They end up on the bed, of course, and he doesn’t even know how it happens, how all of a sudden he doesn’t have a shirt on, how Yassim’s warm, dry hands are caressing his chest. He feels Yassim’s hand in his hair; the other one is on his cock, unbuttoning his jeans, eager, searching and unruly. And so Jacob puts his own hand down there to help with the buttons, pulls off his trousers, and suddenly he’s naked.

He’s panting and pressing himself against Yassim’s hand, which is around him now, steady, almost firm, and it feels so unbelievably good that Jacob thinks it might already be over for him, but Yassim just holds on, doesn’t move his hand, even with Jacob pressing against it.

Instead, Yassim pushes him back on the bed and lets go, gets up on his knees. He’s still dressed, and Jacob is completely naked, completely at his mercy, and it’s so exciting he can barely contain himself. He would do anything right now, anything to feel Yassim on him, in him.

Yassim laughs and pulls his T-shirt over his head, throws it on the floor behind him. He slowly unbuttons his trousers and stands up.

‘Do you want this?’ he says.

‘There’s nothing I want more,’ Jacob says.

His voice is hoarse, almost unrecognizable. This is unlike anything he’s experienced before. Not like his tense and predictable nights with Simon in Uppsala after a bottle of wine. Definitely not like the dirty and frightening thing that happened at the bathhouse. This room, the sight of Yassim, his scent, the very thought of his skin, his hands, his mouth, gives Jacob goosebumps.

Yassim has his trousers off now, and he’s standing on the floor in front of him. He’s bigger than Jacob imagined, and when he lies down on top of him, when he pushes Jacob’s thighs up towards his chest and pushes inside him without any warning, without asking for permission, it’s as if nothing in the world exists other than this.

It hurts, but it’s a pain he never wants to end, a pain he’d stop time for if he could. Yassim covers his mouth as he sobs. Holds it hard and moves deep and sure inside of him, pushing Jacob’s hand above his head and pressing it down towards the mattress. Jacob is held tight beneath Yassim’s body, couldn’t move if he wanted to.