Page 1 of Overeager
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Eli
Eli wasn’t generally the type to say things like “Jesus take the wheel,” but if he didn’t get off the road soon, that could very well change.
“If I perish on this journey, you have to take care of World’s Deadliest Assassin for me.”
“Tell me the truth, Eli,” his sister said calmly, not at all taking Eli’s imminent demise seriously. “Are you driving faster than five miles per hour right now?”
“I don’t know what that has to do with anything,” Eli snapped. “Humans aren’t meant to drive with snow on the ground. They simply aren’t. It’s unnatural.”
If anything, five miles per hour seemedtoofast. Maybe Eli should get out and just … push the car? Except his loafers didn’t have great traction—they were meant for loafing, not heavy labor. It was right there in the name.
It wasn’t like he’d been completely stupid. He’d checked the weather back at home, had known it had snowed in Sedona the night before. He’d just expected the roads to be plowed already.Which they had been, until he’d gotten to the turnoff for the dirt road his cabin was on. And now here he was, fighting for his life, his sister the most unsympathetic witness he could ask for.
He’d like to blame it on her being an alpha, but really, it was just her baseline personality.
Following the GPS’s instructions, he turned—so very carefully—onto the last stretch of road, a slope with three tiny-home cabins along it. His rental was the last one, a.k.a. the highest up the road.
“If my car starts sliding backward, I’m jumping ship. Who needs a vacation?”
“You do, you absolute loon,” his sister told him, sounding suspiciously like she had a mouthful of food. “Even better if you were, I don’t know, getting dicked down by some hunky alpha while you were at it.”
Eli wrinkled his nose, glaring at his phone in its little car holder. “Gross. We’re related. Don’t say stuff like that.”
“Don’t let yourself get into this state, and I wouldn’thaveto say stuff like that.”
Eli wasn’t in any sort ofstate, thanks ever so. He was … possibly a tad overworked, sure. Andmaybeslightly stressed from his divorce getting finalized. And potentially just a little bit murderous at the thought of Richard off in the Bahamas with some omega half his age.
Not that Eliknewhis ex-husband was in the Bahamas with some omega half his age. It just seemed the type of thing for him to do. He was all about clichés apparently.
Like having an affair with his omega secretary.
Eli finally parked his car in the little drive, letting out a sigh of relief. If the snow didn’t melt by the time he was meant to leave, he was just going to have to stay forever. Squatters’ rights and all. He’d make his classes asynchronous and teach themonline. Maybe the novelty of it would even draw more students in. Professor Miller in his tiny cabin.
“I’m here,” he said with a relieved sigh. “Hanging up.”
His sister crunched something chip-like loudly. “I feel used.”
“As you should. Buh-bye now.”
Eli hung up, aware Faith wouldn’t actually hold a grudge. She was more worried about him than anything else. Which was silly. He was fine.
So he was thirty-four and already divorced? What of it? He was also thirty-four and already set to get tenure by the end of the year. As an omega, at that. So take that, societal expectations.
He stepped out of his car carefully, mindful of the snow on the ground. He grabbed his suitcase from the trunk and climbed the stairs up to the cabin’s deck, stopping there to scope out the main attraction of the whole place, at least for him: the hot tub. It was set on the far side of the deck, with a gorgeous view of the mountains.
It also had a less-than-gorgeous view of the deck below it, including the other cabin’s hot tub, which Eli didn’t love. There wasn’t a lot of space between the cabins, and what if there was some super PDA-y couple staying there? He’d have to watch them grope each other and feel even more horribly single than he did already. The light was on inside, sosomeonewas staying there.
Eli would just have to wait and see. In the meantime, he turned the hot tub on, letting it heat while he got settled.
He lugged his suitcase to the front and entered the code for the door lock, shivering from head to toe.
His trembling didn’t let up once he was inside either. It wascoldin the cabin. Eli’s eyes locked immediately onto the small heater unit, and he turned it on, setting it to seventy-five. Maybethat was high, but that was what they got for not having the place heated when he arrived.
Elihatedthe cold. And yet for some reason he’d thought it would be picturesque to visit Sedona over winter break, instead of staying in perfectly temperate Phoenix. And he’d been right—the lingering snow on the red rocks of the mountains was completely gorgeous. That didn’t mean he had to like the bone-deep chill that came with it.
Once he had the heat running, he took a look around. The cabin was faux rustic, a new build meant to look quaint. The front door opened into a small area with a little table for meals and a cozy armchair tucked against the window by the front door. Beyond that was a small kitchen with a bathroom off of it. And overhead was the ladder leading up to the sleeping loft.
