Keep the Faith (Bulletproof Series 1.5)

by J. L. Baldwin

  “Sarah?” He waves a box of spoons in my face, snapping me back from my thoughts. Shaking my head, I mumble. “Yeah, yeah sure.” I sit my purse down and pick my keys back up off the floor and look around the room.

  “What?” he asks, looking confused. Hell, I’m confused myself. This was only the second or third encounter with him and I could barely contain my nerves. Something isn’t right when I’m around him. I don’t understand how it makes me feel. It’s almost as if he has this pull on me, making me succumb to him.

  “Nothing, nothing at all,” I say, quickly averting my gaze elsewhere other than in his general direction. God help me get through this day and not go to jail for sexual assault.

  “Umm, okay. Well there is still a lot that needs to be counted and ordered. Phoebe called me after I texted you and said she was busy and couldn’t come in which was fine because I told her I had asked you to come in,” I watch as Leo sits the box down, then picks it back up, then repeats the same motion of sitting it down. “There is still an entire backroom full of supplies that need to be counted and sorted. It may take us a good part of the evening if we don’t waste any time,” Leo steps away from behind the counter and doesn’t look me in the eye. He seems to be struggling with something which is making me even more on edge. I watch as his body shifts slightly, and he turns away from me. Did I do something wrong?

  “Are you okay? You’re shaking,” I ask curiously. Leo sits down the box of spoons he was holding and steps away, shaking his hands at his sides.

  “I’m fine. I don’t think I’ve eaten much today. It’ll be okay,” he then looks at me over his shoulder before turning back away from me, “actually, on second thought, we should probably cut this short.”

  Now he has my full undivided attention. “Are you sure that’s all? And why cut this short? Leo, what is going on with you?” I ask purely out of curiosity.

  Leo glances up then quickly averts his eyes to look around the café. “Stop with the fucking questions,” he says through gritted teeth. In a split second, his whole demeanor changed. The air in the room suddenly got thicker with this sudden change.

  Every muscle in his back tenses up, making my nerves, and even worse my desire, on fucking edge. As much as I want him, telling him that would not be good for business. The old cliché, never mix business with pleasure.

  “Leo?” I try one more time. Grazing my hand onto his back, his skin feels like it’s on fire. He’s angry which is obvious, but at what? It couldn’t be me, could it? He turns around and gives me his full attention and the predatory look he gives me just about knocks me to my knees.

  Holy. Fuck.

  Chapter 16

  Sarah

  You know that look a lion would give to its prey, before devouring it piece by piece, the look that says “I’m going to sink my teeth into you, and there isn’t a damn thing you can do to escape,” would mimic the look Leo is giving me right now. This look should scare the shit out of me. I should run for the hills but I don’t. In the best way, nothing has turned me on anymore in my life.

  “Leo? What’s wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?” Don’t stop fucking looking at me like that. I know he’s nine years younger than me but holy fuck please don’t stop looking at me like that. God, I’m so turned on, it hurts so badly.

  “I have tried to contain it. Every fucking time you look in my direction, I have to fight the urge to pounce on you and devour you whole. Do you have any fucking idea how hard it is to sit here and think about you while I’m trying to help out my cousin? It killed me to see you walk out the door when she told you to take a break from this place. I almost stopped you then, but I knew you needed time to sort out what you needed to sort out. Fuck, Sarah.” I shut the part of my brain up that tells me to run. Were we in the Twilight Zone?

  “I can’t act normal around you. I tried. I gave it my fucking all. Sarah….” He’s on me in an instant, sweeping me up into his arms and slamming me down onto the counter top.

  “I didn’t want to do anything about it, because of all you’re going through but I don’t want to fight it anymore. I fear if I continue to fight it, you’ll run away.”

  “Leo,” I rasp out. The cool of the counter top hits the back of my thighs. Why the hell did I decide to wear a short skirt today? I’m glad I made that decision.

