Page 20 of Hot Ice, Tennessee

I could picture the bulk of his body against mine, the slow drip of his wet hair falling onto my skin.

All of those warning bells in my head started to go off again, like a siren slowly catching up with me. I was supposed to be focusing on myself this year. Staying unattached and lasered in on hockey and classes, before hopefully going pro.

I didn’t want a one-night distraction to distract metoomuch. But…

He looked so damn good.

And I still wanted to see if he’d beg.

The sound of steady rain picked up again above his porch. He turned the key, stepping into the tall, vaulted entryway of the house and reaching for a lightswitch on the wall. He flicked it, and nothing happened.

And then he tried it again. No light came on.

“Oh, shit,” he said, turning to meet my eyes again. “The power is out.”

3

MASON

“Now I’m the one who shouldn’t be trustingyou,” Jesse said from behind as we walked into my house. “You take me back to your house and there’s no electricity? Should I be scared?”

I snorted. “Fuck off.”

“Is tomorrow’s headline actually going to beTNU Hockey Center Jesse Sanocki found dead on a horse ranch in Bestens?”

“No, it’s going to beMason Minton can’t get rid of his friend’s egotistical younger brother.I don’t need anybody to hold my hand.”

“Hey, I ain’t holding your hand,” he said. “That’s third base, at least.”

He reached his hands up at the end of the entryway, stretching his arms up above the archway. Even in the unlit house, I could see his muscled arms.

“Not even going to ask what first base is,” I mumbled, turning the other way and heading toward the kitchen.

“Gagging on my cock.”

“Shutup,” I said.

“I’m just saving you from becoming a freak lightning-strike statistic.”

I’d decided that I hated 21-year-olds.

I looked around in the low light, flipping more light switches even though I knew it was futile. “Sometimes the power is out for a couple of hours if a storm is bad enough. Let me go find some candles.”

“Candlelight. How romantic.”

“Only the best for you, Daddy,” I tossed back at him.

It was supposed to be a joke, but instead of coming out as a bitter barb, it ended up sounding… hot.

Hot in a way that I definitely didn’t want to feel right now.

“Quit calling me that,” he said. “Don’t need a hard cock right now when you’re not going to let me use it.”

I hate him.

Why can’t he just go home?

It was hard enough to be around him in the bar without being turned on by every goddamn thing he did or said.

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