Page 14 of Puck My Stepbrother (Pucked and Possessed #2)

LEVI

“ H ave you been avoiding me?” I asked when I stepped in front of him in the upstairs hall.

He didn’t answer at first. Typical Quinn, thinking he could avoid a problem by dodging a direct question. But I thought there was more to it this time. His lips moved even though no words came out, as if he was rehearsing what to say.

Ever since I’d fucked him in my room, my thoughts of Quinn Standish had ramped up—yes, an amazing feat given how I’d thought of my stepbrother-to-be pretty much twenty-four seven even before we had sex.

“Come on, Quinn,” I said. “I wasn’t born yesterday.

You’re gone when I wake up in the morning.

You’ve practically jailed yourself in your room by the time I get home at night.

The rare times I have seen you, you’ve darted out of sight like letting me see you would start the end of the world as we know it.

It couldn’t be more obvious that you’re avoiding me, so what’s the problem? ”

I inched up closer to Quinn so I could remind him of how great things had been the other night—and how great they could be again. He only needed to submit to me once more. I took his fingers into the palm of my hand and breathed on his neck, letting him feel my warmth.

He sucked in a deep breath and bowed his head. I knew damn well I’d softened him up. Of course I had. Every move I’d made had aimed to do exactly that.

“Are you going to answer me, bro?” I asked.

Quinn pulled back and crossed his arms, but didn’t run away. I guess he meant to put up a fight, which I totally didn’t mind. In a weird way, I found it kind of sexy.

“It can’t ever happen again,” he said.

His voice sounded so tiny and mouse-like when he spoke that I nearly asked him to repeat himself.

“What can’t happen again?” I asked.

“You know what I’m talking about, Levi. Quit playing dumb. We can’t sleep together again.”

“You don’t really mean that.”

“Of course I do. I did everything I could to not wind up in your bed the other night. The idea of ever sleeping with you again makes me want to throw up.”

I waited for him to laugh and say he was joking, but I understood he was trying to put me in my place.

“You did everything you could to avoid it,” I said, “but you gave it all up for me anyway.”

Quinn looked ready to throw his arms up in the air and scream, but he held himself in check. It was sort of comical to watch, actually. I couldn’t let him get the last word, though.

“Don’t worry about willpower,” I said. “You’re just one more person in a long line of people who can’t resist me.”

“Levi, do you have even an ounce of humility?”

“No. Maybe I should ask Santa for some for Christmas?”

“Maybe you should ask for a personality transplant while you’re at it.”

I laughed, partly to defend myself, but also because I found that genuinely funny. In fact, I put it right up there with his quip about the thought of sleeping with me again making him want to barf.

“Look, I can see why you’re freaking out about this now. You probably expected to be a virgin for the rest of your life, so you didn’t expect to finally lose your cherry to me of all people.”

“I did not expect to be a virgin for the rest of my life.”

His words sounded choppy, like each was its own sentence.

“Really?” I asked. “If you’d waited for Jeff to give you some action, you would’ve been a virgin forever.”

Now my stepbrother-to-be’s eyes narrowed and his face reddened. That didn’t deter me. After all the battles I’d fought on the ice, nothing scared me.

“I’ll have you know that I wanted Jeff to take my virginity,” he said, “not you.”

“Like I already told you, that wasn’t going to happen.”

“What do you know about Jeff, anyway?”

“I know he’s not in my league. I know he’s not right for you. And I know he wouldn’t give you the magical first time that I did.”

“There’s that humility again.”

And then he shut up once more. Quinn could fight back by mocking me, but that wouldn’t change certain truths I knew he found inconvenient. Those truths being that he wanted me and could never overcome my power, no matter how hard he tried.

“Look,” he said, “I don’t understand any of this. Like, why were you so determined to get into my pants? And why are you just as determined to get back in my pants?”

“I told you before, it’s because you’re cute. Irresistible, actually. Do I really need more reason than that?”

He paused again, lips staying still this time, like maybe he really didn’t intend to answer. He turned from me and I sidled up behind him, curling an arm around him. He stirred a little, but didn’t fuss much.

