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 8
I don't usually sleep in on Sundays, but I always wait in my room until everyone else is awake-it's a family breakfast tradition.
"This morning, I'll clean the car," I said during breakfast.
"Alright, but don't forget we have a lunch reservation, and we can't be late," Amber reminded me.
"Oh, right."
"Do we have to go every month?" Mom asked reluctantly.
"Sweetheart, you know I'm not a fan of superficial conversations either, but I can't refuse the invitation. Sometimes we have to eat there," Dad said.
We weren't yacht club members-it was too expensive, and my parents weren't snobs-but we had a lunch invitation one weekend each month. Dad received it for his work, and it was important for him to go occasionally for networking, even if not every month.
I quickly cleaned my car; I liked keeping it tidy. It wasn't new or expensive, but it was mine, and I was proud of it.
For lunch, everyone dressed nicely, and we drove to the seaside end of the city. The yacht club was a converted large ship, with the restaurant on the lower level. It was modern, but they had done everything to make the decor reminiscent of an old ship-wood-effect paint, nautical paintings, wood-effect tables with velvet chairs. It was old-fashioned but elegant, perhaps that's why not everyone in town could be a member. The food was always delicious, and the waitresses were always pretty.
"Mr. Simmons, your reserved table is ready. Please follow me," the head waiter signaled at the entrance and led us to the table.
We hadn't been there in the summer, and they had nicely renovated and repainted the place.
"Your order will be taken shortly," the head waiter said before leaving.
Dad shook hands with a few people at the other tables, and we sat down. I waved to a few school acquaintances when my jaw dropped.
Jane had just arrived next to me and started speaking mechanically.
"Welcome to the yacht club restaurant," she said, placing the menu in front of us. "While you choose, I'd be happy to bring you something to drink."
"Hello, Jane," Amber greeted her warmly.
I saw the surprise on her face, but her smile remained unchanged. Nothing was reflected on her expression.
"Mr., Mrs. Simmons, I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention," she babbled, embarrassed.
"No problem," Dad said reassuringly. "Please bring me a glass of red wine."
"I'll have orange juice," Mom and Amber said almost simultaneously.
"I'll have the same," I added.
"Alright, thank you," she said with a smile and left the table.
"Did you know?" I looked at Amber questioningly.
"Yes, she works here every Sunday. Didn't you know?"
"No, she only talks to me about things she can show off about."
My parents looked puzzled by my comment but didn't ask further.
"Interesting girl," Mom said.
Now that she was far from me, I had the chance to look her over comfortably. I had never seen her in a short skirt-or any skirt at all.
Her short dress was slightly low-cut and showed off her figure. Well, I was shocked. Feminine curves, a slim waist, and long, shapely legs. I could imagine those amazing legs wrapped around me.
"That poor girl will catch a cold like that," Dad's voice snapped me out of my thoughts.
"Have you decided?" Jane suddenly appeared next to me.
"Yes, I'll have the crab, and my wife will have the fish," Dad said. "Amber, John?"
"I'll have the chicken. Bro?" Amber said, but I had to improvise because I hadn't had time to look at the menu.
"The same as my dad," I replied shortly.
"And soup from the daily special for everyone," Dad added.
"Alright, thank you," Jane hurried off.
Amber started talking about her latest plans and some photoshoot, but I wasn't really paying attention. I was watching the guests and how many were staring at my classmate. Almost every guy, regardless of age, ogled her, and she was kind to everyone, smiling unwaveringly.
I felt like going over and throwing a blanket over her.
A waiter approached her, and after a few words, Jane accompanied him to another table, where she started talking to one of the lady guests, then to the waiter. It seemed like she was translating between the waiter and the lady, but I didn't know what language.
So she wasn't bluffing-she really could make herself understood.
When my thoughts returned to my family, I saw that Dad was alternately watching me and Jane.
"I'm your son, not one of your patients," I remarked, and Dad gently tapped my head.
"Then you know why you got that," he said calmly.
"I've been getting a lot of these lately," I said quietly.
"You've been deserving them a lot lately," he replied just as calmly.
"Good thing Jane didn't see that," Amber grinned.
"I don't particularly care what she saw," I replied to my sister.
"You're right," Amber said. "Jane doesn't care about you at all."
"In return, you could take your eyes off her," Mom said, smiling.
"I was eyeing that brunette at the next table," I nodded toward a slim girl nearby to cover myself.
"Good," Dad said. "That girl is far beyond your league"
I wanted to respond, but Jane brought the soups, and I deliberately didn't look at her so my parents wouldn't get any ideas.
"Sorry, but I have to make two trips-I'm quite clumsy," she said as she placed two bowls of soup in front of my parents.
"No problem, we'll wait," Mom just smiled.
She returned with our soups, and a few minutes later, we started eating. Jane went back to the foreign lady, then to another table where a business lunch seemed to be taking place based on the suits.
I focused on my soup, trying not to look around.
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7.5
Five years of a fake marriage to a billionaire.
Christi thought she was a wealthy wife-until City Hall told her the truth.
No marriage license. No legal rights. Nothing but a lie.
Her husband cheated on her for four years.
His entire family mocked her, used her, and planned to trap her with a baby.
She was ready to ruin them all.
Then a secret changed everything:
Her late parents were DARPA elites. She is the sole heir to $50 billion.
There's only one catch-marry Cornelius Gregory, Wall Street's ruthless paralyzed tycoon.
She signs the contract in an instant.
Freeze their accounts. Destroy the Rivera family.
