Page 27 of Overeager (Extra Credit #1)

Eli

E li 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 such anger . 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 and probably 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.

For once, Noah didn’t rush to take Eli into his arms. He stayed where he was, standing by the door, his intense gaze focused on Eli.

Eli stopped his pacing, and they faced off. At least, that was what it felt like. The tension between them was strange and heavy, and Eli didn’t know exactly what to ask.

Does your brother really hate me? The answer to that was obvious.

Have you forgiven me for Richard? That one was less obvious but also possibly irrelevant, in light of what had just happened.

What came out instead was “I thought your brother was unpresented.”

Noah ran a hand through his curls, his brow furrowing into a confused frown. “He is.”

“He smells like an alpha.”

Ash had been emitting a dark, woodsy scent. Definitely not the neutral notes of an unpresented male.

Noah let out a breath. “Those are Ryder’s pheromones. People can be … weird about the unpresented thing, and he gets protective. It’s a besties thing.”

Eli wasn’t so sure about that. It hadn’t smelled like a “besties thing.” It had smelled more like a claiming.

But he wasn’t going to argue the point. Not now, after what had just happened. He cleared his throat, wishing Noah was closer but too unsure to bridge the distance between them. “How—how did it go?”

Noah gave a bitter laugh, leaning back against the door. “Well, he’s not gonna call the cops.”

It was obviously a joke—Noah was well above eighteen—but it made Eli’s stomach twist anyway. Eli was scum, wasn’t he? Or Noah’s brother thought he was, at the very least.

Whatever Noah saw on Eli’s face had him stepping forward, his hand held out in a placating gesture. “Eli, no. It’s okay. He’s pissed, but that’s just Ash. He’ll calm down, and we’ll have a real talk.”

Eli started twisting his hands again, unwilling to accept the reassurance. “That’s two people who know now, Noah. Your brother and his friend. Two students . Ones who don’t like me very much right now.”

Noah ran a hand over his face with a wince. “Is now a good time to tell you Chase knows too?”

“ What ?” Hot, fresh panic ran through Eli’s veins. He hadn’t been expecting that. Chase was in his class , for fuck’s sake.

“I didn’t tell him, but he … figured it out.”

“And you didn’t think to tell me ?!” Eli didn’t exactly screech the words, but it was a close thing. He knew he should take a breath, try to lessen the rising panic, but he was too flustered by what was beginning to feel like hit after hit after hit.

Noah’s answer was decidedly calmer, if just as devastating. “Like you didn’t think to tell me about Richard?”

It felt like a low blow, even if it was a fair one. “I guess this is the thing with a secret relationship,” Eli mused, feeling like his brain was separating from his body. “You get too used to keeping secrets.” He let out a bitter laugh, his shoulders sagging. “Jesus, I’m going to get fired.”

“Chase won’t tell anyone. And I’ll convince Ash. We’ll get through this, Eli.”

“ We will?” Eli shook his head. “It’s my job on the line, Noah.” He thumped a hand to his chest, old wounds coming too close to the surface, making him feel too raw and too tender. “ My career.”

He’d been so close too. They’d be making the official decision after spring break, but it was basically a formality at this point.

Eli had only needed one more week of classes, his heat to get through, and he would have at least had tenure.

A leg of sorts to stand on if things went sideways like this.

“It’s your career, yes. But I’m your partner.” At Eli’s silence, Noah narrowed his eyes. “You do see me as your partner, right? You see this as long-term? Or is this just some sort of distracting fuck while you wait for your tenure to go through?”

His words fell like a slap across Eli’s face, and Eli blanched accordingly. “What did you just ask me?”

Were those Ash’s words Noah was giving voice to, or was that something he’d been feeling? Had Eli been envisioning a future together while they weren’t actually on the same page at all?

“Shit.” Noah ran his hand through his hair again, tugging harshly on the strands. “I’m sorry. Fuck. I didn’t mean that. I’m all worked up. Richard and then this. And you smell—” His face fell, shoulders dropping as he crossed his arms. “Maybe we need to take some space.”

Space was the last thing Eli wanted. It felt like all this might be falling apart, and he wanted Noah closer, not further away.

Even with the jumble in his head, the panic and the misery, he wanted Noah to hold him, to tell him things were going to be okay.

He wanted to be bathed in some of that eternal optimism Noah usually carried around so effortlessly.

But Noah had never asked Eli for space before—if anything, it had always been the opposite—so if he was saying he needed it now …

Well, Eli had to grant him that, didn’t he?

It was probably for the best, anyway. They had another week until Eli’s heat, and that would give Eli time to …

recalibrate. Time to figure out if he was going to be handing in his letter of resignation at the end of the week.

Time to figure out what his life was going to look like if the worst happened.

But what was the worst that could happen? Losing his job? Or losing Noah?

Eli swallowed through a thick throat. It took concerted effort to rein his pheromones in, to avoid signaling his distress in bold, vivid colors. But he was the older, more experienced partner. It was his responsibility to be calm and reasonable.

He owed Noah that much.

“Okay.” He cleared his throat—it wasn’t closing up, not really. He knew that, even if it felt like it was. “Yes, of course. It’s, um, hard to think right now. Space would be—would be good.”

Noah didn’t look pleased by Eli’s acquiescence. If anything, he looked even more pained. He started nodding absently, his gaze darting everywhere that wasn’t Eli. “Okay. Okay, good. I’ll get a car.”

“I’ll drive you,” Eli offered quickly. The thought of Noah being driven away by a stranger was for some reason untenable.

But Noah was already shaking his head, still not meeting Eli’s eyes. “Not a good idea. Nosy roommates, remember? Chase knowing is one thing. Spencer would be another.” He came forward to press a brief kiss to Eli’s cheek, and his touch was a consolation, if a small one. “I’ll call you soon.”

And then he was out the door.

“Stop looking at me like that.”

Faith’s expression didn’t change. “I’m not even looking at you. I’m looking at Deadly.”

“But your face .”

“This is what faces do in these situations,” Faith told him, and apparently things were serious enough that she didn’t even make it sound like a taunt. “It’s my thinking face. Just chill out.”

Eli threw his hands up as he stood from the couch, unseating poor Deadly off his lap. “ How ?”

He’d realized shortly after Noah had left that, while time apart may have been what Noah needed, time alone was only going to be the recipe for Eli to have an anxiety spiral of epic proportions.

And since two of Noah’s people knew about them already—no, make that three; Eli couldn’t forget about Chase—Eli no longer felt so sneaky calling in the big guns.

He’d told Faith everything.

And now she was here in his living room, lounging in the armchair across from him, and her face was doing a thing , and Eli didn’t like it.

“You hate me now, don’t you?” he asked, covering his own face with his hands. “You think I’m a despicable sleaze?”

Faith muttered something suspicious about preheat hormones before clearing her throat and fixing Eli with a firm look. “I do not think you’re a despicable sleaze, Eli. What the fuck? I’m just … surprised.”

“That I’d do something so despicable?”

Faith rolled her eyes. They were going to get stuck that way if she kept doing it so dramatically. “Stop it. You told me how all this started. You didn’t know. You’re not some perv lording the possibility of an A over a vulnerable student. I’m just … surprised you’d risk your career.”

Eli had, hadn’t he? He’d risked everything. For a boy . He lowered his hands, searching Faith’s face. “You think I’ve made a huge mistake, don’t you?”

“Eli.” Faith made his name sound like an admonishment. “Sit. Calm the fuck down. Drink some tea, for Christ’s sake.”