Chapter 82
Xavier's
POV
I was getting worried about Kate; the last couple of days she had been looking tired and worried by the day.
When she excused herself to go and powder her nose, I sent Kelly with me just to check up on her.
I turned my wrist and checked the time; we were already ten minutes behind schedule.
Where were Kate and Kelly? Was Kate okay?
"They are on their way," Greyson said, grabbing my shoulder. "Kate saw Erika in the hallway."
"...and they eavesdrop on the conversation?" I asked, annoyed.
Greyson nodded.
"And?"
"Erika is planning to use the projector for photoshopped pictures of me with Andrews," Kate said, angry, as she walked in.
"Oh," I said, smiling and lifting an eyebrow, "that's interesting."
"It's not funny," Kate growled under her breath, "it could ruin my reputation."
Kate's eyes changed to yellow, and a smile followed on my lips.
"Feisty!" I said teasingly and pulled her closer to me.
"Xavier," she said, angry, "this is serious!"
"I know," I said, and I bent down to her ear. Many paragraphs are missing. Read the complete book on FindNovel.c(o)m. She shivered as my breath tickled her nape. "All is under control, I promise!" Kate found my gaze, and she looked at me for a moment, then nodded.
"Okay," she said and nodded, "let's get this party on the roll."
Greyson stuck his head between the curtains, and I could see that the lights went out in the banquet hall.
"Here goes nothing!" I mind-linked Greyson, and a teasing smile followed.
"Good luck!" He said as the curtains opened and the spotlights followed and shined on the stage.
I took Kate's hand where we stood at the center of the stage, and we walked closer toward the microphone.
"Thank you for attending this celebration banquet with us in your busy schedules," Kate said as she took the microphone in her hand. She has become a natural and is now more comfortable and relaxed when she talks in front of crowds of people.
"It is not so much a celebration banquet; it is more of a thank-you banquet for your hard work," Kate praised, and the employees from both groups cheered.
My gaze moved over the pitied woman, drinking her in as she stood in her black cocktail dress.
Her long, sun-tanned legs were looking even longer in her stilettos, and for a second, I imagined how I wanted to wrap those legs around my shoulders and f*ck her with my tongue until she came undone.
Kate smiled at me, breaking my daydreaming as she handed me the microphone to say some words.
"I believe that the success of the company lies not in its leaders but in its employees," I said, turning to Kate. "We are a team, and without everyone's hard work, we wouldn't have achieved our targets. Therefore, let's lift our glasses and make a toast. I respect everyone here. I hope we will be working on more projects in the future, and I will make even more toast to you!"
With that, Kate picked up the glass the waiter brought and gulped it down. Everyone in the audience looked at Kate's actions in shock, yet seconds later, applause broke out.
I was still stunned at what I saw. What was up with Kate?
"If you keep on drinking that much, you shouldn't complain if I take advantage later," I teased, pulling her closer to me.
Kate had become more and more relaxed in my presence, and our love had grown over the last couple of weeks.
Yet she refused to allow me to mark her as mine. I was still patiently waiting for her to tell me that she was ready.
"I am trying to get Erika to drop her vigilance," Kate said. "The more she sees me drink, the more careless she becomes."
Kate smiled confidently, raised her eyebrows at me, and waved to a waiter who went backstage.
I sighed, yet I didn't argue.
After a while, the screen on the stage lowered, and pictures flashed on the screen.
The moment the screen began to flash, everyone's eyes were drawn to the pictures on the screen. It was mostly pictures of the project we did together.
The speech from earlier was replayed, and then, just with a click, a video suddenly popped up over the speech.
No sound played in the video, drawing everyone's attention to see what was happening.
I kept my facial expression blank and watched Kate's.
She scrunched her eyebrows together when everyone went silent, and she slowly turned her gaze toward the screen.
I watched her in excitement as I saw two people, a man and a woman, lying naked on a big round bed, f*cking one another's brains out. The quality of the photo was so smooth and clear, and even though there was no sound, people could imagine what it sounded like.
I turned toward the technical team working on the PC, seeing them panic, and before the faces in the video could be seen, the technical team quickly pressed the next page.
But the next page was worse than the previous one, and there was a video.
There was still no sound, but the same woman was clearly f*cking different men at different times. The side of the woman's face could be seen in one of the clips where she rode the men like there was no tomorrow. Before anyone else could see who it was, Erika yelled from somewhere.
"Change it quickly!" She panicked and yelled, "Change it quickly!"
Mummers could be heard, and it sounded like everyone thought Erika's gaffe was because it was hurtful to have such a picture on such an occasion, and no one paid much attention to it.
However, when the technical team member who played the picture pressed the next button, the crowd suddenly burst into exclamations.
The woman in this picture lies under a man, and the two plump balls are rising from the woman's mouth. She turns over, showing her full gaze to the camera, before she turns and has the man f*ck her. Even if there is no sound, you can guess from the picture how intense the scene was at that time.
Everyone's eyes turned and focused on Erika, yet the video on the screen continued to play.
Each video was only four to eight seconds long, but it adds up to more than ten scenes and more than ten men.
According to the dates displayed on the screen, they are all recent! At that time, some men in the crowd had already started whistling at Erika, yelling, and asking when they would have a turn.
I found John and Rose in the crowd, and even they looked shocked and speechless. They silently got up and disappeared, leaving Erika at her own mercy.
After a long pause, Erika reacted and was furious. She rushed backstage.
I excused myself from Kate's side, gestured to Kelly to stay by Kate's side, and rushed toward the technical team.
When I walked in, Erika was already beating and scolding the team.
"I asked you to put Kate's picture up on the screen," she roared. "Why have you played mine?"
"It wasn't us!" A guy yelled back at her, "We have no control over the laptop; someone has logged in and taken my PC for ransom!"
The words of the man stirred up thousands of waves, and all major networks rushed to report this collection.