Chapter Twenty-Five

As she walked along the sidewalk, two coffee cups and a small bag of pastries in hand, Leah had what could only be described as a 'stupid grin' plastered on her face. She knew she must look like a person who'd taken too many meds, but she didn't care. Let people think what they wanted, she was happy. No, more like, euphoric.

And why not? For the first time in her life, she was exactly where she wanted to be. She was doing what she loved and even better, she was with the man she loved. Why it was all coming together, she had no idea, but it wasn't for her to question.

A saying that her mom had used all the time came to mind - 'Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.' Though she'd found the saying to be silly when she was a little girl, her mother had explained it's importance and the meaning was greatly valued. As fast as a good thing could end, one had to appreciate it while they could.

She saw the motel parking lot just ahead, the Impala sitting near the far end of it, and she could literally feel her palms go sweaty and her heart rate pick up. An image of Dean emerged, causing a small volcanic eruption to go off within the lower half of her body. She pictured him lying on his stomach sprawled across the king size bed, his hard body half-covered by the thin sheet, leaving that broad expanse of well-muscled back exposed. Leah knew exactly how smooth that back was to the touch, she knew where each and every birth mark was and could practically taste the saltiness of his skin on her tongue.

A shiver ran through her and she picked up her pace, eager to strip down to nothing and join Dean on that bed. She was about halfway across the lot when her cell phone rang. Assuming the delectable man had woken up and was wondering where she'd disappeared to, she carefully balanced their breakfast items in one hand and flipped open the phone.

"Hey sexy! Missing me?" she purred.

"You know it, darling." a deep voice rumbled through the earpiece, but it wasn't the voice she'd expected to hear.

Great, she thought as she recognized the caller. "Blake! Hi. Sorry, I thought you were Dean." she hurried to explain.

That drew a bitter laugh. "I'd rather die, thanks. Since he's clearly not around, this works out perfectly. I need to talk to you. Can you come by my room?"

Leah glanced at the motel she and Dean had spent the night at. With a naked Dean waiting and at her mercy, she wasn't about to get sidetracked. "No, I'm afraid I can't right now. Is everything okay, though?"

"Not really, Leah. This is important. I'm staying at the Dover Inn. It's on Berkley Street. Easy to find. I won't take up much of your time, I promise." he pleaded.

She was on Berkley but she had no idea how far his motel was from hers. "Blake, it's kind of early and I don't know if I can get there. Can't this wait?"

"I suppose. I mean, it's about Dean, but..."

That was all she needed to hear to change her mind. "About Dean? Okay, I'll be there as soon as I can. What's your room number?" she asked.

After he told her, Leah hung up and went straight to the motel's office. She asked the clerk at the front desk where the Dover Inn was and then decided to call for a cab.

It was a short enough ride and in no time Leah found herself standing outside Room 145. She knocked on the door, a queasy feeling in the pit of her stomach as she pondered the many possible problems that could involve this man and Dean.

The door swung open immediately. "Hey, gorgeous! Come on in." Blake stepped aside to allow her entrance into the small dingy room.

Leah grimaced as she walked inside, doing her best to avoid the empty beer cans and discarded food containers that were strewn around the floor. She went right to the window and opened the curtains, allowing sunlight to filter into the dark interior, then offered up a cup of coffee and a pastry, which Blake gratefully accepted.

"Blake, you've really got to start picking up after yourself." she scolded. Tossing aside some clothes, she warily sat on the edge of the bed.

"Yeah, I know. Sorry." He flopped down on one of the worn out chairs by the window and took a bite of the danish. "Thanks for these and for coming by."

She nodded, then sipped her coffee. "Okay, what about Dean?" The sooner they discussed whatever it was Dean had done, the sooner she could leave and confront him about it.

"Besides the fact that he's not right for you?" At the nasty look he received, Blake decided it might be best to just get to the point. "Dean gave me these."

Leaning toward the bed, he pointed to the raised area below his left eye and his puffy lower lip with the split near the corner. Leah blinked as she took in the wounds. She'd noticed them right off, but assumed he'd been in another barroom brawl.

"Dean gave you those? When?" she asked. But her Adonis' sudden desire to purchase her a gift the day before came directly to mind and her hand went straight to her chest where the small jeweled circle rested above her heart. Her pained heart. The bastard!

