Page 16 of Puck My Stepbrother (Pucked and Possessed #2)

LEVI

S ome people play hard to get. Fine by me.

Quinn Standish could play hard for get for a living, but he had limits like anyone else.

Sooner or later, I’d break through. Besides, I knew how he operated.

I’d had him once already and, though I hadn’t repeated that triumph, I knew I could knock down his walls of resistance eventually. I only needed to stay the course.

When I stopped him in the upstairs hall, I flashed a smile, broadcasting my interest. I reminded him that my bedroom door was always open and that he could drop in any time.

I would always be ready for him.

“Okay, hold on,” Quinn said. “This is getting ridiculous.”

“What is?”

“You, that’s what.”

I smiled again. You’ve got to do that when the Quinns of the world try to claim the upper hand. If you don’t take their resistance seriously, you can stay in the driver’s seat no matter what.

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“You know what I mean. Everything that’s happened since we moved into this house.

I thought you might’ve given up after we had sex that first time—that one and only time—because it satisfied your little conquest. But it didn’t.

It’s like getting it once made you hungrier, and now you’ll never be satisfied. ”

“Don’t you know you can never have too much of a good thing?”

I hooked an arm around Quinn, my hand cupping and squeezing his backside. He enjoyed that. Sure, he would’ve denied it to himself, but he couldn’t resist once I made contact.

“It’s not about it being a good thing,” he said.

“But you liked it, didn’t you? You wanted it, right?”

He wouldn’t answer. Instead, he maintained his strong front like he actually stood a chance against me.

“I’ve noticed the way you look at me,” I said. “And it’s not new, either. You’ve always wanted me. I can tell. I’ve always been the object of your desire, and I’m giving you what you’ve always wanted. So what’s the problem?”

“Levi, you think everybody wants you. That’s how you Neanderthals work. You think everyone wants a slice.”

I laughed a little because I could react no other way. Neanderthal? That was good. I ranked right up there with knuckle-draggers and troglodytes…but I wouldn’t give my stepbrother-to-be any ideas for what to call me next.

“You know what I’m annoyed about, don’t you?” he asked. “You know, the fact that you bullied the shit out of me for years. You made my life miserable. And now you want to jump my bones every night like it’s your God-given right. It just doesn’t make sense.”

“It makes all the sense in the world, dude.”

Again, he paused like I’d spoken nonsense.

“You never noticed, huh?” I asked.

“What are you talking about?”

“All those years in school, when I was taking your lunch money and stuffing you into lockers…I totally had a thing for you.”

He fell silent. You know that saying about hearing a pin drop? Well, you really could have at that moment. Then he shook his head slightly.

“You’re so full of shit,” he said.

“No, I’m not. I swear on the Stanley Cup that during all those years I bullied you, I actually liked you. This is nothing new at all.”

“You swear on the Stanley Cup? Woooooow, you really must be serious.”

“Come on, man, don’t you know how hard it is for someone like me to admit that?”

“I don’t think it’s hard for you at all. Didn’t I just tell you you’re full of shit? I’m sure you’d say anything to get laid.”

I stopped. He had a point there. I’d say a lot of things for a roll in the hay, but I’d told him God’s honest truth. Now I needed him to believe it.

“No way, bro,” I said. “This was a long time coming. When I learned we’d be living in the same house…something deep down inside me really went crazy. I finally had an opportunity to do something I couldn’t have done before. Have you ever wanted to make up for a missed opportunity?”

“Does it matter? And besides, you got what you wanted. I don’t give a shit if you say you had a crush on one guy.”

“It wasn’t a crush on just one guy. It’s a little more complicated than that. I sometimes looked at other guys that way, but that came later. You were my first.”

I hadn’t planned to tell him any of this. In a way, I felt like a weakling for admitting it. I’d kept that info under lock and key for so long, but I had to tell him something. The story demanded to be told, I guess. Now that I had the juices flowing, I felt compelled to continue.

“It all started in the seventh grade,” I said.

“Hold on, timeout.” He made a T with his hands. “How could it have started in the seventh grade? You started bullying me the moment you arrived at our school in the fifth grade.”

“I know I did. I was a bit of an asshole.”

“A lot more than a bit—and you still are.”

“Thank you very much. And I bullied you back then because you were an easy target.”

He gasped like he found that shocking.

