Chapter 5:
"I will attempt to talk. But I will not jump back into being the perfect daughter. I am with people who love and accept me for who I am and what I can do. I will not be criticized for my belief." I said snuggling into Rick. He tightened his arm around my shoulders.
"Yes Daniel." Melinda said looking next to her chair. "Daniel says he loves you. He sees the light."
"I can feel him." I said with tears in my eyes.
"He's gone." Melinda said quietly. I yawned as I stood up. It was getting late and I told Delia I would help open since she had several open houses.
"It's getting late. Here is our house number. Call us if you ever want to meet up for lunch." My father said laying a card on the coffee table. They left and Melinda hugged Rick and I bye as she left.
"That was fun." Rick said as I crawled into his bed. I agreed. "Uh oh. I know that look. What is wrong now?"
"Just wondering what happened between Melinda and my parents for her to get them here. They really weren't very talkative." I said rolling over to face Rick. "I hope if I ever have kids that they don't go through what I had to go through."
"You won't. You will try so much more than your parents." He said. Rick surprises me more and more. He doesn't show his soft side often. I smiled as I put my hand on his cheek. He placed his hand over mine. "I love this. I love touching you."
"I know." I said kissing his lips.
He deepened the kiss as he rolled onto his back, pulling me on top of him. I moaned as I straddled him. I pushed my hips into his causing him to groan into my mouth. Our hands roamed each other. His hands grabbed my butt and he squeezed. I moaned into his mouth as he thrust his hips up. I broke the kiss to breathe.
"I won't push you if you're not ready for us to move further." Rick said running a hand up my side.
"I'm ready." I said grinding my hips on his erection. He took my shirt off and smiled.
"So beautiful." He murmured skimming his fingers across my boobs. It felt so good.
I let out a moan as he grabbed my right boob. I saw him smile. I grabbed the hem of his shirt and tugged. He sat up as I took his shirt off. I kissed him. He rolled us over so he was on top. I wrapped my legs around his hips and pulled him towards me. The feel of his erection rubbing on me made me moan. We stripped the rest of our clothes until nothing separated us. Seeing the size of his erection made me want him even more.
"I haven't done this in a long time." Rick confessed.
"Neither have I. I can't image anyone else to do this with." I said kissing him.
That was all the encouragement he needed to push inside of me. I moaned loving the feel of him buried deep inside of me. He stilled for a moment, allowing me to adjust, before slowly pulling out than pushing back in. Before long we were moaning and groaning in pleasure. I could feel my orgasm building up as his thrusts became faster. I hitched my legs up, causing Rick to go deeper in me. He moaned at the feeling. We cried out in pleasure as our orgasm's hit at the same time. We laid there for a moment, catching our breaths.
"That was … incredible." Rick said rolling over. I curled into his side agreeing with him. He wrapped his arm around me and we fell asleep.
I woke the next morning alone. I sighed as I got out of bed, pulling my clothes on from the night before. I wondered into the kitchen to eat a bowl of cereal. Rick was standing there, in his customary suit for Rockland University.
"Morning." He said. I waved at him, still not awake. "I won't be done with classes until seven pm. Do you want me to pick you up from work and we can get dinner?"
"Can we just eat in?" I asked, not really up for another dinner out.
"That's fine. We can watch a movie or something." He said with a smile. I ate my cereal quietly. He waited for me, since he took me to work and picked me up at night. Once I ate I got dressed for the day.
Delia didn't have any biters for her open houses. I was bored out of my mind since I had nothing to organize and no one has called all day. When Delia had walked in I was throwing a paper airplane at the ceiling.
"Looks like you've been busy." She said with a smile. I snorted.
"I can only scrub the place down so many times before the floor blinds you and did you know you have fifty-seven and a quarter floor tiles?" I asked as the paper plane landed on my desk.
"No. I haven't thought about counting the floor tiles before." She said smiling. "Since I am back you can go. I think I saw Melinda with a box of new items."
"Trying to get rid of me?" I said laughing. She laughed with me as I left.
"Hey." Melinda said when I entered. Sure enough she had a box of new items.
"What do you have here?" I asked looking in the box.
"Some lady had it in her attic. She never looked in it and said she just wanted it out of her house." Melinda said pulling something out. It jingled.
"A belly dancing outfit." I said when I realized what it was.
"You know what this is?" I nodded as I grabbed the outfit. I put it on over my clothes than I started to belly dance. Melinda was smiling.
"That's look like so much fun." She said.