Her throat tightened and she fought to keep her voice steady. "Never mind." she said, holding up her hand. "Let's go with the 'why'. I know the 'when'."

After a brief explanation, Blake sat back and watched as it sank in, smiling inwardly at the pissed off look that had gradually taken over Leah's beautiful face. Maybe now, he thought, was a good time to bring up their past connection and a possible future one.

"He's out of control, Leah. He's hurt you in the past and he still does crazy things like attacking me for no reason. You don't need someone like that. You and I, we had something good, you know we did. " He put his coffee cup down and went to sit beside her on the bed. "You know how I feel about you, sweetheart. We could pick up right where we left off."

Leah felt his arm wrap around her waist and she jumped up, putting some distance between them. Setting her cup on the nearby table, she rubbed her hands along the sides of her legs, uncomfortable with the situation. "Blake, we can't. We're friends. Just friends."

His eyes darkened. "Leah, we slept together."

Leah flinched at the reminder. "It was one time."

"One hell of a goddamned time." That incredible night was burned into his memory and he hadn't been able to give up on the possibility of sharing more of them with her. It was more than the sex, though. Leah was amazing - passionate, intelligent, feminine yet strong. All the qualities he admired, looked for in a woman but never imagined he'd find.

Brushing her hair aside nervously, she tried to make her feelings clear without being too harsh. "I was honest with you from the start, Blake. I told you that I was still in love with Dean. You knew that and you said you understood."

He forced a smile. "I know I did and I still do understand, but come on. Admit it. It may have only been once, but it's something we can build off of. We have fun together, Leah. We get along. We work great as a team. And we never fight." He got up and stood in front of her, cupping her face in the palms of his hands. "I'll treat you right, Leah. The way you should be treated. Let me do that."

She saw the sincerity in his dark eyes and it touched her heart. Blake was a nice guy and she hoped he'd find the right woman one day. But it wasn't her. "I care about you and what you're offering is sweet and wonderful. I want you to be happy, Blake, but it can't be with me. I'm in love with Dean. I always have been and God help me, I always will be."

"Dean's a fuck up." he said, his hatred apparent as he tried to point out his competition's shortcomings. "He goes around threatening and beating up guys you've been involved with. He has you and he walks away, which proves he's an idiot. He can never give you what you need, Leah. You deserve better."

Deserved better. Funny, Dean had said the very same thing. Even though she was furious with the man, she jumped to defend him. "I deserve better than Dean? Why does everyone keep saying that? He's a good man! As for walking away, it happened but he had his reasons and we're trying to move past that. " She ran her fingertips lightly over the swollen mark beneath Blake's eye. "I'm sorry he hurt you. Believe me, I'll talk to him about that and it won't happen again, but if Dean said someone was following us, then someone was. He obviously thought it was you. Which doesn't make it right for him to hit you," she quickly added. "But it does explain why he went after you. He was worried and that's how he reacted to the situation. You probably would have done the same thing."

"Probably. If it meant I could beat the crap out of him." Blake grumbled. "Look, forget what he did to me. This is about what he did to you. What he might do again. The guy's gonna get into big trouble one day, and I couldn't care less if he does, but the thing that scares the hell out of me is that he might take you with him."

"He won't." she argued.

"Then you're naive, Leah." He pressed a light kiss to her lips. "Look, I'm not going anywhere, okay? Just think about what I've said. I want to be with you. You know I'll do anything, anything at all for you, right?"

She nodded. "I know, Blake. You're a great..."

He put a finger over her lips. "Don't say it. Please!" He laughed but the sound was a bit harsh. "Not that 'F' word again."

Leah smiled gently. "I gotta go. Take care of yourself." She went to the door, but he stopped her.

"Let me give you a ride." he offered. "Your taxi's gone."

Opening the door, Leah thanked him but refused. "It's not that far to the motel. I need the walk and the fresh air to cool me down before I talk to Dean about all of this."

A chilly breeze greeted her as she left room, but Leah barely felt it. As she headed back to her motel, she felt a burning ache in her chest, an ache she'd experienced several times before. An ache that only one man could create within her.

With a sigh, she tried to sort through her chaotic thoughts and emotions. Only one thing was certain, the fresh air and the walk back to Dean were not going to be long enough to ease her anger and heal her pain.

