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Property and house searches turned up nothing and Brandon was frustrated. What was this guy's deal and why did he seem to be terrorizing Leah? As far as he and his deputies could tell, nothing had been taken. It was just like The Rinky Dinky. Except this time, someone had gotten hurt.
Pulling into Logan’s, he put his car in park and just sat there for a few minutes. He didn’t want Leah to see how angry he was. Because he wasn’t angry with her. He was angry at himself for not being a very good cop. This guy was like a fucking ghost and no one could seem to find him.
He was not willing to let Leah go through weeks of being scared just because he couldn’t catch this guy. Her happiness was the most important thing to him. Stepping out of his car, he made his way to Logan’s front door. When he found it locked – his brother was smarter than he looked – he knocked.
“Hey,” Logan greeted him, stepping out onto the porch with him and shutting the door behind him. “Did you find anything?”
“No,” he said and leaned back against the handrail. “Not a damn thing.”
“Fuck,” Logan swore.
Brandon looked at his brother. “How’re the girls?”
“Resilient. Especially Mel. It’s like she doesn’t even seem to care that she could have been seriously hurt.”
“What’s going on with you and her anyway?”
“What do you mean?” Logan said a little defensively.
“I get that she is like family and that we care if all the girls are safe, but you are being weird with her.”
“No weirder than you are with Leah,” he spouted. And wasn’t that telling.
“Uhmm, bro, Leah’s my girlfriend.”
Logan’s face paled, almost like he was going to puke. And then he stood silent for a minute just staring out into the driveway. “Something happened when I saw her unconscious and lying on the ground, Bran. It was like I was seeing her for the very first time.”
Brandon didn’t say anything – really what could you say to an admission like that.
“And now it’s like I can’t breathe if I think about her not being near me.”
“Welcome to my world,” he muttered.
“Is this how it feels for you...with Leah?”
“Pretty much.”
“What the hell am I supposed to do about it?” Logan looked miserable. For as much as he himself had never dated or been in a relationship, Logan was worse. His hook-ups were of the one-night variety and he never usually saw them again.
“Normally I’d say tell her. But this is Melanie. You’ve known her since she was born, so you need to tread lightly.”
“You’re fucking helpful.”
“Aren’t you leaving for your trip soon anyway?”
“I’m canceling it,” Logan said without hesitation.
“Wow,” Brandon said. “You’ve never done that before.”
“Would you have me just leave? Now?” He pointed to the house.
Brandon nodded. “I get it, it’s just a big deal for you.”
“I have no other choice. I need to be here.”
He pushed off the rail and slapped his brother on the back. “I hope you know what you’re doing. Now if you don’t mind, I’m gonna go get my girl and take her home.”
“You’re a smug bastard,” Logan said, following him inside.
“You will be too one day.”
He found Carly, Leah and Melanie, sitting on the couch talking, looking happier than he would have expected.
“Hey Bran,” Carly said as the first to spot him. “What’s the word?”
Leah turned her head and caught his gaze as he took a seat next to her, giving her a quick kiss. “Missed you,” he whispered.
“Gross, can you two please not do that in front of me?” Carly made a gagging sound.
Ignoring her, he said, “It doesn’t look like anything was stolen but I won’t be totally sure until you go in and double-check. But other than that, we’ve got nothing.”
“Nothing?” Mel said.
He shook his head.
“So what does that mean?” Leah asked.
“It means that I will work round the clock to find out who did this and to not let it happen again.”
“But until then, what are we supposed to do?” Carly asked.
“You’re going to start by letting my friend install a security system at the house,” Logan chimed in.
It wasn’t the way that Brandon would have gone about it, but Logan always was more bull-in-a-china shop than he was.
“That’s really not a bad idea,” Leah said, making Brandon stare at her.
“What?” she said. “I had one my whole life and while an extravagance, they do help you to feel safe.”
“I’m not really sure we could afford it,” Mel said. “All of our money is tied up in the studio right now.”
“My guy will do it for cost,” Logan said. “And I can cover that cost.”
Brandon expected arguments, especially from Carly because she hated taking money. But all three sat silent.
“I would feel a lot safer with some kind of security,” Carly said. “If you’re sure you don’t mind, Logan?”
“Not at all.”
Their acceptance told Brandon that they were more scared than they let on. But to him that was good. Scared meant aware. And being aware gave him a better chance at catching this guy.
“You ready to get out of here?” he asked Leah.
“Sure.” She stood. “You guys gonna be okay?”
“With big, bad Logan here to protect us?” Carly said. “Absolutely.”
“I hate you,” Logan said as Leah hugged each of her friends.
“Call if you need anything,” Brandon told Logan. “I’m just a couple of houses away.”
Back at his house, Brandon programmed his alarm, which he wasn’t always vigilant about using but planned to be, and finally relaxed.
“You look tired?” Leah said as he sat down next to her on his couch.
“A little,” he said and laid his head back. “It’s been a long, stressful day.”
“I’m sorry that something in my life is causing you stress.”
He lifted his head and reached for her, pulling her closer to him. “This is not your doing, Leah. This is my job whether it’s you or someone else.”
She brushed his hair off his forehead. “What do you need?”
“Just you,” he said and kissed her, loving the way she kissed him back.
“You have to be starving though,” she said, pulling back just a little.
He was but if he had to choose between her and food, he’d always choose her. “It can wait,” he said, kissing her neck.
“No, it can’t.” She stood up. “You’ve worked so hard today taking care of me and everyone else. The least I can do is feed you.” She walked through the house and into his kitchen.
