Page 52 of Perfect Storm (Toronto Thunder #1)

Riley didn’t have to add the natural conclusion to that sentence. Because he cares about you, bro. Because he’s in love with you, and there’d be nothing worse than watching you get beat up every week.

“That doesn’t mean he loves me,” Aidan said, but he could hear the hesitation in his voice. The yearning that he felt for it to be true.

“You won’t know unless you ask. And it’s gotta be you, because you know he’s not going to say anything. Not when he thinks you’re still in love with Mo.”

That was fair. Levi wouldn’t. He was a good guy, the best guy; if he thought Aidan’s heart belonged to Mo, he wouldn’t interfere. Wouldn’t push.

“God, how can I?” Aidan asked, the question torn from the heart of him. It terrified him, standing in front of the guy and putting everything on the line for a second time.

“It’s scary as shit. No question. But you know what, bro?

” Riley asked. But before Aidan could answer, Riley kept going.

“You’re Aidan fucking Flynn. You’ve got two rings.

You’re probably gonna win another one, despite my best efforts trying to beat you.

You’re one of the best, if not the best quarterback in the NFL.

Nobody can stop you when you want something. Not even you.”

Aidan sucked in a long breath and then let it out, feeling suddenly perilously close to . . .well, tears. He didn’t know what he’d ever done to deserve Riley’s faith and loyalty in him—God knew he’d actually done a lot of things that proved the opposite—but he wasn’t ever going to turn them down.

“You got this,” Riley said quietly.

Aidan cleared his throat. He was nearly to his building.

Levi would be waiting for him upstairs. He might not be able to do it tonight, but maybe in the next few days?

He’d need to work up the nerve. Find the right scenario.

Moretti’s wasn’t the right date-night vibe, not for a love confession, but there were lots of places he could take Levi.

Even during a week that was full of game preparation, like this week. He’d make the time, damnit.

Riley was right. He was Aidan fucking Flynn, and he was going to get his man.

“Thanks, bro,” Aidan said. “God, I mean it. I know I was shitty to you—”

“No,” Riley said firmly. “I mean, yeah, you were definitely overprotective, and you overstepped one time or ten—”

“Or a hundred,” Aidan corrected.

Riley laughed. “Or a hundred. But you listened, when I told you how I felt about it. And you haven’t, not a single moment since.

Been scrupulous about it. Maybe even too scrupulous, if I’m being honest. So don’t say you were shitty.

You made it possible for me to have this life, this career, even my guy.

’Cause you were right about so many things.

It’s tough to be a quarterback in the NFL.

I’m only tough enough because you made sure I was. ”

“Did my best,” Aidan said, throat clenching tight.

“Did the best,” Riley said quietly. “Keep me posted, okay?”

“Okay,” Aidan said.

“And you’ll tell Landry, right?”

Aidan choked out a laugh. “You promise he’s not gonna hit me in the face?”

“Did you hit him in the face when we got together?”

“Thought about it—but no. I was happy for you. Knew you deserved someone good. Someone like him.”

“Exactly.” Riley sounded smug now. “You think he’s gonna feel any different?”

Aidan really hoped not.

“There you go,” Riley said after Aidan was quiet. “Now I gotta go. He’s gonna get suspicious, and you will be the one telling him. Not me, okay?”

“Okay,” Aidan promised.

Aidan parked the car after he’d hung up with Riley. Grabbed his bag and headed up in the elevator to his condo.

He told himself firmly during the ride that he was not going to see Levi and immediately be tempted to confess.

He was going to take his time. Formulate his approach. Time it right. The way he approached game prep, or when he was on the field and he took that extra half second to make sure the play unfolded exactly the way it needed to.

But then he walked into the condo and there Levi was on the couch, shirt off and the shortest shorts known to man clinging to his thighs. Neon pink fucking shorts.

Levi grinned at him. “Hey, bro,” he said.

Riley had just called him bro like half a dozen times and it had never done anything to his insides, but Levi did it, and Aidan wanted to drop to his knees and press his mouth to all that inner thigh that was currently showing.

But he couldn’t. He couldn’t. Not until he told Levi everything. Not until he told Levi what he really wanted.

“Thought you’d . . .uh . . .be in bed.” In my bed.

“That’s where you want me, huh?” Levi teased. He patted the couch next to him. Right next to him. “Come here, babe.”

Babe not during sex was new. It made Aidan hot under the collar.

He hadn’t thought it would be so difficult to resist a seduction. But then resisting Levi’s seduction was another thing entirely.

“Um,” Aidan hesitated.

