ELLA
I left my old life behind because it was never the life I wanted anyways. There was no one holding me down, nobody important that I needed to stick behind for. For better or worse, there was only two people in my life: Kara and Luke.
Kara was understanding about why I wanted to start my life over… again. And I promised she could come see us any time she wanted and I have no doubt she’s going to take me up on that offer. She and her husband are renting my home while they sell their first home and before buying their second. Apparently, their little family is about to grow by two—twins.
But Luke… He saved me in every way I think I could ever be saved. He saved me from my past and showed me that I still had a future worth fighting for. We took every penny out of my checking and savings accounts and fled to Mexico. I’m still able to work out here since my job has always been one I’ve performed in the confines of my own home.
We changed our names for the time being at his request. He’s been vague at best about why, but I know it has something to do with someone he trusted. I’m not going to press for answers right away though because I know that sometimes we need to allow our secrets to simmer before we’re comfortable enough to open about them.
He says that maybe someday we can go back, but I’m not sure if I want to. I’ve got everything I need right here in this hotel room. All that’s back in Los Angeles, at least for the time being, are memories I wish to stay in the graveyard of nightmares. Two men that I thought I cared about turned out to be monsters, and now they’re both dead. It’s like in a split second, memories were torn from my mind and tainted forever.
Rick and David Matheson were important people to me when I was growing up, and now they’re nothing but a painful memory. But Luke… he has a way of making me forget about everything.
It’s just him and I, and it’s a typical Tuesday afternoon. We stayed up late the night before and have stayed in bed all morning. There’s a tray of strawberries on the nightstand with a bowl of whipped cream to dip them in. I’m cuddled up next to him, my head lying on his bare chest as we listen to the crashing of the waves on the beach outside our window.
A warm breeze blows through white curtains and caresses my bare body. It’s been three months and I still haven’t come close to being tired of this new life we’ve created for ourselves. He’s my calm, my steady. He’s my knight in shining armor, and I am his queen.
I love him like the days are long and the nights are short. I could never say that before, given that we were only together for three days and it didn’t quite feel right. But I felt it in my heart, felt it in my soul, felt it in my very bones. The idea that I could love him someday when I had never loved anyone before seemed crazy to me. Love was a foreign idea, one I didn’t exactly understand.
I understand it now, and it took being in a foreign land to grasp it. I spent my entire life changing and evolving. I spent my entire life unsure of where I fit in so I carved a place out for myself, and then I evolved again. Ella Gold was my way of shutting the door on my past, but Luke constantly reminds me that both versions of Ella are one in the same.
And though he calls me by my most recent name in public—Ella King—he calls me simply babe in the quietest of moments.
He calmly combs his fingers through my hair, caressing me in slow, quiet strokes that threaten to put me back to sleep. I break away from his touch and spin sideways so that I’m able to grab a strawberry from the tray. I dip it down into the whipped cream and then take a bite.
He cocks his head to me and drops his lips into a sexy pout, so I feed him the rest of the strawberry. After he’s done chewing, he smiles warmly and pulls me closer to him.
He kisses me every night and he kisses me every morning. He kisses me a thousand times in between and I never grow tired of his affection. I’ve basically turned into a huge sap. If Ella Stone was an afraid and confused girl, and Ella Gold was an ice-cold, emotionless queen, then Ella King is something caught in between the two shadows of my past.
I drop my head back down onto his chest and stare longingly out the window. I stare at the never-ending blue sky without a cloud in sight, and then stare even further out. On the other side of the sea is the place I used to call home. Someday, I’ll go back there, but today’s not that day.
“What are you looking at?” Luke questions softly and pulls me even closer into his muscular arms.
“I’m just looking.”
“That sounds thrilling,” he chuckles under his breath. “Do you see anything amazing?”
“Yeah.” I push myself up and lean on my elbows so that I can stare into his blue eyes that linger like the ocean at high tide. “I see you.”
“You’re so cute.” He rolls his eyes and scoffs. “What do you really see?”
“I see a tall man with dark hair.” I kick one leg over his torso and move to straddle him. I push one hand through his hair, it’s longer now than it was before. “I see a sexy, funny man.”
He offers me a sly wink. “I have a feeling you’re talking about me.”
“I see a man who makes me feel safe.” I drop my head and kiss him softly on the forehead. “I see a man who makes me feel like the queen of the world.” I kiss him on the neck and then trail down to plant another on his collarbone. “But most of all, I see the man that I love.”
He grabs me by both cheeks and holds my head above his. From beneath me, his eyes tangle with mine and I swear this has to be a dream. “That’s good that you love me, because this man loves you, too.” He reaches an arm behind my back and holds me steady as he rolls on top of me. His hair falls from his face and dips against my head.
I reach up and push his hair out of his face, and with him on top of me, looking at me just like that, I think to myself that I’m the luckiest damn girl in the world.
Fight me on that.