“Sorry,” I said. “It’s true.”

“Thanks a bunch, Levi. Why don’t you go ahead and tell your story?”

“Anyway, I saw you sitting there, usually with a book in your hand, always by yourself, and I couldn’t stop looking at you. Sometimes, I looked for way too long.”

Quinn’s expression didn’t change, but I knew I had him hooked now.

“So, I kept admiring you,” I said, “even if it didn’t seem right.”

“Because I have a penis?”

“Right. That and this was around the time that I, and all the other boys in class, were discovering girls.”

“And I was discovering boys.”

“Sure. I’d discovered girls mostly. I did discover a few other boys, but that came a little later. It all started with you, Quinn—and it never ended.”

He paused like he wanted to point to himself and make one hundred percent sure I really was talking about him. That he didn’t argue meant everything. That implied he believed what I’d told him, as he should have—it was the truth, after all.

“So yeah,” I said. “I would see you sitting there, and I couldn’t help but notice how good-looking you were.”

“Give me a break. I’ve never felt good-looking a day in my life.”

“I don’t care. I’ve always thought you were the hottest thing going on. It didn’t matter that you didn’t think so yourself. And I didn’t give a fuck what anyone else said.”

Now Quinn drew a deep breath and considered what I’d told him. Maybe I wasn’t some pig-headed jock on a mission to jump into his pants to satisfy my primal lust.

“Okay, so you were in love with me,” he said. “And you?—”

“Whoa, whoa, hold on now. Let’s not get big-headed. I said I’d discovered you. I didn’t say anything about love.”

His head hung a little, like that disappointed him.

“I discovered you,” I said, “and realized I liked you the same way I liked some of the girls in school.”

“But you just couldn’t handle it? It drove you nuts?”

“I wouldn’t go that far.”

“Well, I would. You stuffed me in a locker, for Christ’s sake.”

“Oh, Quinn, are we still on that?”

“The teachers couldn’t get the door open one time. They actually had to get the maintenance guy to come down with his toolkit and remove the door.”

I knew better than to challenge him on that. He could live in the past if he wanted to; I only cared about today.

“That stuff’s not the point, Quinn. Besides, you’re the one who wanted answers from me, and now I’m giving them to you. Do you want to hear them or not?”

“I want to hear them.”

“So yeah, I noticed you, your ginger hair and face that I found irresistible. But that couldn’t be right. I didn’t really like you. I liked girls and only girls. Whatever I felt that first time…I thought it would go away.”

“But it didn’t.”

“Exactly. It didn’t. I noticed you once, sure, but then I noticed you a second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth time. And then I lost count altogether. I gave up on the idea that nothing was there, and the idea that my feelings would disappear.

“By high school, the feeling grew stronger. That’s when it became a problem.

My attraction ballooned, becoming enormous, and I couldn’t stop it.

That was harder for me. Guys I knew were starting to have girlfriends.

Real girlfriends, I mean, not that elementary school bullshit.

I had plenty of those, but I still noticed you.

I still wanted you and wondered what could be. ”

“And in all that time, didn’t you think of telling me this, instead of kicking my ass and making me wish I was never born?”

“You know I couldn’t have done that. It would’ve been a disaster. And hey, why didn’t you tell me you were crushing on me like crazy?”

Quinn quarter-turned like he was going to deny ever having feelings for me. I knew better, though.

“Look, if you want answers, there they are,” I said. “I didn’t do it because I hated you. It was because…”

“Because you actually liked me.”

“Right. That’s what I’ve been trying to say.”

“Yeah, well, that really doesn’t help me at all, does it? Like, I went through a lot of shit because of you. Would an apology be so hard?”

“Do I really need to do that? The past is the past, bro.”

“It obviously isn’t, though. You’re still living in it as much as I am.”

“No, I’m just telling you how I got to the present.”

“Come talk to me when you’re willing to humble yourself.”

And then he turned and marched down the hall to his room. That’s right: he’d avoided the inevitable yet again, but I didn’t feel deterred. He’d made me realize something. In school, I’d developed an undeniable attraction to him that grew and grew, but I couldn’t do anything about it.

Now that we lived in the same house, that attraction had taken on a different form. And then Quinn had used a word I hadn’t dared consider before…but now that he had, the feeling nagged at me and wouldn’t let go.

Maybe it really was love after all.