Page 38 of Perfect Storm
Aidan had the nerve to almost look ashamed, which then made Levi feel bad for bringing up Riley’s first season, when theyhadn’tseen eye to eye. Back then Aidan had still been determined to control him because of some misplaced idea that Aidan needed to protect him still. But Riley very clearly didn’t need it, and at least Aidan had realized that.
“Pretty decent?” Wes commented. “Riley Flynn’s more than pretty decent.”
“Watch out, Levi,” Aidan said dryly. “You’ve managed to stumble on a guy who’s even more of a Riley fan than me or Landry.”
“Dude, I didn’t think that possible,” Levi said.
Wes gave a happy sigh. “He’s just . . .ugh. So fucking good.”
“It’s a good thing your ego is so well-developed,” Levi told Aidan, nudging him with his shoulder.
Aidan rolled his eyes. “He also thinks Riley’s hot. Don’t tell Landry.”
“Rileyishot,” Levi said.
Aidan looked half annoyed, half disgusted. “Ugh, really, not you too?”
For a brief moment, Levi considered telling Aidan that he wasalsohot. In fact, Levi found him much hotter than Riley. Always had. After all, Aidan wasn’t the copy, he was the original, and Levi didn’t think even Riley could beat him in this particular contest.
“Sure,” Levi said casually.
Aidan looked even more disgruntled, and that was payment enough for not telling Aidan the whole truth. He was always so cute when he was being deliberately thwarted. Levi lived for the way his mouth tilted downward and his blue eyes narrowed intently.
“Back to Lane and Trev—I think we just need to encourage them to communicate,” Wes said firmly.
“I thought I was supposed to be taking it easy on themcollectively,” Aidan retorted.
“Youare,” Wes said.
“This is like the team for wayward dogs,” Aidan mumbled under his breath. “Next I know, we’re going to be adopting someone with separation anxiety who howls all night.”
Wes elbowed him. “Be nice,” he said.
“Why should I be? You’re nice for all of us. Like,collectively,the QB room is nice because of you. You can keep being good cop and I’ll be bad cop.”
“You’re not actually bad cop,” Levi argued. “You just want to win.”
Aidan smiled then, and that was worth all the annoyed looks put together. Aidan had a fucking great smile. Levi didn’t know why he hadn’t been stuck on it before, but he was now. “You got it,” he said.
And it was fair, because theyallwanted to win, but it was pretty much a given that nobody wanted to win as badly as Aidan Flynn did.
Levi, who never wouldn’t have claimed he didn’t want to win, who’d actually spent his six seasons in the NFL working his ass off to get even close to a Vince Lombardi trophy, discovered that he had a new depth of desire for winning that he hadn’t had before.
He wanted to see Aidan’s eyes light up in satisfaction and glory.
He wanted to make it happen.
And he wanted to be right next to him when it did.
It had been a long day. Aidan was tired—bone-tired, really—but his brain was still buzzing, working through all the options and ideas and permutations of the team they’d have during the upcoming season.
He should go to bed, but instead, after taking a long, hot shower, he headed to the couch. Picked up one of the controllers he’d purchased and Levi had set up and flipped on the TV and the system.
He was halfway through the race and losing horribly, tongue stuck out of the corner of his mouth as he tried to concentrate and work the stupid controller faster, when a voice behind him said, “God, you actually do suck at this.”
Aidan risked looking back at Levi, because it wasn’t like he could finish this round any worse than last place. “Hey. Sorry if I’m keeping you up.”
“Couldn’t sleep either,” Levi said and flopped down on the couch next to Aidan. No space between them, Levi’s bare thigh pressing against his sweatpants. God, did Leviownshorts that didn’t expose fucking everything? That didn’t make Aidan want to lean over and get his mouth on all that bare skin?
