“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 seenyou?”
“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.”
Chapter 6
