Page 18 of On Thin Ice

Finn laughed. “Notthat, God, not what I meant. You really need to stop worrying I’m going to seduce you.”Though that would be fun.

“I’m not,” Jacob said flatly.

“Okay, worrying that you’re going to lose all your self-control and seduceme.”And that would be evenmorefun.

Jacob choked on his wine. “That wasn’t;I wasn’t.”

“Well, then stop acting like it. I’m hot. You’re hot. Maybe we’re both attracted but that doesn’t mean we have to act on it. We’re going to keep it professional. I get it. It’s disappointing, but I get it.”

Jacob stared at him.

“Too much honesty?” Finn was aware he was babbling now, but it was hard to stop himself. “Trust me, I’m notthatirresistible. And neither are you.”

Maybe that was even more disappointing. But when Finn thought about trading the chance to play hockey free and clear, no pressure, no frustration, no self-recrimination, for the possibility of a few nights in Jacob’s bed, it was no contest.

Finn didn’t say it though, because every guy had an ego and maybe Jacob Braun was chill, but he was still a man, wasn’t he?

Oh, he sure fucking is.

“No?” Jacob asked dryly.

“No.” Finn picked up his T-shirt, pulling it back on, and then shrugged his jacket on. Leaned over and shoved his feet back into his sneakers.

“Alright. But the moment it doesn’t work out—”

“It’s going to work out,” Finn said confidently.

“Again, we’ve gotta find that confidence on the ice,” Jacob said.

“That’syourjob,” Finn retorted. And now his own ego was smarting, because Jacob was right. He was confident everywhere else, but once the horn sounded, it evaporated. Finn told himself it was a good thing—not humiliating at all—that Jacob had identified this so easily, so quickly.

“Nope, it’s yours still, kid.”

“Don’t call me that.”

Jacob’s smile was amused. “Fine. Nokid. Probably better that way.”

“Better if you don’t want to think of yourself as a dirty old man, anyway.”

Jacob sighed. “Can you forget you heard that?”

“No way.”

“You’ll pay for it,” Jacob warned.

Finn had kind of assumed he would. “But if it makes me better, am I really paying for it?”

Jacob didn’t say anything, just stared at him flatly. Like he already wanted to throttle him. Finn told himself that was a much better alternative than wanting to do anything else, but it wasn’t quite convincing enough.

It’ll need to be.

“This your phone?” Finn asked, gesturing towards the one sitting next to the bottle. If he pushed Jacob any harder, he might tell him to get the fuck off his property without agreeing to anything—coachingorsex—and that would be a real problem.

“Yes, but don’t,” Jacob said. Sighed as Finn’s hand closed around it. But he handed it to the guy instead.

“Just wanted to give you my phone number, old man,” Finn said. “No need to overreact.”

“I wasn’t,” Jacob insisted. But he unlocked it and handed it to Finn anyway. “Just put your number in, and don’t do anything crazy like send me gay porn.”

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