Reclaiming Love (Tainted Love Book 2)

by Lily Zante

“You haven’t drunk your coffee,” he told her, lifting his cup to his mouth.

  She waved it away and continued talking. “I went out with Heather and I met you at Zoot. And when I saw you, when we talked, away from the coffee shop, just having the chance to have you to myself for the whole evening and find out everything about you, I knew for sure then that Matt was my past—and that”—she paused again—“and that no matter what happened between us—between you and me”—she glanced at him—“I didn’t want to be with someone who made me feel so low.” She lifted her eyes to him once more. “When I met you, you made things good for me. You made me laugh when he’d torn my self-esteem to shreds. You seemed to care, whereas he didn’t. Not about me, as a person. I was more of a plaything.”

  She closed her eyes, and for the first time he began to see that the vulnerability, the times he’d seen her in the coffee shop in the mornings, those times she’d looked sad and a thousand miles away—her boyfriend had been the reason why.

  She’d never mentioned her boyfriend back then. Something told him that his first impressions of Matt had been spot on, and that his first impressions of Melissa had been fairly accurate too. That maybe he’d been right in thinking she didn’t fit the mold of a two-timing bitch out to hurt him or anyone else. She was gentle, kind and sensitive. And she was hurting right now.

  But he still didn’t have all the answers.

  “Why, if you’d told him you wanted a break, did you go to his room on New Year’s day? Christ, Melissa, after we’d spent the night before being so close.” Anger rose in his voice.

  “Don’t you see?” she started.

  Remembering Matt shirtless, and following her from his bedroom, no he couldn’t goddamn well see. “No, I don’t see at all,” he replied calmly, his mouth pursed together.

  “I’d let him think we were having time apart, a break. But after you and I got together, there was no doubt in my mind. I couldn’t just wait for time to pass and for things between him and me to fade. I had to go and tell him. I had to drum it into that thick head of his.”

  “And so?” You went to his apartment and had sex with him instead? Noah gripped his coffee cup harder and waited for her answer.

  She swallowed. “I thought I’d discuss it away from a public place. The last time I told him in the lobby at work and he almost made a scene. He can get nasty.” Her eyes betrayed fear.

  “What do you mean by nasty?”

  She looked away and shook her head. “Just nasty…” He could see he couldn’t pull it out of her, that she had to give up the information voluntarily. “I thought it best to get it over and done with.” She looked at him again.

  Noah put his coffee cup down. “Get what over and done with?” His eyes narrowed.

  “Whatever it was he wanted to say to me. And it was important I do it then, before we got back to work, before you and I saw each other again.”

  She’d done it for him, had she? Is that what she was implying?

  “But he came out of that room without a shirt on.” Accusation stained his words. He waited for Melissa to deny it. Her bottom lip trembled and he saw the truth of it. Knowing it was cruel, he asked her anyway. “Did you sleep with him?”

  When she looked at him, tears had started in her eyes. “He had pictures of me.” She looked away and her voice dropped to an almost inaudible whisper.

  “Pictures?” Even as he said it, his insides clenched. She stared at her untouched cup, refusing to look at him. “He used to take photos of me…in…in”—she closed her eyes—“in my underwear, and make me pose in certain ways.” She closed her eyes and then stared up at the ceiling, and he could see the glob of tears settle near her lashes, threatening to spill over. He reached out, almost touching his fingers to her hands, wanting to touch her, to offer some kind of comfort, but as much as it pained him to see her so broken, a part of him struggled to distance himself from her.

  He still needed to hear all the facts first, as hard as it was for him to sit here and see her falling to pieces and him not do a damn thing to comfort her. His fingers stayed, trailing on the table.

  She opened her eyes, and one tear fell. “He’d send them to me, you see, every now and then. He said it was his way of telling me that he missed me. I think he thought they were sexy—that I would appreciate them, but I’d always felt uncomfortable even when he took them. He sent me one when I was at home with my parents over Christmas. He even sent me one on New Year’s Eve and that’s when I was heading to the washroom, but I bumped into you instead.” He reached out this time, his fingers gently resting on the back of her hand.

