Page 6 of Puck My Stepbrother (Pucked and Possessed #2)

LEVI

A fter Quinn caught me in his bedroom, I knew I wanted him.

That doesn’t sound right. I’d wanted him for a long time.

Wanting Quinn wasn’t new, but brushing up against my stepbrother-to-be like that, experiencing his body in even the smallest way, was different.

So, that moment didn’t tell me I wanted him. It told me I could have him.

Oh yeah, learning he was gay and not particularly shy about it helped, but I couldn’t let it rest there. I needed to take the next step.

I found him at the dining room table later, writing in his notebook. Instead of taking the chair opposite him, I decided to sit right beside him.

You know, get up nice and close.

“Working on your novel?” I asked.

“Uh-huh.”

“Going okay?”

“Sure.”

“Don’t like to talk about your writing much, do you?”

He shrugged. “I guess I figure people wouldn’t really understand if I explained it to them.”

“That makes sense.”

I peered down at Quinn’s hand as he continued to write. That hot, tingly feeling returned. Something about watching him write in his notebook was sexy as hell to me. Don’t ask why—I can’t tell you exactly what it was about Quinn that made me ache with desire.

This felt so different from usual. Normally people had more to say when I fired off questions. Quinn seemed standoffish, and I knew he was trying to be difficult.

That was okay. I liked a challenge.

“So, when did you know you were gay?” I asked.

“Huh?”

“Honest question. You told me you were gay yesterday. Got me thinking a little. Just wondered when you knew.”

He paused as if unsure which answer to give: the honest one, a half-truth, or something completely made up.

“Young.”

And he left it at that.

“How young is young?” I asked. “Like, sophomore year in high school? Freshman year?”

“You really never knew?”

I shook my head. “Nope. Not until you mentioned it yesterday.”

That wasn’t completely true, but it didn’t matter.

I’d had some idea that he was gay when we were in school together.

For the most part, that idea came from dumb jokes people made (although I’d been responsible for most of those cracks), but I’d never known for sure if he really was.

But then his hard-on from seeing me in a towel confirmed it.

The books I’d found in his room were nothing compared to that raging erection.

“If you really want to know,” he said, “I knew in elementary school. You know, if you want to get technical.”

“Technical about what?”

“Technical about when I knew, not when I came out. I didn’t even come out to myself until long after I knew about it. I noticed boys from a very early age and never looked at girls that way. But I wouldn’t have used a term like ‘gay.’ At least not back then.”

“Then what did you call it?”

“I didn’t call it anything. It just was what it was.”

I paused for a moment, admiring his profile and the freckles on his cheek.

My stepbrother-to-be looked great from any angle.

I knew it didn’t make a lot of sense. You know what I mean.

I was a big, muscular hockey player. If I liked guys, you’d expect me to take interest in guys who looked and acted like me.

I shouldn’t have felt so powerfully drawn to someone who looked and acted like Quinn.

But I couldn’t help myself. I couldn’t stop looking at him, either. I found Quinn so beautiful, so sexy, so…

Time to go for it. I could inch up even closer to him than in his room and rest a hand on his leg. If he had a hard-on again, I could slip my hand over it and squeeze. And he would moan with pleasure. No way on Earth would he not react to that.

So I scooted up beside him, leaving almost zero space between us. He didn’t back away, which I took as a good sign. I wanted him to feel hot and tense first. I would wait until exactly the right moment to put my hand on his leg.

“By the time I was in high school,” he said, “I knew for sure. Like, I could put a label on it. I knew I liked guys and only guys. I was gay. That was the only word I could use.”

“How did your dad take it?”

“Fine, I guess. He didn’t get mad, didn’t seem bothered or disappointed. He supported me, but he didn’t understand. I guess that’s normal for people who aren’t in the same boat with you.”

I nodded, showing him that I understood and was totally cool with him. Of course, I had yet to clue him in on my own secrets. That would come in due time.

“Hey, did you have crushes on anyone in school?” I asked.

He froze like I’d just caught him robbing a bank.

“You can tell me. Some really good-looking guy must’ve caught your eye.”

He shrugged.

“What about Josh Rotunda? Everyone had a crush on him. The girls, I mean, so I guess the gay guys probably did, too.”

