Chapter 11
Leah was still touchingher lips, thinking about that kiss that Brandon had planted on her when Melanie and Carly both walked in.
“I know that look,” Carly said. “Hell, I’ve worn it more than once.”
“Looks like Leah has been on the receiving end of Brandon’s mouth,” Melanie added.
She glared at them both. “How the hell does he do that? Just kiss me and walk away?” she expounded.
“I wish someone would kiss me,” Melanie said. “I’d kill to have that look on my face.”
“I’d kiss you,” Carly said, “but one, I like men, and two, I’m kinda afraid you’d like it too much.”
“Fuck off.” Melanie flipped her off.
Leah sat, because standing and listening to those two bicker was annoying enough but doing it after a Brandon Graham kiss was nearly impossible.
It was obvious that they had chemistry; hot, out-of-control chemistry. And she liked him. A lot. He was funny and sweet and thought about her more than he thought about himself.
But, and this was the thing, was she ready for that? And even if she was ready for it, was she capable of handling those kinds of feelings?
“How do you know if you’re in love?” she blurted and four eyes that were looking at her widened in shock.
“You’re in love with Brandon?” Carly said, mouth gaping open.
“She didn’t say that.” Melanie slapped her shoulder. “Pay attention. She asked how you know if you’re in love.”
“In my limited experience when someone asks how you know if you are in love...they are already in love.”
“Is anyone gonna help me out here?” She threw her hands up. “I’m kinda in the middle of a crisis, that’s in the middle of another crisis, that’s inside of a GIGANTIC crisis.”
Carly looked at Melanie. “I think we broke her.”
“I think you’re an idiot,” Melanie said to Carly before crouching down on the floor in front of Leah. “Tell us what’s going on?”
“I don’t know exactly. I’ve just, well I’ve never had feelings like this before.”
“That’s because you never really liked anyone before,” Carly said from behind Melanie. “I mean, as far as I know, while you dated and had sex, you’ve never had a boyfriend, right?”
“Yeah. So?”
“So,” Melanie said, “that means you never even let yourself get past the first stage of liking someone. The part where you each do and say stupid and annoying things and yet you still like them.”
“What does that have to do with being in love?”
“Everything,” Carly answered. “If you can still want them, still find them attractive after they leave their dirty clothes all over the house or always use the word ‘literally’, then that’s when you know you like them and maybe even love them.”
“You’re talking about that guy freshman year with the ‘literally’ thing aren’t you?” Carly had gone out with this guy their freshman year and after about two months she dumped him because he literally said the word literally like twenty times in a five minute period.
“God he was such a douche,” Carly said. “How I ever liked him is beyond me.”
“If I remember correctly,” Melanie said, “the sex was off the charts.”
“It was only off the charts because I was new to sex and I didn’t know what good sex even was.”
“Do you think I only like Brandon because of the sex? Because I gotta say, I didn’t know it could be that good.”
“Do tell,” Melanie said.
“Eww, no.” Carly covered her ears like a child. “Gross.”
“I’m not related to him, so tell me.”
Leah laughed, surprised that she even could with all the emotions running through her. “Don’t worry,” she told Carly, “I am not going to give details.”
“No fair,” Melanie complained and crossed her arms over her chest.
“But,” Leah said, “without going into details, I will tell you that the man has skills.”
“Like penis skills or mouth skills.” She was practically hopping up and down on her knees now. “And please say mouth skills. I love a man that knows how to eat pussy.”
“OH MY GOD!” Carly shouted. “Stop talking about my cousin and eating pussy. I’m never going to be able to look at him again.”
Leah looked at Mel, ignoring Carly. “Both but the mouth skills... HOLY SHIT!”
“I knew it!” Mel said.
“Been thinking about it, have you?” Leah laughed.
Melanie blushed. “Not about Brandon.”
“Seriously, I’m about to poke my eyes out over here,” Carly said. “Can we please stop talking about your sex life with Brandon?”
“Fine,” she said. “But you need to tell me what to do then.”
“Hell if I’m going to do that,” Carly said. “You are the most stubborn person I know, aside from Mel. No way am I telling you what to do.”
“Advice then,” Leah countered, basically admitting that she was stubborn.
“My advice,” Melanie said, “is to just go with the flow and see where it leads.”
“Carly?” she asked.
Carly thought about it. “Pretty much the same as Mel except I would make sure you are always honest. If you can’t be honest with the person you think you love, then who can you be honest with?”
She nodded. “I think you’re right. And with everything going on with my family, honesty is important to me, too. Thanks guys.”
“Anytime,” Melanie said.
“Oh by the way,” she said. “Brandon is coming over and staying tonight. Is that okay?”
“You don’t have to ask us if someone can come over,” Carly said. “It’s your home now, too.”
“What she said,” Melanie injected. “Is he eating dinner with us?”
“If it’s okay? He said he would bring dessert.”