Look, you might think I’d pushed my luck with him at this point, but you need to understand some things about the guy. He was Quinn Standish, who’d always tried to resist me, but had never really been able to do it.

That meant I needed to remain persistent. Quinn hadn’t changed all that much from the kid I’d known in school. He’d tried and failed to block my every move. I only needed to weather his attempts at resistance, because he’d cave sooner than later.

“What we did doesn’t have to be a one-time thing, you know,” I said. “I told you my bedroom is open to you any time you want to stop by. You know, especially if you’re feeling frisky and are in need of service. That’s what I was getting at.”

“No shit.”

Again, an attempt to fight back and claim control over the narrative, but I wouldn’t allow it. I’d won every battle in school (if you want to call them that), and I’d keep winning now that we lived under the same roof.

I leaned in and planted kisses on his neck, but his knees didn’t give way this time.

I definitely didn’t have to hold him up because my kisses had stolen his ability to support his own weight.

Okay, I can admit that he’d put up a stronger front than usual.

And when he wiggled and pushed, I released him, rather than forcing him to fight his way out.

“Give it up, Levi,” he said. “It’s not happening. Like I told you, I don’t want to sleep with you again. In fact, I don’t want anything to do with you. I’m in love with Jeff.”

Okay, timeout. Love? Jeff? I’ll admit he really caught me off guard with that one. Judging by his stunned expression, he’d surprised himself, too. Maybe he really felt that way, but had only realized it when the words flew out of his mouth.

“Wait a second,” I said. “You love that little dork?”

“Yes, I do love that little dork.”

He paused, seeming to realize the wrong word had spilled out of his mouth—and that he couldn’t take it back.

“You know what I mean,” he said. “And he’s the greatest guy ever. Do you know why?”

“I figure you’re going to tell me one way or another, so go ahead.”

“Because he’s everything you’re not. He’s smart, he’s cultured, he’s funny, he’s?—”

“A dork.”

“I didn’t call him a dork. You did. And I really don’t give a shit what you call him. He’s still the kind of guy I’m looking for, not some meathead hockey player.”

I cupped a hand over my mouth to suppress laughter. That was even funnier than his line about how sex with me made him want to barf. Sure, he’d given me a harder fight than usual, but he still couldn’t deter me, and I saw no reason to back down.

“So I’m a meathead now, huh?”

“Yes, you are.”

“Gee, I think I’m gonna cry. You know, I might’ve preferred you calling me an asshole.”

“And see, that’s the thing about guys like you. Everything is one big joke.”

“Everything isn’t one big joke. Everything is a collection of eight hundred and forty-seven thousand little jokes.”

Quinn furrowed his brow as if to say, there you go again. But that wouldn’t stop me. I knew Quinn Standish possibly better than he knew himself, so I understood exactly how to proceed.

“You might think Jeff is a dork, a joke, not in your league, or whatever, but what are you going to say when the two of us get married?”

“Beats the hell out of me.”

“See? You’d be lost for words.”

“No, I don’t know what I’d say because that’s never happening.”

Quinn cringed like my comment disgusted him.

“Excuse me,” he said, “but since when did you become an expert on my relationship with Jeff?”

“I don’t have to be an expert on Jeff. I’m an expert on Quinn Standish, and that’s all that really matters.”

He rolled his eyes like he thought that continuing an argument with me would be pointless. He was one hundred percent right, because I had the answer to every response he could possibly throw at me.

“You believe what you want, but I love Jeff and I know we have a serious future together. Period.”

“Are you going to tell him you love him?”

Quinn paused and then stood tall, puffing his chest out like he didn’t have the answer to that. Nice try.

“Jeff’s the only guy for me,” he said. “And I’m not looking back.”

And then he stomped down the hall to his room before I could say anything else. He slammed the door as if to add an exclamation point. But I wouldn’t give up. Hockey had taught me that you don’t stop until you’re truly beat.

And we were a long way from the end of this game.