Chapter 16

For a moment, no one moved, and then Jadon took a step towards Tapiwa. It was like watching a tornado heading toward her. Without consciously thinking about it, Tapiwa took a step back, nearly knocking into a table behind her.

His reaction was instant. Jadon's frown deepened, but he stopped. Then, as though suddenly realizing where he was, Jadon took his eyes off Tapiwa and swept his studying gaze over the dim, stuffy library.

Of course, like a silly girl who didn't know any better, Tapiwa took advantage of Jadon's temporal distraction to satisfy her own curiosity shamelessly. Her eyes roamed greedily over the man she had hoped not to lay her eyes on again in this lifetime but was equally grateful she had.

Damn, the man looked good enough to eat, Tapiwa mused and then immediately cringed. No. She didn't want to go there. Even after she'd spoken to Nicole, Tapiwa hadn't wanted to console herself with the fact that her first time had been with a handsome man. Unfortunately, her wandering mind had other ideas and wasn't done assessing the specimen that had stormed into her workplace.

Unlike the last time she had seen him at the restaurant, where he had on a pink shirt and no tie under his suit, today wasn't the case. Jadon looked as though he had dressed ready for a photo shoot for the front page of those magazines that featured tycoons.

He wore a bespoke suit that looked like it cost more than she made in a year. The fit was perfect and was coupled with a black shirt and gray tie. Every piece of material seemed to have only one job: to make the man look powerful and intimidating. Not that he needed any help in that department.

Tapiwa swallowed. It was hard to imagine that this was the man she had woken up next to naked. The man who had taken her virginity. Something she still couldn't remember and wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

As though sensing her eyes on him, Jadon whipped his head back her way and their gazes met once more. The ice cold was still there, and it carried into his sharp voice. "When were you going to tell me?"

Tapiwa blinked at the question. "Tell you what?"

Jadon lifted a single brow. Then, like a predator closing in on a prey, the man stepped closer. His hand went under his jacket then and retrieved a folded large envelope. Tapiwa watched, her breath caught in her throat, as he opened the envelope, removed a single large photograph, and showed her.

A gasp escaped her the moment she realized what she was looking at. It was a picture of her and Jadon naked in bed on the night of the party. Tapiwa squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head, but the image was already burned into her mind.

She could still see how Jadon's body was positioned over hers, his left hand stretched out, fingers intertwined with her right hand over her head. Her face had been turned toward the camera and Tapiwa had seen not horror but pleasure in the way her eyes had been half-closed and her lips parted.

Jadon's face hadn't been fully visible with half of it buried in her neck, but there was no doubt it was him. There was also no doubt about what had been happening in the lower regions of their bodies. Her legs had practically been wrapped around his waist.

"Look at it," Jadon demanded.

Tapiwa shook her head again. No. She didn't want to. Unfortunately, Jadon hadn't planned to play nice. In a heartbeat, he was in her personal space. He then gripped her jaw and tilted her head up. Tapiwa still wouldn't open her eyes.

If she had the brainpower to feel embarrassment, Tapiwa thought she would probably collapse from it. Maybe that wasn't such a bad idea and when she woke up, she would realize it had all been a bad dream. Yeah, that wouldn't happen. Tapiwa knew this reality wasn't going away, just like the man who held her firmly and demanded her attention.

"Open your damn eyes and look at me," he hissed. His grip tightened just a fraction, and Tapiwa almost whimpered. "You will look at me and tell me how this happened."

Against her better judgment, Tapiwa's eyes snapped open instantly. She blinked and then stared at Jadon in confusion. "How this happened?"

"Yes. What did you put in my drink? Who were you working with? Is that the man now trying to blackmail me?"

The questions came at her in rapid fire and all Tapiwa could do for half a minute was just stare at the man. If not for his hold on her jaw, Tapiwa thought it would have hit the floor in shock. But then she snapped out of it and jerked her head hard enough to break the hold.

Tapiwa took a step to the side and then walked around Jadon and kept moving until there was a whole table between them. Only then did she fold her arms over her chest and glare at him. Her skin still tingled where his fingers had pressed. She felt branded and a little scared, but she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of showing it. Especially not when he was throwing such ridiculous accusations around. "Are you suggesting I orchestrated all this?"

Without missing a beat, Jadon slapped the picture on the table and braced his palms on either side of it before he leaned forward. He still wasn't in her face, although it seemed not to matter. Tapiwa shuddered. The man was both intimidating and offensively good-looking. He looked like the sort of man who attracted women to him like bees to honey, only to chew and spit them out without a second thought.

