Chapter 8 #2
Devon returns to where I’m sitting and sits beside me, a comforting and distracting presence that has me tongue-tied and unsure of what tonight even means.
Mack is on the other side with the other half of my brain doing exactly the same thing.
Someone bought food for me, and I’m sitting with a paper plate, sausage and fried potatoes, pushing it around, trying to calm my giddy reactions to their every movement. These alphas are potent.
“This—sausages, potatoes, onions, it all reminds me of summer. Hanging out on the beach, going up to the house and sitting on the swing while the mosquitoes buzz around and the stars take up the entire sky.” I pause. “I haven’t had it since I left.”
Seagulls fight over a sausage. I’ve even missed them.
Devon stares at me, and I can feel Mack lean closer.
I feel…hunted. Deep inside, I quiver with excitement. These alphas are not leaving my side; they are attentive and everything I ever dreamed.
“Enough moping!” Cordie says and grabs my wrist, tugging me up. “Watch the dog.”
“Sure, Cordie,” Devon drawls.
She pulls me into a dance, and, before long, I’m swaying in time to the music, with a whole heap of betas and omegas that have lived in and around Sunshine for years. So many things I haven’t done in years. So many things I’ve missed.
It’s like my heart was slowly shrivelling up like a plant in the sun with no water.
We dance until our legs ache, and the sun has been gone so long the warmth has left the sand. I am constantly aware of Mack and Devon, just at the edge of my vision, but I don’t give in to the temptation to go to them.
Hands slide confidently over my hips. He slips behind me, pressing his front against my back. The sinuous way he moves teases another dance out of me. I lean back into him, panting slightly, aware of all the places where we are touching.
I know this body pressed against mine, not because of the shape, but because of the way he touches me. No one has ever touched me with the sexual reverence that he does.
“Eli,” I moan.
In a move that makes my heart stutter, he leans down and kisses my bare shoulder.
“Hey, how was your day with Mack?” he rasps in my ear.
One of those huge hands sits on my waist and then slides up to my ribs while the other hand wraps around my lower stomach, holding me to him. Not that I'm going anywhere.
One kiss, one night, and he burned himself into my life.
This awkward guy who was sitting alone at a party.
It was the way he watched people, with a hunger to join in.
The way he looked at me, like I’d shaken his world.
I’d convinced Cordie to drag him into the game.
One kiss in a closet with a stranger. My first kiss.
It was enough to change my entire perception of love.
Because I did, in one night, fall for this reserved alpha who didn’t quite fit in. Who wasn’t part of Sunshine, but who became a part of me.
I turn in his hold, wrapping my arms around his neck, swaying in time to some crooning love melody.
“How did you end up back in Sunshine? I thought you said your parents wanted you to work at their office?”
“I said no. I didn’t want to do it. Sunshine got into me, and I knew I had to come back here.”
I don’t ask whether he came back for me. I think it’s a relief to know that it’s more than just me. Eli didn’t fit in anywhere else, but he’s found a place here. He feels like the alpha he’s supposed to be.
“You’re going out tomorrow, on the boat?” Eli whispers, his cheek against mine.
Honestly, the entire world could disappear, and I wouldn’t notice; all I can see is this alpha. All I can smell is him. I want to bottle that scent and drown in it. My body is so wired and aroused that I feel like I’m drunk.
“Yeah.”
“You’ll have fun with Dev.”
I peer up at him. I want to ask what it was like for him? Was leaving as awful as it was for me? Why didn’t we exchange contact details? It was one night, but it was everything. Did he feel it, too?
Danger lets out a howl and goes charging off into the dark. I panic and bolt after him.
“Danger!”
A shrill whistle sounds out, and Danger stops dead in the dark. I can just see his eyes. Another whistle, and he turns and, with a little growl, comes trotting back towards me. I snatch him up.
Mack shakes his head. “Bad puppers.”
“The beach is not safe for you to be running around at night, Danger Dachsie!” I chide.
He licks my face, but I turn back, sure I can feel something watching me. What is that? I peer into the gloom, but I can’t see anything. With a shudder, I hurry back to join the others.
We pack up slowly, and I walk back with the alphas.
When we get in sight of the house, I see Sebastian and Cordie getting into another heated argument before she turns and stomps off, heading for her house, which isn’t far.
Mack and Devon disappear with murmured good nights, leaving me with Eli.
He sits down on the porch, and I sit beside him.
“You have an amazing family,” Eli murmurs.
“I know.”
“They have been really kind to me.”
I glance at him, uneasy. “Is that why you are helping me?”
“Helping you?” Eli looks at me with a frown. “No. Yes. You changed my life that night. It was the first time I had an idea of what I wanted that wasn’t what I was told I had to have.”
“Is that why you decided not to follow your parents into law?”
“Yes. Well, in a roundabout way that took a few years to figure it out and find the courage to go it alone.”
He’s fumbling over words now, all nervous. How is he this powerful mix of uncertain and confident?
“How did you meet Devon and Mack?”
He grins at me. “I was at the McShorty’s bar asking where I could find you, and Devon was drinking. Mack was doing some work, I believe. And we all realised we knew you. So, in a way, you’re responsible for bringing us together.”
“I am?”
“Mmm, totally your fault,” Eli murmurs, leaning in.
I look away, my cheeks burning. “If I kiss you now, I won’t go to bed, pretty sure we won’t be sleeping, and whilst I am going to hate myself for saying no, I, uh, think we should wait.”
Eli throws his head back and laughs, and all I can do is stare at him, bewitched. Fireflies dance around us, and the porch swing groans as it shifts in the wind, but nothing is as captivating as him.
“Would that be a bad thing?” he teases.
“I have to get up at stupid o’clock and go on the boat,” I say, sulking.
Eli hums and then stands up, pulling me into his arms. “Then let me hug you and say goodnight with only my best behaviour.”
My heart thumps in my chest, and I lean into him, hiding my smile.
“But I’m stealing you away one night soon.”
“Okay.” I preen on the inside, feeling like I’m blossoming under this alpha’s attention.
“Okay?”
“Yes.”
He laughs, and I almost tell him to steal me now, but I promised Devon.
“I'd better head in.”
“Let me walk you.”
He walks me to my door, leans in, and kisses my cheek and then steps back, hands in his pockets, the perfect alpha.
“Goodnight, Eli.”
“Goodnight, beautiful.”
I put Danger on the bed and watch as he sleepily stumbles to the pillow and crashes out on it.
Then, I do the same, but my dreams are filled with three alphas who ask me to stay.