Page 5 of Puck My Stepbrother (Pucked and Possessed #2)

QUINN

O kay, you’re not going to believe what I found when I came home the next day. Levi, standing in my bedroom.

Seriously.

I came home, set my knapsack down at the front door, ran upstairs, and found Levi Dunn standing in my bedroom and browsing my bookshelf all casually, like he was at fucking Wal-Mart or something.

Oh my God, I can’t tell you how mortified I felt at that moment.

No, I didn’t clap a hand over my mouth, because I couldn’t give my shock away.

But my chest tightened and my entire body tensed.

I wanted to shout at him and demand he tell me what the hell he was doing.

Only I couldn’t do that. Because he was Levi Dunn.

Instead, I stood in the doorway, watching him and getting a feel for exactly what he was doing in here. And, of course, I was waiting for him to notice that I was there. Honest to God, he acted like he had every right in the world to enter my bedroom whenever he wanted.

Finally, he turned, and only the mildest look of surprise appeared on his face. He didn’t jump, gasp, or do anything you’d normally associate with someone caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

The colossal asshole smiled at me and said, “Hey, look who’s home.”

And get this: he said it like he’d done absolutely nothing wrong. I wasn’t joking about him being cavalier about all the bad shit he did. This was more proof.

But I couldn’t let this go. I had to say something and not back down.

“What are you doing in my room?” I asked.

“Oh, don’t worry, Quim. It’s nothing. I just wanted to borrow something.”

“Like what?”

He smiled hugely. My future stepbrother had no answer for that. Of course he didn’t. He was full of shit, that’s why. The only thing I couldn’t figure out was what in my room could’ve interested him to begin with.

He shuffled up to me, but didn’t stop outside my personal space like most people would. Normal people, I mean. Not Levi Dunn. He stepped right into it, invading my space like he’d done at the breakfast table.

Like so many other things, that was oh-so Levi Dunn.

My problem wasn’t that someone had entered my bedroom without permission.

It was that Levi Dunn had done it. All at once, elementary school memories flooded back.

I remembered the time he’d stolen papers from inside my desk and run around the classroom, tossing them away one by one like flower petals at a wedding.

And then I remembered a time in the seventh grade when he’d swiped food from the top shelf of my locker while I was standing there with the door open.

He’d tucked the sandwich under his coat and tried to run away.

I’d caught him and demanded it back, but he’d insisted that he didn’t have anything.

You know, like I hadn’t clearly seen him swipe it.

Eventually I got the sandwich back, but only after complaining to the teacher.

And now I’d found him in my bedroom doing God knows what. And who knew how much stuff he’d snooped through before I arrived. To say nothing was sacred anymore would’ve been an understatement.

But I couldn’t deny feeling tense in a different way now.

He was standing so close to me, like his body could brush against mine at any moment.

But he didn’t do it. Not yet. I wanted it to happen so badly.

I longed to feel him in the worst way…but I also didn’t want that to happen.

This was Levi Dunn, the worst bully on earth.

He was older now, but he probably hadn’t changed all that much.

He’d made my youth miserable. As an adult, I couldn’t let him drive me crazy.

“That’s quite a library you’ve got there.” He said it the way someone would say, My, you’ve got a mighty big dick there, partner .

“That’s not all of it,” I said.

“Seriously?”

“Uh-huh. I’ve still got boxes of books at the old house that need to be moved over here before the new people move in over there. I haven’t figured out what I’m going to do with them all.”

“That many, huh?”

“I’m terrible at getting rid of books I don’t need. The only area where I’m worse is that I can’t say no to bringing a new book home.”

“I’ll say. I might as well call your bedroom the library .”

He spoke like he genuinely considered that the funniest thing ever. When it comes to the Levi Dunns of the world, that’s bad news.

“And speaking of which,” I said, “you still haven’t told me why you’re in my room to begin with.”

“I told you, didn’t I?”

“To borrow something, right?”

“Right.”

“And I asked you what you needed to borrow so badly that you couldn’t wait until I came home so you could ask my permission. But you didn’t answer.”

He stuttered a little at first, and I knew that any answer coming out of his mouth would be a total crock of shit.

Matter of fact, I would’ve known it was a crock of shit even if he hadn’t stuttered.

This was Levi Dunn we’re talking about. He wasn’t exactly a smooth talker.

