Page 111 of Taeja

Zain smirked, jovial because she smiled at him. Her joy was contagious. It felt strange, but was welcomed. He kept his eyes glued to Taeja while she looked at her phone and spoke to Dijonae.

Taeja was gorgeous.Reallygorgeous. Exactly how Damon always put it.

From that full head of curly hair, to those long eyelashes, soft lips, and smooth, dark skin. She was everything. He liked her smiles and her laughs. Her posture and her slim build.

She looked at ease right now, given all that she confessed earlier.

Zain clenched his jaw and looked away. How would she feel when he finally managed to deliver the news to her? Because it couldn’t be a coincidence that he saw Twenty today. Time was running out faster than he anticipated; PNG would be in action soon.

He snapped back to reality when Taeja gently laid her hand on his thigh. It surprised him that he didn’t jerk away or break her fingers for touching him.

Was this reaction even normal for a man like him?

Of course not.

Taeja was an open book, yet she was a mystery to him. He could never understand why she made him feel half of the things he felt, and it scared him the better he got to know her.

“Sorry.” Taeja retracted her hand. “Dee is talking to you.”

Zain looked at Dijonae in the mirror.

Dijonae smiled apologetically. “Last time mi touch yu, yu nearly bruk mi hand, and I need these,” she joked, but Zain didn’t laugh. “I’m going outside to collect my lunch from… a delivery man. I’ll be back in five minutes.”

Zain nodded, and Dijonae smiled before brushing down her hair and taking quick strides toward the waiting area.

“Ketch her nuh,” Taeja mumbled. “A must the man she gone to. What happened between them?”

Zain shrugged and dipped his hand in his pocket. “Ask her.”

“Dee nago tell me nun,” she muttered.

“Then that means you don’t need to know,” he replied while throwing and catching the ball he made with the material he found in his pocket.

“True, but cause mi fass—” Taeja abruptly paused.

Zain looked at her, his brow raised. “What?”

Taeja yanked the ball from his hand and lowly hissed, “Yu really a play with mi draws ina the people dem place?!”

Zain burst out laughing. “Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t realize.”

Taeja paused, her sneer becoming a smile. “You laughed.”

“Yeah. So?”

“That’s the first time you laughed when you’re only around me.”

His smile washed away. He was confused. Did she not want him to be comfortable around her? “Is something wrong with that?”

“No,” Taeja rushed out. “It makes me happy that you’re getting more comfortable around me. Cause when we first met, it was like you were scared of me.”

Not wanting to admit that she hit the nail right on the head, Zain looked at the ball in her hand. He extended his hand toward her. “Give it to me.”

Taeja’s eyes narrowed as she jumped to her feet. “No. Mago put it on back.”

Watching her hips sway as she walked away, Zain’s lips twisted upward into a small smirk.

The agonizing memories of his past typically plagued his days, but since he met Taeja, there’d been a shift. He looked forward to making her breakfast, working out with her, and being forced to watch her cheesy movies with Damon. She was a bittersweet distraction that puzzled him, a reminder of the inevitable distance that’d be placed between them within a month.

---