Page 8 of Off Limits

“Oh! You didn’t have to do that. You could’ve just started it where you’d stopped.”

I shrug, and take a bite of my cookie. And damn, she wasn’t kidding. A burst of chocolate and caramel fills my mouth with just a hint of salt to bring out all the flavors. “Oh my god, these are amazing,” I mumble, my mouth full.

Her face is all triumph and pride, like she made the cookies herself. “I know, right? They’re awesome. I almost got you a whole box of those, but there are weirdos who don’t like good things, and I don’t know you that well, so I figured an assortment was a safer bet.”

Chuckling, I polish off the giant cookie in three more bites. Her eyes widen and her mouth drops open in astonishment as I reach for another one. “Dude. I’ve never seen anyone eat a cookie that big that fast.”

Grinning around the first bite of the other chocolate-caramel cookie, I swallow so I don’t talk with my mouth full again. “My mom always says I have a big mouth.”

She snorts at that. “If you say so. I think this is the most I’ve heard you talk at once.”

Shrugging, I pull out the heating pad, turn it on, and place it on my shoulder. “I talk when it’s worth my while.”

Ellie’s smile fades as she processes my words. “Well, I’ll take that as a compliment then.” She watches me fuss with the heating pad. “Did you get hurt today?”

I shrug again. “Nothing major, but my rotator cuff got tweaked from a bad hit. I’ll be fine in a few days, I just have to baby it for now.”

“So that explains why you didn’t put on a shirt tonight after inviting me in.”

I quirk an eyebrow. “You complaining?”

“Nope. Not a bit,” she says quickly, then her eyes widen and her cheeks turn pink like she didn’t realize what she said until after the words had left her mouth.

Smiling, I gesture at the TV. “Shh. We’re missing the show.”

She does the same lip zipping motion from last night, which only makes me smile wider, and we turn back to the TV.

It’s over far too soon for my liking. For more than one reason. Because Ellie appears to be entirely serious about her one cookie, one episode declaration.

“Alright,” she says, standing as the credits play. “Thanks for sharing your cookies with me. Enjoy the rest of them. You can wrap them in plastic wrap and freeze them so they last longer if you want. That way you don’t eat them all at once and get in trouble with your coach.” She smiles as she says the last sentence, moving across the room for the door.

Turning off the heating pad, I stand and follow her. “Plus if they’re wrapped and in the freezer, I can hide them from Cal.”

She laughs at that, one hand on the doorknob. “You’re not going to share with him?”

Maintaining a serious expression, I shake my head. “Nope. Why should he get thank-you cookies? He told me he woke you up by tossing a protein bar at your head and kicked you out.”

She shrugs, her gaze going abstract as she looks at the wall next to me. “He’s not so bad. Most of the time. He’s just protective.” She pulls her phone out of her pocket and looks at the time, fiddling with the PopSocket on the back as she continues. “A couple of his teammates in high school made a game out of trying to get me to go out with them.” She takes a deep breath and raises her face, but still doesn’t meet my eyes. “Apparently there was some kind of bet about seeing who could fuck me first? And there were bonus points if I was still a virgin.” That pink tinge is back in her cheeks, but it’s not as cute now. She’s not embarrassed to be checking me out. She’s embarrassed that guys at some point in the past—guys who were supposed to be friends with her brother—were treating her like a game, a piece of meat, a sex object.

My reaction is very different, though. Incandescent rage flows through me. No wonder Cal doesn’t ever want her around the team. If anyone ever did that to either of my little sisters, I’d kill them. No question.

I suck in a deep breath, not wanting to vent my rage at Ellie. None of what happened was ever her fault, and she doesn’t need to placate my anger.

“I’d be protective too,” I manage to say after a moment, my voice deliberately soft.

Ellie’s eyes fly to mine. She swallows and gives a jerky nod. “Well, on that super fun note, it’s time for me to go. While I’m aware that you’re not likely to make bets about my virginity”—she holds the back of her hand up next to her mouth like she’s about to tell me a secret—“which, news flash, that ship has sailed. But if I’m here two nights in a row when Cal gets home, it won’t be pretty for either of us.” She looks at me, her eyes dipping down to my bare chest one last time before returning to my face, and she gives me a wide smile. “Thanks again, Simon. For last night. And for letting me watch another episode ofCobra Kaiwith you. It was fun.”

“Anytime, Ellie.”

She gives a finger wave and slips out the door, leaving me alone once again. And even more tangled up about my inconvenient attraction to her. But that three sentence explanation of high school has cleared up so much for me about Cal’s behavior. That’s why any time she’s around, he tries to hurry her out, why when she hugged me before they drove home last Christmas, he acted like I’d molested her. Not for long. He realized he was being nuts. But for that flash when my arms were awkwardly around her—and I’m not gonna lie, the way she felt against my body that time definitely informed this morning’s dreams and fantasies—he saw me as another douchebag trying to make a game out of getting with his sister.

His insistence on scoping out her dates now makes a lot more sense too.

And it’s just another reason why spending any time with Ellie in the future is a terrible, terrible idea. No matter how much I might want to.

CHAPTER FIVE

Simon

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