The heat of the sun angling across the bed woke me. For a hazy moment, I was confused. I felt the warm, lush body curled up against me and a leg tucked in between mine. As consciousness filtered in and my brain came online, I remembered

Ella was here.

With me.

It suddenly occurred to me that I’d never actually spent the night with her. You don’t really get a chance to do that in high school, unless your parents aren’t paying attention, or you’re sneaky enough to pull it off somehow.

I couldn’t say I never tried to persuade Ella on that account, but I’d never gotten away with it. Willow Brook was small, and her father was the police chief. She’d reminded me time and again, there were no secrets for her and she hadn’t wanted to face her parents’ disappointment.

I opened my eyes to find her head against my shoulder with her hair spread out over the pillow behind her. It was longer than I’d remembered. The last time I’d seen her before she moved back, she’d been wearing it in a bob. Now, it almost reached her waist—a rich cascade of mahogany, long enough for me to grip in my fists, just as I had last night when we crawled back in bed after our shower.

She was naked, and my cock was well aware of that fact. Her breasts pushed against my side, and I could feel the soft rise and fall of her breath where my palm rested against her back. I couldn’t resist sliding it down over the dip in her low back and cupping the sweet curve of her ass. My naughty thoughts were interrupted by Creamsicle.

He was above sleeping in my bed and always had been, but he usually expected me up and about by now. He leapt onto the foot of the bed with a meow. When I glanced up, I found him sitting on his haunches, his tail twitching back and forth over the comforter.

Ella shifted, murmuring something against my shoulder. The feel of her lips moving against my skin in a way that had nothing to do with sex sent a shot of blood straight to my groin.

With Creamsicle’s gaze upon us, I asked, “Yes?”

“What’s that?” she asked, her voice coming out more clearly this time.

“That’s Creamsicle,” I replied with a chuckle.

Glancing to her, I found her eyes opening. Sweet hell. She was dangerous in the morning. With her hair tousled, her skin slightly flushed and her eyes sleepy, all I wanted was to spend all day in bed with her. In fact, I’d have been quite happy to make up for ten years of lost time right now.

She rose up on her elbow, the sheet sliding down as she did. My eyes went straight to her breasts. Her nipples were dusky pink, the lush curves calling to me. Before I even realized what I was doing, I had caught one of her nipples with my lips, giving it a quick suck.

She squealed and then giggled, and my heart clenched. “He’s watching us!” she exclaimed, swatting me on the head.

Drawing back, I rested against the pillows and looked over at Creamsicle. He was unimpressed and let out a meow. “I think he’s out of food,” I said, glancing to Ella as I slid my palm up her back to sift through her tousled hair.

“Well then you should feed him. Come on, I’ll make breakfast.”

Before I could argue against it, she was climbing out of bed. With my cock protesting, I gamely went along with her. At this point, I would do just about anything Ella wanted.

In short order, we were downstairs in the kitchen. She wore one of my T-shirts, which hung almost to her knees, and a pair of socks. Meanwhile, I’d tossed on a pair of sweatpants and nothing else. While I filled Creamsicle’s food bowl, Ella padded around the kitchen opening cabinets and checking everything out. I turned around, walking with Creamsicle’s water bowl, to find her leaning up on her tiptoes trying to reach for some coffee mugs that were just out of her reach. Distracted by the T-shirt rising up and offering a tantalizing glimpse of the sweet curve of her bottom, my cock responded in kind. She had on a pair of purple silk panties. Fuck me.

She’d grumbled that she needed to get home and change. Amongst other things I hadn’t planned on with our impromptu dinner last night was a change of clothes for her. If I had my way, she’d pack a bag tonight and just stay with me. Yet, as comfortable as last night had been, I sensed I needed to take things one step at a time. For my own sake, as well as hers.

“Hang on, let me get that,” I said, setting the water bowl on the counter as I stepped past her. Without an ounce of hesitation, I stretched up behind her, sliding my hands over her hips and dropping a kiss in the curve of her neck. I savored her soft gasp. Only then did I reach up and get the coffee mugs down, thinking to myself I hadn’t organized my kitchen with anyone other than myself in mind. I topped six feet, two inches, while Ella was almost a foot shorter.

Reluctantly stepping away from her, I handed her the coffee mugs before filling Creamsicle’s water bowl. Ella started coffee, and before I’d even returned to the kitchen, she had the refrigerator open and was looking inside. “Can I make omelets?” she called.

Creamsicle scurried past me and started wolfing down his food. “You can make whatever you want,” I said as I reached the counter opposite her. She let the door to the refrigerator fall closed and turned around, resting her hips against the counter beside it.