“I’m sure he’s bringing you dessert,” Carly said and made a strange face. “And yuck, I just made a sexual innuendo about my cousin.”
Melanie ignored Carly and said, “Logan is eating with us, too.” At Leah’s ‘really’ look she said, “He wrangled an invitation when he was helping me earlier.”
Melanie finally stood up from her crouched position on the floor.
“Can I ask...what’s going on there? With you and Logan?”
“Nothing,” she said, straightening some folders on her desk. “We’re just friends.”
“Ha!” Carly scoffed.
Leah gave her the ‘shut the fuck up’ eyes. “If you ever wanted to talk, I’m a good listener.”
“If I ever get up the courage to do anything about Logan Graham, I promise I will talk to you guys. Until then, I like to pretend that he doesn’t really exist.”
Leah figured that statement was as good as an admission that she liked him and it was a start.
“All right, new subject,” Carly said. “Let’s talk open house since it is only six days away.”
“Probably a good idea,” Melanie said, and they got down to business.
––––––––
Home from work, Leahtook a quick shower pulling on shorts and a tank and piling her hair on top of her head. Looking in the mirror, it hit her that Brandon had yet to see her in anything but jeans and work clothes since they met. Plus, not once had she worn make-up since she’d gotten into town.
And yet, he seemed to like her anyway.
Maybe that was what Carly had been trying to tell her earlier.
Dinner smelled delicious as she headed downstairs and she was surprised to find Brandon already there talking to Carly.
“Hey. When did you get here?” His T-shirt had her mouth-watering as it hugged his delicious muscles.
“Just a couple of minutes ago.” He was looking at her like she was the meal that he planned to eat for dinner.
And fuck if it didn’t turn her on.
“You can kiss,” Carly said, pointing at them with a wooden spoon that she had been stirring dinner with, “but keep it PG-13.”
Brandon shook his head. “I don’t need your permission to kiss my girlfriend.”
At the word girlfriend she almost let the panic take over. But then the thought occurred to her. If she was his girlfriend, then he was her boyfriend.
And just knowing that he was her anything, made her happy.
Ribbing Carly a little she said, “If you want PG-13, then you better leave the room because this kiss is going to be rated R.” Grabbing the front of his tee she fused her mouth to his. He matched her enthusiasm and soon they were both breathing heavily.
“My eyes, my eyes,” she heard Carly say loudly, and both she and Brandon started laughing.
His eyes were full of mischief when they pulled apart. “You’re full of trouble, aren’t you?”
“Nah, I just like to mess with her.”
“Thank God,” Carly said. “I thought I was going to have to stab myself in the eyes with a knife. And you know how much I dislike blood.”
Leah let go of Brandon”s shirt and smoothed it down over his hard chest. “You’re so damn dramatic,” she said and stepped back from Brandon.
“How would you like it if I slept with your cousin?”
“Well, since my only cousin is a girl and you already told me once today that you prefer penis, I don’t think that’s gonna be an issue.”
“Whoa!” Brandon said. “It seems like I missed a lot when I left.”
“See, Brandon doesn’t care about your sex life.”
He put up a hand. “I didn’t say that.”
Leah laughed and grabbed a bottle of wine. “What have I gotten myself into.”
Mel joined them minutes later. “Where’s that damn brother of yours, I’m hungry.”
“Logan’s coming?” Brandon asked.
Leah nodded. “Do you want wine?” she asked Melanie.
“Hell yes, I want wine.” Her mood had drastically changed since they’d left the studio and Leah was sure it had something to do with Logan.
“I say we eat,” Carly said. “Logan will get here when he gets here.”
They all turned when they heard the door open.
“Speak of the devil and he shall appear,” Leah heard Melanie utter under her breath.
“I hope you guys weren’t waiting for me?” Logan said, shutting the door behind him and moving further into the house.
“We were actually,” Melanie said in a clipped tone.
“You’re fine,” Carly put in. “Everyone dig in.”
Dinner was an event with Mel acting – or maybe she really was – angry at Logan. Everything he said seemed to set her off. Leah tried to ignore it and when Brandon reached under the table and began sliding his hand up and down her leg, she pretty much forgot all their names, including her own.
When they all finished eating, Carly declared that the guys should clean and miraculously, they did not complain.
“Growing up, we always did the dishes,” he told her as he cleared the table.
Impressed, she said, “I don’t even think my dad knew where our dishwasher was.”
“Really? Did your mom do everything?”
Behind her Carly snorted. “There’s a thought.”
“No, we had a cook and a maid.”
He dropped the bowl he was washing, into the soapy water. “You had a cook and a maid?”
Pursing her lips she nodded. She wasn’t sure why he sounded so shocked. She had assumed with the investigation into Will that he’d have found out that she had grown up wealthy.
“So you’re rich?” he asked.
“Correction, I was rich and anyway it wasn”t me that was rich, it was my parents.”
“But still, rich enough to have a cook and a maid.” He went back to washing dishes.
