Page 13 of Crossing the Red Line (Vancouver Dominators)

Lucas - Two Weeks Later

“Last bag unpacked,” Ella said, coming out of the bedroom and sitting down on the stool at the breakfast bar.

She reached over and grabbed a cracker off the charcuterie board I’d just placed out and smiled at me.

“Sure you’re ready?” I asked, passing her a bottle of water.

“I think so,” she said, looking down at the diamond ring that now sat on her finger.

It had been the first thing I’d done the morning after I took my wife for the first time.

“Do you think they will be ready?” she asked, looking at me and then back down to the ring.

Tonight, I’d invited the guys over for a little team party after we won our last home game. We had a few days off, and I figured it would be a good time to let them know about Ella and me. We’d both promised one another that we wouldn’t say anything to anyone until tonight, after Ella had moved in.

“I think so,” she said, looking up at me, worry in her eyes.

“What’s that look for?” I questioned.

“There’s no look.” She smiled, looking back at the ring on her finger.

“Do you not like it?” I questioned, turning to the fridge to pull out the appetizers Ella had made a few hours ago.

“Do I not like what?” she questioned, reaching over and grabbing another cracker.

“The ring, you keep looking at it. If you don’t like it, we can always return it and you can choose something else,” I said, unwrapping the board.

“Are you kidding me? I love it. Guess I’m just getting used to it, and I’ll be happy that starting tomorrow I can wear it all the time.” She giggled, getting up off the stool, coming around the counter and wrapping her arms around me, playing with the curls at the back of my head.

I stared into her eyes. I could see nothing but playfulness in them as she stared up at me. I lowered my mouth to hers, teasing her and kissing her lightly.

“Don’t start,” I murmured, closing my eyes as I felt her hand run over my semi-hard cock.

“Why not? Why not take me right here, on the counter?” she whispered.

When I looked at her eyes, I saw nothing but want in them.

“You want me to take you on the counter? Right here? Make you my own personal appetizer?” I whispered, grazing her lips with mine.

Her chest rose and fell in quick succession, and she swallowed hard as I ran my fingers over her bottom lip. God, I wanted to take her right here right now, but I knew it would only be a minute or two before the boys were here.

I felt her hands on my stomach, running up under my shirt and back down over my abs, stopping at the button on my jeans. I closed my eyes and leaned back against the counter, when a pounding knock brought me out of the moment.

Ella looked up at me, disappointment lining her face as she glanced over at the door. “Guess they are here.”

“Yep,” I said, removing her hands from the button on my jeans and adjusting myself. “Be prepared for later, you little tease,” I said as I nipped her mouth with mine.

I made my way over and opened the door, welcoming Dylan and Aurora, Knox and Lorelai, and Clay.

“You all know Ella,” I said, as they all came in and removed their shoes.

Aurora and Lorelai both smiled in her direction and immediately went over to her talking about last night’s win.

“So, what’s this news you got for us?” Dylan asked, placing a case of beer on the counter.

“Yeah, come on, we want to know. You’ve kept us in suspense long enough,” Knox added.

“I haven’t.” I chuckled.

“Bullshit. Care to talk about the text messages from a few weeks ago?”

I walked over to Ella and wrapped my arm around her as all of them looked on.

“What?” Aurora and Lorelai both said at the same time. “No way!”

Ella looked at them and smiled while nodding her head.

“What?” Knox asked at the same time Clay did.

It was then I took hold of Ella’s hand in mine, raising it up to show them the ring.

“Jesus…” Knox groaned. “This is the girl…and your married?”

Lorelai let out a little giggle as Knox ran his hands over his face in shock.

“It’s not good, Lorelai, it’s the boss’s daughter…Jesus. We can’t afford to lose Lucas,” Knox grunted.

I glanced down at Ella and winked while Knox started pacing the kitchen floor.

“What’s the problem?” Dylan questioned, leaning up against the counter, pulling Aurora in front of him as he rested his hands on her small baby bump.

“Larson is going to go postal when he finds out. Remember what happened over the locker room incident? We almost lost him then. What do you think he’s going to do when he finds this out? We need a plan, and we need a plan now!”

It was then I laughed. I’d never seen Knox this panicked before. Normally, he was a go-with-the-flow kind of guy. Clay stood there, his arms crossed across his chest, not saying a word.

“Larson won’t say anything. He already knows,” I said as Knox spun around and looked me directly in the eyes. “Ella and I used to date, years ago.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Better to watch your ass panic.” I chuckled.

“Oh fuck off,” Knox gritted.

I frowned. “What the hell is the matter with you?” I questioned, as Dylan and Clay looked over at Knox in shock.

We all waited as Knox glanced at all of us. “It’s Peyton, my mom emailed me.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Lorelai questioned, looking concerned.

“Didn’t want to talk about it.” He shrugged.

It was then Clay cleared his throat and mentioned that he forgot something in the car, and before we could say anything, he’d bolted from the condo.

“I need to go out there on our next days off.” Knox added, “I just don’t have the bandwidth to deal with it right now, and then this news just catapulted me I guess.”

“Oh, honey,” Lorelai said, moving over to where he stood. “Whatever it is, I’ll help you deal with it,” she assured him, placing a kiss on his lips.

“Sorry, dude, didn’t mean to rain on your parade,” Knox said, fist bumping me.

“No worries. It would be impossible for anything to piss me off.”

“Are you happy?” Aurora asked, looking over at Ella.

She rested her head on my chest and smiled. “Very.”

“Well, you look better, and you’ve returned to your normal self. Lorelai and I were just saying that to one another yesterday at work.” She smiled. “We figured things got sorted.”

“So, when did this happen?” Dylan questioned.

“It was Vegas, wasn’t it?” Knox asked.

I nodded. “It was. The best fucking trip to Vegas I’ve ever had.”

It was then the door opened, and Clay came in. I noticed he had nothing with him and said nothing. Something was going on with him. I just hadn’t had the time to figure out what it was.

Aurora and Lorelai came over and hugged Ella, followed by Clay, Dylan, and then finally Knox.

“Welcome to the family, darlin’,” Clay said.

“Yeah, if this ass doesn’t treat you right, just come to me,” Dylan said, hugging her next, then smacking me across the abs.

“Yeah, we’ll keep him straight,” Knox added.

I walked over and cracked open the case of beer, handing out beers to the guys and then to Lorelai and Ella, then I reached into the fridge and pulled out a Gatorade for Aurora, passing it to her after I opened it.

“Let’s allow the boys to chat,” Aurora said, leading Ella out of the kitchen.

She turned and waved to me as the girls went into the living room and sat on the couch.

While the guys congratulated me, and we moved onto talks about upcoming games, I couldn’t help but watch as the girls and Ella started talking and laughing.

They’d welcome her with open arms, as would my team members. I knew that completely.

I shut the light off in the kitchen and made my way down to the bedroom.

The soft glow from the light on my side of the bed cast enough of a glow for me to see Ella’s face as she slept.

I took a moment to watch her. She was so fucking beautiful, always had been to me, and now I got to call her mine.

It had taken us a few years to get this right between us, but it looked like we finally had. I was forever grateful to have her in my arms again and knew I’d never let her go. It had been a crazy few weeks, and I couldn’t wait to see how crazy things were going to get in the coming years.

“You coming to bed?” I heard her murmur as she tapped the empty spot beside her.

“I’m coming, baby,” I said, hitting the switch and crawling into bed beside her, pulling her against me.

“So warm,” she whispered, interlocking her hand with mine.

“I love you,” I said, placing a kiss on the side of her neck. “Now, where were we before we were interrupted?”