Unentangled

by Katherine King

But yet...I stay.

  Lucas eventually breaks the silence as he admits softly, "I usually like to run this time of the morning but sometimes I take a morning off and come here."

  "Is running a form of exercise for you or do you really enjoy it?" I inquire, wanting – unreasonably - to know as much about this man as I can.

  "I definitely enjoy it. It gets me outside, helps clear my head. January and February usually means a lot of snow so I use my treadmill if the weather is too bad for jogging but I do prefer running outside."

  Nodding, I agree, as I reply, "I enjoy jogging outside too. Unfortunately, since I’ve arrived, I haven’t had a chance to go for a run. Maybe I will this evening."

  He glances over at me as he asks quietly, "Is that an invitation?"

  I hastily shoot to my feet.

  I hadn’t made it an invitation but somehow Lucas seemed to take it as an invitation. Spending every day with him is getting under my skin and maybe he doesn’t realize that all of this time together is getting under his skin too.

  Allowing myself to spend time with him this morning watching the sunrise had been stupid. It's not helping in keeping me away from him.

  "Emma," he says quietly as he comes to his feet.

  I avoid his eyes. I can suddenly feel, without any further doubt, that there is a stirring of interest on Lucas’s side as well.

  "Quinny, come," I say, my voice cracking, and start the walk back to the cottage, leaving him there on the beach. I can’t shake this suddenly overwhelming feeling that if I stayed, he would cross the line that I’m trying to keep in place.

  “You’re overthinking things,” I murmur to myself along the way.

  I quickly shower, putting this morning firmly out of my mind.

  Heading into work, Lucas is - thankfully, all business when I arrive. He quickly goes over what he envisions for the rooms then leaves myself and Martha to compile a shopping list. Afterwards, Martha begins the training on the online booking system back at her office, which I catch onto quickly.

  The rest of the day passes without any sign of him.

  And I can’t help the feeling of feeling a little lost.

  Every time I had heard footsteps outside Martha’s office, I would pause and hold my breath, hoping it would be him that would open the door, that I would again get to watch his eyes increase in intensity as his gaze collided with mine even from across the room.

  How quickly he has gotten under my skin scares me and I once again silently caution myself.

  The next two days pass without any sight of Lucas leaving me confused, and angry with myself, by how unreasonably lost and lonely I feel. Even when Dave calls me every evening, I find that I’m distracted during our conversations.

  Because Lucas is always hovering in the forefront of my mind.

  On the third day of no sightings of Lucas, I hear a soft knock on my door at the cottage in the evening and I can’t stop the feeling of hopefulness from spearing sharply through me, causing my heart to race even though I tell myself I’m being stupid and that I shouldn’t want it to be Lucas.

  But upon opening the door, I forget to breathe.

  Lucas is standing there in his running shorts, a light running jacket, his hair pulled back into an elastic for his run, further highlighting the corded muscles of his neck. There is no smile on his face, only his penetrating blue gaze searing into me.

  I inhale swiftly, my heart hammering as if it wants to jump from my chest.

  God he’s so beautifully sensual, - my mind unconsciously whispers.

  "Have you had your run today?" he asks quietly, watching my face closely.

  Shaking my head, my body reacting – yearning for him - upon seeing him again after not seeing him for what felt like way too long, I manage, "Not yet."

  "Would you like a running partner?" he inquires gently.

  Nodding, opening the door a little wider for him to enter, I reply immediately, "I'll change."

  He steps through and his masculine scent surrounds me.

  Enticing me.

  God, how I have missed him, - I silently allow myself to acknowledge as I turn away from him to head, off kilter, back to my bedroom.

  Quickly, I change, happy that he is here but firmly not allowing myself to think past that. I have missed him so much that I only want to allow myself to enjoy his appearance.

  "Ready?" he asks, he eyes sweeping over me, assessing me from my head to my toes, as I step back out of my room.

