Page 40 of Perfect Storm (Toronto Thunder #1)

When Levi finished folding his laundry, he poked his head into the living room.

Aidan had been reviewing tape—obsessively, even, to the point where Levi was a little over it, which was why dealing with the laundry had seemed appealing—but now he was clearly talking to someone.

Had he switched to Mario Kart? Was he letting someone else beat him?

That was totally unacceptable. The only person allowed to trounce Aidan at video games and then make him feel better about it was Levi.

But when he glanced in the living room on his way to the kitchen, there was still game tape, paused in the middle of a play, on the TV.

As Levi reached into the fridge, he heard the voice again. It was Riley, and, Levi realized as he shuffled items around the shelves, he and Aidan were actually breaking down game tape together.

“I see what you’re saying,” Riley said. Levi could practically hear him nodding.

“I’d have handed it off to your running back—I forget who it is now,” Aidan said, and Levi had become familiar enough with his various tones that he could pick out just how careful Aidan was being.

“Yeah,” Riley agreed. “What about on the next one?”

As Aidan hit the play button, Levi gave up the pretense that he was actually looking for something in the fridge, straightening up as he watched the TV over the tops of the barstools.

It was a QB read play—otherwise known as the run-pass option—and Riley had passed to Landry, a nice little slant throw that hadn’t gone far but had gotten the Condors the eight yards they needed for the first down.

“Honestly,” Aidan said, after he’d watched it twice, “I think that was your best call. They were stacking the line. You got the first down. Is it sexier to get twenty, thirty, forty yards? Hit your speedy receiver with a TD? Sure. Always.”

Personally, Levi thought it was the sexiest when Aidan talked this way. If he wasn’t currently on the phone with his brother, he’d be tackling Aidan to the couch. Kissing him and grinding their hips together until Aidan couldn’t take it anymore.

Riley gave a self-deprecating laugh, but Aidan kept going. “No, seriously, Ri. You made the right call. You nearly always make the right call, and nobody does all the time. You’re doing a stellar job, and your instincts are spot-on. Trust those, okay?”

Riley said he would and a minute later the call was over.

Aidan glanced behind him, meeting Levi’s eyes. “Sorry,” he said, “Riley just wanted some advice on some plays from their last game.”

“Didn’t you get in trouble with Landry for doing that?” Levi asked.

Aidan pursed his lips as Levi came around the kitchen island, then sank onto the couch next to him.

“Yeah,” he said. “Before. But a lot’s changed since then. I learned my lesson. If Riley wants feedback, I’m always happy to give it to him, but I wait til he asks.”

“Does he?”

“Ask?” Aidan pondered this. “Yeah. I mean, not right away he didn’t.

And I get that. We needed that reset time.

More me, to see how Riley had grown up and changed.

But him too, to tell me when I was being too overbearing.

” Aidan laughed, a little self-consciously.

“We just both love each other too much, you know? Too many years of it being just us against the world. I love him so much I want to coddle him, and he loves me too much to tell me I’m fucking it up. ”

“But now he does, ’cause he trusts you.” Levi wanted Aidan to see that—that yes, he’d fucked it up before, maybe, but that he’d become a better person, so he could be a better brother.

Sometimes Levi thought Aidan only saw his initial flaws.

Not the changes he’d made with blood and sweat and tears to turn things around.

“Yeah, he must,” Aidan said. He paused and shot Levi a look. “You’re not that sly, you know.”

“Hey, I wanted you to see it and you do. Did you fuck up before? Sure. But you don’t anymore, so stop mentally beating yourself up, okay?”

“Easier said than done,” Aidan said wryly, but still, he’d seen it, which was all Levi was after.

“I’ll just have to keep reminding you.” Levi was not only willing to do it, he wanted to do it.

Maybe that should’ve scared him, but it didn’t.

“I’d like that,” Aidan said, and it felt like more than a friend thing.

Felt like more than a “sex pact” thing, for sure.

But Levi didn’t want to push. In July, Aidan had been heartbroken over Mo.

Maybe he was still heartbroken over Mo. There was a part of Levi that wanted to ask—needed to ask, nearly—but he didn’t, because what if he was?

What if Aidan was in love with Mo and Levi was in love with . . .

He cut that thought off hard and fast.

He wasn’t. He wasn’t.

He absolutely could not be.

That would be insane and very, very stupid, and after witnessing his siblings be both of those things regularly, Levi had done everything he could to avoid following in their footsteps.

