Chapter 4
“I’m going out for lunch,” Brandon said as he strolled by the station”s receptionist Katie.
“Have a good one,” she said and waved.
Katie had worked for Cedarville Police longer than he’d been alive. He knew that when outsiders heard her name they assumed she was a younger woman but that wasn’t the case. Katherine Jacobs was seventy-two years old and was apparently still as spry as she had been when she was thirty. She knew everyone and everything that went on in Cedarville and didn’t hesitate to tell anyone.
Outside on the street, he made a quick decision to grab a sandwich and chips from the deli so he turned right. Many townspeople waved to him or said hello as he passed by all the storefronts.
Opening the door to the deli he spotted Melanie at the counter.
“Hey, Mel,” he said, walking up to her. “How goes the studio?” He had known Melanie since she had been born, same as his cousin Carly, and she was like a kid sister to him.
“Crazy,” she answered. “I feel like we are never going to be ready in two weeks.”
“If you need help, you know all you have to do is ask. And not just me. You know how this town is...everyone is always willing to lend a hand.”
“I know and we appreciate it.”
He wanted to ask about Leah and had to actually force himself not to just blurt out her name. She’d been on his mind since the moment he met her and short of cutting out his brain, he didn’t think it was going to change.
“You know where to find me if you need me,” he told her.
“You can ask, you know?” she said and he gave her a quizzical look. “About Leah? You can ask about her.”
“What? Why would I ask about her?” He knew he sounded stupid but what else was he supposed to say.
“You totally like her.” She said it quietly and he knew she did that so that others wouldn’t overhear.
“Why do you think that?”
“I have never, in all the years I’ve known you, seen you write a note.”
“What are you talking about?” he asked and as soon as the words left his mouth he remembered he’d left a short note for Leah the first night.
“Plus,” she went on, “Carly told me how you acted after you found out about her yesterday. Just admit it, Bran, you know you want to.”
Mel was like a friggin dog with a bone. She would not let something go. Ever. “Maybe I do,” he shrugged, “so what?”
“She’s had such a shitty couple of years.” She shook her head. “Just...don’t play with her. That’s all I’m saying.” She grabbed her bag and left before he had a chance to defend himself.
What he didn’t understand is why she thought he would play with her. Sure he’d dated and yeah never more than a few times, but everyone he went out with knew the deal. He wasn’t looking for long-term.
After he placed his order and got his food, he left the deli and figured he would just eat at his desk. He entered the station but came to a complete halt when he found the woman who had been occupying all his thoughts standing at Katie’s desk talking with her.
“Here he is now,” Katie said, as Leah turned to face him, her face showing embarrassment.
“Chief, this lovely woman has some questions and I thought maybe you could help her?”
“You really don’t have to take time out of your busy day,” she said, waving a hand in front of her body.
“Come on back,” he said. “I was just getting ready to have lunch.”
“Seriously, Brandon, I don’t want to bother you.”
“Brandon?” Katie said. “Do you two already know each other?”
“Leah is living with Carly and Melanie and she will be working at the new dance studio.”
“I think that the new dance studio is going to be wonderful,” Katie said. “Such smart girls to open a place like that here in Cedarville.”
“If I can get the open house approved, you’ll have to come by and check it out.”
“I most definitely will.”
Brandon led Leah down the short corridor to his office, closing the door behind them.
“Have a seat,” he said and did the same behind his desk.
“You can go ahead and eat,” she said. “I’d hate for your food to get cold.”
“It’s just a sandwich, so it’ll keep.” Leaning back in his chair he asked, “What can I do for you?”
“I had this idea to have an open house before the studio opens but, since we won’t be one hundred percent finished and up to safety code, I believe I have to get approval before I can go ahead.”
Brandon watched her fidget in her seat. He couldn’t decide if she was nervous, scared or something else entirely.
“You do need approval, especially since you will most likely have more people in there than you are allowed by fire code.”
“How would I go about that?”
“We have a form you can fill out and then both the fire chief and I will sign off on it.”
