Page 5 of Iced Out Mate

I blinked a couple times. Felt my cheeks grow pink. “Getting a hot athletic trainer.” It felt weird saying it back to him. That qualifier just didn’t feel right attached to me, but whatever, who was I to argue with such a handsome and soaking wet gentleman?

“Oh, right,” he said, chuckling in a way that nearly made me melt. I could already tell Dylan had one of those laughs that bounced from person to person. He tilted his head up at the cloudy sky. Water dripped from his forehead, down his nose, over his lips.

Fuck. Why did I suddenly want to trace that path with my tongue?

Dangerous. This is very dangerous.

“Want to maybe get out of the rain?” He looked at me with a suggestive gaze that had me second-guessing all the warning signs and caution tape my brain had placed to stop me from doing anything stupid. I could easily say yes and have him lead me to his place, where we could surely keep dry together.

Well, as dry as two horny men could be.

But…

The alarm bells turned to sirens. I couldn’t lose my job. I couldn’t start off in this position by compromising my relationship with the team. I wasn’t as integral as, say, a coach or a GM, but that didn’t matter, I still had a responsibility to the people under my care. And I’d seen stories of shit happening and then going south. Of accusations being thrown around, of reputations never recovering. It could easily be deemed as predatory. And if it got out, it could make any of the other guys on the team extremely uncomfortable. My job required me to be very up close and personal with these men, moving and manipulating their bodies in ways that might make them feel vulnerable.

Which all meant I had to turn him down.

I shook my head. Rain started to fall in heavier drops. “I’ve got some things I have to do before I start work this week.” A flash of disappointment crossed Dylan’s handsome and genial face. “I’m sorry.”

“No worries,” he answered. “I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of each other.”

“I’m sure we will.”

I was about to shift back into my wolf form and take off running, but Dylan’s hand on my elbow stopped me. “Question, random I know, but… do I smell like anything to you?”

I blinked a couple times, unsure of what he was getting at with this. I took a couple of deep sniffs. He smelled like rich leather and wet leaves and honey dripped into a delicious floral tea.

He smelled great. But I wasn’t about to say that all to him now. “Like cologne?” I said, playing a little dumb. “Good cologne. The expensive kind,” I added after seeing the look of slight confusion on his face.

“That’s it? Nothing like, I don’t know, more intense? Like something you’ve never smelled before?”

I chewed my cheek. I liked being right and giving correct answers, so why was I feeling like I’d just failed some kind of surprise exam? “You smell great,” I said. “But I do think I’ve smelled that cologne before. Tom Ford?”

Dylan shook his head. “Nope. Polo, actually.”

“Ah. Gotcha… Why?”

He stayed silent for a moment, his eyes bouncing between mine, down to my lips, back up to my gaze. “No reason,” he said with a shrug. “See you around, Miles. Welcome to Burlington.”

“Thanks, Dylan.”

“Dyl. You can call me Dyl.”

“Dyl it is,” I said.

Moments later, we were both back in our wolf forms, running in opposite directions.

Chapter Three

Stud-drunk

DYLAN

“Chris, I think I found my fated mate.”

Chris nearly spit out the Gatorade he’d been chugging.

“Sorry, I should have probably waited to tell you that.”