“Good,” Levi said, nodding, faking a confidence he didn’t quite feel. “’Cause it’s happening.”

There was a faint vibration noise. Levi dug his phone out of his pocket, but it hadn’t been his. He glanced over at Aidan, who was staring at his phone, sitting on the coffee table, with an inscrutable expression on his face.

“Who is it?” Levi asked. He stretched out on the couch, wondering if he could bait Aidan into playing some video games before they went to bed.

Before they went to bed.

“It’s . . .uh . . .Mo.”

Everything inside Levi clenched hard and tight. A cold ball of dread formed in the base of his stomach, even though he tried to ignore it.

Levi understood that straight people did exist, and it was very possible Morris Jeffries was one of them, but the deeper into this thing he got with Aidan, the more outrageous it seemed that you could know Aidan and not want him desperately. Maybe Mo had changed his mind.

“Oh.” Levi didn’t know what to say. Wasn’t sure he could keep up the casual pretense.

“It’s nothing,” Aidan brushed off. He stood up and headed towards the bedroom. Every single one of Levi’s muscles clenched. Should he follow? Should he ask if Aidan was okay? Should he ask what Mo had said? Could he ask what Mo had said?

He wanted to, desperately, even though he wasn’t sure he should.

But a second later, Aidan emerged. “Had to plug my phone in to charge,” he said. His face had returned to normal. Levi might’ve worried it was that mask Aidan put on sometimes, but he was fairly certain he could see past it at this point, and he seemed . . .genuinely fine.

“Oh. Alright.” Levi still wanted to ask. But maybe it was nothing. If it had been something, surely Aidan wouldn’t be out here with him, acting normal.

“Wanna play some Mario Kart?” Aidan asked.

“We’re going to have to teach you another game at some point,” Levi said. If Aidan could be normal, so could he.

“Yeah, let’s get me good at this one first,” Aidan said wryly. “You still beat me like seventy-five percent of the time.”

“Weak,” Levi teased. “It’s more like ninety.”

Aidan’s glance over was full of heat. “Exactly.” He grabbed a pair of controllers and tossed Levi one.

And okay. Even if Mo had texted, this was Aidan saying nothing between them had changed.

They were still going to play video games.

Levi was still going to beat Aidan. Aidan would still pout in a way that shouldn’t have been sexy and cute, yet was.

And after, Levi would drag a very willing Aidan to bed.

After their orgasms, they’d curl up together and everything would be normal.

Would be right.

You’re fucked, Logan’s voice echoed in his head.

But Levi pushed the thought away. He didn’t need his brothers chiming in—didn’t matter if it was real or not—not when he already felt acutely how fucked he actually was.

Aidan booted up the game, and it was a testament to truly how fine and normal everything was, because he played just as shitty as he usually did.

But this time, Levi didn’t have his own head screwed on straight and he played even worse.

Aidan beat him twice in a row before he finally managed to pull out a hard-fought victory in their third game.

“Ha!” Aidan crowed smugly. “See! Ninety percent, my ass.”

“You just lost,” Levi reminded him. But then he’d won twice before that. Aidan didn’t need to remind him of what one out of three actually came out to percentage-wise.

“Still,” Aidan said, grinning obnoxiously. It was evidence of his fucked-up mental state that even that was doing it for him.

“And you cheated,” Levi pointed out. He nudged Aidan’s thigh with his own, where it had pressed hot and insistent the whole fucking game.

Levi’s thighs were bigger. Just about everything on him was bigger.

That wasn’t bragging; that was just facts.

But Aidan’s thigh was still gorgeous. Slim but firm.

Rippling with muscle. Muscle that Levi wanted to lean down and bite.

Just nibble right along the tendon until he reached the hem of Aidan’s shorts.

“Did I cheat though?” Aidan looked very proud of himself.

Levi glanced down. Aidan’s shorts might not have been nearly as short as Levi’s. It would take some work and Levi would be very happy to dedicate himself to the task, no matter how long it took.

“And you still lost.”

Aidan grinned. “Not sure I did, bro.”

“Bro!” Levi squawked and rolled over, pressing Aidan to the couch.

Aidan’s forehead tipped against his, and it was so easy, so right, the most natural fucking thing in the world to kiss him then.

He was fine.

He was fine.

Aidan had told himself when Mo’s text came in that he was, thinking something along the lines of fake it til you make it, but the weirdest part was that he was.

Not just because Levi had just sucked his soul out of his dick, either. He’d been fine before that, too. Fine enough that he’d played better at Mario Kart than he could remember doing before.