“Can I get that?” Now her leg was bobbing up and down at lightning speed.
“Leah are you okay?”
She stood abruptly. “I have to go.” He couldn’t decipher the look in her eyes as he watched her turn, throw his door open and bolt out of his office.
What the fuck had just happened? Should he follow her?He stood and walked out to the front of the office to where Katie was giving him a dirty look.
“What did you say to that poor girl?”
“Nothing.” He shook his head. “She seemed kinda nervous the whole time and then she just shot out of my office like a bullet out of a gun.”
“Hmm,” she said. “That is odd.”
He figured he could go by her house later and see if she was okay. “Katie, can you print me out the temporary patron approval form?” He would just take that to her when he went to see her.
“Sure will boss.”
He gave her a stern look for her use of the word boss before heading back to his office.
Other than the nervous thing, Leah had looked gorgeous. He’d yet to see her with make-up on or wearing anything but jeans and a t-shirt, but it didn’t seem to matter. Beautiful was beautiful and she didn’t need anything to help her out in that area. Her chocolate brown hair wasn’t short but it wasn’t long either. In the three times he’d seen her it had been down and pushed behind her ears giving him a glimpse of her slim neck, a neck that he couldn’t stop thinking of licking.
And her green eyes were like big emeralds staring back at him. He could tell that she was thinner than she usually kept herself from the hollow and dark circles under those eyes. He guessed the stress of everything that had gone on had caused the weight loss.
But even now, she was beautiful. At her full potential, he was sure she had guys lined up around the block to date her.
And it was the realization that he wanted to be first in that line that had his head spinning.
His attraction to her felt fast and crazy but it also felt right. And that was the part he was having the problem with. He’d been attracted to other women quickly but it was more of a ‘I wanna fuck her’ type of attraction. With Leah it was different. And yeah, he was a guy so of course the ‘I wanna fuck her’ attraction was still there, but now there was also, ‘I wanna talk to her and hold her hand and – fuck him – cuddle.’
He’d never cuddled a day in his damn life.
Had Mel been right that morning when she’d said he liked her? Did he like her? It sure as hell seemed like it. But if that was the case, what was his next move? Was it too soon to ask her out? And what if she decided to leave town and move back to New York? What would he do then?
Holy shit, he was already worried about her leaving town so the question of whether or not he liked her seemed to be answered.
Of course he liked her.
Admitting that to himself was the first step, he hoped, in figuring out what his next step would be.
––––––––
Later that day, hewas just ready to head home for the night when there was a knock on his office door.
“Come in.”
The door opened and there were those bright emerald green eyes staring at him.
“Leah,” he said in a voice that didn’t sound like his and stood up.
“I hope it’s okay that I stopped by?” she said.
“Yeah, come on in.” She stepped further into his office and closed the door.
“I need to apologize for this afternoon.” Her hands were clutching her purse so tight that her knuckles were white.
“Sit down,” he said.
“No, I can’t stay.”
He stayed standing since she was and said, “Was it something I said that made you leave?”
She shook her head side-to-side. “No. It was just...me.” She seemed to think and then she sighed. “Maybe I will sit down.” She moved to the chair in front of his desk and sat. He followed suit.
“I don’t even know how to say this,” she said, head down not looking at him.
Having no idea what she needed to say he remained cool. “Whatever it is, you can just tell me. I’m a cop, I can help.”
“This is not an ‘I need a cop thing.’”
“What kind of thing is it then?”
She lifted her head and looked him right in the eyes. “It’s an I need a man to have sex with me thing.”
At the word sex his dick stood up at full attention but the rest of him that could still think straight – and that wasn’t much considering all the blood had rushed south – tried to process what she had said.
“Ummm...”
“I can see that I’ve shocked you and probably scared you a little too. I guess I should explain.” She bit her bottom lip and if it was possible, the rest of the blood in his body moved south. “Circumstances in New York forced me to be celibate for the last two years. It wasn’t just that no one wanted me, it was also that I didn’t want anyone else. I had no sexual appetite, until you opened that door the other night. It was like when you opened the actual door you also opened the metaphorical one to my sex drive.”
