OBSESSED

51

"Hah. Always been a charmer. Is that all you called to say?"

Groaning, I sat on the edge of the bed. The sheets were still twisted up from sleeping with Leah last night. "Who wedged a stick up your ass?" I asked him. "I was calling for advice since it was your bondage photos that made Leah dump me."

"You're the sick fuck who wanted to keep them. You can't blame me for that."

"I kept them for you. There are plenty of other things I would prefer wasting my brain space on than your porn."

"If you want pity, Jarrod, you should've called Mother."

"You want me to tell Mom I have kinky pictures of your dead ex in my condo? Sounds like a great idea."

He sighed. "Listen, I have to go. My suggestion? Burn that fucking album and go find another girl to stick it in. You've become quite good at that."

"Wow, thanks jackass."

"I'm hanging up now," he said right before the call clicked off.

Grinding my teeth, I threw my phone onto the bed. Useless. What good were siblings anyway? I pinched the bridge of my nose. As the agitation faded, all I could think about was how much I missed Leah. I needed her.

I couldn't just give up now. We'd come to know each other so well—so intimately. When it came to women, I was pretty choosy. I didn't want to just replace Leah and I couldn't. I'd never met someone like her. Smart, funny, adorable, hot as fuck. I could go on but I'd rather not commiserate. The point was that I'd never meet another woman like Leah. I didn't believe in that soul mate nonsense, but I knew this was a once in a lifetime kind of passion. She could feel it too, I just knew it. It was okay for her to be scared but she clearly needed someone in her life to watch over her, to keep her from making the wrong decisions.

After shoving a slice of pizza into my stomach, I grabbed my keys and headed for the door. I was halfway out when I remembered those bloodied clothes from last night. The ones Leah had so inconveniently discovered.

Shit.

If I was honest with myself, I wasn't worried about Leah looking into the blood. She was suspicious but she also couldn't remember last night all that well. Even if she was a naughty enough girl to look into it, I intended to have those clothes deep cleaned. That way, there would be no speculation should some kind of investigation arise. It wasn't like they'd ever find that Ann bitch anyway. I had made sure of that.

Cursing under my breath, I went back into the condo, grabbed all of my clothes from the bin, and stuffed them into the washing machine. Then I put the machine on sanitize. If that didn't work, I could bleach them but this usually worked when I had bloody clothes from the hospital. While I was in my bedroom, I stomped over to the photo album and ripped the pages from the spine. Then I took them to my home office and proceeded to shred them. Now, they were officially gone. Leah wouldn't have to worry about be lying because I was not keeping them.

That should be enough, right? What else did I need to do to convince this woman that she was the only thing on this earth that I wanted?

At last, I left the condo and jogged down to my car. By the time I made the twenty minute drive to Leah's house, her car wasn't in the driveway. I frowned.

I knew I should've installed the tracking app on her phone. Where else could she be? Maybe with her friends? Her family was too far away for just a brief weekend trip. It was unfortunate I didn't know where her friends lived either. I had fucked this up and now I had very limited options for repairing it.

I sat back in the driver seat with a sigh. Leah was too angry and mistrustful right now. I needed to bide my time until a good opportunity presented itself. That implied patience and waiting. As much as I wanted to be with her right now, I realized it wasn't feasible. She wasn't going to get away from me like Tiffany did, but I would have to play my cards right.

Accepting temporary defeat, I drummed my hands on the steering wheel and tried to think of a way I could be separated from her but still know she was alright. She had proven a few too many times that she needed a stronger hand to guide and protect her. What kind of trouble would she get into if I wasn't keeping tabs?

A terse wind blew through her yard, whipping around my car, and I noticed movement from her porch. A little fake shrub right next to her door. I couldn't help but smile to myself.

Ah, honey. You make this far too easy on me.