He was too intrigued to go back upstairs and finish dressing for his retirement party. He went into the drawing room instead.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Jayda’s naturally curly hair was easy to put back in place, although her scalp was still burning. But after Harrison had calmed her back down, they sat down. And as they were sitting, HB entered the drawing room, and all attention suddenly shifted to him.
For the next several minutes everybody in that room, except for Harrison and Jayda, were bending over backwards in the hellos and adulations and other ass-kissing gestures toward the only man they all knew was far more powerful than Harrison.
And once HB settled into one of the chairs that flanked the sofas, Felix decided it was a great time to reveal his trump card against Jayda.
“You know this girl, don’t you, Father?”
“No, I don’t actually.”
“Father,” said Harrison, “this is my fiancée, Jayda Robinson. Jayda, this is my father, Harrison Arthur Bainbridge the Third.”
“Nice to meet you, sir,” Jayda said with a smile. Although Jayda couldn’t see it with Felix, she could see where Harrison got his good looks from when she laid eyes on his father. They favored mightily. And although his father didn’t return her smile, she didn’t see that same nastiness in him that she saw in Felix.
And Felix, she would soon realize, was just beginning. “So when did she become your fiancée, Harrison?” he asked hisbrother. “Wasn’t it a few weeks ago just before you had to face Father?”
HB looked at Harrison with that curious look on his face. Carter, Archie, and Dalton all glanced at each other. How did Felix know about any of that? Then they all realized individually: Gweneth told him.
“I mean correct me if I’m wrong,” Felix said as if he was genuinely interested in correction. “Didn’t you propose to this woman only a few weeks ago?”
“Actually a few hours ago,” Harrison responded.
Everybody was shocked that Harrison told the truth. But Felix was elated. He smiled a grand smile as his shifty eyes kept shifting from his brother over to his father. “So you’re admitting that she’s a fake fiancée you dredged up just so you could achieve favor with Father and take over his company? She’s a fake fiancée, right?”
“She was going to be exactly that,” Harrison said. Carter, Dalton, and Archie looked at Harrison as if he’d lost his mind. Why was he admitting it? And then they looked at HB. But HB was staring at his oldest son.
Jayda was nervous as nervous could be. His father might throw her out on her rear, and Harrison right with her. What was he doing?
But Felix was happy beyond measure. “So this tart you brought with you was going to be your whore for a day and pretend to be your fiancée after all? Just to take over Father’s company? Shame, shame, shame.”
Harrison ignored his putdowns. “Jayda had agreed to accompany me here, as my fake fiancée, yes.”
Now Jayda was glancing over at HB. What was that man going to think of her after an admission like that?
“But something happened since I asked her to help me out,” Harrison added.
“What could have possibly happened? She wanted more money?”
“I fell in love with her,” Harrison admitted.
And his admission drew silence from Felix and stunned looks from everybody else. Including his father.
“I fell madly in love with this lady, and I formally asked her to be my wife. Not my fake fiancée. My wife. And to my everlasting pleasure,” he said, squeezing her hand, “she agreed.”
“She’ll agree to anything,” Felix said, although Jayda could see how deflated he was. He thought he had his big brother on the ropes. He thought he had uncovered the smoking gun. But he lost again to Harrison.
Carter, Archie, and Dalton all began glancing at each other. They weren’t at all sure if Harrison was telling the truth, or if he was such a master manipulator of his father that he decided to admit to the obvious and pretend it was now a love match. But it would all be pretend?
The problem with their assessment was that, as they watched Harrison, it didn’t look pretend at all. His love for Jayda Robinson looked real.
Felix knew it too. He was still smiling, but Jayda could see nothing but hatred in those eyes. “You’re going to bring that tar baby into our family? Are you out of your cotton-picking mind? How can you expect Father to allow you to do something that backwards? The Bainbridge brand has never before nor will it ever include chocolate.”
Jayda could feel Harrison’s body tense, although he outwardly maintain his composure. She wanted to slap the shit out of Felix, too, and she wanted Harrison to say something, but she outwardly maintained her composure as well. Harrison, she had to believe, knew what he was doing. Like at his own dinner party when Phyllis and the others came for her, he put them in their place in the end. But getting to that end was painful.
Especially since Felix was unrelenting. “Who is this tar baby anyway?” he asked. “Who is this black bitch masquerading as the African Queen?”
