Page 10 of Perfect Storm (Toronto Thunder #1)

Six weeks later

Of course Aidan lived at the top of this enormous building. In the fucking penthouse, no less.

Most of his stuff was in a pod, heading to a storage facility outside Toronto, for when Levi figured his shit out and found a place of his own.

Until now, all he had with him was two big duffel bags, sitting at his feet in the elevator as he and Peter, the concierge for the building, watched as the floors ticked by.

“Anything you need, anything at all,” Peter said, tipping his head towards Levi, “you just let me know. Any guest of Aidan’s is a guest of ours.” He winked then. “And you’re also a Banks. The best one, too, if you want my opinion.”

Levi laughed. “Don’t let Landry or Logan hear you say that.”

Peter just shrugged, his kind brown eyes gleaming.

“I thought y’all were more hockey fans up north,” Levi said.

“Oh, we are. But football’s come a long way. Aidan’s been a big part of that.”

That was something he and Alec had discussed.

It wasn’t that the Thunder went under the radar here in Toronto, but compared to the intense microscope that the city put the hockey team under, anything would seem like less.

There’d be less pressure, no question, than if Levi went to one of the more impassioned football cities, like New York or Philadelphia.

In some ways, Seattle had been chill, but not so much in others. It was a small-ish city, really, not like Toronto or New York or Los Angeles.

Hard to really work and live under the radar.

“We’re looking for you guys to bring us another championship,” Peter said.

And yep, that had been a big part of Levi deciding he was coming here, to Toronto.

Aidan had won two back-to-back Super Bowls early on in his career, but the Thunder had been coming up short the last decade.

But Levi didn’t need Aidan to bluntly say he was nearing the end of his window.

If he wanted to win another Super Bowl, it was going to need to be soon.

And Levi intended to be right there, lifting it with him.

“Planning on it,” Levi said. The elevator door dinged open, revealing a narrow white hallway, a door at the opposite end.

“Now, your keycard will get you to this floor—you’ll need to use it, like I showed you, to be able to get up here—and then it’ll get you into the main apartment,” Peter said, gesturing towards the door, with its discreet black electronic panel next to it.

“Alright, thanks, man,” Levi said, shaking his hand. “I appreciate it.”

He lifted his bags and walked over to the door, hearing the elevator close behind him. He could use his keycard, of course. Aidan had called down to Peter specifically, asking him to make sure Levi knew how to get into the building, where to park, etcetera. But it felt weird to just let himself in.

It wasn’t the first time Levi had felt weird about this new situation—actually, it was the second.

When he and Alec had narrowed down his offers and options and Toronto had emerged the unlikely frontrunner, Levi had deliberately not let himself think about who the Thunders’ QB1 was.

Didn’t want to let Aidan’s presence there be a pro or a con.

But after he’d made the decision, Levi had felt a sudden jolt of awkwardness.

He’d kissed plenty of teammates over the years.

Fucked them, too. But Aidan was different.

Levi couldn’t pinpoint why exactly—maybe it had to do with how intricately and closely they were tied together, before they’d ever made the stupid sex pact.

Before he could parse exactly what was different about Aidan, and why he suddenly felt so weird about the whole Toronto situation, Landry had been pushing into his space. Making demands and suggestions and generally being the sort of oldest brother that he rarely was.

Yeah, Levi had never played for a team that wasn’t Seattle, but he could do this. Landry had been worried about him fitting into a new environment, though, that much was clear. So he’d shoved himself into the middle of it, texting Aidan before Levi could even figure out what he wanted to say.

Then Aidan’s response had been perfectly Aidan: straightforward and succinct. Cutting right through the awkwardness.

No, Levi realized now, as he stared at the door. He hadn’t cut through it. He’d pretended it didn’t exist at all. Like they’d never kissed. Like they’d never promised to fuck.

It was a very Aidan thing to do. Didn’t know how to deal with something? Act like it just wasn’t there, like through sheer force of will he could shape the world to suit him.

But that wasn’t Levi’s way at all. He wasn’t going to pretend. He didn’t think he could.

Because even though he had no intention of fulfilling his half of the pact now, he had every intention of showing up at Aidan’s house next summer and doing it.

And until then? Well, he could think about it and jerk off about it and flirt with Aidan about it.

Decision made, Levi pulled his key from his pocket. Aidan had wanted him to have it, so he was going to use it.

He pressed it to the sensor and twisted the doorknob.