It was just the two of them now, since everyone else, including Logan who was supposed to be helping, had moved to the living room. “A cook and a maid that he probably used money that he stole from his clients to afford.”
“Shit,” he said, dropping another bowl, this time with a loud plop. “I totally forgot, I’m so sorry.”
“You don’t have anything to be sorry for, Brandon. You weren’t the one who stole money.”
Drying his hands, he stood directly in front of her. “But I feel like a complete ass for not thinking before I spoke.”
She rubbed her fingers over his jawline, loving the days worth of stubble that he’d let grow. “Six months ago, I wouldn’t have even been able to have this conversation. I’m learning that my dad’s and uncle’s mistakes are not mine. So please don’t be afraid to say whatever is on your mind.”
“Whatever?” he said, a gleam in his eye.
Biting her bottom lip she leaned in, and since he was so tall, pulled his head down so she could whisper in his ear.
“Anything.”
“Logan!” he yelled, grabbing her hand and dragging her through the kitchen, and then into the living room. “Finish the dishes.”
She laughed all the way up the stairs and kept on laughing when he lightly pushed her onto her bed. When she saw his face though, her laughter stopped
“I believe I made the lady a promise this afternoon.” He ripped his t-shirt over his head leaving his chest naked for her to eye fuck.
Licking her lips she sat up on her knees and frantically unbuttoned his shorts. “A promise is a promise,” she said and ran her tongue over his chest.
Hissing out a breath, he cupped her breasts through her tank. They weren’t her best asset – at best she was a C-cup but more than likely only a B – but he seemed to enjoy them.
“Tell me,” she said, pushing his shorts and boxers down, “that you brought a condom?”
Bending, he picked his shorts back up. “More than one,” he said and held up a line of at least six.
“Good God, I hope you don’t think we are using all of those tonight?”
He closed his eyes and a smile turned his lips up. “Promise me something.” He opened his eyes and looked right at her making her feel like he could see into her soul. “Promise me that you will never stop saying exactly what you are thinking?”
Confused that he would choose this moment to ask that, she said, “I’m sure that won’t be a problem.”
“Seriously,” he said and took her face in his hands. “It’s the fucking sexiest thing. When you open your mouth, I am never disappointed in what comes out.”
Turned on beyond belief that he found her sassy comments sexy, she yanked him down on top of her on the bed.
“I can’t wait any longer,” she said, kissing him.
Next thing she knew he rolled them over, her ending up on top. “Baby, I’m dying to see you ride me. It’s all I can think about.”
Sitting up, his cock nestled between her thigh, she removed her tank top and bra. His fingers unsnapped her shorts. “Hold on, hold on,” she said and jumped up just long enough to slip the shorts and panties down her legs.
As she straddled him again, he was rolling a condom down his shaft.
Not willing, or able for that matter, to wait for another second to have him inside her, she slid down on him.
“Oh thank God,” she said when he was fully inside her. “It wasn’t a dream.”
“What wasn’t a dream?” he said as she started to move.
“How fucking amazing this feels.”
“Not a dream,” he said and swiveled his hips under her.
Together they moved the way that she assumed only soulmates moved. It was effortless how he seemed to know her body after just one night together. A hand on her hip, another one on her breast rolling the nipple between his fingers.
But she knew him, too. She knew from last night that he loved when she licked his ear and that when she gripped his hair tight in her fist he moved faster, pushed inside her harder.
When she started to moan, loudly, he pulled her into a kiss, masking her moans. She was close, oh so close, and her body was aching for the release.
His hand moved from her ass where it has been gripping hard, to between their bodies where his fingers searched out her clit. She jumped when he made contact and her whole body shook on the verge of release.
A few more flicks of his fingers and she was a goner, gripping his hair hard from the pleasure and forcing him to follow her over the edge.
Relaxing on top of him, he took her mouth in a slow sensual kiss, both of them out of breath.
“That was,” he stopped and pushed her hair behind her ear, “out of this world.”
“You don’t have to tell me,” she said smiling.
“As much as I don’t want you to move, I need to get rid of the condom.”
She sighed and sat up, rolling to the side. After he took care of the condom, he rejoined her pulling her into his side.
“It’s too early for bed.” She was making circles on his chest. It was only seven and even though she should be exhausted she felt wired.
“Probably,” he said.
“Let’s go somewhere?” She sat up and looked back at him.
“Where do you want to go?”
“I don’t know...a bar?” Getting out sounded fun to her. “We can make everyone come with us.” I’m thinking that Carly and Mel could use a night out, too.
“I’m in,” he told her. “It just can’t be a late night. I have to be at the station at five.”
She scrunched up her face. “That’s no fun.”
“Adulting is hard work,” he said.
“I’ll go tell everyone the plan.” She threw a tank top on and pulled on shorts. “You get ready.”
The thought of spending a night out with her friends and Brandon had her pumped. It had been too long since she had done anything like that.