Dean woke up and immediately realized he couldn't feel the warmth of Leah's body snuggled up against him. Without opening his eyes, he stretched his arm out, planning to pull her close, but when he grasped nothing but air he rolled onto his back and sat up. Turning on the bedside lamp, he looked around the small room, saw the open door to the darkened bathroom and knew he was alone.

Rubbing a hand over his face and then up into his hair, Dean yawned and tried to shake off the sleepy haze that clouded his mind. Throwing off the sheet, he swung his long legs over the side of the bed and stretched his arms high above his head.

Wondering where Leah had disappeared to, he was about to get up and grab his cell phone so he could call her when he heard the key in the door. As Leah stepped inside and walked toward him, he smiled, prepared to pull her down onto the bed and welcome her back properly.

She tossed her coat onto a nearby chair before stopping directly in front of him. He saw that she wasn't returning the smile. In fact, her big brown eyes were practically squinting and her soft mouth was clamped shut in a harsh line. She looked pretty...pissed off. Why would she be mad? His eyebrows drew together and he started to ask her what was wrong when her right hand tightened into a fist and she drew her arm back.

Oh shit! He felt the force of the blow, a sharp pain shooting from his nose straight up into his brain and he growled, his hand jumping directly to the wounded area.

His gaze, once his vision cleared, locked on Leah. A right hook. Damn. That could only mean one thing. "You talked to Blake, didn't you?" he asked, his voice muffled as he tried to speak through the hand that covered his sore nose.

Leah nodded as she rubbed her knuckles. "So you are capable of learning something. Damn it, Dean! Too bad you didn't learn not to sneak around behind my back. It would have saved us both a lot of pain." Dropping onto a chair, she sighed. "Do we really have to go through this again? Wasn't David enough?"

"This is nothing like David!" Dean argued as he pulled his hand away to check for blood. Although he saw some, he was hoping for sympathy so he asked, "Am I bleeding?"

Leah's eyebrows shot up, questioning his inability to see the similarities between this and his going after David Manning the year before. Still angry but concerned for him, she got up and briefly inspected his nose. "A little. And this is exactly what you pulled with Manning."

"Okay, it might be something like Manning. But what the hell was I supposed to do, Leah? The asshole was following us. It was...creepy and I was worried that he was losing it. Turning psycho stalker or something. I was afraid he'd..."

Leah waited but when Dean stopped, she pushed for more. "Afraid he'd what, Dean? Kill us? Blake is not going to hurt either one of us. And he said he wasn't following us around."

"He was lying."

Shaking her head, Leah went into the bathroom and came back with some tissues. She sat next to him and gently dabbed at the trickle of blood that ran from his nose to his upper lip.

"I don't think he was lying." she said. "Why would he follow us? If he wanted to talk to me, all he had to do was call. Which is what he did after you beat him up."

Dean turned his body towards Leah as she tended to him, resting a hand possessively on her upper thigh. "First of all, I didn't beat him up, okay? I just, helped him understand how important it is not to stalk people."

Leah groaned at his play with words. "By beating him up!" Her ministrations grew rough as her anger began to rise again and Dean flinched. "Sorry." Her touch immediately softened.

"It wasn't like I could calmly walk up to the guy and ask him why he was sneaking around. He wouldn't have admitted it."

Leah stopped wiping at the blood. "Blake has no reason to sneak around. It just doesn't make any sense. You may have believed someone was following us..."

"Someone was." Dean interrupted. He felt the thin line of blood touch his upper lip and Leah once again reached over to dab it away. He stared into her eyes, wanting to convince her that he, not Blake, was telling her the truth. "There's no doubt in my mind. I know when I'm being followed, Little Bit."

She knew Dean wouldn't lie about that. "Good point."

"I have been known to make one." Her eyes and lips were soft again and all Dean wanted to do was make her forget about that other damned hunter and focus on just him.

Leah rolled her eyes. "Not very often."

Dean grinned at her. "Cute. Okay, so maybe it wasn't Blake following us. I saw him and not knowing anybody else around town I figured it had to have been him. You think Monkeyface is telling the truth, so if he wasn't tracking us, then who was, Sherlock?" His hand slid high up her thigh, his fingers grazing lightly over, then coming to rest against that sensitive spot between her legs.