  “What is it, Sarah? Do you want me as much as I want you? I walk out of this door every day and pray to god you’d come back in here, beg Phoebe to let you come back to work, and then having the endless torture of thinking about your legs wrapped around my waist while I pound into you over and over is a constant cycle in my mind. Is that how you think of me, Sarah? Because it’s sure as fuck how I think of you.”

  Uncle. UNCLE. I give up, or give in. Either way, he needs to stop talking like that otherwise I won’t be responsible for my actions.

  “Leo, I…I had no idea,” I say, leaning into him but he takes a step back, leaving me sitting on the counter feeling every bit of desire for him.

  “That’s right, Sarah, you have zero idea the kind of person I am. I shouldn’t be doing this,” He says then darts off to the back of the store, leaving me confused and turned on. What the fuck just happened?

  “Leo?” I shout from the front. Hopping down, I follow him back there. What I will find, I have no fucking idea but I need to know. I find him standing over Phoebe’s desk, not moving just standing there.

  “Did Phoebe ever tell you why I came back here? What my reason was for returning to Charleston?” he asks in a husky voice.

  “She only told me you were taking a break from college in between semesters.” I reassure him. Was that not the reason? I take a step closer to him, feeling the heat radiate off of his back and instead of pushing me away, scaring me, it does the opposite. The heat draws me in, consumes me.

  “Right, college,” Leo says in a chuckle. “That’s what she wants you to think.” He turns to me and we almost bump into each other since I have moved within an inch of his body.

  “Sarah, you should leave. I shouldn’t have called you here,” he says. I look up and down his body and that’s when I notice he stands at least a foot taller than me. Looking back up, his green eyes shine in the darkness, beckoning me towards them.

  “Leo, what aren’t you telling me?” I ask. He blinks a couple times before leaning in a bit before pulling away abruptly. “Leo!” I shout when he almost makes it to the door.

  “You have no fucking idea what I am, Sarah. It would be better if you didn’t know. God fucking damn it.” With a sudden thrust, he punches a hole bigger than my head into the wall of Phoebe’s office. He turns to me once again. “I’m nothing but trouble, Sarah. Trouble with a capital T. It would be wise of you to stay away from me, sweet cakes.”

  We stand within a few feet of each other, staring down the other, waiting for the next move. Our movements are like a game of chess, a pawn in each other’s game. One move then another, each move deflecting the others.

  I’m growing incredibly impatient while feeling the pull of his desire against my own. This must have been what Jayde was talking about when she felt an instant connection with Zac.

  “Why don’t you let me be the one to figure that out Leo? I don’t like to play games. I’m a grown ass woman and I don’t like it when men play games.” My own anger surprises me but if he’s playing this hard to get bullshit, I’m not having it. This isn’t high school.

  He’s still standing in the doorway, blocking my path to the rest of the store but that doesn’t bother me. I attempt to push by him but his strong hand wraps around my wrist, stopping me.

  “Let me go,” I grunt. “If you aren’t going to do anything, then leave me the hell alone. Like I said, I don’t play games.” A slight tick in his jaw sends a shiver down my spine. The grip on my wrist tightens despite my efforts to pull away.

  “Sarah.” He breathes out heavily, almost like it pained him to say my name.

  “Leo,” I retort quickly. No emotion, no
desire. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

  “Don’t do this,” he says with a slight strain to his voice. This whole hot and cold act is getting old fast.

  “You’re one to talk. You come in here, first you’re all sweet then you turn into this crazed animal and now you’re begging me not to do this? Do what? What am I not doing?” I ask a little louder than I intended.

  Leo steps right up into my face and wraps his hands firmly around my waist and pins me against the doorway. “First off, I don’t fucking beg for anything. I take. I take what I fucking want and I don’t ever fucking beg for it. You’d do well to remember that, sweetheart.” I’m pressed up against the doorjamb so tightly, I can barely move. Leaning up, I get right in his face with my own anger taking me by surprise.

