Level Hands: Bend or Break, Book 4 by Amy Jo Cousins Read Free Book Online Page A

different for me than it was for you. You already knew half the team from high school regattas and stuff, right? Plus, how many people from your school go here?” he reminded Denny, knowing it was a safe bet that a chunk of Denny’s class had come to Carlisle. Prep schools were still a mystery to him, but he’d figured out family connections counted big for those people. “You walked on campus with a built-in network. I wasn’t coming up here every year for football games, or to visit friends. I’ve got to find my own way.” But he said it wrong, so it sounded like he was complaining, not explaining that what he needed was to be the one who figured it out.
    “But you’ve got me. I can be that for you. That whole ‘network’ I’ve got?” Denny reached out and grabbed his arm. Rafi’s breath caught in his throat. Then he stepped back, the warmth of Denny’s hand lingering on his skin. “It’s yours. You took me all around town when I was in Chicago with Cash. Showed me everything. I can do the same thing for you here at Carlisle.”
    Rafi turned back to getting pop, lining the cans up on the floor. “Here’s the thing. When you came to Chicago, you were this kid who’d just run away from home, right?”
    “Yeah, so?”
    “I’m not a kid, Denny.” Although it kind of felt like maybe he shouldn’t have to say that aloud if it were all the way true. “I’m a grown man. And the first thing Vinnie said when he met me was, You’re Denny’s boy .”
    Denny reared his head back and scrunched up his forehead. “He said that?”
    “Yeah. And that’s not fucking cool, you know. I just got here, for Christ’s sake.” He flinched on the inside, knowing Lola would crack him one for taking the Lord’s name in vain. His sister was chill about many things, but she had her rules, and that was one of them.
    “I get it. Only, you know, the guy’s kind of, um, precise?” Denny’s voice turned up at the end. He’s totally anal, and not in the fun way was what Rafi heard, and agreed. Denny’s cheeks turned pink, but he held Rafi’s gaze as he continued. “And I didn’t tell him—didn’t tell anyone—that we’d…”
    Kissed.
    Made out.
    Pressed against each other so hard we could’ve been one person.
    Rafi cleared his throat. Twice. “Right. Me neither.”
    “So I’m kind of surprised he’d say it like that.” Denny crossed his arms, standing with his feet solidly underneath him, like he was pretty sure Rafi was wrong but was trying to be nice about pointing it out. Firmly.
    And now Rafi was starting to think he really was the asshole, because he didn’t actually remember what Vinnie had said, only how it had felt. Like he was less than . Like someone had already laid a claim on him. He shivered at the idea, ghost teeth biting at the back of his neck. To tell the truth, he wasn’t a hundred percent against Denny being that person, but he’d thought he’d have more than fifteen fucking minutes to figure it all out.
    Denny reached out and wrapped his fingers around Rafi’s wrist, touching him again. And he might as well have grabbed Rafi by the dick, the way heat zinged up his arm and down his spine. “I swear, I didn’t talk about you like that.”
    “Ahh, I don’t know. Maybe I’m overreacting. He probably didn’t mean it like that.” Rafi tried to pull away from Denny’s grip, which only succeeded in tugging him closer. God, I can smell his shampoo. Why does his shampoo make me hard? “Listen, I’m glad you’re here. Really, I am. But you’re gonna have to let me find my own way a little bit too.”
    “So, what?” Denny’s breath against his face. His foot nudging between Rafi’s. Rafi’s heartbeat kicked up another notch. “I’m supposed to pretend that I don’t know you?”
    “No. Just…don’t crowd me.” He wanted to look up and down Denny’s body as if to say, Like you’re doing right now , but they were so close he didn’t dare move his head in case his mouth