He was making it difficult for her to think, let alone stay mad at him. Not that she'd ever stayed mad at him for too long. Even when they were kids, he'd found a way to make her anger disappear just as fast as he'd managed to bring it out in the first place. Leah wasn't sure it was a good thing, to be so easily wrapped around this man's little finger. And speaking of fingers, Dean's had begun tracing random patterns, teasing her through her jeans, and Leah was growing damp with excitement.

She sighed heavily as she'd forgotten the question. "What did you ask?" Did he know what he did to her when he looked at her that way, through heavy lids, lust and need for her so clear it could actually make her body react physically? And as if to prove the point, her body twitched as a shiver funneled its way from head to toe.

Dean brought his lips to hers, brushing over them in a whisper of a kiss. "Why don't we talk about it later? I got other things in mind for you right now." His sexy low tone held the promise of deliciously wicked things to come.

Her arms snaked around his neck, her head tilting sideways as her mouth devoured his in a deep, intoxicating kiss. Later. She'd worry about their being followed, around town and in the parking garage, later. But then she shifted and her necklace slid along her chest, refreshing her anger. Her teeth clamped down on Dean's lower lip and she was rewarded with the wonderful sound of him yelping in pain.

Pushing him away, Leah stood up and glared down at him. Hands resting on her hips, she frantically shook her head, her long brown hair flying around her face as her renewed rage took over. "No! Not this time. Don't you dare try to use sex to get me to forget how mad I am, Winchester!"

Grabbing the diamond circle from beneath her shirt, she held it out for him to see. "What about this, huh?"

Dean licked at his sore lip, stalling before he had to answer. So she also knew he hadn't really planned to get her a gift. That sucked. Royally. "What about it? You're pissed now because I bought you the necklace?"

"No, Dean, I'm pissed now because you didn't really want to buy me the necklace. You wanted to track down Blake so you told me you were going to get me a gift just so you could get away from me." To think she almost let him smooth things over before she could point out what a cheap, low down, cold thing that was to do.

Stomping back and forth in front of the bed, Leah let her anger wash over her. She was angry with Dean for lying and for spoiling what could have been a beautiful memory. Thinking back to when he'd given her the necklace yesterday, when they'd made love afterward, it was all tainted now. And she was angry with herself for being weak when it came to his touch, his smile. For being so willing and eager to believe him.

"You dragged me away from the coffee shop and I knew you were up to something." She stopped and pointed at him. "I knew it! You didn't want a pole dance or to find a strip club..."

"Like hell I didn't!" Dean tried to defend himself, though he couldn't help but find the humor in admitting to wanting a pole dance. How many men could do that and still keep their relationship? He started to grin and Leah was right on it.

"You're smiling? What the hell are you smiling about, Dean? Is everything just one big ass joke to you? Don't you care at all about how your damn lying affects people? How it affects me?"

Dean stared at her, finally understanding how hurt she was. He wanted to explain, but before he could he felt the sting of her gold chain whipping across his face. It fell silently onto his lap and he stared at it a moment, then looked up at Leah, shocked that she'd taken it off and thrown it at him. He couldn't tell if she was ready to cry or start swinging at him again.

She breathed in and out heavily for a moment, trying to push down the pain she was feeling. She'd been so upset about his lies, about his beating up Blake, that she'd actually pushed aside the thought of his using the necklace as a cover up. Or maybe she'd wanted to shove it to the back of her mind because she hadn't wanted to deal with that sort of anguish. It had been so special, meant so much to her, but to him it was just a diversion. A way to keep her from knowing what he was really up to, which was harassing someone he felt was a threat to him.

"Take it back, Dean. You didn't really want to get it in the first place, did you?"

She grabbed her jacket from the chair and shoved it on, then headed for the door. Dean jumped up and started after her. "Leah, don't!" But she walked out, slamming the door behind her.

Dean scrambled to get his clothes on, his mind working hard to figure out a way to make it up to her. He had to make everything right and prove that even though he hadn't started out with the best intentions, he'd wanted to give her that gift. Surprisingly, it turned out that giving her the necklace meant just as much to him as getting it had meant to her. Now he just had to make her believe that.

TBC