Chapter 5
Sibyl
“Towel’s in my truck,” Eli mumbles when he deposits me on the shore.
I watch him—t-shirt clinging, every inch of him exposed by his tight, wet clothes. His jeans are doing nothing to conceal the bulge between his legs.
Ramona and her assistant are trying their best to ignore it. If they weren’t here, I might have offered to do something about it.
“Well,” Ramona huffs. “That was insane, in the best possible way. Are you two…”
“I’m not sure.” I shrug.
I’m not sure of anything. Until today, I thought Eli would always see me as a little sister. He’s not as mean as Kellan, but Taylor and Eli have always treated me like a sibling—ruffling my hair, teasing me about my terrible choice in men, beating up the guys who broke my heart.
I always knew Eli was out of my reach. Lara was his soulmate.
And I was perfectly content to crush on him from afar.
Now that I’ve felt his hands on me? Kissed him?
I don’t know how I’m supposed to go back to acting like I don’t drool over him every time he stops by the shop and leans his veiny forearms on the counter, tan cargo pants hugging his ass just right.
I’m going to have to move.
Out of state, preferably.
As far away from him as possible.
“Sibby.” His voice startles me from my thoughts—a towel extended between us. He’s shirtless. His bare chest is shining where it’s still wet. A dry t-shirt draped over one shoulder. He towels off the other, his bicep flexing in a taunting display.
My God, I could eat this man up, climb him like a tree, and never come back down.
“So.” Ramona clears her throat. “It’ll be a couple of weeks for the gallery, and I’ll probably post the video on socials in a month or so. Does that work for you two?”
“That’s fine.” My voice squeaks out.
“Thank you, Ramona.” Eli extends a hand.
Ramona’s cheeks turn pink when she shakes it, eyes dipping down his naked torso. Me too, girl, me too.
“Where’s your car?” Eli’s attention turns back to me. Goosebumps trail down my arms when I see how close he’s standing.
“Too—took a ride-share.” My teeth chatter.
Eli glances behind him, head cocking to the side. We’re on the path tucked away from the parking lot. Ramona and her assistant are nowhere to be seen now. When his gaze comes back to mine, it’s hot enough to start a forest fire.
His fingers hook the elastic on the neckline of my dress, and in one swift pull, I’m left standing in my underwear, in the middle of Willow Park. Goosebumps rise over my whole body when cool air touches my wet skin.
A tortured groan comes from Eli, eyes dipping to the bow on my cotton panties.
“Eli!” I slap his shoulder, snapping him out of his trance.
“Shit, sorry.” He rubs the towel over my chest and stomach, slipping his t-shirt over my wet hair. I take the towel from him, stepping out of my dress when he crouches down and taps my calf. He straightens, taking the dress with him.
Squeezing as much water from my hair as possible, I follow Eli back to his truck. How I didn’t see the big F-250 that says Logan Construction on the side, sitting in the parking lot, I’ll never know.
“You didn’t bring a car?” He practically rips the truck door open, his brow furrowed, eyes narrowed at me.
“Kel still has it in the shop.” I shrug.
I’m used to Eli being gruff—this is who he is. This is the Eli Logan me and everyone else in the world gets. The guy who just played with me, kissed me senseless, the one who has fun? That’s Tucker’s dad.
“It could have been some creep. I could have been a rapist, and you would have been stuck here, waiting for a ride-share.”
I snort, chucking my purse onto the floorboard. “There was a whole ass photographer here. Plus, it was just you.”
Green eyes narrow again, his chest bumping into mine as he leans into my space.
“What do you mean, just me?”
I gulp, fortifying myself, trying to get my breathing under control.
My back arches into the bench seat as I lean away from him, half of me inside the warmth of his truck.
His grip is bruising, but I don’t care. Eli might lose control, might unravel altogether, but he would never hurt me. Of that, I am absolutely certain.
“I mean, it’s you. I’m safe. So it’s fine—”
“Sibby,” he growls. “You are anything but safe with me right now.”
I’m trembling again, the heat from his hand on my bare thigh burns me up from the inside out. It’s the most delicious kind of pain, the way he’s barely clinging to his control.
