Page 5 of Crossing the Red Line (Vancouver Dominators)

Ella

I was so warm and cozy; I didn’t want to move, but my head was pounding. I needed some headache tablets badly, so I slowly opened my eyes. My vision was blurry.

I wiped my eyes, the dark room becoming clearer. I lay there staring at the wall, wondering where my suitcase had gone. I was certain I’d left it on this side of the bed. I blinked, rubbing my eyes again, it was too early to worry about it. I just needed those tablets.

I pushed myself up off the mattress, the room spinning out of control, and I lay back down and closed my eyes. That was when I felt the bed move and something touch my leg, and then I heard a man snoring. I swallowed hard as I carefully lifted my head from the pillow and looked to my right.

“What the hell?” I muttered to myself, panic filling me and pain shooting through my temples.

Lucas lay there, sound asleep beside me, his hand on his bare stomach. As I stared at him, all I could think about was last night and what I’d been thinking. I was only here to do the guy a favour; to convince his family he had a girlfriend. I certainly wasn’t here to get back together with him.

Careful not to wake him, I rolled over, and that was when I felt the ache in my body. A very unfamiliar, yet familiar, ache, one I hadn’t felt in a long time. Five years, to be exact.

I lifted the covers and slipped out from under them, throwing on the first thing I saw before I slipped from the room as quietly as I could. I made my way across the common area and into my room, where I immediately flopped down on the bed and buried my face in my hands.

I wasn’t supposed to sleep with him. What the hell was I doing?

It had taken me two years to get over him.

The tears I’d shed then had almost bled me dry.

I could hear my father now, giving me the responsibility lecture, again.

In fact, I could hear him say more things than that, especially since he’d made it so incredibly clear that I wasn’t supposed to get involved with any of his players.

While I was certain he hadn’t included Lucas in that bunch, I didn’t want to find out either.

I knew that rule had only been for me, otherwise Aurora and Lorelai might not be working for the Dominators.

While Daddy had mentioned Lucas and I dating again recently, I knew he’d hated seeing me hurting during our breakup and had threatened to kill him on more than one occasion.

As a matter of fact, it surprised me he hadn’t immediately traded Lucas when he took over the Dominators, especially when I started working for him.

I got up off the bed, determined that this could be fixed with a quick conversation and a promise to him and myself not to cross that fine line again.

I went into the bathroom, turned on the shower, and then climbed in under the hot spray, washing away the events of last night—and hopefully the ache in my body—but it did little good.

When I finally stepped out of the shower, the only thoughts on my mind were from last night. Where his hands had touched and probed my body. Where and how he’d kissed me, and how many times I’d screamed his name while my legs had been wrapped around his back, arms, and very last, his head.

I dried my hair with my towel and then looked at myself in the mirror.

My cheeks and chest were pink the more I thought of last night.

Without thinking hard, I could still feel him inside of me, how he’d taken his time, how he’d stretched and filled me so full it actually hurt but felt so good at the same time. I hadn’t wanted it to end.

I dropped the towel to the floor and grabbed the shirt I’d had on before I’d gotten in the shower.

As I looked at myself in the mirror, I realized it was one of his shirts I’d grabbed by mistake.

I took a moment, bringing the material up to my nose, and closed my eyes as I inhaled the scent of him, remembering how it felt to be held in his arms.

“Stop it, Ella,” I murmured to myself. “Don’t you dare travel back down that trail of memories. It will only provide you with a world of hurt.”

I ran into the bedroom, quickly stripped the shirt off me, and got dressed in my own clothes, before heading back into the bathroom to dry and style my hair and put on my makeup.

The moment I finished, I tiptoed out into the common area and threw his shirt down on the back of the couch.

I then made my way into the small kitchen area and stopped dead in my tracks.

Lucas stood in the kitchen, his back to me, wearing nothing but a pair of boxers. Immediately, my eyes went from his wide shoulders, muscular back, down to his perfect ass, then back up to the mop of messy curls I’d loved running my fingers through last night.

I let out a sigh as my eyes ran down his body once again, noticing his muscles flexing in his forearms as he lifted the coffeepot—

“Are you going to say something, or just stand there?”

I jumped at the sound of his voice, my eyes instantly falling to the floor in case he spun around and caught me looking at him.

“Morning,” I squeaked.

“Left me high and dry this morning. What the hell was that? Just a wham bam thank you Lucas? You know, in case you forgot, I enjoy morning-after cuddling just like you do.” He turned around, placing a mug of coffee down on the small island in the center of the kitchen and pushing it toward me.

Instantly, my mouth went dry. I hadn’t bolted for any other reason other than shock. I leaned forward and picked up the mug of coffee, blew on it before taking a mouthful, hoping that some sort of words came to my mind.

“Ella, you should know that I enjoyed last night, and I’m having an absolute blast with you. It’s like old times, and there are absolutely zero regrets over here about what happened between us last night.”

My heart skipped a beat as I continued looking at the floor, unsure what the hell to say to that. I enjoyed myself last night as well. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that he already knew that. I didn’t need to tell him that, did I.

“Honestly, Ella, I’ve been thinking of us a lot since you started with the team.

There have been so many times I thought about calling you, or coming to your office and talk to you, just to see where you stood with the idea of us, if you were maybe open to trying again, but after your father lost his shit with me over the locker room incident, and you wouldn’t even look my way, I decided I wouldn’t pursue you.

I didn’t want it to put any type of pressure on you, and I didn’t want any bad blood in the workplace, so I just shoved that idea aside. ”

Whoa, what the hell? He’d thought about us. He’d thought about maybe one day trying again. I almost wanted to pinch myself to see if this was some sort of dream, because things like this never happened to me. They happened to my best friends, and pretty much everyone around me, but never to me.

“Lucas…I, um…I don’t know what to say. I….”

“You don’t need to say anything. I don’t want there to be any pressure between us. I just figured you should know the truth. I don’t want you walking away from this weekend thinking that what happened between us was a mistake…”

“I wasn’t sure what it was,” I muttered.

Lucas was quiet. I stood there, afraid to look up for fear he was joking around. I wasn’t sure I could take it if he was. This was the most shocking and sweetest thing he’d ever done.

“Ella, you can look at me, you know.”

With my mug in my hands, I slowly raised my eyes to his. One look at his face told me he was serious. As I looked at him, I wondered if perhaps this time we could have something real. Not that what we had wasn’t real before, but maybe now that we were both older, maybe he’s ready for more.

“We should get ready to meet your sisters,” I said, my voice shaking, wanting to take the focus off what we were talking about, because at this point, I wasn’t sure if I should open up on how I was feeling or just shove it back down inside of me.

Lucas pushed himself off the counter. “Yep, you’re right, we should. Give me ten,” he mumbled, and he took off toward his room, his head down, leaving me in the kitchen alone.

Just like every decision up to this point, I feared I was making another mistake. Why was I so afraid to share how I felt?