Ties of Bad Love (Book Two)

Chapter Seven

                                                                                       Samantha

             I had only gotten about three hours of sleep. As the door creaked open to the bathroom door, I peaked my head out to see if Landon was sleeping. I needed to distance myself from him. His behavior was absolutely insane. Landon had no right to tell any of that to Levi. I know Levi and I weren’t together right now, and I shouldn’t feel guilty about kissing Landon again, but I did. Guilt was consuming me from the inside out. It must have broken Levi, and there is no telling what he had done in retaliation. He most likely went out, got drunk, and slept with some random girl. I had to erase that possibility from my mind. We were both single, and how he chose to spend his single life was none of my business.

           Landon was snoring softly into the pillow when I emerged from the bathroom. I gathered my things quietly, creeping around the room like a child not wanting to get caught stealing a cookie from the cookie jar. I zipped my suitcase up and rolled it to the front door. As I opened the door, Landon appeared beside me, slamming it shut.

           “Are you planning on leaving without me?”

           “Yes. What escalated earlier this morning was…”

           “Was what, Sam? I did what I had to do. You are holding yourself back because of him. You always care about what he thinks, even when you aren’t together. How come you gave him a chance but aren’t willing to give me one?”

           His eyes expressed how vulnerable he was. I wanted to comfort him and tell him we can give this a try because I owed that to him after all he has done for me. The problem was that I didn’t know if I could give myself to him in that way. Even after all Levi has done, he was still the one I was in love with. Somehow, I thought we would find our way back to each other, but I didn’t know if I could forgive him for what he has done this time. Using me the way he did was a bit much, making it hard to distinguish what was real and what was lies.

           Landon tilted my head up to look at him, pulling me from my deep thought. “Tell me what is going through your mind. Can you see a future with me? Because I can see one with you. I know what I did was a f*****g mess, but I did it for your own good. Sam, you drive me mad, but in the best way kind of way. Give me a chance, please.”

           I don’t exactly know why, but I placed my hand on his cheek. It was meant to comfort him, but when he wrapped his arms around me, I lost all control. His lips were moving toward me, inching closer until they were hovering mine.  His hand touched the side of my face, and I felt the same small electrical current running through me as it did last night. Landon’s touch was comforting in a way it wasn’t with Levi. Landon’s touch reassured how he felt about me. He was readable, and it was easy to tell how much he cared about me. I didn’t have to fight him to know how he felt like I had to do with Levi.

           When he placed his lips over mine, I couldn’t stop myself from moving my lips against his. The urgency in his kiss was everything I needed. Landon pressed his bare chest to mine as he moved my back against the door, our kiss only deepening. I knew that I cared about Landon, but I didn’t know if I would ever love him like I loved Levi. It was wrong of me to keep comparing him to Levi, but I couldn’t help it. Levi was all I ever knew. Before him was boring and empty. Since I have met him my life has been in turmoil, but also more exciting than it has ever been. I was curious to know if Landon would ever make me feel the same way Levi had.

           I pulled back from him, breaking our kiss. His hand rested on the door next to my head, his body heat was radiating off him with our proximity. This moment between us changed everything for me. I tried hard to deny my attraction to him by pushing him away. I owed it to him and myself to give this a shot, regardless of my heart fighting against it.

           “Okay,” I responded practically panting.

           He couldn’t help the smile that beamed across his face. “Okay?”

           “You will have to be patient with me. And what happened…can never happen again. That territorial side of you is not something I want to see again. If you are willing to do those two things, then I am willing to give this a shot.”

           Landon picked me up and crashed his lips over mine again without warning. He guided me to the bed, laying me down gently on the sheets. He straddled me while holding my hands above my head. I was nervous he was going to try to have s*x with me, but he didn’t. His tongue slipped into my mouth, and I tasted him truly for the first time. His kiss didn’t turn me on like I figured it would, but it was sweet and inviting. The only problem was that for me, there was only a little spark that I worried wouldn’t burn any brighter than what it was now. But I knew if I were to ever put Levi in my past, I needed to try and move on with my life.

           Moments later, he was the one to break the kiss. “I didn’t think you would ever agree to this. It’s apparent the way you feel about Levi, which I will never understand after the way he has treated you…”

           “Shh. It is you and me now. No more talk of Levi, okay?”

           He nodded his head before he rested it on my chest. My hands moved in and out of his hair as he fell back asleep. I, however, was wide awake. Somewhere inside of me knew that this was a mistake, but how could I deny him after all he has done? I let Landon sleep on my chest for about an hour before I woke him up. It was a little after eight-thirty in the morning, and though I loved Paris, I couldn’t wait to be back home.

