Page 31 of Perfect Storm (Toronto Thunder #1)

The pizza was, as promised, really fucking good, and Levi ate too much, groaning a little as Dom came to collect the empty plates.

“I take it you enjoyed that,” Aidan said. He was smiling again, like he was finally ready to take the win.

That was the thing Levi was learning about Aidan; he always wanted to know he’d worked hard for the win, before he let himself enjoy it.

Levi considered this as they drove back to the condo.

Dusk was falling, and the view out the living room windows, right over the lake, was second to none.

He sank down on the couch, listening to Aidan puttering around the kitchen.

Every moment, Levi expected Aidan to round the corner of the couch and settle down next to him.

It was still early-ish. Maybe they could watch a movie.

But then it would be hard to pretend that this hadn’t felt like a very date-ish evening.

At least Levi had managed to keep his lips and his hands to himself so far.

But then Aidan didn’t show up.

“What are you doing back there?” Levi finally called out.

Aidan was silent for a long moment. “Unloading the dishwasher?”

Of course. “Dude, get over here. We can do that anytime.”

“You mean, I can do it anytime,” Aidan said wryly.

Ouch. Okay, so he wasn’t great about chores. That was fair. But then, Aidan had a housekeeper who showed up twice a week and did things like load and unload the dishwasher.

“How about I do it tomorrow morning before we leave for the walkthrough?” Levi suggested sweetly. He deserved a medal for not bringing up that Lora was coming tomorrow afternoon and could do it then.

Aidan didn’t say anything. That was when Levi was one hundred percent certain that he was procrastinating and not actually worked up about who was going to unload the dishwasher.

Maybe the dinner had been a date. Or was Aidan just realizing that now? Was that the reason for the sudden burst of housewifely-ness?

“Seriously, man, get over here. They’re just dishes.”

Aidan dawdled, even as he rounded the corner of the couch, and he made no move to sit down, his eyes flicking up, past Levi, to the view.

“Uh, nice view tonight.”

Levi patted the couch, feeling a little like a seductress. Except he was wearing old ratty shorts and one of his brand-new Thunder T-shirts. “Come on. Dude. Sit down.”

Aidan eyed him nervously. Trying to hide it but not even coming close. Levi had begun to recognize his tells. “Maybe I’m tired. Maybe I need to watch some film.”

“So we’ll watch it together,” Levi said. He wasn’t ready for the evening to end. It had been unexpectedly good, and he felt reasonably certain he could convince Aidan to bridge the distance between them if he was out here on the couch. If they were in their own rooms? Much less likely.

Aidan still didn’t sit down.

Levi sighed. “Dude, I don’t bite.” He paused. “Unless you want me to, and then I’m totally down for that.”

Aidan flushed. “Is that . . .do you . . .”

“I get it,” Levi said. “You’re probably used to the kind of girls that I know hang around. Who make all the moves and make it obvious they want you. They probably climb on your lap and just say, take me, Aidan, I’m yours. I can do that, too. You want me to do that?”

Aidan’s jaw dropped. “Do I? Um. I don’t know.” He sat down on the couch, but he looked so unsure, so completely unlike the normal confident Aidan, that Levi didn’t crawl over to him, the way he desperately wanted to.

He deserved major props for self-control.

“Well, it’s up to you.” Levi hadn’t thought it needed said, but maybe Aidan had been waiting to hear it.

On one hand, Aidan didn’t look surprised. But on the other, he didn’t immediately say, okay, take me, I’m yours either.

Hard not to be disappointed, but Levi schooled his expression into neutrality. The last thing he wanted to do was scare Aidan away with his enthusiasm.

Instead, Aidan pulled out the remote, and just when Levi had resigned himself to watching film for the next hour, he found a movie, something with Tom Cruise and lots of brainless explosions, and settled back against the couch.

Still a frustrating few inches too far away, but every five minutes he seemed to relax even further, until Aidan’s shoulder was almost touching Levi’s.

It was enough of a green light that Levi pressed his thigh to Aidan’s. Waited a breathless moment for Aidan to move away again, but he didn’t. Instead, he pushed up against it. Like he’d been waiting for Levi to do it.

Tom Cruise had just blown up a huge building—Levi wasn’t sure if it was on purpose or not, he was only paying about a quarter of attention. The rest of his focus was on the man next to him. The way he breathed. The way he smelled. The solid warm feeling of his leg against Levi’s.

