Page 38 of Puck My Stepbrother (Pucked and Possessed #2)

LEVI

W e didn’t have sex. Seriously. Even though our parents would be out of town for most of the week and we could’ve fucked each other’s brains out in every room in the house, we kept our hands to ourselves.

That wasn’t my usual style. Quinn said I was the horniest man on Earth, but I was modest enough to say I was only in the top five.

Seriously though, I was a very sexual person, but that side of me had taken a backseat.

Looking at Quinn seemed like enough for me, at least for the moment.

Soaking it all in felt exhilarating because being with Quinn mattered more than anything.

I still wanted him as badly as ever. That wasn’t the issue.

Something had changed, sure. I now understood that what I felt for Quinn reached far beyond feeling his firm body or kissing those sweet lips.

Conversations with Quinn stimulated me, but sometimes we didn’t even have to talk. Just being in the same room with Quinn Standish satisfied me. But I wouldn’t call our situation perfect. We hadn’t reached that stage, but I’d fix that problem shortly.

When I strolled into the kitchen, I found Quinn seated at the table with his notebook open, writing.

He tilted his head back and I leaned down to kiss his lips.

I smiled at him, knowing I could get used to this.

Too bad our parents would return home in a few days, which meant we wouldn’t be able to act so openly.

I would rectify that before long, too. Until then, I wouldn’t worry about the challenges ahead.

I wanted to live in the moment as much as possible.

I dragged out a chair, turned it backward, and sat. Then I leaned over the table to spy on Quinn’s writing.

“Whatcha working on?” I asked.

“Short story. An idea came to me last night and it won’t let go, so I’m getting as much of it down on paper as I can.”

“Cool.”

Hearing that reminded me of the little things about Quinn that’d captured my heart. He thought differently than I did. He could do so many things I couldn’t, even in my wildest dreams.

For the first time, I felt unsure of what to say to him. I knew what was on my mind, but I enjoyed just sitting at the kitchen table with him.

“You really meant what you said the other day, didn’t you?” I asked.

“Which part? When I said I love you?”

“Yeah, that’s the one.”

“Of course I did. You know I would never say something like that if I didn’t mean it.”

“Of course not. Sorry, I’m getting a little screwed up here. I guess what I’m asking is, are we a couple now? Like a real one?”

He half-shrugged, like he hadn’t thought about it one way or another. Some things just fall into place without spoken acknowledgment. Kind of like how I would’ve known he loved me even if he hadn’t come right out and said it. To reach my endgame, I needed to make sure we were on the same page.

He said, “If this is about telling people we’re together, I think we?—”

I reached out and took his hand.

“Don’t worry about that stuff,” I said. “That’s not what I was going to ask you about.”

“It wasn’t?”

I shook my head.

“I just needed to be totally sure we were on the same page. I’ve never really been in a relationship before.”

Quinn’s eyes grew large, like I’d made the most preposterous comment he’d ever heard.

“That’s not true, Levi. Didn’t you say you had like a million girlfriends?”

“Maybe not a million. Five hundred thousand or so, but never a steady one. Never a girl I focused all my time, attention, and love on.”

Using that word in connection with any of the women I’d dated felt funny. Only then did I realize I hadn’t come close to loving any of them. I’d been playing the field and having a good time. I didn’t love them, but back then I didn’t know what love was.

I hadn’t learned how real love felt until Quinn and I had become a real couple.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that sounds touchy-feely for a guy who spends most of his time crushing skulls on the ice. A real Hallmark movie. But it was the truth. I didn’t feel ashamed to speak that truth to Quinn.

“Seriously?” he asked.

“Uh-huh.”

My boyfriend’s eyes shifted away as he pondered that.

Would you listen to me? My boyfriend. I hadn’t called him the love of my life (which he totally was) but even giving him that simple title felt so bold, so freeing. I wanted to use it at every opportunity.

I pulled my hand away from my boyfriend and sat back, admiring him.

“You’ve got a reason for bringing this up,” Quinn said. “Why don’t you go ahead and tell me what’s on your mind?”

“We’re boyfriends now, but we’ve never gone on a real date.”

“So?”

“So I think that’s kind of shitty, don’t you?”

“I hadn’t thought about it one way or another. It just is what it is.”

I didn’t remind him that surprising him in the shower was far from the normal way people get together.

Still, my mind drifted back to that night, and I relived the excitement I’d felt.

I wouldn’t have taken that back for anything.

After all, it’d gotten the ball rolling and opened Quinn up to an endless supply of opportunities.

Now I wanted our relationship to be about more than sexual thrills. I wanted something more meaningful.

“When you think about it,” Quinn said, “I’ve never been in a true relationship.”

“What about Jeff?”

“I don’t count that. I wasn’t all-in on him, even if I didn’t realize it. I guess we had enough normal dates building up to what we did have, though.”

“Right. I want us to have something special, a night we can remember forever. I don’t want our first memories together to be so weird.”

He half-smiled at that, like he felt relieved that I at least recognized how crazy my behavior had been in the beginning.

“You’re a romantic, aren’t you?” I asked.

“Fuck no. I’m probably the least romantic person you’ll ever meet.”

“Do you want to change that?”

He paused again, probably thinking I was the strangest person on the entire planet.

“I don’t know, Levi. Would it make a difference?”

“Of course it would. After everything we’ve been through together, it only makes sense to reward ourselves.”

He took a moment to think it over. I didn’t sweat it. Quinn always made the right move in the end.

Finally, he said, “Okay, Levi, you’re on. What did you have in mind?”

I rubbed my hands together.

“We’re going to have a really nice dinner out, that’s what,” I said. “Best place in Buffalo. You pick the restaurant.”

“No, you pick the restaurant. Surprise me.”

“Are you sure?”

“I trust you.”

Hearing those three words meant more to me than anyone could ever know, because I understood the meaning behind them.

If my boyfriend trusted me, he didn’t fear me.

Any scars I’d inflicted on him had healed.

I wasn’t his bully anymore, and he was no longer my whipping boy. The past was truly behind us.

“I know a great place,” I said. “And I’ll keep it a secret until we go.”

“Awesome.”

“So we’ll start with dinner and then go from there?”

“Sure, but if we’re going to have a magical first date, we can’t just stop at dinner.”

“Of course not. It’s Buffalo. There’s plenty for us to do.”

When he rolled his eyes, I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Listen, we can play the whole thing by ear,” I said. “After all, you can’t plan magic, can you?”

He shrugged again.

I reflected on the night we’d danced together outside the reception hall and how magical that’d felt, and reminded myself that none of it had been planned.

“Like I said, you should surprise me,” he said. “I trust you.”

Those three words again…