Page 101 of On Thin Ice

He needed to eat something, and then he had a big study session in an hour.

“It’ll be easier during the break,” Jacob said optimistically. “You’ll have classes and homework, sure, but we’ll have plenty of time for ‘coaching.’”

Finn shot him a smirk. “Jacob Braun, are you suggesting I tell my father we’re working on hockey when we’re actually doing something else?”

“Yes,” Jacob said so emphatically that it made Finn’s heart beat a little faster. It felt so good to know that he wasn’t the only one suffering here.

“I miss you too,” Finn said under his breath, reaching out with a foot to tap Jacob’s underneath the table. Before today, he’d have claimed playing footsie was totally beneath him, but if it meant he could touch Jacob and in plain sight? He was here for it.

Jacob shot him a hot look. “I keep wanting to take you out, that’s all. Treat you right.”

“No, you want to drag me home to your house, to yourbedand—”

“Finn,” Jacob interrupted. “Are youtryingto kill me? Give me the blue balls of a century?”

Finn grinned. “Guess you should’ve given in sooner to my seductive efforts. Then at least we’ve could’ve had a few weeks of sex before the greatest cockblocker of the century arrived in town.”

“It’s good that he’s here and he wants to be present in your life,” Jacob said.

“I know you mean that . . .” Finn leaned in even closer, watching as Jacob’s eyes dilated even darker. His chest was rising and falling under his flannel and Finn wanted to strip him naked more than he wanted to take his next breath. “But I think you want more, too.”

“I do,” Jacob muttered. “I sure fucking do. Don’t get me wrong. I’m getting the hang of FaceTime sex, but it’s not the same.”

“Nope,” Finn agreed.

Last night, with Jacob telling him exactly how to touch himself—where and how firm and how long—and dragging out his orgasm until Finn had been begging for it, with not an ounce of shame, had been really fucking good. But it hadn’t been the same asJacobtouching him.

He’d wanted it, and he couldn’t have it, because Morgan had shown up at his dorm room, wanting to go grab dinner, and Finn had been forced to text Jacob surreptitiously and tell him their dinner date was off.

“I should’ve told him I had a date,” Finn continued.

Jacob made a face. “And he’s just going to let you leave it at that? He’s not gonna want to meet the guy?”

“Oh, no, he would. And then . . .” Finn paused for dramatic effect. “Surprise!”

Jacob frowned. “We’re tryingnotto get murdered here.”

“No,you’retrying not to get murdered.”

“I’d think you’d have a vested interest in that too,” Jacob said dryly.

“I do. Ido. You can’t fuck me breathless if you’re dead.”

Jacob raised an eyebrow.

“Or uh, be there to be sweet and gentlemanly and treat me right,” Finn revised with a smirk.

“Better,” Jacob said, nodding. “Now, before you drive me absolutely insane, let me tell you how my talk with Sophie went.”

“You’re going to do the podcast!” Finn was so excited, even though it hadn’t been his decision. Still, he’d hoped that Jacob would agree to go on it, because after listening to it, Finn couldn’t help but agree with Sophie. Neal would be the perfect, sympathetic, easy person for Jacob to come out to.

“Yes,” Jacob said, nodding. “I talked to my therapist, and she agrees—I’m ready, even if I’m afraid, and we worked through some of those fears together, and after really considering it . . .I see what Sophie’s saying about it being a good fit.”

“You mean, whatIsaid,” Finn teased.

“Yes, you too,” Jacob said with a smile.

“You listened to it, didn’t you?”

---