Page 60 of Sold to Her Enemy

“I thought they hated me.” her eyes were bright with tears.

“No. Only I have that privilege.” I methodically feed her bites, commanding her to swallow.

Sensing someone on my shoulder, I turn and see Jana Whitters.

“Do you have a moment, Mr. McIntyre?”

“Yes.” I fight to keep my calm but seeing this woman makes me want to flip the table over, pin her against a wall, and scream.

Mckenna wiggles on my lap as if she’s going to get up.

“You’re not going anywhere, Mckenna,” I say against her ear. I tighten my grip around her waist.

“This is certainly a surprise, Mckenna. Do you remember what you told me last time?” Jana raises her eyebrows.

“I was set up,” Mckenna says.

Her voice is high-pitched, and her eyes dart all over the room.

“Shh. Tell me what you said to her, exactly, Mckenna.” My pulse is speeding through my veins. The tremendous anger I feel for the woman across from me is almost unmatched.

Mckenna squirms on my lap, but I tighten my grip around her waist.

“She asked me if you ever asked me out, and I said yes, you had repeatedly asked me out. Then she said, “‘So Adrian McIntyre isn’t the kind of guy to take no for an answer?’”

My hand curls into a fist.

“I read that, yes,” I give Jana a cool look.

Jana shrugs. “I wrote the truth as I heard it.”

“And I said, “He doesn’t give up on what he wants.” But that’s not what you wrote,” Mckenna says.

No, what Jana Whitters wrote was that I harass women into saying yes. My lawyers have looked at whether that’s enough for slander, but it doesn’t quite meet the threshold, so they went on an offensive campaign.

“Miss Moran, I must remind you that you were paid handsomely for your time.”

“Yes, my time! Not for saying what you wanted to write. How did you even find me?”

Jana’s lips purse together. “I protect my sources.”

Mckenna stares across at the front of the room, where my parents, Oliver, and my sister are talking to a group of people.

“Well, now you can write that Miss Moran and I have known each other for years and have always been attracted to each other. We’ve finally decided to act on that and have been dating for several months. We hope our relationship will serve as an example of letting the past be the past and restoring luster to our parents’ legacies as we embark on Colossus Corp.”

Jana scratches something on her iPad.

“Can I quote you, Adrian?”

“Of course.”

“Okay. I can’t control how my readers interpret what I write.”

“No, but it is your responsibility to be accurate. Painting me as a man who assaults women was not doing your due diligence, Jana.” I’m going to owe my dentist a new yacht with how I’m grinding my molars. I force myself to relax the tension in my jaw.

“Well, as you say, let the past be the past.” The journalist gives me her widest fake smile.

“That’s an excellent idea, isn’t it, Mckenna?” I nuzzle my chin against her neck. She softens slightly in my arms and leans against me.

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