Page 19 of Crossing the Line
My heart takes a nosedive as I recall the tragic Lord-Grove love story.Why would Hercules mention those two at this moment?I’m certain he’s trying to send me a message. Perhaps he’s indirectly letting me know that he and I are on the same road that will lead to a similar tragic ending. When I raise my head to see his face, Hercules is watching me intently, waiting for my answer.
“Why did you ask me about them?” I finally say. My frown is so severe that it feels as if the skin on my forehead will detach from my hairline.
He appears taken aback by my mood.
“You don’t have to mention Treasure and Orion to put emotional distance between us, Hercules. I never pictured us going past… you know, this,” I lie.
He rubs the side of his face. “Look, PG. I’m not putting emotional distance between us. But we both know how complicated it would be for us to start something serious.”
I feel sick to my stomach because he’s so very right. “I know,” I whisper.
“But I like you very much.”
I exhale vigorously through my nose. “I like you too,” I admit in a tight voice. I already know where this discussion is going. And I shouldn’t stop it, even if I could.
Hercules touches his forehead like it hurts. “There’s something I should tell you.” He looks worried, and that makes me worried too. He’s watching me with eyes that are speaking, but I have no idea with they’re saying. That’s why I focus on his parted lips, waiting for the first words to leave his mouth.
“Hercules!” a man bellows in a gruff voice.
Hercules and I quickly turn our widened eyes toward the hallway. Fortunately, the penthouse is large. Whoever just entered isn’t close to Hercules’s bedroom yet. I don’t want to imagine the fallout from a Grove and Lord getting caught in bed together. He and I already know how that will end.
“Are you home?” the man calls.
The shock passes, and Hercules scrambles to his feet. I’m not so panicked that I miss the pure perfection of his nude body. As I’ve already accepted, I’m extremely sexually attracted to Hercules. I’ve never lusted after a man in this way. That’s probably why I feel a deep sense of loss, knowing that the intruder’s presence has brought our night, and the likelihood that we will make love again, to a grinding halt.
“Achilles? Wait,” Hercules calls, hopping into a pair of pajama pants that he snatched out of the nightstand.
“What’s going…?” Achilles says and then goes deathly quiet.
I hear Hercules pounding the marble floor of the hallway.
“Whose red dress is that?”
Now I panic. “Oh no,” I whisper repeatedly. My dress and shoes are still in Hercules’s den.
I can’t be seen by Achilles Lord. I’m certain he can recognize me if he sees me. And if he sees me in Hercules’s bed, he’ll tell Max, who would scold me to no end. I like the fragile peace treaty that exists between my brother and me right now. It can be easily broken. And something like this would blow our fragile alliance to smithereens. When Max and I battle it out, our squabbles can be spirited.
“You have company?” Achilles blares as his voice and footfalls get closer.
“That’s none of your business,” Hercules retorts.
I can’t let Achilles catch me. So I roll out of bed and look around the room for somewhere to hide. I spot an alcove, and not knowing where it leads, I pad across the floor and go wherever the warm, dim lighting leads.
“Are you finally warming up to Lauren?” Achilles asks.
My heart feels as if it has turned to stone, but I keep shuffling on the tip of my toes past a bathroom that resembles one found in a five-star hotel.
“You’re letting yourself into my place now?” Hercules asks. His voice sounds farther away than Achilles’s.
“I always let myself in.”
I make it out of the hallway that’s connected to Hercules’s room. I have no idea where I’m going as I pad down a corridor with white marble floors. I can’t believe this is happening to me.If Lauren is only Hercules’s cousin, why does Achilles wonder if my dress belongs to her? Did Hercules mislead me?
Naked as a jaybird and praying I don’t eventually run into Achilles, I pass a familiar room and then step back. It’s the den, and it’s empty.
My heart accelerates as I rush in, and quickly collect my dress and shoes. I know my way out from this room. I tune out Hercules giving his brother the business for invading his privacy. Achilles asks Hercules why is he being so cagey about having company.
“Who the hell is she, then?” Achilles asks as if he’s entitled to know who Hercules is screwing.
A sour taste pours into my mouth as I note that Achilles is behaving a lot like Max would. My nerves are poking me like sharp knives when I make it to the private elevator and smash the down button. I’m shaking like a leaf. Nothing happens as I keep stabbing at it. Finally, it dings, and the doors slide open.
“What did you just do?” Achilles’s voice is getting closer, and so are his footfalls.
“Achilles, wait,” I hear Hercules say before the doors finish closing and the elevator drops.
I’m moving steadily to the lobby. There’s no time to breathe a sigh of relief. I hurriedly put on my dress, shoes…
Damn it.I forgot my cocktail purse.