           We said goodbye to Clara and Paris. She had some business she wanted to tend to and said she would be flying back out tomorrow. Landon held my hand for the entire trip back to California. I hoped that he would remain this sweet and understanding. I still couldn’t help but think back to the event that unfolded with him. He not only answered my phone without my permission, but he broke it into pieces. Now, I had no way to contact anyone and no money to buy a new phone. Who knew Landon had a side like that to him?

           I must have fallen asleep on the ride back because Landon had to wake me up. The time difference took a lot out of me. By the time we were back in the states, I felt completely jet-lagged. Landon drove us back to my place where he carried in all my new things.

           As he placed my bags on the bed, he turned around to me, bringing me close to him. “I need to take you shopping.”

           “Shopping? For what?”

           His cheeks reddened. “I owe you a phone.”

           “Don’t even worry about it. I’m sure I can manage without one for a while.”

           “I’m the one that broke it. It is my responsibility to pay for a new one. I won’t take no for an answer.” He slapped me on the ass playfully. “Or we could just stay here. I am sure I can find other ways to keep you busy.”

           Upon hearing that, I practically ran to the door, listening to him giggle as he followed behind me. We stepped inside a fancy little phone shop and immediately was surrounded by salesmen and women. I was slightly irritated that they had no android phones available. The guy helping us said if I wanted to wait to have one shipped out, I could, but it could take up to two weeks. I had to settle on an iPhone instead, which I absolutely hated. It was going to take me forever to figure this thing out. Luckily, the guy in the shop was able to restore all my contacts, pictures, and applications from my old phone since I had thankfully backed up everything on the cloud. As I rebooted the phone after switching everything over, my phone began to ping with notifications left and right.

           The guy selling us the phone was keeping Landon busy by trying to talk him into all the accessories you could buy for an iPhone such as a case, pop sockets, and so on. I took the opportunity to go into my voicemails first. There were a few from my dad, two from Emily, and the last one was from Levi. I listened to his heartbreaking voicemail, feeling even more guilty than I had earlier. There was no way I could reach out to him now, though everything inside me was begging me to. I quickly deleted the voicemail after hearing it just in case Landon decided to snoop through my phone. I knew his insecurities were strong about me and Levi, and I couldn’t say that I would blame him if he did go snooping.

            I felt Landon’s arms snake around my waist as he rested his chin on my shoulder. “Is everything working properly?”

            “Um huh. Thank you for the phone.”

            “My pleasure, my lady.” I couldn’t help but laugh when he said that. His accent mixed with the fake accent he was trying to impersonate, was hilarious. “Are you laughing at me, Ms. Taylor?”

            “Why, yes, I am.” I decided to join in on the ridiculous accent game we were playing, though his accent was very real.

            “Come on, let’s go back to the apartment. We can order some take out and watch a movie or something.”

            “Will there be cuddling?”

            He spun me around to face him, pushing me closer to his body. “Lots and lots of cuddling.” He wrapped my hand in his as we walked out of the shop together.

            When we were outside, Landon suddenly pulled me closer to him while pushing me against the wall of the building and invading my mouth with his tongue. This kiss was different from our last, it was like he was staking a claim over me. When I heard a growling sound to the right of me, I froze, seeing Levi standing there watching us as his eyes turned dark. It made sense now, Landon’s little display of affection. He must have noticed Levi and decided to put on a little show for him.

            Levi ran over to Landon, slamming against the building roughly. He never once looked at me. He was too focused on Landon in front of him. Levi swung, connecting his fist to Landon’s jaw. Landon pushed him back while throwing his fists at Levi in return. Instinct kicked in, and I ran between the two of them, pushing them apart with each of my arms. Many bystanders crowded around us, hoping to get a show, I presume.

            “This is what you do, Samantha? Ten f*****g days and you are suddenly over me and with this douche?!”

            I wanted to scream that I wasn’t over him. I wanted to tell him that I loved him, but he messed up everything good between us with his constant lies and secrets, but I couldn’t. If it hadn’t been for Landon standing beside me, I would have. “Levi, I…”

            “NO! Don’t try and explain yourself. It all makes perfect f*****g sense to me. Go be a little w***e for all I care.” Levi then pulled a random girl walking by close to him and kissed her in front of me. His eyes never left mine, making tears well up in my eyes. “Do you want me to f**k you?” He asked the girl he was just kissing.

            “Lead the way,” she responded as she placed her hand over the front of his jeans, rubbing him in front of us with no shame whatsoever. I had to force my eyes away from them. It was too much seeing him with another girl like that. This is how it must have felt for him seeing me and Landon together. Levi stormed past us with the girl by his side. He hopped into his car across the street that I hadn’t noticed. The girl hopped onto his lap. Her gaze never left Landon’s. Did she somehow know him? When she took off her shirt, I took off running as fast as my little legs could go. I had no idea where I was going to go, only that I needed to get away from him and Landon.