Desperate, she became "Lexi," a club girl enduring humiliation. In the Viper Room, Hardin's lackeys demanded she lick whiskey off his shoe for $10,000. Hardin watched. Outside, her brother Ashton's hand was threatened for a $3 million debt. Spirit shattered, Alaina returned, knelt on broken glass, offering to sign. But Hardin declared her family "dead," offering $10 million for her body, commanding her to use her mouth.
In a furious act of defiance, Alaina threw whiskey in his face, snatched the check, and fled. Yet, when he finally took her, a searing, foreign pain and blood on the sheets revealed a shocking truth: he had never touched her three years ago. Why had he let her believe such a monstrous lie?
7.2
Elmore Thomas rushed into the emergency room, clutching his feverish seven-year-old son, Buddy, tightly to his chest.
When the privacy curtain was pulled back, the air in Elmore's lungs vanished. The attending physician standing under the harsh lights was his wife, Kendal—the woman everyone believed had burned to death eight years ago.
But there was no tearful reunion. Kendal looked at him, and her eyes froze into impenetrable ice. She treated him like a biohazard, strictly referring to him as the family member.
Worse, she didn't recognize Buddy. She comforted their crying son with the same gentle warmth she used to reserve for Elmore, completely unaware she was soothing the baby she thought had died.
Days later, Elmore watched from the shadows as she picked up another boy outside a prep school, her left hand flashing a massive diamond engagement ring.
When his butler accidentally recognized her, Kendal shielded her new stepson with pure disgust in her eyes.
"Tell that psychopath to sign the divorce papers immediately. I have a new family now."
The words 'new family' echoed in Elmore's skull, tearing him apart. For eight years, he had lived in a hell of guilt and madness, raising their son in the shadow of her ghost. How could she just erase their past? How could she give her tender smiles to a stranger and look at him with absolute revulsion?
Standing in a luxury ballroom, Elmore squeezed his hand until his crystal champagne flute shattered, thick blood dripping onto the rug. The murderous obsession in his dark eyes returned as he called his lawyer.
"Freeze her divorce application. Use every dirty trick in the book. She isn't leaving."
8.6
Aubree pushed Ezra down the grand staircase, crippling the only man who silently protected her.
She thought she was finally escaping his control to be with her true love, Foster Newton.
But she had no idea it was a vicious trap meticulously set by Newton and her sweet, innocent cousin, Brandi.
Once Ezra was driven out of New York in despair, Aubree's life became a living hell. Her father completely disowned her. Brandi smoothly took over her home and her millions in inheritance.
"You were just a stepping stone for us, Aubree."
That was the last thing Newton sneered before leaving her to die.
Lying on the freezing floor, her warm blood pooling in her palms, Aubree finally saw the horrifying truth. She had destroyed her own family and ruined the one man who genuinely cared for her, all for a pair of greedy parasites.
Endless regret and suffocating hatred consumed her fading consciousness. Why was she so blind? Why did she let them manipulate her into destroying her own life?
Then, her eyes snapped open.
A violent wave of dizziness hit her. She looked down at her pale, flawless hands. There were no deep cuts. There was no sticky blood.
She was back. She had miraculously returned to the exact night she pushed Ezra, just two hours before his private jet was scheduled to leave forever.
Hearing her father's furious roar outside her bedroom door, Aubree didn't cower.
She wiped the smeared makeup from her face, her eyes turning dead cold. This time, she was going to make Ezra stay, and she was going to send those leeches straight to hell.