“Well you have eggs, milk and some cheese. You have a terrible selection of vegetables though,” she offered with a sly grin.

I knew perfectly well that I had no vegetables, at least not in the fridge. I shrugged, unabashed. “Look, I’ve never been much of a cook, but then you know that.”

She grinned. “I do. Your mom used to complain that you hated learning to cook. If it’s okay, then I’ll make omelets.”

At my nod, she got started. The next hour passed in a strange sense of comfort. I’d never had a morning like this with Ella. Yet, it felt as though I had. She made the coffee strong, just how I liked it. Though the omelets were simple, they were delicious.

It was only when my phone started ringing that I was snapped out of my reverie. Taking a swig of my coffee, I glanced over to her. “That’s my phone. Do you want me to get it?” I asked, recalling I’d turned my phone over to her.

Clouds passed through her eyes, and I recalled what had prompted me to offer for us to switch phones temporarily. Inside of a matter of seconds, the relaxed expression on her face had fallen away, her gaze haunted.

Fuck. This needed to be resolved and fast. I didn’t think I could take seeing Ella like that.

“Why don’t you get it? It’s not like anyone knows to call my number to reach you.” She slipped off the stool across from me, padding across the floor. My gaze tracked her because it was impossible not to look at her. I loved that she was wearing my T-shirt.

By the time she returned with my phone, it stopped ringing. I slid it over and saw Nate’s number on the screen. “I’ll call him later. I’m gonna have to explain to everybody that you have my phone right now. Will that be okay?”

“It feels funny, but it’s such a relief to know you’ll have my phone. I’d rather deal with everybody thinking I’m crazy than deal with that,” she said softly.

The anger I’d forgotten about last night in the heat of everything else came roaring back, hot and then icy cold. “Ella, when did all of this start?”

She lifted her mug off the counter and spun away to refill it. “Need some?”

When I shook my head, she turned back and slipped onto the stool across from me, finally answering. “About a year and a half ago. I accepted the job there two years ago, right at the start of the fall semester. After a few months, he asked me out. Not that I’d done anything to lead him on. I said no, thinking he’d drop it after that. That’s when things started. It seems to come in waves. Like there would be nothing for a month or so, and then out of nowhere it would happen again. In a way, that makes it worse because I can never relax. Just when I start to think it will stop, it starts up.”

Her eyes met mine, her gaze earnest as if though she needed to convince me of something. “I meant it last night. I really did want to come home anyway. I thought I’d found my dream job, but where you live is everything, right? I just kept thinking I would wait for the right time or find the right job here before I came home. Then, all this started up and it seemed like it was better if I just cut my losses. Funny thing was, once I made the decision, then the job here opened up.”

I stared at her, trying to collect my thoughts. Because the only thing I could think when I thought about what this guy had done and was still doing was I wanted to make him fucking pay. But Ella didn’t need to see my fury. I slid my phone across the counter to her. Cupping her coffee mug in her hands, she took a sip on the heels of a deep breath.

“It’s so embarrassing, but now that you know and my mom knows, I’m relieved. I have friends there, and they wanted to help, but it wasn’t the same. Portland’s a pretty big city. Do you think he’ll just drop it eventually now that I’m gone?” she asked, as if I could actually answer that for her.

I hated the look in her eyes—haunted and weary. I desperately wanted to give her the answer she wanted to hear, but I couldn’t. “I don’t know, Ella. I hope so. I hope your dad can give us some suggestions on how to hold him accountable.” I couldn’t bring myself to say the guy’s name aloud, although it was seared into my memory—Lance Wallace.

Ella took another sip of coffee, idly tracing circles on the counter. Creamsicle leapt up, padding cross the counter and stopping beside her. He couldn’t have known how perfect his timing was, or perhaps he did know. Nevertheless, he interrupted our conversation. Considering that I liked to solve things, and this issue wasn’t one I could solve quickly, his interruption was welcome.

Ella glanced to him and then me, a slight smile crossing her face. “He’s allowed on the counter?”

I chuckled. “I tried to train him off of it, but I’m not very good at training cats apparently. It probably doesn’t help that in the summers I’m gone for weeks at a time and he has the run of the house. My mom stops by twice a day. One time, my mom brought him over to their place, but he hated it so she brought him back over here. He’s got a cat door in the laundry room, so he runs the show when I’m not here. My vet told me he considers this his territory.”

Ella stroked her palm down his back and rubbed his cheeks, eliciting a loud purr from him. Meanwhile, my heart clenched and I hated to have our idyllic morning interrupted by the memory of those nasty texts last night. As much as they rattled me, it was stunning to consider that Ella had been dealing with it for over a year and a half now. I’d be stopping by to chat with Rex soon as I could today.