“I think we should go with fast and functional,” she said and he could see her pulling out bread and sandwich makings. “Any requests?”
His stomach growled at the sight of the food, making him aware of how hungry he actually was. “Anything. I eat it all.”
She quickly made them sandwiches – him two and her one – and brought them, along with chips and beer, to the living room.
“Eat,” she said and sat back down next to him. He devoured the first sandwich and then took his time with the second.
“Thank you,” he said, taking a huge gulp of his beer.
“I’m not the best cook, but sandwiches I can do.” She took a drink of her own beer.
He picked up their plates and placed them on the kitchen counter, grabbing himself another beer. Sitting back down he asked, “Tell me how you’re really doing?”
She bit her bottom lip. “I’m kinda numb. It’s like, I’ve lived with so much drama the last few years that this isn’t even bothering me.” She shook her head. “And it kinda pisses me off. I mean, Jesus, he knocked Mel out cold. I should be fucking pissed.”
“I think that Logan is pissed enough for us all.” He laughed.
“Okay,” she said pointing to him, “what the hell is up with him. And I can tell that you know something, so spill.”
“Bro code,” he said, throwing her ‘girl code’ remark back in her face.
“Uh uh,” she shook her head and climbed up on top of his lap. “It doesn’t work that way.” She nibbled on his ear.
His hands cupped her ass of their own accord. “Oh it doesn’t, does it?” It was amazing how his body went from zero to sixty in the blink of an eye.
“Nope.” She ground down on his already hard and getting harder by the second cock. “Plus, I have ways of getting information out of you.”
At this moment, he was pretty sure he would tell her anything she wanted. If he was the president, he’d give her the code to the nuclear weapons.
Needing to feel her skin, he moved his hands up her back and under her shirt. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know, just don’t stop doing what you’re doing.” He pushed her shirt up further before finally pulling it over her head. Cupping her breasts, he licked along the top of the bra before dipping his tongue lower and finding her nipple.
“Oh God,” she moaned and he smiled against her skin. It seemed the tables had turned on who was in control.
His fingers found the clasp to her bra and soon his hands and mouth were the only things covering her perfect breasts. The way she was moaning and grinding down on top of him, told him she loved every second of what he was doing.
Gripping his hair, she pulled his head off her chest, hard. “Fuck me now.” Her eyes were glazed over and wild.
Wasting no time and willing to do whatever she asked, he flipped them so that she was under him on the couch. With one leg on the floor and the other bent between her legs on the couch, he stripped his own clothes off while she shoved her pants down her legs. Grabbing a condom from his pants, which he’d gotten in the habit of keeping in there since he’d met her, he sheathed himself.
Lifting her legs, he entered her in one hard stroke, her scream vibrating around the room.
“More,” she said when he didn't move for a beat. “More.”
He loved how she was never afraid to ask for what she wanted. He started moving, his pace already fast and hard. Something about today told him that they both needed it that way.
Some days you needed to make love and some days you just needed to fuck.
And this was the latter.
He was pounding into her with wild abandon and loving how her body just opened up to him. In the last week, they’d had a lot of sex. And he already knew her body and what it liked and didn’t like.
And it loved what he was doing right now.
Pulling him down on top of her, she wrapped her legs around his back and found his mouth. This had become his favorite thing. She always seemed to need to be kissing him when she came. And that made their connection even greater.
She shuddered under him, her muscles gripping his cock tighter forcing him to lose control. Together they lay, breathing heavily in each other’s ears.
“That was unfair,” she said.
He lifted his head. “Unfair?”
“I was trying to coerce information out of you and you turned the tables, so to speak.”
“Honey, you can have any information you want.” He shook his head. “But let me clean up first.” He hated having to leave her body so soon after lovemaking, but condoms weren’t one hundred percent and he wasn’t ready to think about babies yet.
He found her in virtually the same position when he returned from the bathroom. Throwing her one of his t-shirts that he’d grabbed from his room for her after he’d gotten shorts for himself, he went and got them each a water.
“Really wanna know what I know about Logan?” he asked, handing her the water and sitting down.
“I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours?”
“Well...it seems as if when he found Mel lying on the floor, everything changed. Like he saw her for the first time or something. His words, not mine.”
“Interesting,” she said. “So he likes her?”
“That’s the way it seems.”
“Then it’s a good thing she likes him back.” She wagged her eyebrows at him.
“Mel likes Logan? My brother Logan, who she has known her whole life?”
“Yes, you idiot. And has it seems, for a long time.”
“Hmm,” he said. “Go figure.”
“Is that weird for you?”
“No.” He shook his head, “I don’t think so. I mean, I’ve always loved her like a sister, but she and Logan had a different relationship.”
The more he thought about it, the more he could see them together.
“Do you think that Logan is going to do anything about it because honestly, I don’t think Mel will. And the way she is acting today is almost like her feelings have drastically changed.”
“Who knows.” He shrugged. “I’m gonna let Logan deal with his own love life. Mine is about all I can handle.”
When he saw her eyes widen and the shock in them, he realized that he had said love in conjunction to her. He wasn’t sure what to do or say, but he knew he didn’t want to take it back.
He started to speak but she beat him to it. “I didn’t come here looking for you. This town was supposed to be my sanctuary. A place to stay for a while and then leave. But somehow it has become home. A home that I never expected. A home that I always wanted. And you,” she reached for his hand, “you are part of that home.”
He closed his eyes and relished in her words. She gave him hope. A hope that he had never had or even wanted. And now because of her, he wanted the future that he saw in his dreams. A future where they were a family here in his hometown of Cedarville.
A future full of Leah.