Chapter 17
17
W hen I made it downstairs in the morning, Leo was standing at the kitchen counter wearing a pair of my joggers and one of my hoodies, his hair damp from the shower, pouring water from the kettle into a collection of mugs while my mum buttered thick slices of toast.
“…No, it doesn’t really hurt anymore. It was only a brief jab. Finn did a good job of looking after me.”
I froze in the doorway. Leo was voluntarily telling my mum about last night? Why did that realisation bring a lump to my throat?
“He’s a good boy.” My mum smiled. “I think you should have two more paracetamols with your breakfast, even so. I want you to take care of yourself, love. No more putting yourself into situations where you could get hurt, okay? If you need a quiet place to go, you know our home is yours, whether Finn’s here or not.”
Placing the kettle down, Leo stared at her, wide-eyed. “Um.” He licked his lips. “I will. Thanks.” I thought he was going to stop there, but he carried on speaking, his voice growing soft and impossibly sad. “I wish…I wish my dad understood me like you do.” His lip wobbled, and I went to rush forwards, but my mum got there first, dropping the butter knife and wrapping her arms around him. I could see his body tremble, and it took everything in me to hold myself in place, but this wasn’t a moment for me to interrupt.
When they drew apart, I could see the glistening tracks of tears on Leo’s cheeks.
“I-I’ve never had a hug from a mum before. Not since I was a baby, and I can’t remember that.”
Fucking hell . I couldn’t stay where I was any longer. As I barrelled into him, I saw my mum turn, discreetly wiping away her own tears. I glanced at her over Leo’s shoulder, holding out my arm, and she took the invitation. I hugged them both, so fucking grateful that I had a family who had made Leo feel so welcome, to the point where he wasn’t afraid to share the important things with them.
“Well…” My mum dabbed at her eyes again before giving me a tremulous smile. “I don’t know about you boys, but I think this situation calls for a nice cup of tea. Finn, do you want to grab the milk and help Leo finish making it while I get this toast buttered?”
I nodded, releasing Leo after kissing his temple. As I moved towards the fridge, I noticed my brother hovering in the doorway, shifting from foot to foot. He must’ve been standing right behind me, and I wondered how much he’d overheard. He glanced at me, then at Leo, then at my mum, and finally, back at Leo. Squaring his shoulders, he walked into the kitchen, straight up to Leo, who was fishing teabags out of the mugs, and threw his arms around him from behind. Leo startled, sending the teabag on his spoon to the counter with a wet splat, but he recovered quickly, his lips curving upwards as he squeezed Ed’s arm.
Ed went to move away, but he didn’t get very far. My mum grabbed him, hugging him and leaning up to whisper something in his ear, which made him give her an uncharacteristically shy smile. Okay, so that was probably my cue as his big brother. Grabbing the milk from the fridge, I detoured to Leo, placing the bottle on the counter next to the mugs, and then moved around him to dip my head to Ed’s ear.
“Thanks,” was all I said, but the word was loaded with meaning, and I knew my brother understood because he shot me a bright grin. In what I assumed was an effort to lighten the emotional atmosphere, he flipped the radio on, and we got the tea and toast set up at the kitchen table while Capital FM played in the background. My dad wandered into the kitchen, swiping a piece of toast from the pile and giving my mum a loud, smacking kiss when she told him off. She shook her head at him, Ed absorbed himself in his phone while he shovelled toast into his mouth, and Leo kept looking down at the table, smiling to himself in between sips of tea and bites of toast.
It was one of the best mornings I’d had in a long time. And I was pretty sure it was the same for Leo.
“One more game? Then we should take a break.”
I nodded, my attention focused on the screen as I watched the numbers increasing, a shower of sparks confirming that my character had levelled up. We’d been playing Lesath Legends all day, with a quick break for lunch, but it would probably do our eyes good to have another break. The house was silent—Ed was out with his friends, and my parents had gone to an art exhibition somewhere in London and then out for a meal afterwards. We had the house to ourselves, and I had a bit of an idea of what I’d like to do during our next break, if Leo was on the same page.
“Want to do the double loot challenge?” I suggested, scrolling through the list. “It’s only ten minutes.”
Instead of replying to me, Leo slid off the bed, leaving his controller behind. I stared at him, my brows raised as he came around to my chair and leaned back against my desk.
“Hi,” I said.
“Hi. Want to do a dare?”
I grinned. “Hmm. I dunno. What’s the dare? I was actually gonna suggest we do dares for our break because I haven’t dared you to do anything for a while.”
“Well… We could take a break now before we start the next challenge.” Leo’s eyes sparkled. I was suddenly struck by the fact that he was so fucking pretty. That was definitely a weird thing for me to be thinking about him, but it was true. There was all that red hair falling into his sparkly green eyes and that mouth that, thanks to my efforts with the lip balm, was now all soft-looking again. The mouth that was currently curved into a mischievous smile directed at me.
I placed down my controller and rolled my chair forwards so my calves were touching his. “And what’s the dare…?”