He was the kind of guy who had always done—and taken—whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted it.

Excuses would only be tacked on as a means to shut me up.

He didn’t care what he did or who he offended.

He was Levi Dunn.

“I found it.” He took a copy of It by Stephen King off the shelf. “I saw the two movies they made from it. Fucking awesome, bro, fucking awesome. Now I can read the book. You talked so much about books and writing that I couldn’t help being sort of curious.”

“Oh?”

“That’s right. I told you I don’t read books outside of school, but every now and then I’ve wanted to, though. That conversation we had at breakfast got me thinking. I wanted to read something. And look at this: a really big book.”

“Why not try the Crane Branch Library on Elmwood?”

He laughed and clapped my shoulder, his go-to response any time I had him dead to rights.

“Why go all the way to the public library when you’ve got a complete collection under your own roof?” he asked.

Because that collection lives in my bedroom, you knuckle-dragging asshole , I wanted to say.

And I could’ve told him he’d done it only because my bedroom was off-limits.

Even better, I could’ve told him that my privacy needed to count for something.

And really, anyone with an ounce of decency would’ve observed at least the most common-sense boundaries.

Or, to say it plainly, they’d stay the fuck out.

But again, this was Levi Dunn.

He was the drop-dead gorgeous hockey stud for whom no rules applied. He’d carried that distinction into adulthood, as I’d already seen. I could’ve protested until I was blue in the face, but that wouldn’t have?—

Now he brushed up against me. Oh my God. My heartbeat quickened and every muscle in my body tensed. I drew a deep breath. That was the one thing I found uncharacteristic of the old Levi—he’d never brushed up against me or invaded my personal space like this.

Something had changed.

It hadn’t been an accident, couldn’t have been. Okay, I’ll say it plainly: his brushing against me was the most obvious thing on the planet.

I felt his rock-solid muscle. I wish I felt the bulge I’d seen straining against his towel, but that was asking too much, I guess. But I swore I felt his warm breath on my neck. That forced me to draw another deep breath just to cope. A hard-on stiffened in my pants, and I couldn’t stop it.

I had to fight this.

“The Stephen King books were cool,” he said, “but I was curious about a couple titles I saw.”

“Which ones?”

“The ones that were written by Christopher Rice: A Density of Souls and The Snow Garden .”

“What about them?”

“When I looked at the back covers, they seemed like they were written by…”

“A gay guy?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s because they were written by a gay guy. Before you ask, the answer is yes, he writes about gay characters and themes, too.”

He lifted an eyebrow only slightly. Not enough to convey any kind of shock or dismay.

Levi paused, like he had another question, but even someone as direct as him couldn’t ask plainly.

“So…?” he asked.

“I read them because I’m gay.”

Normally, I wouldn’t have had such a hard time saying it. I was out to everyone, so it was no secret. But something about saying it to someone who’d bullied me so badly felt different. You know, like he could tear down everything positive I’d built up whenever he wanted.

“That’s cool.”

He said it like he really had no problem with it at all. If I didn’t know better, I would’ve sworn he really did find it cool.

“Look,” I said, “I don’t want to get away from the most important topic here. I just found you in my room. I don’t want you in here without my permission ever again. Got it?”

“But we’re going to be brothers.”

“ Step brothers, Levi. Step . And you’ve already taken one room in this house from me. Can’t you let me have the room I did get?”

He laughed out loud and clapped my back again.

As you know by now, that’s as close to an admission of guilt as he was willing to get.

But I wouldn’t stop. I had to stand up to this guy.

“Of course you can,” he said. “I just figured it wasn’t such a big deal. You know you can come to my bedroom anytime you want, right?”

I didn’t really believe that. Wasn’t that the sort of thing guys like him said whenever they found themselves in a pickle?

“Well, I’m really not interested in?—”

“I meant it. My bedroom door’s open to you anytime. You know, like whenever, day or night?”

“Uh-huh.”

“And you know I don’t even have to be in there, but it would be even better if you paid me an unexpected visit while I am there. Just walk right in any time you want. It doesn’t matter what I’m in the middle of doing.”

Normally, I would’ve figured he’d said that only to weasel out of a jam. But when his body pressed against mine, I couldn’t help thinking that something else was going on here. Something totally strange.

But what?