The game is over for them.
And the queen has just arrived.
9.8
I was an arrogant, canceled reality TV star, trying to salvage my ruined reputation on a live broadcast.
But after I lost my temper and assaulted a cameraman, my furious grandfather chased me into our family's forbidden gallery, where I accidentally crashed into an ancient, sealed portrait.
The canvas shattered, and a terrifying woman with glowing golden eyes stepped out of the wall.
She was Cecil, the First Matriarch of the Marshall family. She caught a lightning bolt with her bare hands and crushed me to my knees with an invisible, suffocating pressure.
My grandfather, instead of saving me, groveled on the floor and abandoned me to her mercy.
"You are the disgrace that will end this family."
She hijacked my entire life, forcing me to act as her submissive baggage handler on my own survival reality show, broadcasting my humiliation to millions.
I didn't understand why this ancient monster was tormenting me. Why did she strip away my pride, treat me like a broken tool, and force me to endure the mockery of the very ex-girlfriend who had ruined my life?
But when those same cast members tried to corner me in the dark woods, Cecil stepped in front of me, her eyes locking onto the silver ring of the man mocking me.
"To catch the wolf, one must sometimes walk with the sheep."
That was when I realized she wasn't here to destroy me—she was here to hunt the parasites who had been secretly siphoning away my life force.
9.3
For years, Gabriela believed the man beside her would be the one she grew old with. They had loved each other since they were young, but in the end, all those years meant nothing beside a younger woman's smile.
Returning from a business trip, she uncovered his betrayal with brutal clarity. Still, she did not cry or beg. She took out her phone, recorded every damning second, and filed for divorce the moment she could.
Afterward, she rebuilt her life into something brighter, richer, and stronger, even marrying a powerful tycoon. As for her ex and his shameless mistress, they could rot together.
7.4
I was freezing to death in an abandoned cabin, desperately waiting for my fiancé to save me.
Instead, my phone flickered with a video from my adopted sister.
She was smiling as she confessed that she and my fiancé had orchestrated my kidnapping, and my parents' fatal plane crash, just to steal my family's trust fund.
When I called him with my dying breath, he mocked me for faking a PR stunt and hung up.
I died in the sub-zero blizzard, consumed by absolute despair.
But as a ghost, I watched my greatest business rival, the ruthless billionaire Collins, kick down the doors of my mansion.
He didn't just mourn me.
He shot my fiancé, trapped my sister, and set the entire place on fire, choosing to burn alive in the inferno just to avenge me.
I couldn't understand why the man I had publicly despised for a decade loved me so fiercely, while the people I gave everything to wanted me dead.
Opening my eyes again, I was back backstage on the night I won my Oscar, four years ago.
My fiancé smiled, holding out his arms to hug me.
I pushed him away in disgust, marched straight into the crowded theater, and kissed my billionaire rival on live television.
"Let's get married tomorrow."
This time, I would use him to burn them all to the ground.
9.5
Sapphyra
9.5
Sapphyra used to have it all: a super-genius husband, a superhero career, and a dragon side she actually got along with.
Then everything went to hell.
When the world faced a threat she couldn't punch, Sapphyra tried to sacrifice herself so everyone she loved could escape. But Wyatt, her husband with backup plans for his backup plans, refused to let her die. He trapped her inside a digital coma, planning to wake her when the world settled down.
That was 100 years ago.
Now Sapphyra has ripped herself free and woken to a ruined city, a broken world, and a body she barely recognizes. Her powers are locked away. Her dragon side is caged. And the Class System controlling it all? Wyatt put it inside her.
Because of course he did.
It only gets messier. Guy, the charming golden retriever-energy hero she met inside the coma, is real-and so are his feelings for her. Meanwhile, Wyatt separated his mind from his body, so now his consciousness follows Sapphyra around like a brilliant, possessive bad hangover.
And then there's Rupert Domingo, the madman who escaped her digital nightmare and now rules the ruined city like his personal kingdom. He knows what happened while Sapphyra slept, and he'll give her answers...
If she survives his game first.
To win, Sapphyra has to rebuild her city, untangle her powers, face Wyatt's sins, and decide what scares her more: losing herself to grief, or becoming the dragon Rupert is desperate to wake up.
8.9
My family's company went bankrupt, and my biological father was lying in the ICU, kept alive by machines that cost tens of thousands a day.
I thought it was just a tragic business failure, until I caught my mother in bed with my stepfather.
They had secretly transferred all our assets months ago, deliberately bankrupting the company and leaving my father to die.
To pay the hospital bills, my stepfather forced me to a private club, trying to sell me to a sleazy investor.
When I refused, he slapped me across the face, and my mother just looked at me with cold, dead eyes.
"Be realistic, Jaelynn. A woman's body is a tool. Use it to get what you need."
Later, right before my father's emergency surgery, my stepfather signed a Do Not Resuscitate order and froze the medical accounts.
"If you don't get on your knees and spread your legs for him, I will tell the hospital to pull your father's plug."
Standing in the freezing rain, covered in mud and blood, I stared at the astronomical hospital bill in my hand.
My own family had plotted to murder my father and sell me to the highest bidder. The betrayal shattered every ounce of sanity I had left.
I didn't cry or beg them anymore.
Instead, I pulled out a water-stained, gold-embossed business card.
It belonged to Dolph Valentine, the most ruthless billionaire in New York and my ex-fiancé's uncle.
If they wanted to destroy my life, I was going to sell my soul to the biggest monster of them all and drag them straight to hell.