  “You and I got talking, and there was no looking back.” More tears fell, and gently rolled down her cheeks.

  “Why are you crying?” he asked gently, before moving his seat next to hers. He lifted his hand and wiped her tears away, as she turned her face to him and sniffed, not saying a word.

  After a moment, she said, “Each time he sent me a photo like that…even though I’d allowed him to take them…it made me feel uneasy. What if years from now, he uploaded them somewhere and blackmailed me with them? I had to get them back.”

  “You came back to get your photos.” Now he understood why. The guy had lied to him about still being with Melissa. Noah shuddered to think what else he’d lied about. Or what else he’d done to her. He put his arm gently around her and she moved toward him, slowly, letting her head rest against him. With his free hand he held hers on the table. Holding her like this was perfect. Moments passed in contemplative silence.

  “I came back on New Year’s day,” her voice wavered.

  “You don’t have to tell me it all now.”

  “I want to.” She sniffed again and he hooked his finger under her chin, tilted her head up to check for tears.

  “Not if it makes you sad.” He searched her face closely.

  “I’d rather tell you it all now,” she insisted.

  Unable to stop himself, he kissed her on the forehead, and she looked at him when he pulled back. Entwining his fingers in hers, he waited for her to continue. She pulled herself out of his embrace and placed her hands on her lap. “I came back on New Year’s Day to tell him there was no chance of us getting back together.” She stopped, and swallowed.

  “And he said what?”

  “He—he—didn’t see it coming.” She sniffed. “I told him to delete the photos from his phone and his laptop…all of them.”

  “And he did?” He asked in surprise.

  She nodded her head.

  “All of them?”

  “All of them.” She repeated in a faraway voice.

  Good. Thought Noah, allowing himself to relax a little.

  “Oh,” she said, suddenly and turned to pick up her handbag. She pulled out a big, bulky envelope. “I hate to ask you to do this for me. But I need to return these to him.”

  The CDs. It had dawned on him yesterday that this was what Melissa had taken that day. “When he’s out, do you think you could somehow slip these onto his desk? I’m sorry to ask you to do something like this for me.”

  He took them, knowing he’d do almost anything for her. He had his answers and for now he trusted that she was telling him the truth.”

  “What did you think was on here?” He put them into his bag.

  “Oh—you know. More pictures. But there’s nothing on there. It’s all software.” She looked at her watch, and then wiped her face with her hands. “I’d better go,” she said, gulping down her coffee. She looked at him, waiting for his next move.

  “I’m here for you. In case you want to talk about it, ever.”

  “I wanted you to know that I’m not a cheating, two-timing kind of girl.”

  He got up and picked up his backpack. “I kind of always knew that. That’s why what happened lately threw me for a loop.” He hesitated. “Did you want to at least swap numbers, or something?” His voice was hopeful, because he wanted to be there for her.

  “Sure,” she said, getting out he
r cell.

  But all the same he wondered. Why would a girl like Melissa break into her ex’s apartment, and for photos that she said were harmless?

  Just how bad were they?

  Chapter 41

  Unable to bring herself to tell Noah everything, Melissa had shared just enough to help ease her burden. And slowly, in the telling of it, she felt as though a heavy iron chain had been lifted from her chest: she could breathe a little. He’d listened intently, and that itself comforted her.

  The Noah from before slowly returned to her. A whisper of relief settled over her that perhaps they could salvage things.

  But then she walked into the lobby at work and saw Sandra Donnelly—a senior manager who seemed to make it her daily goal to inject misery into the lives of others—waiting outside the elevator bank. Melissa slowed down her footsteps, busied herself by searching in her bag for nothing in particular. When the elevator arrived, she waited for Sandra to step in. The short, sharp jaunty dance of the woman’s dark hair contrasted strongly against the deep magenta of her coat.