The first thought he had wasn’t Aidan. But light and blue.

Over the years, he’d seen pictures of Aidan’s place. Knew it was floor-to-ceiling windows and an open floor plan. Relentlessly practical and modern. Riley liked to say it was soulless, and it was, a little, but why would you want to dim this view?

Lake Ontario spread out in a great blue swath in one set of windows. On the other side, sunlight reflected off the glittering skyscrapers.

Aidan was sitting on a big navy blue sectional in the main living space, sprawled out next to another guy.

Glancing up, Aidan gave him a friendly smile. “There you are,” he said.

“Hey, bro,” Levi said. Kind of annoyed that now Aidan had made it weird a third time.

He hadn’t anticipated that Aidan would have anyone over. After all, Aidan had known that Levi was showing up around now. Did he think he could find a way for them to never be alone together? That was ridiculous and impossible.

“This is Dawson Hall, our kicker. He’s new to the team, too, but we played together at Michigan, with Landry.”

Dawson nodded at Levi, and now Levi realized he looked vaguely familiar.

“Dawson not like Asa or Beau Dawson, right?” Levi asked, referring to the Piranhas’ famous head coach and his son.

“Nope.” Dawson shook his head. “Just happened to be my name.”

“Dawson and I are just catching up,” Aidan said, like this somehow explained why they were sitting in Aidan’s living room.

“Ah,” Levi said. He wanted to pull Aidan aside and tell him to be cool, dude, but he’d forgotten one important factor in all this: Aidan had never been cool a day in his life.

“Here, I’ll . . .uh . . .show you the guest room,” Aidan said, getting to his feet.

Now that Levi was looking, he recognized Dawson for more than just his stint at Michigan.

The guy had put together a whole string of great seasons, but last season had been a disaster.

He’d missed a bunch of field goals, and even a few extra points.

The Ravens had released him, and after, a bunch of stuff about his ugly divorce had come out.

He’d clearly been distracted—which, for a kicker, who relied heavily on their mental focus, was a big problem.

“Thanks,” Levi said, picking up his bags.

The living areas in Aidan’s apartment were spacious, but the hallway leading to the bedrooms was not, and Levi’s shoulder brushed Aidan’s. Aidan didn’t exactly spring back but he didn’t look over either.

He didn’t need to tell Levi he was pretending nothing had ever happened in Michigan, because it was obvious that was the tactic he was going with.

“I’m right over here,” Aidan said, pointing to a closed door.

Like he thought physically closing a door might be enough to send a ragingly obvious hint that Levi wasn’t supposed to show up in his bedroom.

“And you’re over here. Attached bathroom.

There’s a closet, I made sure it was empty, and there’s a dresser, and stuff. If you need more space—”

“I shouldn’t,” Levi said, setting his bags down and doing a quick survey of the room. It was nice, basic maybe, but big enough, the bed taking up almost the entirety of the space.

“Oh. Okay. Good. I want you to make yourself at home.” Aidan had stayed in the doorway. Like he wasn’t about to enter a room with Levi and a bed.

Again, Levi was possessed by a strong desire to tell Aidan to chill. But he already knew it wasn’t going to change anything, so why bother? It would only make things even more awkward than they already were.

Clearly, Aidan didn’t want to talk about it, so Levi wasn’t going to force him. Yet.

“It’s great of you to offer,” Levi said. “I could’ve found another place, probably.”

“Are you fucking joking? Of course you were staying here,” Aidan scoffed.

Please don’t tell me you did it because of Landry.

Funny enough, Levi might not have cared before, might have brushed it off as big bros being big bros, but he didn’t want Aidan to have invited him only because Landry had butted in.

“You could’ve asked Dawson,” Levi said, because he was very stupid and apparently couldn’t leave this alone.

Aidan shot him an incredulous look. “I could’ve, sure. But you’re practically family.” He made a face then, like he realized how bad that sounded. “But not, of course.”

“Of course,” Levi said, nodding vehemently in agreement. He was still jerking off, thinking about that single kiss. He did not need Aidan to decide, somehow, that they were family, despite their brothers being madly in love.

“And,” Aidan added, dropping his voice and taking a step closer, like he’d finally forgotten that he wasn’t supposed to be going into the room with Levi and the bed, “Dawson’s feeling sorta . . .well, he’s prickly about help.”

Levi had only really followed the bare bones of Dawson’s situation, but it had sounded bad.