Page 119 of Perfect Storm
Maybe he shouldn’t have worried. They were blown wide, and as Aidan looked at him, it felt he saw whole universes in Levi’s gaze.
“Uh, yeah? Same,” Levi said. He pulled out, a careful and tender hand on Aidan’s hip. Flopped over next to Aidan like he wasn’t worried about the state of the bedding. Like his mind had been so blown he couldn’t be bothered to even think about such an ordinary concern.
“But you’ve done this a lot.” Why was Aidan bringing that up? He ignored the surge of jealousy he felt, because it was stupid. But he was thinking it, wasn’t he? Surely he—a gay-sex newbie—couldn’t measure up to all of Levi’s legendary hookups.
But Levi nuzzled closer, lips against Aidan’s shoulder. He didn’t seem particularly perturbed by Aidan’s questioning. “Yeah, so? It’s not about the act, it’s about the person.”
For Aidan, it was definitely about the person.
Aidan nodded. “Yeah, um. Couldn’t imagine doing this with anyone else.”Even Mo, he didn’t say, but he hoped Levi got what he wasn’t saying.
“Good,” Levi said.
Chapter 17
Whenthelastseasonhad ended, Levi had always known it was a possibility that he’d leave Seattle. That they wouldn’t want to pay him the kind of money he deserved, and that he’d move on by necessity.
But of all the places he thought he’d end up, Toronto had not even been close to the top of the list.
Now he was hearing the pounding drums of the Thunders’ infamous lead-in song, fake lightning and thunder crashing through the stadium as the PA got the crowd pumped up for the team running onto the field.
Aidan looked over at him, eyes clear and determined through his visor. He leaned in, knocking their helmets together.
“You got this,” Aidan told him.
Levi patted him on the ass. God bless the tight white pants the Thunder wore for their at-home uniforms and also the football culture that allowed him to do that, no questions asked. Nobody even blinked twice.
“So do you,” Levi said.
Aidan grinned as the AC/DC song built to its crescendo. “Fuck yeah, we do,” he said, raising his arms. “Let’s go play some football, boys,” he yelled, and following their captain, their quarterback, they ran onto the field, the sounds of a faux thunderstorm echoing around them, lightning blazing bright on the dark blue video screens circling the stadium.
“Fuck yeah,” Lane yelled as their bodies crashed together in the middle of the field. “Let’s cream some Cardinal ass!”
“You got a problem with Arizona, man?” Trevor wondered, hitting their group with high fives all around.
“Yeah, I’m gonna dust their shit,” Lane boasted. “You feel me, little bro?”
Trevor grinned, and even though they were in Toronto and not Seattle, nothing was fundamentally different.
Everyone got hyped up, their competitive spirit sharpening all their edges.
“Come on, guys,” Aidan said, gathering the offense together on the sideline after the big intro. He looked every inch the calm, collected, Super Bowl–winning quarterback he was, so much more like this than in practice or even during the preseason games.
But now?
Levi would do anything for him, push his body to its limit and past, just to make sure his crisp white uniform with its midnight blue and silver accents stayed pristine.
“You ready?” Griff asked him as Levi circled up near the rest of the offensive line. Acker was on his other side, still not lookinghappy,but at least less like he wanted to kick Levi’s ass.
“Never been readier,” Levi said. He was glad he’d managed to convince Zane to put him in for more preseason snaps, because now he wasn’t lying. Hewasready.
“Yeah, you got this,” Griff said.
In the huddle, Mo leaned in and tapped his helmet against Aidan’s. For a second, they didn’t move, just stood that way, and Levi was pretty sure they were saying something to each other.
There were so many years of history there, and Levi didn’t want to be jealous of those. Mo had helped Aidan get his two rings. He was hopefully going to help them all get another one. Get Levi his first.
He had to remind himself, for the millionth time, that it washimin Aidan’s bed, not Mo. That all week, he and Aidan had been waking up together and falling asleep together. Even making out in the kitchen together.