She paused and it gave him a second to speak. “Earlier today, when you sped out of here. What was that about then?”
“I was having a fucking panic attack,” she huffed out. “I could barely breathe.”
“A panic attack. About what?”
“That I would jump across your desk and throw myself at you!” she shouted.
He blinked, so confused and yet so horny, it made thinking hard. “Let me get this straight. You were having a panic attack because you want to have sex with me?”
“Pretty much.” She closed her eyes and leaned her head back. “I know I sound like an insane person and you’re probably over there figuring out how you can arrest me.”
He laughed. “If you think I would choose to arrest you for saying you want to sleep with me, then I might just have to pull out my cuffs.”
She lifted her head back up and trained her eyes on his. “I didn’t say anything about sleep.” It came out husky and now he was about to climb over his desk and attack her.
He was just about to stand so she could make good on that promise when a knock sounded on his door.
“Chief,” Katie said. “I’m heading out for the day. Mike is already here.”
He swallowed and cleared his throat. “Thanks, Katie. Have a good night.”
A few beats later when her footfalls were no longer evident Leah said, “Well if that wasn’t a bucket of cold water.”
He sighed. “Probably for the best.”
“Oh.” Her eyes got wide. “Does that mean...”
“That means that we are in my office at the police station.” He stood and walked to stand in front of her putting out his hand for her to take. When their fingers touched, he got the same zing he”d gotten the night she’d first got into town. She stood up and had to tilt her chin to make contact with his eyes. “What if we had dinner and then we could talk more.”
“You want to have dinner with me?”
“Sure,” he said. “If we are thinking of maybe...getting together. Don’t you think we should?”
“No.” She shook her head and took a step back. “That wasn’t what I was asking. I wanted sex. Just sex.”
He blanched at how emotionless she sounded and then wondered if that was how he came across when he’d said virtually the same thing to many women.
Now that the shoe was on the other foot, he didn’t really like it.
“So you’re saying what, it’s just sex or it’s nothing?”
“Yeah. That’s the deal.”
“What made you choose me?” He’d been wondering that from the moment she’d opened her mouth and now he needed to know.
“You’re the first person I’ve been attracted to in almost two years,” she said. “And Carly said you ‘date’,” she actually used air quotes, “a lot.”
Damn Carly and her big mouth. “Carly doesn’t know anything about my personal life. She just likes to think she does.”
“So you don’t have a lot of sex?”
She was blunt and he liked that. A lot. He hated women who were afraid to say what was on their minds.
“I –” he stopped and thought. He didn’t want to lie to her, it seemed she’d been lied to a lot in recent years. Yet, he wasn’t sure he wanted her thinking that he only wanted sex from her. He wasn’t sure why, but it seemed he wanted a hell of a lot more than that.
“I will say this. I have women who I can go to when I want sex and they know that it is just sex. But I don’t sleep around.”
“Why can’t I be one of those women?” He heard the words and he knew what she was asking but for some reason it made him angry.
“You just can’t,” he said and turned, putting his back to her so he could go sit back down.
“I see,” she said, her voice sounding cracked almost like she was going to cry. Before he was able to sit down, he quickly turned back to her. And sure enough her face was full of doubt and sadness.
“You really think I don’t want you?” he asked.
“It’s pretty evident that you don’t,” she said and her hand was on the knob to his door. Ready to bolt again.
“Stop,” he said and covered her hand with his. “Stop being stupid.”
“I’m not stupid.” Her eyes flared with rage. “You don’t get to call me stupid. You don’t even know me.”
“And yet, you felt comfortable enough with me to ask for sex,” he threw back at her.
“Yeah, well, that was a mistake. One I won’t make again.” She pushed his hand away and turned the knob. Leaving him once again, watching her walk away.
He couldn’t help but wonder if the last twenty minutes had actually happened or if it had all been a hallucination.