Page 47 of Casey


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I felt suppressed laughter roll through Preston as he kissed my head. “I’m pretty sure I disagreed with both of you already on this and said I thought the blue ones would be a nice change since we’ve done a lot of reds recently.”

Eli gave a delicate shrug and focused his innocent expression on Preston, still avoiding eye contact with me. Preston wasn’t willing to let him get away with it any longer, however. He kissed the top of my head again and pointed to Lane who was standing next to a few of the other models, all in various states of dress. “What do you think about those?”

I swallowed past the lump of fear in my throat and moved my hands to rub over Preston’s arm. I wasn’t worried about giving my opinion, but I didn’t want to screw things up with Eli. Sure, maybe he technically should have been the one to come to me, but I had a feeling his worry over what had happened was much bigger than my embarrassment had been.

“I like them.” I pointed to the rack off toward the side. “It looks like there are a lot of pieces in that color, and you have done a lot of reds and pinks lately so this would be a nice change of pace.”

Then I took a leap and focused on Eli. “I think you’d look great in that color.”

The blue-gray color wasn’t something I’d seen a lot of on other sites, so while it might be something different, I also thought it would sell well. Not that I had a lot of experience selling lingerie, but over the past few months I’d had a chance to analyze a lot of the other sites.

Eli gave me a tentative smile that wasn’t like him at all. “Thanks.”

I swallowed hard and pushed back my rising nerves. I hated being the one to have to step out and say something, but there was nothing I could do about it. “We need to plan another night out.” Then I smiled. “No drinks, though.”

Eli groaned, and the dam seemed to have burst. “I didn’t know they’d be that strong, and I tried to keep you from oversharing but you and Lane really didn’t listen and I feel really bad about you basically being outed for sooo many things but it wasn’t my intention and—”

The words flooded out so fast it was like a wave crashing over me. He was so emotional that I instinctively stepped away from Preston and wrapped my arms around him.

Shit.

I’d forgotten about the nearly naked part.

“I’m not angry. Maybe a little embarrassed that I overshared so much, but I don’t blame you.” The bartender had some explaining to do, but I wasn’t going to head over there and ask what the hell he’d been trying to do.

Eli took a deep breath and hugged me back, but that didn’t stop the flow of words. “I just wanted you to relax because I wanted you and Preston happy and you’re so quiet it took a really long time to realize how drunk you were and you have a really low tolerance and the drinks were strong and—”

How was I supposed to stop runaway train Eli?

I glanced back over at Preston who was just smiling like an idiot. When he was no help, I hugged Eli tighter. “I’m not mad, I promise. Sure, it takes me a while to talk about things, but I’m not…well, I am embarrassed but not upset or ashamed of…well, anything.”

I had to keep reminding myself he was much more unique than I would ever be, so nothing I said would ever shock him. “It’s fine. We’re good.”

Eli’s arms tightened, and that had his cock pressing against my hip. I had to fight myself from jerking back. It was just a dick, it wouldn’t bite, and he was just in panties so there was nothing he could do. In fact, he didn’t even seem to realize it was weird.

Lane did.

He was staring from across the room and looked like he was unable to decide if he wanted to giggle or just stand there shocked on my behalf. It looked like he was leaning toward giggling.

Someone needed to help me with the upset, nearly naked man before I said something and hurt his feelings.

Preston finally stepped closer and wrapped us both in his arms, which should have been even weirder, but I was just grateful for the help. I watched as Preston ran his hand over Eli’s back, but before any jealousy could rise, he leaned over and kissed my forehead.

“No one is upset. Eli, you heard Casey. He said he wasn’t mad and doesn’t feel like you outed him.”

Eli shook his head. “But I did. This isn’t like Reece and Houston; they were just being stupid and Reece thought Houston knew. But this is different and that’s—”

“That’s not what happened.” I’d clearly stepped in something that had hit buttons for Eli, but he was seeing it all wrong. I had no idea what had happened with Reece, and from Preston’s snort, I probably didn’t want to know. “I’d have said something eventually. The alcohol just changed the timeline a bit.”

Try a lot.

Eli scoffed. “Yeah right. You’d have never said anything.”

He wasn’t necessarily wrong, but… “I like Preston and he likes you guys, so eventually it would have come out. I remember your statement about being an incestuous family, and I knew that you’d find out stuff once I told Preston about…the stuff.”

Way to be an adult.

In my defense, he was still nearly naked and my boyfriend was holding both of us.