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Do Not Engage

Author: E L Simon
last update publish date: 2026-07-13 21:12:21

Jamie stared.

Not in a subtle way. Not in the polite half-second you’re allowed before your eyes flick away. He stared way too long, frozen somewhere between fascination and disbelief, his brain refusing to cooperate with his eyes.

This wasn’t possible.

Max wasn’t supposed to exist like this. Solid, present, taking up space in a campus coffee shop. Jamie had always assumed he lived somewhere safely abstract. The other side of the country. A different time zone. A place that existed only in voic
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  • Owned on the Ice M/M Romance   Hockey 101

    Jamie got home just in time to see an old Jeep roll into the lot.It rattled like it had more history than safety features, sun‑faded paint, one door a slightly different shade than the rest. It slowed near the dorm entrance, music thumping faintly through open windows, laughter spilling out with it.Jamie slowed, eyeing it from a distance.Then Zach climbed out.He looked relaxed, hoodie half‑unzipped, hair a little mussed like he’d just been dropped off mid‑conversation. He said something over his shoulder that made the guys in the Jeep laugh, then slammed the door shut and headed toward the building.Jamie ran after him.“Zach—hey!”Zach turned at the sound of his name, surprise flashing briefly across his face before it smoothed into an easy grin. “Jamie! What’s up, man?”Jamie slowed as he reached him, suddenly aware of his own breathing. He bent forward slightly, hands braced on his thighs, lungs burning more than they should have.“Hockey,” he panted.Zach grinned wider. “Hocke

  • Owned on the Ice M/M Romance   Compromised

    Jamie turned, already babbling.“Oh—sorry, I—Coach said I could, I didn’t realize anyone was still—”The words tangled and fell apart in his mouth.The man standing in the doorway to the showers was huge. Barefoot. Towel slung low around his hips, damp and hanging heavy, one hand absently scrubbing through wet hair as if he’d only just noticed he wasn’t alone.Jamie’s brain stalled.Max.Not the version burned into his memory from that cursed photo. This one was bigger. Broader. Skin still flushed from heat and steam, water tracking down over muscle in slow, distracting lines. Jamie’s gaze dragged helplessly, shoulders, chest, the sharp V disappearing beneath the towel, before he could stop himself.If seeing Max’s face had been enough to shove his own sexuality into the light, this might knock him out cold.Jamie swallowed hard, pretty sure he was staring. Pretty sure he was drooling. He took another step back, heel catching on the edge of a bench, the room tilting slightly as his bo

  • Owned on the Ice M/M Romance   Full Access

    A few weeks later, Jamie sat on a hard plastic seat in the back of Intro to Media Reporting, trying not to yawn. His friend, Ava, sat beside him, already organized, color‑coded tabs peeking out of her notebook. They’d ended up in most of the same classes this semester, close enough now that Jamie automatically took the seat next to her without thinking.The room smelled faintly of dry erase markers and burnt coffee. It was one of those early-semester classes that still felt provisional, everyone half-watching the professor, half-watching each other, laptops open but attention drifting.Professor Klein stood at the front, sleeves rolled up, glasses perched low on his nose. He had the kind of energy that suggested he actually liked teaching undergrads, which Jamie both admired and feared.“All right,” Klein said, clapping his hands once. “This semester isn’t theoretical. It’s practical. You’re not just learning how to report—you’re going to be doing real work.”Jamie straightened a litt

  • Owned on the Ice M/M Romance   Incognito

    Jamie waited until he heard the door next door open.He’d been pretending to read for ten minutes, sitting on his bed with his laptop open and the same paragraph untouched, ears tuned entirely to the hallway. When footsteps finally sounded, followed by the dull thump of a door and the scrape of something being dragged inside, his stomach flipped.Okay. Now.He grabbed the cup of ramen from his desk, hesitated, then added the second one. Extra. Normal. Casual. He told himself that twice as he crossed the short stretch of hallway and knocked.The door swung open almost immediately.Zach looked like he’d just come straight from working out. His hair was still damp, hoodie darkened at the collar, a massive duffel bag dropped at his feet like he’d barely noticed the weight of it. He was in sweats and a T-shirt underneath, broad and relaxed in a way Jamie was deeply aware of after the afternoon he’d had.“Hey,” Zach said, already smiling. “What’s up, JP?”“Uh... hi,” Jamie said. He lifted t

  • Owned on the Ice M/M Romance   Do Not Engage

    Jamie stared.Not in a subtle way. Not in the polite half-second you’re allowed before your eyes flick away. He stared way too long, frozen somewhere between fascination and disbelief, his brain refusing to cooperate with his eyes.This wasn’t possible.Max wasn’t supposed to exist like this. Solid, present, taking up space in a campus coffee shop. Jamie had always assumed he lived somewhere safely abstract. The other side of the country. A different time zone. A place that existed only in voice chat and text bubbles, nowhere he could accidentally run into him between classes.Seeing him like this felt wrong, like a glitch. Like someone had dragged an online character into the real world without warning.Max was even more attractive in person.Obnoxiously attractive. The photo hadn’t lied, but it hadn’t captured everything. The faint crease between Max’s brows when he focused, the way his eye contact held steady instead of flicking away, how easily his smile came and went, quick as a

  • Owned on the Ice M/M Romance   Disconnected

    Three months later.The dorm room smelled like fresh paint and someone else’s laundry detergent. Jamie stood in the middle of it with a box cutter in one hand and a label maker in the other, the August heat pressing in through the window despite the rattling air unit.He sliced tape, folded cardboard, and stacked things where they made the most sense. Shirts on hangers. Shoes in a row. He slid notebooks into the desk drawer, paused to wipe dust from the top of it with his sleeve, then kept going.At the bottom of one box, beneath a tangle of cables and an old mouse pad, his fingers closed around something familiar.His gaming headset.Jamie lifted it out, the foam pads flattened with age. When he turned it toward the light, a fine layer of dust caught the light as he tilted it. He hadn’t noticed when he packed. Or maybe he had and chosen not to.For a second, the room went very quiet.He set the headset back in the box, slower than necessary, and folded the flaps closed. The box slid

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