  Nodding, feeling stupidly like a teenage girl on her first date, I give Quinny a treat before following him out the door.

  I quickly find that Lucas is a great running partner. He doesn't talk a lot, instead focusing on his workout, only speaking when he wants to bring something to my attention about the vineyard. As we return to the end of the driveway to the cottage, I realize I don’t want him to leave, and before I can think to stop myself, I ask him if he wants to come in for a glass of wine.

  He hesitates, his gaze penetrating me, as if picking my brain apart to see what’s inside – what I’m thinking - before shaking his head and replying, "I'll see you in the morning." He turns from me immediately and continues with his jog down the road to his home.

  Sighing, disappointment creeping through me, even though I know he is hands off and his refusal is the best thing for me, I open the door to my cottage. Any thoughts that I had before that he was trying to sleep with me have vanished. He has clearly moved on or either I was over thinking things before, reading into something that hadn’t even been there.

  Crawling into bed that night, I stare up at the ceiling with my emotions in turmoil. I know I shouldn’t want to be around him, that I shouldn’t be in bed thinking of him right now, wondering how it would feel to have him lying next to me...

  To have him gently run his fingers over my skin...

  My breath catches and my mind doesn’t veer from him, no matter how much I chastise myself.

  The next morning, I’m groggy from having tossed and turned all night, and I realize that I haven’t had a good night’s rest since moving here. I know it’s because of Lucas and my ever-growing, and all consuming, attraction to him. Arriving at work, I head up to Martha's office, unable to keep myself from glancing at Lucas's closed door along the way, wondering if he is there yet.

  I miss him greeting me with a coffee in hand and silently wish for that morning back.

  God, I’m starting to feel psychotic from all of my seemingly uncontrollable, widely swinging thoughts and emotions.

  Arriving at Martha’s office, I find her door closed as well.

  Raising my hand, I knock and a few seconds later, I hear her voice through the door bid, "Come in."

  Opening the door, I see Lucas sat in a chair on the opposite side of the desk from Martha. My heart misses a beat and then doubles in time.

  Martha smiles broadly at me as she says with a wide, welcoming smile on her face, "Hi Emma. I was just telling Lucas how well you are fitting in here."

  "You definitely have Martha in your corner," Lucas says in a polite and professional tone as he stands, vacating his chair. He gestures for me to take his chair as he continues, "I'll let you two ladies get to work."

  He is very stiff, formal.

  It unreasonably hurts.

  Finding my voice, I reply, "I was actually hoping to speak to both of you if you have a few minutes to spare, Mr. Reid?” He nods, avoiding my eyes, as he glances over at Martha, keeping his gaze away from me, making me feel somewhat lost. I perversely want to call him by his first name as he once requested just to see if he would drop this new polite and professional relationship he was now seemingly trying to establish. Instead, I swallow thickly before I continue, “I would like to contact online booking engines such as Expedia to help us pick up bookings. There’s a commission fee but it’s well worth it from what information I’ve collected, plus with our software, you could have two different rates. One rate if they book directly with us and another for the booking engines.
Here is the information on it..."

  I find myself trailing off as Martha watches me, listening in earnest interest.

  But Lucas firmly keeps his gaze on anything but me.

  Awkwardly, I hand them both copies of the informal report I did for them, but as Lucas reaches his hand out to take his copy, I can’t help but stare at those strong, competent hands, wishing for things I know I can’t allow myself to have.

  Nodding, as if distracted, Lucas replies still with that professional, polite tone and his eyes now on the report, "I'll have a look and let you know."

  I watch as he walks past me to open the door to the office, never once looking back at me.

  "Have a great day, ladies," he says, his tone one of formal dismissal, as he closes the door behind him.

  Looking at Martha, I see her give me a knowing look. I drop my eyes and sit in the chair Lucas had vacated only minutes before. The warmth from his body is still evident and I allow myself a few moments to savor it, allowing it to soak into me before raising my eyes to Martha, forcing myself to be the professional, stellar employee who shouldn’t be obsessing over her boss.