“How long before you need to grab Tucker?” My fingers slip into his thick hair—a gasp bursts between my lips when a wandering hand ghosts over my nipple.
“Kel told me not to hurry back,” he murmurs into my skin. His lips pulling, teeth teasing, marking me.
“Eli.” My voice comes out like a purr.
“Mmm?” Hooded eyes meet my gaze.
“Get in the truck.”
Heat flashes through his eyes. Big, calloused hands grip my thighs, hoisting me off the ground. He all but shoves me into the passenger seat, slamming my door closed, the handle stinging my ass when it connects.
I watch Eli stalk around the back, his door swinging open.
One hand holding the lever to move the seat back, the other working the button on his wet jeans.
When the seat is back as far as possible, he wiggles out of the dark denim, tossing them to the floor of the back seat.
I reach a hand back and knock one leg off Tucker’s car seat. Poor kid doesn’t deserve a wet seat.
“Come here.” Eli reaches across the center console, one hand slipping into my hair. I can feel my face flush, the sudden realization of what we’re doing—what I’m doing with Eli Logan—hits me hard.
He doesn’t pressure me, doesn’t yank me over the center console. Instead, his gaze softens, his fingers untangling from my hair to cup my jaw.
“You okay, Baby?”
My insides turn to lava, heat rolling from my head to my toes in waves. “Yeah,” I whisper, maneuvering my body to straddle him in the driver’s seat.
“How long, exactly, is always?” he whispers, his thumbs rubbing little circles into my skin. His erection presses into my panties. Two thin layers of cotton separate us.
I could play dumb, pretend I don’t know the conversation he’s circling back to, but I don’t.
“Since I was thirteen, and I realized my brother has hot friends.”
“Friends?” He narrows his eyes, hands sliding around to cup my backside, slowly dragging me along the hard length in his lap. A moan slips from my lips.
“You,” I breathe. “Specifically, you.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
I quirk an eyebrow at him. What sixteen-year-old would entertain their best friend’s kid sister? That’s not how it works.
“Not back then, now. You’ve never said—God, Sibyl.” He releases my hips, running a hand through his damp hair. “How have I never seen you?”
“Lara is your soulmate. How do I compete with that? And when she died…”
I feel him tense beneath me. This is not something Eli talks about with anyone.
Lara dying should have wrecked him. The only reason he didn’t lie down and give up is that little boy.
I cup his face in my hands, my chest aching at all the hurt he’s been carrying alone.
“You needed friends—family. Not to be told about a silly crush.”
“But still.” His grip returns to my ass. “It never went away? You’ve dated—you—”
“It never went away.” I turn to look out the window, feeling more embarrassed now than when we made out in front of strangers. Ha! Our first kiss was for a TikTok. That’s wild.
Warm calloused fingers tuck damp hair behind my ear.
“Sibby…”
I shake my head. This is a mistake. It has to be, right? If we were meant to be together, it would have happened by now. He would have noticed me before some random photographer happened to pair us together.
“Sibyl June, look at me.”
I shake my head again. My vision clouds as I hold back tears. He’s going to tell me that this shouldn’t have happened, going to—
He pinches my chin, dragging my gaze to his. “I wish I would have known.”
“Why?”
He releases my chin, scrubbing his hands down his face before he sighs. “I take it back.” He huffs out a laugh.
“Oh.” I lean away from him. “Okay then—” I push on the door, trying to scramble away from him.
“No, Sibyl, wait,” he pleads, hands resting on my sides.
I know he’d let me go if I wanted him to. But I don’t. He breathes a sigh of relief when I settle back onto his lap. “I’ve been so caught up in my own life, in the things that I’ve lost that I wouldn’t have been ready before. Not for someone like you, for something that feels like this.”
“Like this?” I breathe.
“Like home,” he whispers. “Like everything. I kissed you, and I couldn’t stop seeing you asleep on my couch, holding Tucker. I just kept thinking…somehow I missed it.”
“Missed what?”
“That you’re already ours. I just need to make you mine.”