Page 53 of Perfect Storm (Toronto Thunder #1)

They’d stumbled to the bedroom—to their bedroom, Levi was already calling it in his head, his heart full of joy—and Aidan had barely managed to wrench his pink shorts off, before they’d fallen into each other.

It hadn’t been particularly pretty or memorable. Except that yes, Levi decided, it had been. The first orgasm he’d ever had while being in love and being loved in return.

Who cared if it was the most basic handjob, if Aidan had been looking at him like that during it? Like he was everything Aidan wanted, the look in his dark blue eyes making Levi breathless with joy.

Aidan grinned. “You gonna keep saying it?”

“You gonna stop me?”

Even though Aidan tucked his head into the crook of Levi’s neck, he could feel how big Aidan’s smile still was. “Might try.”

“Nah, you won’t,” Levi said smugly. “You like it.”

Aidan hummed under his breath, agreeing without words.

Levi’s hand stroked his back, wondering as he did how Aidan’s skin could be so soft when he showered so often in the crappy practice facilities.

“I’m gonna have to tell Mo about this,” Aidan murmured into the silence.

Levi, who’d spent the last forty-eight hours eating his heart out with jealousy over the guy and what he’d believed he had that Levi never, ever would, suddenly felt horribly bad for the guy.

“Shit, yeah,” Levi mumbled. There was more he wanted to ask—more he probably should know about that whole situation—but he was afraid to puncture the blissful bubble with Mo-related questions.

“Not right away, but at some point,” Aidan clarified.

“What did you tell him?” Levi gave up; he couldn’t help it. Did you tell him about me?

“Just that I was surprised. Shocked, really. I thought about telling him about you, but I didn’t. Didn’t know if I should.” Aidan made a self-deprecating noise. He’d probably handled it better and with more grace than lots of other people would’ve, but no big surprise, he was being hard on himself.

“And then,” Aidan continued, still with that thread of guilt in his voice, “I was weird to you, after.”

“Bro, it was a weird situation,” Levi reassured him. “I wasn’t . . .” Okay, he kind of had been, but that wasn’t Aidan’s fault. “I was jealous, sure, yeah, because I was crazy about you, and I thought you were crazy about him.”

“Not anymore.” Aidan hesitated. “You believe that, right? I don’t want—I don’t want you to be worrying about him all the time—”

“Stop it,” Levi interrupted, before Aidan could spiral into more overthinking.

“But—”

“I’m serious,” Levi retorted. “We’re good. I believe you. This . . .” He stroked Aidan’s back pointedly this time, so he knew exactly what Levi was talking about. “It’s so damn good, I wouldn’t doubt it. Couldn’t.”

“Okay.” Aidan let out a breath. “Okay.”

“Yeah, fucking breathe, bro.”

The smile was back on Aidan’s face, which Levi was having trouble not being smug about again. “What happened to not calling me bro in bed?”

“What happened is that I figured out how hot it makes you.”

Aidan rolled his eyes. “It does not.”

“Yeah, it fucking does,” Levi gloated. How was he supposed to not? When Aidan wanted—loved—him, and looked like that about it?

“We’re also going to have to tell them,” Aidan said changing the subject but not bothering to clarify who them were. He didn’t have to, because it was obvious who he was referring to. Their collective brothers.

Levi froze and Aidan lifted his head. He nearly pulled him right back down, but Aidan was staring at him in that way that meant they should probably talk about this.

“I told Riley,” Aidan added.

“How did that go?”

“Riley told me to get my head out of my ass.” Aidan sounded delighted by this, and wasn’t that a fucking trip? “But he also told me that I had to tell Landry. Not that I didn’t want to.”

“Right,” Levi agreed.

It wasn’t like Levi was particularly worried that his brothers or Lyla would lose their shit. Landry loved Aidan. Logan mostly tolerated him, but he only wanted Levi to be happy, and if Aidan made him happy, that was all he’d care about.

Lyla would make a face and tell him that if Aidan was really who he wanted, then he shouldn’t let him go.

Well, that wasn’t going to be a problem. Levi was holding on tight, and nobody—not Mo, not his brothers, not anyone—was ever going to make him let go.

“I’m not worried,” Aidan said. “Just . . .are they gonna freak out?”

Levi chuckled, amused at how alike they really were, under all their external trappings. “Probably. You wanna do it on Sunday?”

“We should,” Aidan said hesitantly. “Before or after?”

“After. You’re already gonna be a fucking mess before the game,” Levi said.

Aidan squawked and elbowed Levi gently in the side. “I am not. I’m gonna be chill and prepared and ready to go win a game. Finally.”

“Right. So freaking out underneath all that chill-ness.”

Aidan groaned.

“I know you, bro.”

Aidan settled back on Levi, chin on his chest, blue eyes full of that look that Levi knew was love, now.

“Yeah, you do,” Aidan said, and Levi knew, no matter what happened on Sunday—before or during or after the game—they were going to be fine.

More than fine.