"It is. And it can be erotic if you're trying to seduce someone." I said as the bell of the door chimed.
"Hope I'm not interrupting." Jim said. Melinda and I giggled.
"No. Leah was just showing me a belly dance." Melinda said kissing Jim.
I smiled before turning to go through the box. There were a lot of pictures and small knock knacks in the box. It looked like it belonged to someone who was an avid gargoyle collector. The picture frames had small gargoyles on them; the photo album was covered in different gargoyles. I looked at the outfit I stuck on and sure enough there are gargoyles on that too. I ignored the bell chime above the door as I continued looking through the box.
"When did you get that?" Rick asked. I picked up a picture and was shocked. The girl in the picture was Laura, she taught me belly dancing in Miami. I dated her brother in New Orleans.
"No no no no." I muttered dropping the picture. I quickly took the outfit off throwing it into the box as I backed away freaking out. Laura died two years ago when her brother lit her dance studio on fire. The fire was meant to kill me, but Laura entered the building for something and told me to go on home. I had run from Leland's energy ever since he was put in jail. I bumped into Rick, who kept me from falling. I looked at him scared then Melinda before darting out of the store saying "I'm sorry."
I ran across the square to Delia's store. She was on the phone when I entered so I just went to the back. I was so afraid that Leland would find me now. He hasn't bothered me in about six months. I curled up under the table crying as I rocked back and forth. Leland was the reason I fought so hard to keep good in the world. He had tried to get me to kill people and harm them while we dated. I didn't know he was part of the dark side of the battle between good and evil.
"Leah." Delia said from the door. She sounded worried.
"Is she here?" I heard Rick ask from the front. I didn't hear Delia reply, I guess she nodded her head because I heard someone rush to her side. "Oh honey." Rick said kneeling down to look at me. I scooted away from him. What if Leland was already here? I didn't want Rick to be harmed.
"An' harm none, do as ye' will." I muttered over and over to protect myself.
"What is she saying?" Someone asked.
"It's a rule. Part of the Wiccan Rede. And harm none, do as you will." Rick said not moving. "Something happened with that box at Melinda's and it freaked her out."
I crawled to Rick and wrapped my arms around him as he pulled me to him. We sat there for who knows how long before I settled down. When I finally wiped my eyes dry I heard Rick sigh in relief.
"Feeling better?" He asked. I know he wants to ask more, but thankfully he isn't pushing further. I nodded as I hugged him. He hugged me back and kissed my hair. I smiled at the gesture.
"Why don't you guys come over tonight and we can have pizza. Melinda, Jim and Aidan can join too." Delia said. I looked up at Rick. I had asked to stay in tonight, but I didn't think it wise to be alone either.
"What do you want baby?" Rick asked.
"If you want to we can." I said. "But I would rather eat in our place still."
"Then we will stay in tonight. Can we pass this time Delia?" Rack said looking up. She nodded with a smile. Then she kneeled down to look me in the eyes.
"Come in whenever you feel better." She said. I nodded with a small smile. I would eventually have to tell them about what happened. But for now, it isn't being pushed.
Three days later I entered Melinda's shop. Delia was there. I smiled when they noticed me. I returned their hugs.
"I was beginning to think I was going to have to start bringing you two prepared meals." Delia said with a smile. I let out a small laugh.
"I'm sorry. I know you have questions." I said looking at Melinda.
"A few." She said. Then she looked slightly behind me. I sighed, a ghost was with me. I could feel the energy; and from the negativity I was guessing it is Leland.
"There's a ghost behind me?" I asked. Melinda nodded. "Where is the box?"
"Where I put it when I got it." Melinda said pointing to the table. I walked over to it and searched through it. I found a picture of Leland and showed it to Melinda. "That's the ghost with you."
"His name is Leland. He won't leave without a fight." I said looking in the direction of his energy. "I'm not fighting you Leland."
"He's gone." Melinda said quietly.
"I'm sorry you've been pulled into this Melinda." I said rubbing my face. I spent the last two nights searching Leland out in the astral planes. Tonight I plan on astraling the earth plane and talk to him that way. If I don't get him gone soon, Grandview is in for a world of hell.
"What can I do to help cross him over?" Melinda asked.
"Stand your ground. I mean it. He is bad, I mean really bad. Like ritual sacrifice bad. Don't let him get to Aidan and if he does pray that Aidan remains unharmed. Aidan's room is already protected so he can safely hide in there. Just don't let Leland get to you, you must stand your ground and claim what is yours." I said leaving.