Off-Limits

The Choice We Make

Lena’s Pov

If Marcus finds out about us, are you going to deny that you love me?”

I stood right in front of Ethan, my hands clenched into tight fists at my sides, my heart pounding a frantic rhythm against my ribs. I needed to hear it. After all the hiding, all the running away, and all the times he had pushed me away to protect his own conscience, I needed to know whether he would actually stand beside me when the storm finally hit, or if he would fold the second my brother looked at him sideways.

Ethan stared down at me, his dark eyes wide and completely blown open with shock. The color seemed to drain from his face for a second before a fierce, absolute certainty settled deep into his expression.

He didn't hesitate. He didn't look away.

"Never," Ethan said, his voice dropping into a low, rough growl that echoed through the quiet room. He reached out, his big hands wrapping gently around my upper arms, pulling me straight against his chest. "Hear me, Lena. I would never deny you. Not to Marcus, not to the team, and not to anyone else in this entire world. If he finds out, I will stand right there beside you and take whatever he throws at me. I'm done hiding."

A massive wave of relief washed over me, so strong and sudden that my knees nearly buckled. All the lingering doubt, all the fear that I was just a temporary secret to him, burned away into nothing. I let out a shaky breath, resting my forehead against his warm shoulder, feeling the strong, steady beat of his heart.

"Good," I murmured against his shirt, a watery smile breaking across my face. "Because I'm not going to be a secret, Ethan. Not anymore."

"I know," he whispered back, his arms tightening around me as he pressed his lips gently into my hair. "I know."

We spent the next few hours sitting together on the edge of the living room rug, leaning against the sofa with our shoulders touching. For the first time since I had walked into this apartment, the heavy tension that usually filled the air was completely gone. We talked about everything. We talked about how crazy our lives had become over the last week, about my new job at the arena, and about how terrifying it was to finally say out loud what we had both kept hidden for years.

As we talked, Ethan looked at me with an openness I had never seen in him before. His usual guarded, stone cold mask was totally stripped away.

"Can I ask you something?" I murmured, tracing the edge of the fabric on his sleeve with my finger.

"Anything," Ethan replied softly, looking down at me with those deep, intense dark eyes.

"Before all of this... before I moved in here... did you ever date anyone?" I asked, suddenly curious about the years he had spent keeping his distance from me. "Everyone at the arena always talks about how focused you are on hockey, but I always assumed you just weren't interested in romance at all."

Ethan let out a quiet, dry chuckle, shaking his head. "No. I wasn't interested, but not because I didn't want a relationship. To be honest, Lena, I never dated anyone because whenever I tried, nobody ever made me feel anything real. Every time I went out on a date, all I could think about was..." He paused, his gaze softening as he looked straight into my eyes. "...all I could think about was the girl sitting across the room at my best friend's house, laughing at stupid jokes and dreaming about her future."

My breath hitched in my throat. A warm, dizzying flutter burst to life in my stomach. "You mean me?"

"Always you," he whispered, lifting a hand to gently tuck a stray lock of hair behind my ear. His fingers brushed softly against my jawline, sending a shiver straight down my spine. "I spent years convincing myself that if I just focused on hockey, if I kept my head down and stayed away from you, the feeling would eventually die out. But it never did. You ruined me for everyone else, Lena."

"Good," I whispered with a cheeky smile, leaning up to press a quick, soft kiss against his cheek. "Because I don't want you looking at anyone else anyway."

We agreed right then and there that we weren't going to rush into things. We didn't have all the answers, and we didn't know exactly how we were going to survive the inevitable explosion when Marcus found out. But we agreed that we wanted a real chance. Ethan made it clear that he wanted to be a partner I could lean on someone who would support my independence and help me build my own life without trying to control every move I made. And I made it clear that I wanted a man who trusted me enough to stop fighting his own feelings.

By the time the clock on the wall ticked past midnight, we were both completely exhausted, but it was a good kind of exhaustion. The kind that comes from finally telling the truth after years of carrying a heavy load.

"We need to tell Marcus eventually," I said quietly as we walked down the hallway toward our bedrooms. "We can't keep this hidden forever. It wouldn't be fair to him, and it wouldn't be fair to us."

Ethan stopped outside my door, his face tightening just a fraction at the mention of my brother. He ran a hand through his dark hair, nodding slowly.

"I know," he agreed, his voice heavy with caution. "Just... give me a little time to figure out how to approach him. I want to tell him myself. I don't want him finding out by accident, and I need to make sure I do it right so I don't lose my best friend completely if I can help it."

"Okay," I said, offering him a reassuring smile. "We can keep it between ourselves for now. As long as we're both doing it willingly, and you're not using secrecy as an excuse to push me away again."

"I promise, Lena," Ethan said, stepping closer and taking my hand, pressing a warm kiss to my knuckles. "No more running. No more pushing away."

We shared one last slow, sweet kiss in the quiet hallway before saying goodnight and heading into our separate rooms. I closed my bedroom door behind me, leaning back against the wood with a massive, happy smile plastered across my face. For the first time in my life, I felt like I was exactly where I was supposed to be.

I tossed my phone onto the bed, changed into my soft pajamas, and crawled under the covers, feeling warm, safe, and completely at peace.

Just as my eyes began to drift closed, the quiet darkness of the room was suddenly shattered by a bright, flashing white light on my nightstand.

Bzzzz. Bzzzz.

I groaned softly, rolling over and reaching out blindly to grab my phone. I squinted at the screen in the dark, expecting it to be a work schedule update from Sarah or a silly text from a friend back home.

Instead, a notification banner popped up across the display, displaying Marcus's name right at the top.

My heart instantly stopped beating. I sat straight up in bed, my sleepiness vanishing in a single second as I read the words flashing on the screen:

Hey Lena. Quick question... has Ethan been acting strangely around you lately?