He sighed. ‘I blame you for leaving me. You know I’m going to lock our bedroom door every night, right?’
‘I know I like that you called it our bedroom. I’m gonna bust her lip if she touches your cock. Tell her that. I don’t share. Well –’ she winked at him ‘– not with Pickles anyway.’
He opened his door, pulled her bag from the back and met her on the sidewalk, his self-assurance replaced by sadness. ‘Don’t be gone long. I love you and I’m sorry Eve has driven you away from our vacation together. I don’t know what else to do.’
‘You’re doing all you can do. After this is over, you’re going to have to set some rules with her but at this point you’re stuck. Now, I have to run. I’ll call you.’
Vegas was a good thirty degrees warmer as she got off the plane and headed to baggage. She checked her phone and the message she’d been hoping for was there.
Even better, Leah was waiting at the baggage carousel.
‘Hey, dude.’ She hugged her friend and laughed. ‘Someone took a Xanax.’
Leah looked caught between laughing and crying. ‘Kate, they call him Bingo.’
Horror roiled through her. ‘No! Oh my God. Wow, I’m having trouble here. I mean, I’m caught between wanting to giggle and the need to pet you and give you a lolly. OK, we need to get my bag and head to the hotel, stat.’
‘It’s … they’re all so nice and wholesome. And I’m in their basement defiling him. Defiling Bingo.’
Kate wisely held back a laugh. ‘Sounds like a porn movie. Come on, I heard back from my friend. We’re spared the scratchy sheets motel experience and instead we’ll be enjoying a muthafuckin’ penthouse suite at the Palisades.’
Leah’s brows rose.
‘They had a cancellation he said. I got him out of big trouble two years ago so we won’t be paying full price. Let me regale you with tales of Pickles on the way over. We can rip her to shreds and you can tell me about Bingo’s family when you’re ready. We have late dinner reservations.’
‘Awesome.’
‘My friend at the hotel said in the message that there was some sort of convention going on here in Vegas, but didn’t say what. We can flirt with dentists or architects or whoever has freaking conventions in Vegas right after Christmas.’ And just not think about ex-wives and moving in together or anything else life altering. No, it was time for shopping, drinking, eating and some pampering. She’d deal with her life on the plane ride back home.
6
BRANDON DIDN’T REALISE how much he’d hoped Leah would be at home until he walked into the house and found it disappointingly dark and cold. He flipped the switch and lit the kitchen in the harsh blue-white light from the old, sputtering fluorescent fixture he kept meaning to fix. He paused, listening for a telltale footstep from upstairs, but only silence answered him.
Shit.
He climbed the stairs two at a time anyway, but the bedroom was as dark and cold and unwelcoming as the kitchen had been. Brandon leant in the doorway and let the breath whoosh out of him in a sigh. He went to the bed and fell onto his back to stare at the ceiling.
He closed his eyes, exhausted. It had only been a day since Leah had left his parents’ house. He hadn’t slept much since then, not even on the flight home, and normally flying knocked him out like a right hook from a prize-fighter.
‘I have to go,’ she’d said, and he’d seen right away she meant it.
He hadn’t tried to stop her. Not when she refused to look at the ring he’d bought, or when she packed her things and apologised to his parents for having to cut her visit short. True to her personality, Leah hadn’t offered an explanation, just a simple, straightforward statement that she’d had a lovely time, but she needed to go.
He hadn’t tried to stop her when she got out of the car at the airport, either, and, though it had just about killed him to watch her walk away and disappear into the crowd, he hadn’t followed. She’d told him not to, and Brandon very much wanted Leah to understand he would always do his best to do what she wanted.
After all, it wasn’t as though he didn’t understand why she wanted it.
Brandon sighed again and turned his head to look at the closet doors, hanging open. Inside were Leah’s clothes, rows of skirts and blouses, colour-coordinated. She didn’t like dry-clean-only fabrics and she also hated laundry, so he’d taken over the chore. Even now, alone and knowing she’d walked out on him, thinking about pulling the clothes warm from the dryer, folding and hanging them, all while knowing Leah was due home shortly and would be happy to reward him for his efforts …
‘Fuck,’ Brandon groaned as his dick stirred.
Now wasn’t the time for this but he unzipped anyway. Pulled out his cock and stroked it to full hardness with Leah’s goodbye ringing in his mind.
‘Don’t come after me,’ she’d said seriously from her place in the passenger seat. She’d been staring straight ahead to the traffic merging into the airport parking lot. ‘I need some time to think. Will you think about me when I’m gone?’
‘You know I will.’
She’d looked at him then, her smile a little sad but her eyes glinting with familiar desire. ‘And what will you do when you think about me, Brandon?’
The game was familiar; his response not so much. ‘Wishing you’d come home.’
Her smile faltered and her gaze had fallen to his lap. ‘I’d rather have you fuck your fist and pretend it’s me.’
‘I can do that, too.’
She’d touched his cheek. Looked into his eyes. ‘Then do it.’
Then she’d left the car, and here he was, prick in his palm just the way she’d said it. He pushed his hips upwards, feeling the bed sink beneath him. In another minute he was close,
