Page 50 of Perfect Storm (Toronto Thunder #1)

Levi was not jealous.

He was not jealous.

But two nights ago, he’d watched Mo lead Aidan to the library at Vault, clearly intending for the two of them to have a private conversation, and ever since, Aidan had been . . .off.

Quieter than usual. Intense. And the most damning piece of evidence of all: Levi might still be in Aidan’s bed, but other than some kissing and a hug that Levi had initiated, there’d been zero orgasms.

Aidan hadn’t touched him since whatever he and Mo had discussed.

It was freaking Levi out.

The last time he’d checked, Mo hadn’t returned Aidan’s feelings for him, so Levi shouldn’t have been worrying—but he couldn’t help it.

He liked Aidan so much. Maybe even loved him.

Probably did love him, if he was being honest with himself, and if this horrible crawling feeling in the base of his stomach was to be believed.

But he’d thought he had time to deal with it.

To slowly, carefully, relentlessly seduce not just Aidan’s body, but his heart, too.

Then Mo had shown up, and at first that hadn’t really seemed like a big problem.

It felt like a big problem now.

A problem Levi didn’t know how to solve. A problem he couldn’t even ask Aidan about, because Aidan seemed entirely predisposed to not talking about it.

Even practice today, the typical Tuesday-after-a-game grind, hadn’t distracted him sufficiently to keep him from worrying about it.

“You’re still glowering.”

Levi looked over at Trevor. “Yeah. So?”

“Are we going to kick Mo Jeffries’ ass? Is this what this is about?”

Levi rolled his eyes. Trevor had never kicked someone’s ass a day in his life. He was on the painfully straight and narrow path and committed to sticking to it, probably because Lane was so devoted to the opposite.

“Are you even sure you know what that means?” Levi asked. He’d much rather discuss how Trevor was a beast on the football field but ridiculously mild-mannered off of it.

“Come on, dude, I know. ’Course I’m not sure I’d be able to take him alone. But if you joined in . . .”

“Wouldn’t it be the opposite? Wouldn’t it be me taking Mo and you joining in?”

Trevor shot Levi an embarrassed look. “I don’t know if I could do that.”

“Yeah, don’t go around admitting that,” Levi said.

“Don’t worry, man, I wouldn’t. Lane wouldn’t ever let me forget it.”

“No shit.”

Trevor nudged him with his elbow. “So are you gonna tell me why we’re even discussing kicking Mo Jeffries’ ass? What did he do to you? Did he steal your man? Or did he steal him back? Does that even count, if Mo had him first—”

Levi cut Trevor’s ramblings off. They were too close to the thoughts trapped in his own head and it wasn’t doing him any favors to hear them repeated out loud.

“No,” Levi said. “Things are just . . .complicated.”

“That’s usually code for you can’t admit what you really want.”

Levi normally liked Trevor a lot. He was entertaining, both with and without his stepbrother, Lane. They weren’t called the demon twins for nothing. But right now, Trevor was working his last nerve. “I can admit it,” he ground out.

“Okay, code for you can’t admit it to more than just yourself.”

“Not helpful, Trev,” Levi retorted.

“Actually,” Trevor said blithely, apparently unaware of how frustrated Levi was getting—how frustrated Levi already was, “it’s super helpful. I’m trying to encourage you to talk about your feelings, and to do it with the one person who might be able to fix it.”

“Unless Morris Jeffries falls back into a hole, there’s no fixing it.” And Levi really, really hated that.

Maybe this wasn’t why he’d stuck to hookups before, but now he was beginning to see why that had felt so easy and casual. Because hookups, by definition, were. This whole thing was messy and complicated and made Levi want to bash his head against a wall.

Also made him want to drag Aidan to the locker room, so he’d stop smiling over at Mo that way. Made him want to be the one who drop-kicked Mo back to where he’d come from.

“You should just talk to him,” Trevor tried again.

But Levi was beyond words now, and just growled, chasing Trevor off once and for all.

Levi knew he should feel at least a little bad about that, but he didn’t. He was too messed up in the head. Jealous and hating how nasty it felt.

Because, obviously if it was as easy as just talking to Aidan, he’d have already done it.

But every time he got even the beginning of the conversation out of his mouth, tongue thick and body buzzing with nerves, Aidan shut down.

He’d tried twice now. Once, the morning after the game, when Levi was sucking down an enormous cold brew and Aidan was teasing him about his caffeine addiction, and that had seemed like a good time to bring it up, since the mood was already lighthearted.

But then it had suddenly gotten quiet and tense, the moment Levi had brought up the game-winning touchdown.

