Page 32 of Iced Out Mate

I knew he was stubborn, though, and he was likely being serious about not giving me the address unless I picked him up.

MILES: I’ll be at yours in ten minutes.

DYL: See you soon!

I was at his house in seven. He was already closing the front door as I pulled into his driveway. He came out wearing a baby blue T-shirt and dark gray athletic shorts, with tall black Nike socks and a clean pair of white sneakers. He’d just gotten a haircut so that it was nearly buzzed down all around his head. The bold white birthmark streaked across the freshly buzzed side of his golden-brown hair, stretching over his forehead and connecting again at his brow.

Fuck, he was so damn hot.

He hopped in my car and for a second I wanted to lean in and kiss him hello, but stopped myself at the last second. He smiled at me and held his hand out.

“Let me put that address in your GPS.”

“Thanks, Dyl,” I said, handing over my phone. He opened the map and typed in the address he had saved on his phone.

“You probably could have just texted it to me,” I suggested as Dylan worked to balance two phones. He put his on his lap and gave me a shrug.

“I like making things harder for myself sometimes.”

I chuckled at that, wondering if he knew how hard he was making it for me. The map on the dashboard screen updated and pointed me in the direction I needed to go to find this druid and hopefully the answer to my problems.

“Is this about the stalker?” Dylan asked. The air immediately felt like it was sucked out of the car even though all the windows were up and the AC was blowing. “Sorry, I just figured…”

“It is. And I’m the one that’s sorry. I don’t want you getting involved in this, at all. I’m just tired of sitting back and waiting for something to happen. I want to try and find whoever this is before they can actually harm me.”

Or the people around me.

It hadn’t gotten to that yet, but I had no doubt that a lovesick psycho wouldn’t stop chasing me down because I found a significant other. If anything, that sounded like an even bigger recipe for disaster. It would be like dumping chum into shark-infested waters—just riling up the thirst for blood.

Dylan reached across the center console and grabbed my hand from my lap. He squeezed it. My fingers laced through his, as natural as a tree’s roots twining through the dirt. My breath hitched. I was grateful there was a dumb pop song playing low on the radio, or I’m sure he would have heard the breath get caught in my throat.

We hadn’t held hands like this before. How funny—we’d done things many would consider peak intimacy, but this right here, holding his hand in mine, it felt more intense and more powerful than anything else we’d done.

“I’m kind of already involved… and besides, I was at home thinking about jerking off for the third time today so you pulled me out of that.”

I laughed at his honesty. I squeezed his hand. “Maybe when we’re done with this we can make it to three together.”

He looked over at me and shook his head, smiling. “You dirty, dirty wolf. Love it.”

Our hands remained linked for the rest of the ride as we talked about other things, random shit, just to get my mind off the importance of what we were on our way to do. Before I knew it, we were arriving at the druid’s home.

It was on a long road at the end of a hilly drive. It appeared to be the only house around for at least a mile, tucked back into a thick wall of tall evergreens. The home itself appeared to be built so that it naturally flowed with the tree line. The walls were coated in a thick layer of dark green ivy, and more of it trailed off the roof that extended above the porch. There was a beat-up Honda parked in the driveway, the rear of it covered in all kinds of bumper stickers, almost all of them saying something about the environment.

“Guess we’re here,” Dyl said as I parked my car behind the Honda.

“If a druid doesn’t live here then I’d be shocked as hell.”

Dylan and I got out of the car. I looked to him, suddenly feeling cautious. There were no sounds or really any signs of life coming from inside the house, but the car told me that someone was likely here. “Are you sure we shouldn’t have called ahead or something? Sent an email?”

Dylan shook his head. “No, we’re good. He should recognize me anyway. Look, he’s got a Ring camera.”

We walked up the creaking steps of his porch. There was a tickle at the back of my neck. Something was off. There was something wrong about this, but I couldn’t quite pinpoint what. I didn’t want to let my guard down but I also wanted to trust Dylan. If he said this was okay, then it was likely okay.

Dylan rang the doorbell. The tickle at the back of my neck became more intense.

“Dyl, I think we should go back to the car.”

“It’s fine. Hello?” He spoke to the camera. “Hey, Hunter, it’s me, Dylan. I brought someone who’s looking for some help.”