"Are you saying you didn't?" Jadon demanded. "You conveniently dated my brother until that happened." He stabbed a finger at the picture. "Then you dumped him and I have someone blackmailing me because I somehow ended up in bed with you."

Tapiwa shook her head. "Are you insane? Do I really look like the kind to plan out such elaborate schemes? For all I know, this was all your doing. Because I can't remember anything about that night!"

Jadon leaned back, the crease between his brows deepening. "If you are trying to sell that you had nothing to do with all this, I'm not buying it."

"Do I look like I care what you buy? I had nothing to do with this. For heaven's sake, I was a v-" Tapiwa cut herself off and bit her tongue before the word burst out of her mouth. No. There was no way in hell she was going to tell the arrogant bastard that she had been a virgin. Suddenly, that felt like one humiliation too many.

"You were what?"

"Never mind." Tapiwa shook her head. Her eyes fell back down on the picture still held in place by Jadon's finger jabbed at the center. God, she felt her insides twist with mortification. Someone knew what they had done and had taken pictures of them. Just when she had thought she could put it all behind her and move on, this happened. "How did you get the picture?" she heard herself ask.

Jadon blinked. His eyes snapped down at the picture as though he had forgotten about it. After a beat, he lifted his finger off and clenched his hand into a fist before he suddenly picked the picture up like he couldn't bear to look at it either and shoved it back into its envelope.

Tapiwa thanked every angel in the heavens that Jadon had put the picture away because barely half a minute late, Neo stepped into view and came to stand next to Tapiwa, a concerned frown fixed on his brows. If Neo had seen the picture, Tapiwa thought she would have died of humiliation.

"Tapi, are you okay?" Neo asked even as he shot Jadon with a reproachful glare.

Jadon wasn't fazed, of course. He returned Neo's glare even as he put the folded envelope back into the inner pocket of his jacket. Instead, he escalated the situation by allowing his aggression to leak into his voice. "I am having a private conversation with Tapiwa. Do you mind giving us some privacy?"

"Actually, I do mind, and I think you should leave. Right now," Neo fired back before he placed a proprietary hand on Tapiwa's lower back. She stiffened but didn't move away from the touch. Neo had never been that familiar with her before, and it felt weird. Unlike Jadon's touch, which had made her skin tingle and almost enticed her to lean into it, Neo's touch made her want to take a hot shower to wash it off.

Or perhaps she just wanted to wash off all the testosterone that saturated the air as both men refused to back down.

"And who might you be? Do you speak for Tapiwa?" Jadon challenged.

Before Neo could respond, Tapiwa jumped in already sensing the exchange of punches hovering on the horizon when Neo's hand flexed against her back. "I think Neo is right, Jadon. You should leave." Tapiwa forced herself to meet his gaze and hold it, just so he knew how serious she was about her request.

Jadon wasn't pleased, of course. His jaw clenched and his eyes narrowed. He looked from Tapiwa to Neo and back again. "Who is he? Is he your partner? The one who made the call?"

"What call?" Neo demanded.

"I told you," Tapiwa cut in. "I don't know what you are talking about. Now just leave. Please."

Tapiwa wasn't sure if it was the small plea she'd tagged on the end of her request that finally got through to the man. Whatever it was, she was just grateful for it when Jadon gave her one last glance and then turned and stormed out of the library.

"Are you okay?" Neo asked just as his hand began to make smoothing circles on her back.

"Yeah. Thanks." Tapiwa stepped out of reach to the side and wrapped her arms around herself.

Something like disappointment flashed in Neo's eyes before he gave her a tight smile. "Anytime. Who was that man, anyway? I would have handed his ass to him and thrown him out if he tried anything."

Yeah, Tapiwa didn't think that would have ended how Neo played it out in his head. Thank god it hadn't gotten to that. But that wasn't what she wanted to think about at this moment. Tapiwa's mind was still whirling from the fact that Jadon knew they had slept together and had the evidence.

Evidence that had supposedly been sent to him by a blackmailer? What the hell? Was it even possible, or had Jadon just made that up? Tapiwa frowned and stared at the now-empty front door. The man thought she had set everything up. It didn't make sense. None of it made sense, she mused. So now what? What did that mean for her? Tapiwa was almost too scared to find out the answer to that question.