Chapter 23

"She's cheating on me!" Asher bellowed as he stormed into Jadon's office early the next morning.

Having already been warned by his secretary that his brother was on his way in, Jadon calmly looked up from his laptop where he had been reviewing everything he could on the Sunset estate contract.

The last thing he needed that morning was a visit from Asher. Jadon had been scrutinizing every word in the documents for hours and hadn't yet found anything that would suggest why the blackmailer was after this particular deal. Other than the fact that there was a lot of money to be made from it. Millions, in fact.

Jadon's first thought had been a competitor company after the same deal. But he had quickly confirmed that the owners of the estate hadn't publicized their intentions to develop the land, hence, unless a company was approached, they wouldn't know about it.

However, it wasn't unheard of for company secrets to leak to competitors. Still, Jadon had trouble seeing one of the other real estate companies in the city going to the trouble of setting him and Tapiwa up at a party only to get pictures to then blackmail him to abandon a project. It sounded too far-fetched.

If he didn't know better, Jadon would have assumed the matter was personal and actually had nothing to do with the business. But again, he couldn't fathom what the motivation would be and who would be behind it all. In the end, he already had a pounding headache and it was only nine in the morning. So, yeah, Asher was the last thing he wanted to deal with that morning on top of everything else. Unfortunately, there was no escaping it.

Not wanting his brother to catch on to anything, Jadon closed his laptop. He even carefully flipped his phone on his desk, making the screen face down, just to be safe. Tapiwa hadn't called or messaged him after she abruptly ended their call, but he wasn't taking chances.

"Asher, this is a place of work," Jadon reminded his brother. "Please keep your voice down and tell me what the hell you are talking about.".

Asher huffed and then began a stiff march in the large space in front of Jadon's desk. "My girlfriend. Tapiwa. Who else would I be talking about?"

Resisting the urge to growl, Jadon braced his elbows on the arms of his executive chair and steepled his fingers in front of his mouth. He regarded his brother. "I thought she already ended things?"

To Jadon's surprise, Asher waved a dismissive hand in the air as though that particular fact was inconsequential. "There is another man," he insisted.

Like a sudden pinch to his balls. the idea made Jadon uncomfortable. He shifted in his seat ever so slightly and cleared his throat. Tapiwa. The woman was going to be the death of him, he was sure.

The images in the pictures he had received, coupled with his dreams were keeping him in a state of semi-arousal despite his best efforts to push everything out of his mind. Even the thought of her with his brother wasn't enough to kill it off completely.

It did, however, leave a bad taste at the back of his throat and made him want to punch someone. Preferably maybe even his brother. He shook his head and rubbed at his eyes. Something was really wrong with him if he had a problem with Tapiwa being with any other man except him.

Especially since being with him wasn't even in the cards. He had slept with the woman once and the memory of that encounter now haunted his dreams every time he closed his eyes. But that didn't suddenly mean he wanted to be with her.

She wasn't the first woman he had slept with in his life. Jadon had sampled more than his fair share of the female species but he was behaving like a teenager after his first hookup. It was disconcerting, to say the least, and he had to get a hang of it before he lost his mind.

However, Jadon had to admit his brother looked closer to losing his mind over the woman than he was. "Asher, sit down. You are giving me a headache."

Asher shot him a glare. "Are you even listening to me? I'm telling you that my girlfriend has some other dude in her life. She's cheating on me!"

"Technically speaking," Jadon started calmly. "She would have to be in a relationship with you for it to be considered cheating. The woman has the right to entertain another man if she isn't-"

"I didn't let her go so she doesn't!" Asher cut in sharply.

Jadon's frown deepened. He regarded his brother for a moment. "Asher, honestly, I am not understanding your obsession with this woman. And you can't use our mother as an excuse anymore. Tapiwa may be the daughter of her friend but our mother clearly showed she doesn't care for Tapiwa at the restaurant. So, what gives? Why are you suddenly hooked on this woman and refusing to let her go?"

Another huff of frustration escaped Asher as he continued his rigid march around Jadon's office. "You wouldn't understand."

"Try me," Jadon challenged.

Asher threw an arm in the air. "I was prepared to just have my fun and move on like usual. But then the girl dumped me."

Jadon frowned, his anger rising even as a part of him relaxed at the thought that Asher never got to be with Tapiwa. "So this is because she didn't let you have your fun? Your ego is bruised?"

"No!"

"Then I don't get it," Jadon stated, feeling as frustrated as Asher looked.

Asher abruptly stopped pacing, turned, and faced him. "Since when as a woman ever dumped me?" he shook his head. "It never happens. They fall all over themselves to have me."

"Must be your charming personality," Jadon deadpanned. His fingers twitched with the sudden urge to punch his brother again.

But Asher seemed serious and said as much. "I'm not kidding! Tapiwa is different. What if she's the one?"

Gut clenching, Jadon sat forward fast. "The one?" he asked carefully.

Asher nodded, completely serious. "The one I can settle down with? She's not affected by my money or charm. She would make the perfect wife. She's not a gold digger."

"But she dumped you," Jadon felt the need to remind his brother of the facts.

"Exactly!" Asher bellowed in frustration. "I can't let that happen. I owe it to myself to see if things could work out between us."

Jadon blinked at his brother for a moment stunned speechless. Was Asher for real? He could understand wanting to know if a relationship would work out and lead to more but "Asher, what about what you owe Tapiwa? Don't you owe her the right to make up her own decision? She ended things. Maybe she didn't feel the same way."

The words seemed to enter Asher's head through one ear and out the other. His brother shook his head and resumed his pacing as he spoke. "She's mine and I will get rid of whoever is trying to get her away from me. No one gets my woman."

The words settled over Jadon like acid. He ground his teeth together and fought the urge to growl like a wild animal and tell his idiot brother that Tapiwa wasn't his. From the sound of it, she had never been. A fact he liked way too much to be healthy for his mental state. Damn it! The woman was going to get him killed.