Page 41 of Perfect Storm
Don’t say kiss me, don’t say kiss me, don’t say kiss me.
He really wanted to saykiss me, but Aidan didn’t. Barely.
“I don’t know.” If Levi could be nebulous, then so could Aidan.
“You really hate losing, don’t you?” Levi seemed amused and maybe even surprised by this. And he shouldn’t be. Aidan was Aidan. He could say a lot of things about himself—and plenty of other people had said their share, too—but at least he was consistent about it.
“Even atMario Kart, sure,” Aidan said.Also when you act like you want to kiss me and then don’t.That definitely felt like losing.
“You’re ridiculous,” Levi said, getting to his feet then, likeAidanwas the one who was letting this thing hang in the air between them without actually naming it.
Aidan could name it, no problem. It was sex, plain and simple.
But then, hadn’t they said a year in their pact? They had, but that was before Levi had ended up in Toronto. He couldn’t really believe that Aidan would need a year to think about Levi and only Levi in his bed.
He knew for a certainty that was not going to be a problem.
Levi didn’t say anything, but he didn’t leave either. Instead he flopped himself right back on the couch, where he’d been sitting before losing and then almost losing again.
For a second full of intense contemplation, Aidan actually considered saying it.I know we said a year, but I’ve changed my mind. Let’s make it sooner. Way sooner.But he didn’t. It was going to be so awkward—like he was practically begging for Levi’s dick; like Levi’s dick was freakinglife-changingor something—if he said it first.
An annoyingly perverse part of Aidan wantedLevito be the one to stick his neck out, even though he already had. Even though he wasn’t sure that hooking up was even a particularly good idea. But it was impossible to deny that it was also the best goddamn idea that anyone had ever had.
Instead, he picked up his controller and looked over at Levi. “Wanna go again?” he asked, swallowing down everything else he wanted—and didn’t want—to say.
Levi’s glance over at him was knowing and mischievous. “You really want to take me again?”
Oh boy, did he.
Aidan took a deep breath. “Sure,” he said. “What did you say? It was yourdutyto help me get better?”
“Oh yeah, bro. For sure.” Levi was laughing again, now, and Aidan did not remind him—because he was apparently a fucking saint—of what else Levi had decided it was his duty to do.
“I swear to God I’m going to get one of those buzzers and smash it every single fucking time you call me bro,” Aidan said.
“Aw, you love it!” Levi crowed.
Aidan didn’t know which was worse: that it was true or that Levi had guessed the truth.
“Don’t worry,” Levi said, leaning over, his lips practically brushing Aidan’s neck, “I know when to use it and when not to.”
Aidanknewwhat he was talking about. Levi for sure knew what the fuck he was talking about. So why didn’t he just bluntly say it?I know not to use it when we’re in bed together. Like we’re gonna be. Soon.
He wanted to scream. To throw his controller down and say,I give up, actually. I will totally say it first. Screw looking desperate and pathetic.But he didn’t.
He calmly and reasonably nodded and restarted the game.
And beat Levi, again.
Chapter 7
“Bro,I’msogladI caught you,” Levi said to Logan, his phone tucked into the corner of his shoulder and his ear as he turned the corner from the neighborhood coffee shop that he’d started visiting in the mornings. Aidan had a coffee machine, but it was kind of shitty drip coffee, and he couldn’t care less about it because he was apparently insane and “above caffeine” and “his body was a temple.”Whatever.Moments like that made Levi wonder why he was so hung up on the guy.
Why every time they got close, his heart felt like it was in his throat and his dick was about to bust out of his shorts and he wondered why the fuck he had said a year, when right now seemed like such a better idea. He was trying to play it cool, and he thought he was doing an okay job of it, too, because Aidan seemed to be on a similar page.
“Yeah, you’re some big shot now, with that huge contract,” Logan teased him.
Levi took a long sip of his latte. It was still iced but Blaize at the coffee shop kept teasing him that soon he’d need it hot.
