Chapter 64: His True Colors
\[Gianna’s POV\]
My hand strings, my ears ring, and my body shakes with the anger that has slowly been bubbling since this bastard beside me decided to kiss me in front of every damn body.
“Have you gone crazy?” I demand as Grant lifts a hand and touches the place that I’ve just struck. “Do you know what you just did?”
My image!
My fucking image that I worked so hard to maintain!
It would now be ruined because some ass hole didn’t know how to think before he acted.
“Dammit,” I growl, looking around the parking lot and noting the people who mill around.
I’m sure they saw.
How could they not see me slap Grant, but did it matter now?
“We are going to be all over the news come tomorrow.” I continue, raging. “Why? Why would you do that?”
“To prove a point,” Grant responds. “You thought that I was engaged, so I…”
“You, you, you,” I snap. “Did you even for a moment stop to think about what that would do to me?”
My mother.
Even now, I can picture what she will have to say.
“You’re my new stepfather’s brother!”
“And?”
Grant’s voice is firm, even, and devoid of any care as he speaks.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
I stare in disbelief as I process what he has just said and when I can’t take it any longer, I turn and begin to storm away.
“Hey!” Grant calls, coming up beside me. “Where are you going?”
“Somewhere that you aren’t,” I tell him, shaking off the hand that attempts to stop me. “I’m going to say this once and only once.” I continue, whirling around on him. “Whatever thoughts you have about us in your head, forget it!”
Even if he was a good conversationalist, handsome, and great in bed, that didn’t mean that I wanted to be with him.
And I’m carrying his child.
Getting any closer to this man would mean risking him finding out my secret and that just couldn’t happen.
“If being my stepuncle isn’t enough to get you to realize that this,” I begin, motioning between the two of us. “This can’t happen, then how about the fact you’re my new boss?”
If I remember correctly, there was a clause in the contract I signed about no fraternizing between employees and management.
As I speak, Grant listens, watching and waiting for me to finish blowing up and when he’s certain I’m done, he gives me a look that unnerves me.
“What?” I demand. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Because every reason you’ve given me for us not being together hasn’t involved your own feelings.”
At his words, my eyes widen.
“Wha…what?” I stammer, unable to believe that even now he wasn’t giving up. “Have you…”
“You’ve never once said that you don’t like me.” Grant continues. “You’ve only said that we can’t give us a shot because of my brother and your job.”
“Isn’t that reason enough?”
“Not at all.”
“Crazy.”
The word slips out of my mouth before I can stop it, but he was.
He was crazy, assertive, didn’t take no for an answer.
A typical CEO, but I wasn’t one of those women who would just give in because of that. I had my pride and I had my secret.
“I can’t with you,” I sigh, not wanting to continue with this back and forth. “I think it’s best that you get back in there and enjoy the rest of your night and I’m going to go home.”
Finished speaking, I prepare to move again, but once again Grant stops me and when it starts to become too much, I consider hitting him again.
“You know that it will be hard for you to keep me away now, right?”
For a moment, I don’t move, I don’t speak. Instead, I process what Grant has said and when I turn to take him in, I see that his joking demeanor is gone completely.
“Are you,” I say slowly a feeling of unease starting to take over. “Are you threatening me?”
“Never a threat, doll,” Grant tells me, smiling. “Always a promise.”
So, that was the reason that he did what he did back there.
It wasn’t because of my thinking that he was engaged.
It was to ensure that I didn’t continue to push him away because we were both aware that when our faces are all over the place and our kiss shown to the public I couldn’t just say that there was nothing between us.
“Was this your plan from the start?” I ask, hating that I was actually fooled by him. “To use me?”
Growing quiet, I wait while Grant takes me in with those golden eyes that enchanted me in the beginning.
“You were there,” he shrugs and I lift a hand to hit him again. “You bastard!” I yell, lashing out only to be stopped by his hand wrapping around my wrist. “How could you?”
“Weren’t you the one who started this?” He asks, leaning in close. “You were the one who approached me for sex first.”
“I hate you,” I murmur, yanking my arm free of his hold. “And I won’t let you use me like that.”
“Then how do you intend on explaining? That I was just a fling? Do you know how that will look for your image compared to you being with me?”
“And pretending to be your woman will help me more?” I counter. “Either way, it looks like I got to where I got because I’m fucking my boss.”
“I think your photos and talent counter that.” Grant chuckles. “Are are you that insecure?”
“Who is insecure?” I snap. “Don’t you dare…”
“One year,” Grant says and I snap my mouth shut. “Just pretend to be in a relationship with me for one year. After that, I’ll leave you alone and I won’t approach you again.”
“A year,” I repeat, eyeing him while trying to figure out what exactly was going through his head. “Why a year?”
“Because that is how long it will take for me to clean up the mess that my stepmother has created in the company. Until then, I need someone beside me so that they don’t continue pushing this ridiculous engagement with Rachel on me.”
“Is that why you’ve been pretending to actually be interested in me from our reunion?” I ask slowly, suddenly feeling like a fool. “So that I would happily accept you and be a shield and then what? Were you just going to drop me after you finished with what you were doing?”
“I don’t have any intentions of eve getting married or falling in love.” Grant tells me and my heart squeezes. “The only thing that does is lead to your ruin.”