Levi was not going to pull the need-to-stretch, put-my-arm-around-your-shoulders move, but he was tempted. At least another twenty-five percent of his brain power was currently being used up in the debate about whether that would be too obvious. The answer: yes.

But just when the dick part of his brain was lodging its appeal on that stupid-ass decision, Aidan turned to him.

“Are you following this?” he half asked, half demanded.

“Uh.” Levi really hoped that Aidan was not going to ask for a rundown of the plot, because his understanding consisted of Aidan’s hair; Tom Cruise stabbed someone; Aidan’s thigh; motorcycle chase; Aidan’s mouth against his last night; some incomprehensible bad-guy speech.

“Are you?” Aidan repeated.

There was no point in pretending. “No,” Levi admitted. “I think Tom Cruise is . . .um . . .trying to stop that guy from destroying a space station.” He gestured towards the screen.

Aidan frowned. “That’s Tom Cruise’s partner. He’s trying to prevent them from destroying the space station.”

Okay. Well. He’d made a good effort, at least. Somewhere Landry and Logan were poking fun at his total lack of game. Lyla would pat him on the cheek and tell him he’d do better next time. None of them would be wrong.

“Maybe you should explain it to me,” Levi said, finding it hard to not be at least a little sulky.

Aidan was driving him out of his mind—the majority of his brain was in Aidan’s pants right now—to the point he couldn’t even figure out who the bad guy was in this terrible Tom Cruise movie.

But Aidan knew. It was kind of a blow to the ego.

Maybe it hadn’t been as good for Aidan last night as it had been for Levi.

And if that was true, then Levi needed to remedy that immediately. He could do better; he would do better.

He’d blow Aidan’s mind into tiny little smithereens, Tom Cruise–style.

“Wait,” Aidan said.

“What?”

“Do you really think I’m paying attention?”

It was a perfectly legitimate question. After all, Aidan had put the fucking movie on.

“You just explained the plot to me.”

Aidan laughed and then poked him in the side. “You idiot,” he said, making it sound like the sweetest pet name in the world, “I only know that ’cause I’ve seen this before.”

Levi opened his mouth and then snapped it shut again. Hoping he understood what Aidan was getting at, but totally unlike him, not sure how to ask if he was getting this right.

Before he could, Aidan was suddenly moving, and it was him swinging a leg over Levi’s thighs and settling down lightly into his lap, hands on the back of the couch, framing Levi’s head.

He didn’t dip his face down to meet Levi’s. There was still a whisper of apprehension written there, like he was actually unsure that Levi would like this.

Aidan was clearly being his normal neurotic self because Levi loved this.

“Hey,” Levi said warmly, settling a hand on Aidan’s hip. Making sure Aidan knew, from every bit of his body language and his expression, just how into this he was.

Aidan still looked like he was half a second from squirming away. “Hey.”

He was beautiful all the time, but he’d never been more gorgeous than he was like this, dusk shadowing his face, blue eyes torn between desire and restraint, biting his lower lip like it might physically stop him from closing the rest of the distance between them.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Levi asked.

He figured that was fair even though the last thing he wanted to do was have a conversation. He just wanted to do.

AKA strip Aidan naked and make him moan.

“Talk about—” Aidan broke off, shaking his head. “No. No. I . . .” He tucked his face away in his shoulder, so Levi could only see a sliver. “I want this.” A shuddering breath went out of him, making him tremble. “I want this so much.”

Levi could ask why he’d pretended like he didn’t. Why he’d tried to unload the dishwasher. Why he’d sat so far away on the couch. Why he’d put on the stupidest Tom Cruise movie in existence.

But Levi didn’t. He’d known before tonight that Aidan’s head could be a bramble of complex, tangled-together emotions, but after Aidan had shared more of his past, it was obvious how much he fought even things that were good for him.

Instead, he reached up and tangled his other hand in Aidan’s hair. It was soft and curly around the edges, burnished gold in this light. Levi had only thought about touching it hundreds of times since he’d gotten to Toronto, and it felt even better than in his fantasies.

Aidan went easily, settling more completely in his lap, mouth brushing up against Levi’s. It seemed that was all it took because the last of the tension relaxed out of Aidan’s shoulders, and he was kissing Levi like he had last night. Intense and passionate. Focused.

Not even like last night though. This kiss wasn’t tinged with frustrated desperation, but instead it was sweet and almost tender.

Lush, Levi’s mind supplied, as his tongue stroked Aidan’s. His fingers tightened on Aidan’s hip and even though they were already pressed together, he brought them impossibly closer. And it was still not close enough.