He leaned down, placing his hands on the arms of my chair. I only caught a second of his expression of shock before the chair rolled backwards, Leo collapsing into me as laughter burst from my throat.
“Smooth, Leo,” I said between laughter. He straddled my thighs, glaring at me.
“I can’t believe you’re laughing at my misfortune.”
“Aww. Sorry, baby.” I pulled him into me, dragging my nose up the side of his face. The familiar scent of apple pie hit me. “Hey, you used my shampoo.”
“Was that not allowed?”
“Yeah, course it’s allowed. It smells nice on you.”
“I guess you’re the hair sniffer now,” he said, taking me back to a conversation we’d had a while ago.
“That means you have to kiss me to make it even in the weirdness department. That’s what I did to you last time, wasn’t it?”
He nodded against me, and then he turned his head, brushing a soft kiss over my cheek.
“Finn?”
“Yeah?”
“Why…uh…why are you calling me baby?”
Good question.
“I dunno. It just seems to happen. Do you not like it? I can stop.”
“No, I like it,” he whispered into my ear, like he was confiding a secret. “You just have all these nicknames for me, like baby and little lion and Viking, and I don’t have any for you.”
“Hmm.” I ran my hand down his back. “I’d prefer not to be known as Hammerhead outside of our games. Definitely not Sharkfin. It’s bad enough when Ed calls me that. Honestly, I’m good with you just calling me by my name. I’m not really a nickname person.”
I felt him smile against me. “Okay, Finn. Want to do a dare?”
“Yeah. What do you have in mind?”
“I dare you to play the next campaign against me. One v one, instead of as a team.”
“It’s a dare,” I said immediately. “Does the winner get a reward?”
“Bragging rights? The in-game loot?”
“Not good enough. I think the winner should get to pick the takeaway we order for dinner. How about it?”
Drawing back, he nodded. He climbed off me and settled back on the bed while I wheeled my chair into place. “Okay. Let’s go.”
It was close, as it always was, because we were so evenly matched. We rarely played against each other, preferring to work as a team, but our competitive streaks definitely came out when we played against each other. When there were just thirty seconds left on the timer and our scores were still even, I decided to try a dirty trick. Holding my controller with one hand, I reached out and tickled the underside of Leo’s foot. He shrieked at an ear-splitting volume, jumping away from me, and it only took me a few seconds of him being distracted to rack up the extra points I needed to win the game.
“You cheat!” he shouted, throwing his controller down and launching himself at me. I was weak with laughter from the utter outrage on his face, and I couldn’t have stopped his onslaught if I’d tried. His momentum was so strong that the entire chair tipped backwards, sending us crashing to the carpet.
“Fucking hell, Leo,” I wheezed, rolling away from the chair and collapsing onto my back. I couldn’t breathe through my laughter.
“Cheating bastard.” He threw himself onto my torso, knocking what remained of my breath out of me. I brought my hands up to hold him in place, and he stilled. I ran a soothing hand down his spine.
“I’m sorry. I just couldn’t resist.”
“You’re not sorry,” he muttered, his outraged glare replaced by a cute little pout, which made me grin.
“Okay, I’m not sorry. What can I say? I was just really in the mood for fried chicken tonight, and I knew you’d pick pizza.”
“I wouldn’t,” he lied.
“Leo.”
He huffed loudly. “I hate you.”
“Two lies in a row. I can’t believe you.” Shifting him off me, I climbed to my feet and righted my gaming chair, pushing it back into place. I really needed to look into buying something a little more stable. Without wheels.
“I wasn’t lying.”
I shook my head, tutting. “Three lies in a row.” Biting back a grin, I placed our controllers next to the console and then lay back on my bed.
“I may be a liar, but you’re a dirty cheat.” Leo crawled over me, like I was hoping he’d do, holding himself up in a plank position. I sometimes forgot how strong his core actually was, what with all his dance training, and then he’d do something like this, which would surprise me all over again.
“We make a good pair, then, don’t we?” My gaze flicked to his mouth.
His tongue swiped across his lips, and his lashes lowered. “Yeah.”
“Yeah,” I repeated, curving my hand around the back of his neck and pulling him down to me. He came willingly, sliding his mouth across mine without hesitation.
It was so fucking perfect. How could he kiss so well? I found my arms sliding down his back and then around to his sides, pulling him fully on top of me as we deepened the kiss, and?—
Oh. Fuck.
My dick was hard, right against him, and he was going to be aware of it any second?—
A soft whine fell from his lips, swallowed by my mouth, as he ground down, his hard dick pressing against mine.
Wait a fucking minute.
Leo’s. Hard. Dick.
Leo Evans was on top of me, and he was hard.
Holy fuck.
I had no idea what to do except to kiss him back, holding on to him, and brace myself for the second he realised what was happening and the moment came crashing to a halt.
Except he made that soft noise again, which sent a shudder through my body, and he kissed me even harder, his body pressing down more insistently on mine.
It was so fucking good .
I hated myself for what I had to do.