  The woman sure likes her colors, thought Melissa. She would never be caught dead in something so loud. She watched the doors close, and Sandra disappeared out of sight. Now that her path was clear, Melissa approached the elevator bank and took the next available elevator. She stepped in and pressed the button to her floor.

  Matt jumped in beside her and pressed the button to immediately close the doors. Her heart beat faster and she inched toward the corner, eyeing him warily. A curl of a smile formed on his face. It unnerved her, the way he continued to stare, without saying a word.

  She remained silent. Waiting for him to talk first, and when he didn’t, she swallowed lightly, hoping she didn’t give away any signs of her nervousness.

  The elevator stopped, and he walked out. “I’ll be watching you, Melissa,” he said, and then the doors closed.

  Alone again, she racked her brains, analyzing his words. What did he mean? Were there more backups? Did he have images hidden away on other devices? Her palpitations began.

  She’d barely made it to her desk when Nadine rushed past her. “Melissa, I’ve got that presentation in an hour. Do you have the latest slides?”

  Melissa nodded. “I’ll copy them over for you.”

  “I haven’t got time. Just give them to me now, could you please? I’ve got the Noble Vintage guys in the conference room waiting for me. I don’t know how long I’ll be.”

  Melissa slipped her the memory stick, suddenly switching to work mode.

  “Thanks.” Nadine rushed off.

  Another normal day at the Zimmerman Group.

  ~~

  By late afternoon, Melissa had toyed many times with the idea of calling Noah, or texting him. He brightened her day, and after the way the morning had started, by her running into Matt, she needed nice things to think about.

  But she always stopped herself from doing so, not wanting to depend on him too much, not wanting to come across as needy. She put away her finished sandwich wrapper when her phone rang. It was Nadine.

  “Melissa, could you come in here please.”

  She went into Nadine’s office—to find her boss sitting at her desk, ashen faced. The moment Melissa sat down, Nadine walked over to the just-ajar door and closed it, before returning to face Melissa.

  Had the Europe trip been brought forward? Melissa wondered.

  “I don’t know how to say this, so I’m just going to come out with it.” Nadine sat back in her chair and rubbed her hands together, hesitating. “The memory stick you gave me wasn’t the one with the PowerPoint slides. It was your personal one, I think.” She wavered slightly as she said it.

  Melissa thought back to the morning, and her face crumbled.

  Oh.

  Shit.

  “Mine?” But even as she said it she knew exactly which memory stick she’d accidentally passed on. Heat grazed her cheeks as she bent over and placed her face in her hands. The desire to vanish into thin air, to rewind time, to disappear, took hold.

  “Nobody else saw it. I was preparing for my presentation and I caught it.”

  “I’m… so… sorry,” Melissa blubbered, her breath short and fast.

  “Melissa,” Nadine’s voice was quiet, soft. “I didn’t look through it all. I swear to you. I opened it and it just played. It was footage of you.” Nadine took a breath in and seemed to have as much trouble telling her as Melissa had in listening to her words. The horror of imagining Nadine watching her …was her worst nightmare come true.

  “I saw a glimpse. I saw enough. I saw you crying…in what I can only imagine to be the worst ordeal for you. I saw his face. And I closed it. Here.” She handed Melissa the stick.

  But Melissa was crying quiet tears, trying to hold it together. Until she burst, and the floodgates opened. In an instant Nadine had her arms around Melissa’s shoulders. She held her gently. “Shhhh. Shhhh. Nobody else knows. I’m not going to tell a soul.” Melissa held onto her and cried. Nadine said nothing as she held her. After a while, Melissa pulled away.

  Nadine handed her a tissue, then sat back down. “Do you want to talk about it?”

  Melissa wiped her eyes, her nose, her cheeks. She glanced up. “What about your meeting?”

  “I’ve postponed it.”

  She took the second tissue from Nadine and blew her nose noisily.

  “Melissa,” said Nadine gently, “that looked like a crime to me. I don’t think you can let this go on any longer.”

