Page 83 of Overeager
Ryder reached out a hand and shoved Spencer’s floatie out to the deep end.
“Hey!” Spencer protested, trying to catch at the pool wall to stop himself and missing every time.
“You’ve been hanging out with Spence?” Noah asked his brother, ignoring Spencer’s wails about unjust exiles.
“Sometimes I stop by, and you’re—” Ash trailed off, shooting a smug look in Eli’s direction. “Located elsewhere.”
Noah huffed. “I have a phone, you know. You can do this crazy thing where you text me before you arrive.”
“Yeah, well”—Ash shrugged—“mine’s dead half the time.” He tossed a look toward the deep end of the pool, where Spencer was paddling his way back to them, the neck of his beer held between his teeth. “Plus, Spence is all right. Good to play video games with. He gets into it, unlikesomepeople.” Ash shot a glare at Ryder.
Noah laughed. It had always driven Ash crazy that Ryder wouldn’t take certain games seriously enough. Noah’s brother was hot-blooded and competitive, whereas Ryder only got riled up when it really mattered.
It kind of warmed Noah’s heart, though, that Ash and Ryder were spending time with Spencer. He hadn’t realized Chase was seeing someone too. No wonder Spencer was feeling neglected. Noah was actually surprised he hadn’t been hearing more about it—Spencer wasn’t usually shy with that kind of thing.
Damn. Noah needed to get out of his love bubble and start paying a little closer attention to his friends. Maybe bring Eli over to the apartment more, once things emptied out a bit over summer break.
But for now, Noah basked in the glow of their party, soaking in the fucking fantastic feeling of having these people he cared about all together. He watched as Spencer made his way back to the shallow end and tipped Ash and Ryder over into the water,immediately suffering retaliation as Ash flipped his floatie out from underneath him. He watched Chase and Liz chat quietly, wrists locked together so they wouldn’t float away from each other, Chase slowly losing the blush he’d acquired when Noah had outed him for his hickey. And he watched Eli laugh with his sister on the pool steps, every now and then tossing a smile Noah’s way, as if to make sure Noah still knew he was thinking of him.
Maybe Noah hadn’t been chill, when it came to getting together with Eli. Maybe he’d gone into the whole thing fast and strong and way too eager.
But he couldn’t regret it—not one single moment of it. Because part of him had always known, hadn’t he, that it could be like this? That he’d find exactly what he was looking for with Eli.
This warmth. This love. This sense of belonging.
Noah had been right to trust his instincts. He’d been right to proposition Eli that night, and he’d been right to pursue him afterward. His instincts had led him here, to this moment, to this man.
They’d led him home.
EPILOGUE
Eli
One year later
Eli rushed through the door,locking it quickly behind him as he called out, “I’m sorry! The store was packed. Everyone’s getting ready for summer vaca—”
He let out a surprised “oomph!” as almost two hundred pounds of pure muscle slammed into him, pinning him to the door. When he’d caught his breath, Eli dropped the bags he was holding to the floor. “It’s already starting, then?”
Noah’s answer was to shove his head into the crook of Eli’s neck, sniffing at him so ferociously it set goose bumps off all over Eli’s skin.
Things had definitely already started, then.
Eli held himself completely still. Not out of fear—never that, not with his alpha—but because he knew Noah needed to get this out of the way. The start of all Noah’s ruts were always the same—Noah scent marking the absolute life out of Eli until Elismelled so heavily of alpha that he could have been mistaken for one himself.
So Eli held his back straight against the door as Noah sniffed and rubbed at Eli’s neck, his face, the crook of his shoulder. There was the harsh feel of fabric tugging taut against Eli’s chest, then a ripping sound, and then Eli’s buttons were scattering across the floor with tiny plinking sounds.
Goodbye, beloved shirt.
Ah, well. He should have known better than to wear one of his nicer shirts, anyway, even just to run to the store. He tilted his head so Noah could scent mark along his other shoulder and then his chest, the quiet, growly, snarly sounds he was making going straight to Eli’s cock.
Other than that tiny movement, Eli only shifted to rest a hand on Noah’s upper back as best he could, trying to reassure his alpha with the weight of his touch. To remind him that Eli was here, safe in his arms.
The thing was, Eli had meant to already be here when everything got going, but Noah’s rut had started early. An entire week early, actually, as if in some sort of throwback to the first heat they’d spent together.
But this time they should have been expecting it.
And with Noah’s head bent low, rubbing against Eli’s chest, Eli had a perfect view of the reasonwhythey should have been expecting an early rut—the distinctive bite mark on the right side of Noah’s neck.