  “Then fucking take it. Take it all because like I said, I don’t play…” Before the final word leaves my lips, he crashes his lips down onto mine in an instant, claiming my lips in a passion induced kiss that has me leaning up from the doorway to get a better grip. Leo’s muscular arms wrap fully around my body, enclosing me in his warmth. God, I was right. He kisses like a god. We are a battle of lips and teeth and it’s a battle I don’t want to win. His hands come up to grab a handful of my hair and that’s it. He is marking his territory. The firm grip he has on my hair shouldn’t turn me on but fuck it all, it does.

  Soft moans and grunts fill the small space. His full weight is pushing me up the doorway so I’m high enough to where I can wrap my legs around his waist and oh my god. I feel his erection against my center and it does nothing to lessen the growing ache between my legs.

  My skirt is bunched up around my waist and the pink lacy panties are soaked with my arousal.

  “Leo…” I say in between breaths. His lips have moved down from my lips to my neck, leaving a trail of fire where his lips touch. It wouldn’t take much for him to bring me to orgasm. All he has to do is slip his fingers beneath the top of my soaked panties and then I would be gone. A mess of pleasurable proportions.

  “Touch me please, Leo,” I rasp out. I’m so close, all he has to do is just barely touch me and I would be putty.

  As if on cue, instead of meeting my demands, he pulls away and pushes my feet to the floor, dropping his lips from my heated skin. Our heavy breathing matching each other’s but confusion is written all over my face. What the fuck just happened?

  Chapter 17

  Anna

  I am never fucking sleeping in again! The drive to the newspaper was horrid. Traffic set me back at least a half hour so instead of my usual fifteen minute drive to work, it took me forty-five minutes. By the time the newspaper comes into view, I’m madder than a wet hen. Yeah, I went there.

  A text comes through when I pull into the parking lot and I scrunch my nose before glancing at the screen to see its Andy.

  “Hey, babe, just checking to see how you’re doing. I haven’t talked to you in a few days. I miss my girl, you know.”

  And this is why he is one of my most favorite people on this planet. I swear, he is psychic. He just gets me when nobody else does. Also, he knows when I need comfort food so he brings it to me in the form of an Oreo Cheesequake Blizzard from Dairy Queen. If Andy wasn’t gay, he would be the perfect boyfriend for me. Mack is a pretty lucky guy to have a catch like Andy. Always so caring and kind to everyone around him. I don’t believe Andy has a hateful bone in his body.

  I wait until I’m at a complete stop before texting back. “Hey, Andy. Thanks for checking up on me. Aside from being late for work, I’m peachy.” Total lie. “Please don’t worry so much, you’ll get wrinkles.” I giggle at my comment. Like that would ever happen. Andy is too well kept to get wrinkles. He replies back instantaneously.

  “First off, your pants just caught on fire and second, it’s my job to worry about you.”

  “Funny, I don’t remember hiring you for that job. And I’m not wearing pants.” Well, I’m not. It’s a skort. I know, they went out of style but damn it, it’s hot today and I was feeling almost – girly, so sue me.

  “Too much information and it was in the contract of our friendship, Miss Lawyer.” Like that dream will ever be a reality. I scrunch my nose up at his mention of my becoming a lawyer. It isn’t too far-fetched, but with everything going on, taking the LSAT’s then actually taking the painstakingly long time to wait for the results is not in the cards right now.

  “Ass. I have to get inside the office, so want to meet me at the café after work and you can do your whole psychoanalysis bullshit you usually do?” Before I’m in the door, his reply with the middle finger emoji makes me laugh out loud. Leave it to Andy to make me laugh when I’m feeling shitty. Gwen greets me at the door in a panic and I almost knock her to the ground.

  “Whoa, where’s the fire?” I ask quickly.

  “It’s the wicked bitch of the south. She’s back and she’s pissed,” she says in a hurry. God fucking damn it. I thought we told her not to come back until Jayde was found safe and sound. The last thing we need in here is some fake ass plastic Barbie taking up our valuable time.

  “I’ll take care of this. In case you haven’t noticed, I have authority around here. I got you, babe.” I wink then trudge on inside to take care of this soon to be resolved issue. As soon as I’m to our floor, Brooke is standing over by Henry, barking orders it seems.