  Even as his indifference towards me is stinging.

  Badly.

  Chapter 6

  Lucas

  Keeping my distance from Emma has been hard. No matter what I have done, how I tried to spend time with her, allow her to get to know me better, she remains aloof. Knowing I needed to cool my craving for her along with needing time to think, I took a three-day trip into Toronto to meet with the head of the liquor corporation to discuss this year's anticipated production.

  While there, I had met up with friends and had joined them for dinner. To my surprise, they had arranged a blind date for me. At first, I had been angry but then I had forced myself to relax, convincing myself that if offered, I wouldn’t spend the night alone which wouldn’t be a bad thing. A good romp between the sheets to help me tame the sexual longing that I had towards Emma may be just the thing to help me cope with keeping myself in check with her, to slow down and be more patient. The evening had turned out to be quite enjoyable as I laughed along with my friends and our dates, enjoying dinner together, but when it came time to head back to my hotel, I turned down the obvious invitation extended by my blind date to accompany me.

  Despite the attention lavished on me by the leggy, beautiful blond who had flirted with me all evening, I had realized more and more throughout the evening that I only wanted Emma.

  She, however, is skittish.

  Yesterday evening, I was unable to stay away from her any longer. I had to see her, even if it was only platonic at this stage. I decided to invite her on a run, hoping to show her I wanted to establish a friendship first, get to know her better, have something on which to build a deeper relationship than a one-night stand. Her eager acceptance, the relief at seeing me when she opened her door when I arrived had buoyed my mood.

  Running next to her, I admired her strong strides, her ability to keep pace with me. She is so wonderfully, beautifully strong. I knew at some point I was going to break past that barrier. Leaving her at the end of her driveway after being invited in was hard. But I knew she was still trying to reconcile her feelings towards me and needed time.

  Emma is not like any of the girls I have dated before. She fascinates me.

  Intrigues me.

  I want so much more than sex with her and I’m willing to wait, to gently coax her into a relationship with me.

  To slow down and not be so obvious about how much I wanted her.

  Sighing deeply, I head to my office after trying my best to keep my eyes off Emma, to treat her like any other employee.

  But I hadn’t missed the confusion in her eyes when I had treated her as such.

  Perhaps my acting had been too cool.

  Placing my hand over my face, I rub my temples with my forefinger and thumb.

  She has me so twisted and tangled up inside.

  She has always had this effect on me, never knowing quite how to go about breaking through that invisible wall she has up, since the day I met her. I only know that I have to because what I feel for her I have never felt for anyone and I was determined to explore it, discover what it was about Emma that I craved.

  Sighing, I drop my hand from my face before opening the file folder that Emma had prepared and quickly read her report. Everything she says makes sense and my admiration for her grows.

  Making a fast decision, with Emma’s stricken face from earlier haunting me that I may have been too cold, I head downstairs. I quickly speak with the construction foreman, asking him for the keys to Emma's new office that I had added to the construction plans last week as a surprise for her. The space had been completed and furnished only yesterday but I had decided to wait until she had softened towards me, accepted that we were destined to have some sort of relationship, before showing her.

  But now I feel the need to reassure her somehow that I care for her.

  That I care for her deeply.

  Taking the keys from where the foreman had them hung on a nail, I head back upstairs.

  Knocking gently on Martha's door, I hear Martha say warmly, "Come in."

  "I need to steal Emma away for a moment," I say as my eyes rest on Emma, who is leaning over Martha's chair trying to watch what Martha was doing on the computer screen, her jeans clung tightly to her ass in this position.

  Down boy, - I mentally tell my cock as it stirs.

  "We are pretty much done here, anyway,” Martha says, beaming. “Emma is a fast learner and has caught on quickly. She can definitely take over everything that I have shown her at this point and go forward on her own.”

