Page 23 of Thin Ice

"No… it was just the first time I got turned on by a guy."

"That was the first time?"

His voice had gone soft. I felt his hand find my thigh under the blanket.

"Yeah. I didn't understand it. I just knew I wanted you to come back at eight AM sharp."

He didn't say anything for a second. His fingers pressed gently into my leg, and I put my hand over his and held it there, and we sat with it — the whole beginning of us, laid out between the cocoa and the lantern light, all the things we'd never told each other about that summer finally on the table.

I looked at him in the gold light, in my hoodie with the cocoa going cold in his hands, and a newer, warmer feeling rose through my body. I knew what it was. I loved Alex, but I was too chicken to say it.

"I'm glad you crashed into that dock," I said instead.

"I stuck the throttle."

"I'm glad you stuck the throttle. And I'm glad your dad made you work here. And I'm glad I shared my sandwich with such a hot rich kid."

He looked at me, and his face softened. His hand turned over under mine, and our fingers laced together.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

Chapter 6: Alex

Liam leaned in and kissed me.

The kiss started softly. His hand came up to the side of my neck, thumb along my jaw. His mouth tasted like cocoa and cold air and I leaned into it, and for a minute it was just that. Gentle. The lantern made the inside of the plastic glow gold. The heater ticking. His thumb moving small circles below my ear.

Then his hand tightened on my neck, and the kiss changed.

He pulled me in harder, his tongue finding mine, and the sound I made into his mouth was the one I can never plan for, the one that comes up from somewhere below my spine. His other hand found my thigh under the blanket and gripped hard, and I felt the whole feeling of the evening tilt sideways.

Good. Let it tilt.

"Liam."

"Mm."

"We're doing this. Here."

It wasn't a question. He pulled back an inch anyway, checking, his eyes dark, his pupils eating the color, and whatever he saw on my face gave him the grin.

"I set up a boat with blankets and a heater in the middle of December, Alex. What did you think was going to happen?"

"I was hoping for this."

"You were hoping." His hand moved higher up my thigh. "The entire drive up you were hoping."

"The entire drive. The entire week. I've been thinking about this since Saturday night."

He pulled back and looked at me. Steady. Serious under the grin.

"I want you," he said. Simple. The way Liam says everything that matters. "I've wanted you for eight days, and if you think I'm going to let you leave in that peacoat without — "

"Take it off me, then."

His eyes glowed. He unzipped the peacoat and pushed it off my shoulders. Then the hoodie. He pulled it over my head and dropped it on the bench. Then the flannel underneath, one button at a time, his fingers steady, his eyes on mine.