  “He didn’t do that all the time,” said Melissa, defensively.

  “It was bad enough that it happened once. You shouldn’t feel you’re to blame. Trust me, I should know.”

  Melissa sniffed again, wiped her nose.

  “This will go no further—unless you want it to. Do you want to talk about it?”

  Now that Nadine already knew about the movie, it made sense to start there.

  Chapter 42

  “A few last minute applications came in.” Rory handed a plastic folder to Noah as he walked in for a brief about the current recruitment drive. The recent meeting with Melissa was still uppermost in his mind. She was hurting, she was hurting a lot more than he was. And he had to do something—only he was trying to pace himself, not go running headfirst into anything.

  “I particularly like the one from Matt Elliott. He knows his networks and that’s a lot of our fundamentals covered.” Noah blanched when he heard the name, which sounded so foreign coming from his boss’s mouth.

  “Matt Elliott?” Noah questioned and briefly looked down at the plastic wallet.

  “He made it. Barely. It’s a last minute entry. But he checks out good. According to his application. I’d like to bring him in for an interview.”

  Noah coughed to fight the knot of tension currently plugging his throat. “Let me take a look at these and I’ll get back to you.”

  “Ideally we need to get the first round of interviews over with this week.”

  Noah felt his facial muscles tighten. He’d tried not to help Matt out much last night, and had offered only a few tips on how to word his resume. The guy had experience, and lots of it. He knew Rory liked guys that were well rounded, but they needed the relevant network knowledge first, since Black Diamond monitored a lot of their clients’ servers remotely. This guy had all of that and more. On paper he looked good enough, thought Noah, glancing through Matt’s application form.

  Knowledge-wise the guy checked out. It was the other stuff Noah wasn’t so sure of. He returned to his desk, wondering how he could convince Rory that Matt was a bad asset to have in the company. How could he put Rory off without alluding to anything that might involve Melissa?

  In no way did Noah want the guy working at Black Diamond. Especially not, as this position warranted, reporting to him.

  ~~

  He knocked off work two hours earlier, citing some work that he could do from home—mainly going through the applicants’ forms and deciding who to shortlist. Rory
trusted his judgment and didn’t bat an eye when Noah left.

  But the real reason was to get home before Matt did. It would give him time to slip the CDs back into his room and leave them in some inconspicuous space…not on the desk as Melissa had told him. That would be too obvious. Matt would know they were gone one minute and suddenly reappeared the next.

  Getting back from work in the late afternoon, Noah slipped into Matt’s room. It was unlocked, as he knew it would be.

  He walked over to the desk and slipped the CDs on top of one of the heavy towers under the desk. It was a simple and obvious enough place to have put them and forgotten about them. Heck, if the guy was used to checking the refrigerator for his CDs, it would be so entirely believable that he’d left them on his tower under the desk.

  He looked around, not feeling guilty at all for being in Matt’s room, trespassing; he’d lost respect for the guy days ago. Carefully, he scrutinized the surroundings and shook his head—the guy was one seriously messy dude.

  Time to get to the serious stuff.

  He had his own CDs with him. Software that would allow him to hack into passwords and gain access to machines easily. There was an obvious advantage to working for a company that offered monitoring and protection to companies who needed to secure their networks. Dealing with denial of service attacks from hackers and the like meant having to think like a hacker and acquiring the necessary skills and expertise to carry out these attacks.

  He sat at Matt’s desk and accessed his laptop. Pulling out one of his own CDS, he easily overcame the first hurdle. Matt’s password. Inserting his own CD, he was easily able to get into Matt’s PC and then he spent the next few minutes snooping around. He wasn’t sure what it was he was looking for.

  Until he found it.

  The folders, labeled as dates it looked liked. He clicked on them in order. Nothing here—a couple of girls, in various stages of undress, most smiling. This guy was a perv. He continued, rushing through the folders, his stomach churning, a gut instinct warning him that he was going to find something soon enough.

  And he did.