Levi shifted on the couch, and the neon pink fabric of his shorts crawled up his thighs, revealing another inch of skin.

“Fuck,” Aidan muttered under his breath. He was moving to the couch before he even registered that he’d given in.

“That’s better,” Levi said smugly, like he knew just how much he was leading Aidan around by the dick.

Damnit, that shouldn’t have been hot. But it was getting Aidan there, for sure.

“Let’s play,” Levi said, reaching out for the controllers. He handed one to Aidan, and when he settled back onto the couch, his arm was around the back of the couch, his fingertips brushing the edge of Aidan’s shoulder. It wasn’t much of a touch, but it lit him on fire.

Aidan made the mistake of glancing down, and the stupid neon pink fabric of Levi’s shorts was cupping his dick, clearly half hard and getting harder by the second. Just because Aidan was sitting pressed up against him.

Aidan was not proud. He scrambled back, Levi eyeing him steadily the whole time. Like he’d known exactly how he was seducing Aidan and also like Aidan panicking was hardly surprising.

“Dude,” Levi said flatly. He tossed his controller onto the coffee table. “What the fuck is going on with you?”

Aidan licked his lips. “Are you trying to seduce me?”

“And doing a piss-poor job of it if you’re running away from me,” Levi retorted.

Aidan opened his mouth and then snapped it shut again. “I can’t. I want to, but I can’t.”

“Why the fuck not? You want me, I can tell. The shorts never fail.”

“The shorts are . . .” Aidan glanced down at them again and felt his heart rate pick up. “We’re gonna revisit the shorts, for sure.”

“Why not visit them now?” Levi asked.

“I can’t,” Aidan repeated. “I can’t, not until you know about Mo.”

It was crazy how fast Levi’s expression morphed from amused seduction to something intensely feral.

“What about Mo?” he demanded.

God, this was not the way he’d wanted to do this. In a ratty T-shirt and a pair of shorts that had seen better days, in his living room, Mario Kart music playing in the background.

Levi wearing neon pink shorts. Just neon pink shorts.

It was either the most awful atmosphere for romance or the most perfect moment for them. Maybe it didn’t matter. Maybe that was really what Riley had been trying to say. That the extra half second didn’t matter, in this, and maybe he only needed to just make the throw.

“The other night, Mo told me that he might’ve been wrong.”

“Wrong?” Levi asked flatly.

“About me. About his feelings.”

“And what, he loves you too, now?”

“Um well, maybe?” Aidan was vaguely aware he was not handling this well. The growing thundercloud on Levi’s face told the whole story.

Levi stood up suddenly. “I can’t listen to this,” he said, sounding awful.

A second later he was striding towards the door, like he was going to leave now, only wearing that tiny pair of shorts. Aidan scrambled to follow him.

“Where are you going?” Aidan asked. Three quarters of his brain was panicking, because he hadn’t done a good job expressing his feelings—shocking, really—though one quarter was cheering because why else would Levi be pissed if he didn’t care?

If he didn’t care, he’d just leave Aidan to Mo.

“I told you,” Levi ground out, “I can’t listen to you telling me you want Mo. That who you really love is him. I know you do. You told me. And I was too stupid to listen.”

Aidan grabbed his arm right before he opened the front door. “You are being stupid,” he said.

Levi made a face and tried to shake him free, but Aidan wouldn’t let go.

Riley had told him he was Aidan Flynn, and he was. He wasn’t going to let his stupid guy go, no matter how ridiculous he was being.

“Just let me go,” he begged.

“I’m trying to fucking tell you that you don’t have to,” Aidan ground out. “If you would wait for a single second, I’d tell you that I know if I gave it a go with Mo, it would only be out of obligation, because I loved him before. He’s not who I want now.”

Levi froze.

“You stupid man,” Aidan said, and it was nothing like how he’d envisioned it, no roses or candlelight or sweet words, “you’re who I want.”

“What?” Levi asked, jaw dropped.

“I love you,” Aidan said. He was, no question, the tallest guy in the world. He’d gotten the words out, and once he’d said them, he realized just how true they were.

“I love you,” he repeated, because now that he knew, it was like he couldn’t stop saying it, especially when Levi was gazing at him like he’d just gone seventeen and zero in the regular season, and the Lombardi trophy was practically in his hands already.

“I’m stupid? You’re the stupidest. I love you so fucking much,” Levi said and kissed him.

Levi didn’t think anyone would blame him for lifting his mouth every five seconds, even though he had Aidan Flynn underneath him, squirming like he was dying for it, despite just having sex, to say, again, “I love you.”