He hadn’t even said anything else, but it hadn’t mattered. Aidan had clammed up and that was the end of that.

Then later last night, while they’d been playing Mario Kart, he’d slid his hand way up on Aidan’s thigh and he’d frozen.

Not gotten pissed, in that cute way of his, about Levi cheating.

Nope, just gone totally still, like he didn’t want Levi’s hand only a few inches from his dick, even though it clearly disagreed with Aidan’s assessment of the situation.

Levi had tried to play it off, moving his hand lower, to Aidan’s knee, squeezing there.

Had still gone to bed with Aidan later, but neither of them had tried to initiate anything, and Levi had lain there for hours, sleepless, as he tried to imagine all the reasons why their situation had suddenly changed.

Zane blew his whistle and they gathered up for the last set of plays at the end of practice.

“Let’s go,” he clapped. “I wanna see all our two tight end formations. Nate and I chatted about the Condors’ defense yesterday and he thinks they’re not as prepared for those, so we’re gonna be leaning on them heavily this week.”

They had the Condors this week, and since Riley had become their quarterback three years ago, the Thunder had yet to win against them.

Levi knew, from before, that this bothered Aidan.

Sure, he wanted his brother to succeed, but Aidan still had his own competitive drive. Still wanted to win.

Levi wanted to do it for him. To prove that even though Riley was great, Aidan was also great. The OG Great, so to speak.

In the huddle, prepping for the first play, Aidan put a casual hand on Levi’s shoulder, leaning in as he walked him through the coverage.

“You’re gonna need to pull to the left, more,” Aidan said, and Levi nodded.

Levi was focusing—he was a pro, by now, and knew how important all this preparation was for the upcoming game—but he couldn’t help the stray thoughts that kept sprinkling into his consciousness.

I wonder if Aidan ever leans in like this and wants to kiss me, too?

’Cause I’m burning with it. Miss it. Sure not getting my dick wet sucks, but not kissing is worse.

Something crossed over Aidan’s face then, before he pulled back. A flash of desire, suddenly reined in. At least that was what Levi hoped.

But if that was true, why wasn’t Aidan letting himself?

They ran the first play, Levi blocking against the second string defense, pulling to the left, the way Aidan had thought he should.

“All these double tight end formations,” Mo complained when they huddled up again, after.

Lane shot Mo an amused look. “Feeling a little left out, bro?”

Mo shrugged. “Like a little action in between blocking.”

“It’s ’cause you’re shit at it,” Aidan said. He sounded fond, but Mo still grimaced.

“I’m better than I used to be.”

“Yeah, and you used to be utter shit at it,” Aidan only said.

Levi did not do a fist pump of delight. But he thought about doing a fist pump of delight. Did that make him a bigger person? He didn’t know.

On the third play they worked on, Trevor curled the wrong direction, nearly colliding with Lane, and Lane exploded, yelling and gesturing at his stepbrother.

“Fucking get your playbook memorized,” Lane exclaimed. He didn’t shove Trevor, but his hands were up like they were itching to.

Mo slid between them before anyone else could get down field in enough time to do it.

“Yo,” Mo said, “everyone chill, okay? It was only a mistake.”

“Yeah, he should know this shit,” Lane huffed.

“Like you do any studying,” Trevor retorted, sounding really deeply pissed.

Levi had a feeling it was more because of Lane calling him out in front of the entire team than it was embarrassment over not running the pattern right.

“Hey, you two, calm it down,” Aidan called out and clapped his hands. Forever the eldest brother and peacemaker. “Let’s run it again.”

Trevor shot Lane one last dirty look, and they all lined up again.

This time Trevor curled the right direction, and Aidan hit him mid-stride.

They only ran about twenty more minutes of plays, Zane clearly pleased with what he was seeing. After he dismissed them, Levi dawdled by the entrance to the locker room, waiting for Aidan. Hoping to catch him by himself and suggest they grab some dinner, just the two of them.

He’d told himself this morning that he was going to stop trying to get Aidan to open up to him. If Aidan didn’t want to tell him what was going through his head, that was on Aidan.

But it wasn’t only on Aidan. Maybe Aidan didn’t realize, but Levi was going through it too, as a result.

Maybe if he kept trying, Aidan would see he was trustworthy enough to confess to.

But when he did catch Aidan, Aidan spoke first. “Hey,” he said, “can you get a ride home with Griff tonight? I wanna go over some more film with Nate and the rest of the defense for the Condors game. Nobody knows Riley’s moves like I do.”

It wasn’t very surprising, and it wasn’t anything that Aidan wouldn’t have normally done. But Levi still wanted to make a face.