Page 8 of Perfect Storm
“Are you fucking joking?”
Levi wondered for a split second if this would be enough to change Aidan’s mind. But it didn’t. He actually reached out and high-fived him back. Rolling his eyes the whole time, but he did it.
Tomorrow, Levi was going to go out and buy a lottery ticket. In a year, he was going to get to nail Aidan Flynn. He was in the middle of fantasizing about how good it would be—what they’d do—how it would feel, when Aidan spoke up again.
“Why’d you give it a year?” he asked, sounding genuinely curious.
Levi shrugged. Whyhadhe given it a year? He could have given it six months. Or six weeks. Or six days.
Except that he wasn’t masochistic and he didn’t want to fuck Aidan while he was still internally crying over Mo rejecting him. When and if Aidan finally landed in his bed, he was going to be thinking of only one person: Levi.
“Seemed like a nice round number,” Levi said, “and I imagine that in a year, we both might find ourselves back in Michigan. And I meant it before, pickings are slim around here.”
Aidan looked mildly disgruntled by that reminder. “So it’s not because you feel sorry for me?”
“That I gave it a year? Well, I sure as fuck don’t want you crying in bed over another man—”
“No, no,no,” Aidan said. “I meant, why you offered it in the first place. ’Cause you feel sorry for me.”
“Dude,” Levi said flatly.
Aidan laughed, a bark that made Levi feel reassured, like hewouldget over this. Eventually Aidan would be whole again and ready to move on, and if Levi was lucky, he might end up reaping the benefits of all that.
“I’m serious!” Aidan argued, but he was still smiling.
“I wanna say, we should work on your ego some, but we both know that’s not normally a problem. It’s just . . .right now . . .” Levi waved around Aidan’s body. “You know.”
“I’m unusually pathetic right now?” Aidan grimaced. “Thanks for the reminder.”
“Hey, you said it, not me.”
“So if I . . .” Aidan leaned in a little closer, and then it washishand landing on Levi’s knee. But then his fingers stroked upwards, hesitating at the high hem of his shorts. Levi willed him to keep going, to slip his fingers underneath the fabric, even if he knew how bad an idea it was.
He was full of those tonight, apparently.
“If you groped my leg?” Levi questioned.
Aidan groaned. “No,no.”
“If you came on to me tonight, drunk and pitiful, if I’d turn you down?”
“If anyone should be worried about my ego, it’s you,” Aidan muttered. But he didn’t move his hand. Just stroked the skin of Levi’s upper thigh with his rough and distracting calluses.
“I’d say, if youdidtry anything, that I’m very flattered and my bed is gonna feel really fucking lonely later, but yeah, no. Not tonight.” Levi made a face. Why was he being so stupid about this? Five years ago he wouldn’t have cared if he took a guy to bed and he thought about someone else the whole time. It wasn’t like Aidan was drunk enough to hook up with Levi and imagine he was Morris, who was his complete opposite physically.
“Alright.” Aidan shrugged and moved his hand away from Levi’s thigh. Levi tried not to be disappointed. Repressed the desire to grab it and put it right back where it was.
“You gonna be okay?”
Aidan glanced over at him, blue eyes wide. “You worried about me now, Banks?”
“Obviously,” Levi retorted. After all, he’d been the only one to notice Aidan was hurtingandhe’d made Aidan tell him about it.
“It’s annoying, but you’re probably right. Nothing to do but move forward. Every day’s gonna be a little better than the last one.” Aidan looked more contemplative and less drunk, then, which was good.
“That’s the spirit,” Levi said, patting him on the knee.
Didn’t let his touch linger, even though he was surprised at how much he wanted it to. And here he thought he’d avoided the same cliché Riley had ended up falling prey to: finding the older brother hot.
