Page 59 of Overeager
“Hey,” Ash said. He looked immediately past Noah’s shoulder to nod at Eli. “You’re the boyfriend?”
Eli cleared his throat, his arm raising in a half wave. “Hello.”
And then Ryder made a small, surprised noise. “Professor Miller? I had you last semester.”
Jesus. Fuck.
Noah and Eli froze at the same time. They couldn’t have had a more deer-in-the-headlights reaction if they’d tried.
Why the fuck hadn’t they just hidden Eli in his room? Would Ash really have insisted on meeting him? Noah could have just told him his boyfriend was in the shower.
Ash bristled, drawing up to his full height as he looked between them. “What the fuck?” He stepped into the house, zeroed in on Eli. “You’re a teacher. Are youhisteacher?”
“Ash.” Noah stepped in front of his brother, blocking Eli from his view. “It’s not like that.”
“What’s it like?” Ash bent sideways to scowl at Eli from around Noah. He pointed a finger. “What thefuckdo you think you’re doing with my—”
It was too much. Richard’s presence in the classroom earlier. Ash shouting at Eli now. Eli, who was so fucking close to his heat it was setting Noah’s teeth on edge to even have Ryder—an alpha he knew and trusted—around him in such close quarters.
For the second time that day, Noah’s pheromones surged. This time they were aimed at his brother. “Out,” he growled. “Fuckingnow.”
Ash dropped his hand, his rage melting immediately into hurt. Noah had never yelled at him before, never once used his pheromones against his little brother.
Ryder instantly had an arm over Ash’s shoulder, glaring at Noah like he was an asshole as he pulled Ash away, shutting the door behind them.
Noahwasan asshole.
He looked helplessly at Eli, whose face was distressingly blank. “I’m going to go handle this.”
“Of course,” Eli said faintly.
“I will berightback.”
“Uh-huh. Sure.”
Noah went out the door, hoping to explain things to Ash in a way that wouldn’t mess up Eli’s life. Or his own relationship with his brother.
16
Eli
Eli paced his living room, hot and flushed and feeling somehow too big for his own skin.
How had the day gone so awry? First Richard and now this.
He wished he could hold Deathly and soothe himself with her purrs, but she’d hidden away somewhere, no doubt pissed at the intrusion of strangers into her home.
Not exactly a stranger though. Noah’s brother. Ash. A boy who’d looked at Eli with suchanger. Such disdain.
Of course he had—he’d been looking at the seedy professor lusting after his older brother. He’d looked at Eli and seen some lecherous creep taking advantage of a student.
Everything was wrong. The situation was tilting sideways.
His pacing lasted only a minute, and then he couldn’t help himself—he scurried to the living room window that looked out onto the street, pulling aside the curtain. There were Noah and Ash standing at the open passenger door of Noah’s car, having a heated discussion, by the look of it. There were raised hands andprobably raised voices to match. The Ryder guy was standing close enough to hear them, and he was facing toward Eli’s window, but his expression was unreadable.
Eli watched them argue, his heart in his throat, only jumping away from the window when Noah finally turned and strode back toward the house, leaving the other two men to drive off in his car.
When Noah returned through the front door, looking all shades of miserable, Eli was back to his pacing, unable to keep himself from wringing his hands like some sort of caricature of a distressed housewife.