  "Then what I have in store is the appropriate next step," I reply, my heart racing, suddenly feeling a little unsure.

  Emma looks at me questioningly. I can see the question in her eyes of why the abrupt change in my treatment of her.

  "This way," I gesture as I hold the office door open for her. She hesitates for a moment, her eyes scanning me before finally deciding to do as I ask.

  As she walks through the door where I’m waiting and holding it open for her, her scent fills my head, and I inhale deeply. Martha shrewdly shakes her head at me in pity before I follow along behind Emma like a teenage boy lusting after his first girl crush. Stepping slightly in front of her, I lead her down the hallway to the door next to my office, my heart beating in the hope that she will love my gesture. Using the key, I unlock it and swing it open. I hear her gasp, one hand coming up and covering her mouth as her eyes run over her new office.

  "I hope you like it," I say quietly, waiting impatiently for her to say something, feeling like how a boy must feel picking a flower from the side of the road for a girl he likes, waiting in anxious hopefulness that she’ll like the stupidly small gesture.

  Finally see what’s in front of her.

  But she doesn't say anything, keeping me hanging, as her eyes take in the floor to ceiling windows in her corner office. I decorated her office in the contemporary style that I knew she liked with the view of the vineyard as her focal point from her clear glass desk. I had tucked away that little tidbit of information of her preferred décor that she had inadvertently revealed to me that first night in the vineyard when we had shared a bottle of wine while discussing my vision for the interior of the restaurant.

  She turns to look at me, the excitement showing clearly in her eyes as she says with awe, "It's beautiful, Lucas. It's even more beautiful than your office."

  My heart beats hard in my chest.

  Feeling somewhat bashful, I reply, "I wanted you to have this view. You will spend more time in your office overseeing and running this place than I will. It's only fitting that you have it."

  "I don't know what to say," she says quietly, still glancing around.

  "You don't have to say anything. Just get to work setting this up," I tease lightly as I indicate the folder that she gave me earlier.

  She laughs in return, filling me wit
h her happiness as she crosses to her desk. I follow to lay the report on it as she pulls her chair out to sit.

  "Thank you," she whispers while she lovingly runs her hands over the top of her new desk.

  "You're welcome," I reply softly.

  I want to say more to her. To tell her that I would give her much more than this if she would only let me in. Instead, I play it safe and leave.

  The rest of the day, I spend between meeting with my parents and the construction crew. Everything seems to be moving along according to plan.

  That evening, I return to my home and quickly change into my running attire, anxious to see Emma again and invite her for a run. With tomorrow being Saturday, I had given her the weekend off but I intend to see her before the start of the work week. Stopping by this evening at the cottage with the intention to invite her on a jog was the only excuse I could think of so I could invite her to brunch at my parent’s home tomorrow.

  My strides are long and I feel light, as if I’m running on water, as I jog the short distance to the cottage. Knocking on the door, I’m unprepared when Emma swings it open dressed in a short, black, figure hugging cocktail dress. Her hair is down, softly flowing over her shoulders.

  "Wow," is out of my mouth before I can stop it.

  She flushes, her eyes snagging with mine.

  I can easily see that she wants me.

  “Emma,” I whisper, as I take a small, involuntary, step towards her, intent upon placing my first kiss upon her lush lips.

  Behind me, I hear a car blow its horn as it pulls into the driveway, jerking us both out of our trance. Turning to look over my shoulder, I see the officer from Emma's accident scene get out of his car, dressed in a suit.

  My stomach pitches...

  Then it rolls...

  She is going out with him, - my mind, my heart, silently screams at me and I feel as if I’m being completely shredded on the inside. The floorboards of the porch seem to shift - to move - underneath my feet. This time, I take a step back as I watch her glance nervously between me and him as the cocksucker approaches the front steps.

  "Um...Lucas, this is Dave. Dave helped me out the night of the accident," she explains as awkwardness descends over all of us.