Quinn tried his best to return to his notebook so I’d back off from that topic.

“What about boyfriends?” I asked.

“What about them?”

“Have you ever had one?”

He paused, and I prepared to rest my hand on his leg.

Then I’d cup a hand over his crotch to feel the hard cock throbbing underneath.

I’d knead his meat through his jeans just to drive him crazy.

And then I’d plant kisses on the back of his neck, then the side, working my way to his mouth.

Tasting those lips for the first time would be incredible. I meant to relish every?—

“I’ve dated some guys,” he said, “but nothing I would call serious.”

I heard a tremor in his voice. Then my eyes met his and refused to let go. My stepbrother seemed to be weakening.

“And then there’s this guy Jeff…”

Oh shit. Jeff? Learning Quinn was gay had helped improve this situation, but I hadn’t expected him to have a boyfriend. That definitely didn’t help.

“Who’s Jeff?” I asked.

“He’s the guy I’ve been kind of seeing. Like I said, nothing serious, but…”

Quinn clammed up like he didn’t want to tell me anything else. Not that it was deeply personal or anything—more like he didn’t want to tell me about it. But I wouldn’t let up. I kept my eyes locked on his until he fell under my spell again.

“You want it to become something more?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

I’d readied myself to reach for his leg, but now I pulled back. This wasn’t the best time.

“So how did you meet this Jeff?” I asked. “Grindr or some other dating app?”

He shook his head. “School. We’ve been in a lot of the same classes together since we were freshmen. I always sort of liked him and thought he was cute and smart. Turned out the feeling was mutual enough for us to start hanging out more.”

“So, you haven’t…?”

“Haven’t what?”

He closed his notebook and placed his pen on top, like he was done with this conversation.

“Well,” I said, “you know what I mean.”

“I don’t know why you care about that.”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“Because you’re…a hockey player, that’s why.”

“I’m a hockey player, so I’m not supposed to care about what?”

“Two guys going at it, Levi. You’re not supposed to want to hear about stuff like that.”

“Whoa, whoa, wait. Just because I’m a hockey player, I can’t handle hearing about two guys having sex?”

He paused, knowing he’d pulled a stereotype on me. I wouldn’t make him feel bad about it, but I’d totally use it to my advantage.

“Besides,” I said, “we’re going to be brothers, so we should share stuff with each other. Which means crowing about getting laid to each other, too.”

“Including sex with guys?”

“Sure, why not?”

“I don’t know why I should tell you anything. You know what? I don’t care. I’m just going to say it. You can do what you want with it.”

“Share away.”

“Well, I haven’t been getting laid. Jeff and I mostly get together for coffee or lunch. Of course I want it to become something more. It’s just that I…wait, what am I even telling you this stuff for?”

“I told you, we’re brothers. We should share stuff.”

“Maybe you want to, Levi, but I don’t tell just anybody about stuff like that.”

He stood up from the table, collected his notebook, and tucked it under his arm. I raised a hand to stop him.

“Come on, Quim, chill out. I just wanted to?—”

“ Quinn , Levi. My name is Quinn . If we’re going to be brothers, the least you can do is call me by my proper name and give the high school bullshit a rest.”

Holy shit. I’d never seen that side of Quim—sorry, Quinn—before.

If he’d tried to stand up to me in school, I wouldn’t have taken him seriously.

Now I did. This would’ve been a really good time to say I was sorry.

Those words were in my vocabulary, but I almost never used them. I rarely had a good reason to.

“You’re not going anywhere, are you?” I asked.

“I’ve got somewhere to be.”

“Right now? It’s ten o’clock at night.”

“Maybe it’s time for me to turn in. Got an early morning tomorrow.”

And he marched out of the room.

His answers had “excuse” written all over them.

Something was going on. Yeah, it was cool to know he was gay, but hearing that he was seeing someone put a damper on things.

His not getting laid wasn’t cool, though.

Someone like Quinn shouldn’t be left untouched.

If this Jeff hadn’t put out for Quinn, he didn’t know what he was missing.

Though I’d never been with Quinn, I knew I’d been missing a whole lot all this time. And I planned to get everything I’d missed out on very, very soon.