  “And another thing! This shit is all wrong, you’re supposed to format it with this font, not this one. And the size is one point off. I can see that, you halfwit. Fix this shit.” God, screeching hyenas are more tolerable than she is.

  “Brooke, what the fuck is going on? Why are you here? I thought we told you not to come back to work until Jayde came back!” I look over at Henry and he’s smirking. As long as he’s been working with me, he knows I don’t tolerate any bullshit.

  “Well, I was bored at home and so I decided to come in and check on things and it’s a good fucking thing I did because all this shit is wrong. No wonder we’re losing readership and revenue. According to my files, we lost five subscribers last month. This place needs to be whipped into shape and according to my contract, I am just the person to do it.” She pulls out her phone to punch something up then slips it back into her pocket. Is it acceptable to throat punch somebody in an office setting? Would that be professional? At this point, I don’t really care.

  “You are way out of line, Brooke. You better shut your mouth before you regret it right the fuck now.” I get up in her face and I see red. I’m that pissed off. My dad was from Spain so let’s just say I have his temper, his short fuse, hot-blooded temper.

  “Or what? You’re going to fire me? You have no authority over that, you’re just filling in. And, I’m under contract until October” She sneers her last sentence and it breaks the last bit of resolve I have. Drawing back my arm, my fist connects with her face then a loud crunch fills the space around us and Brooke collapses to the floor.

  Chapter 18

  Anna

  Brooke attempts to pick herself up off the floor but before she can, two men rush in and all the air leaves my lungs. Ryder and Ronan come busting through the door at an alarming speed. They’re both here? At the same time? Just my fucking luck.

  “What the hell is going on in here? We heard screaming and yelling then a loud thump,” Ryder says as he pulls Brooke up to her feet. Ronan is on top of her, assessing the damage my fist caused to her face.

  “She fucking punched me for no reason whatsoever!” Brooke screeches to Ryder who jumps, actually jumps at the tone of her voice. For a tough guy like Ryder, that’s odd.

  “Like hell I did. You were way out of line!” I yell back causing her to come back at me and I don’t back down. Stepping up to the plate once again, I lean back to give it to her once more but Ronan pulls her away from me, making me lose that golden opportunity.

  “From looking at you, seems like you have a broken nose. We’ll get that patched up and you’ll be just fine,” Ronan says as he sits Brooke down in the chair then gets to w
ork fixing her ugly ass face up.

  “No, I won’t be fine! Aren’t there charges going to be brought upon her or something?! She punched me in my face!” Ronan laughs a little at her whining which earns him daggers shot from Brooke.

  “From the sounds of it, you deserved it in more ways than just this,” Ryder says in a gruff voice that sends shivers down my spine. His voice could make angels weep it’s so sexy. Ronan has the same tone of voice, but my best guess is Ronan hasn’t seen as much action like Ryder has outside of an ambulance or hospital. Ronan’s voice still has that sweet sound to it where Ryder’s is just rough.

  “Are you fucking kidding me? Who is your boss? I’m going to report you for failing to do your job, asshole!” she screams. Brooke is yelling and thrashing about so much, Ronan can barely work on her nose.

  “Keep fucking still or I’m going to knock you out myself. Jesus,” Ronan says in a frustrated tone. I glance over at Ryder whose whole body has stiffened. That predatory stare is back in his eyes and his daggers are being shot at Brooke.

  “Go ahead and try it, sweetheart. I’m with Homeland Security. Let’s just see you try and report me.” Brooke retreats quickly at his admittance of his job. Her eyes widen in shock then her face contorts into fear from Ryder’s threat.

  “Y…you are?” she says, sounding dumbfounded.

  Ryder nods. “I am and you would do well to show a little fucking respect to my…friend.” Ryder emphasizes the word friend in such a way I couldn’t miss his meaning. “Friend” had an underlying message attached to it that made my insides turn to jelly.