Page 10 of Ashley & the A-Listers

Dylan was so far in his head, even his awareness was shit.Idiot.

“Uh… everything’s fine. Why?”

“You’re going to pull a muscle stretching like that,” Nic said. “Want some help?”

“Well, ah—” Before Dylan could even form a denial, Nic sat across from him in the same position and motioned for Dylan to mimic him. “Okay then,” he mumbled, without much of a choice.

If there was twinkle in Nic’s eye, Dylan was too taken aback to catch it.

“Think of your back like a zipper, yeah?” Nic began, and Dylan reluctantly followed along. “One vertebrae at a time.”

It did feel nice, and Dylan grunted out an approval as he let Nic lead him into a different stretch.

“So, you’re a bodyguard?” Nic asked.

They were doing a twist, so Nic couldn’t see the way Dylan bit his cheek. He hated small talk, and it bothered him when people couldn’t take a hint. “Yeah, that’s me.”

“Sounds stressful.”

“It… can be,” Dylan hedged.

“New to the city?”

Dylan was suspicious, but this was the owner of the gym they’d be frequenting for the next few months. Ashley’s boss.

“Actually, I grew up here. It’s just been a while since I’ve been home,” he offered. See? He could play nice.

He twisted to the other side, his back popping in a few places.

“What made you come back?”

Dylan sensed nothing odd in the beta’s scent, mostly covered by the chemical lemon smell of the cleaning spray that filled the gym. “I took this, uh, job, and it led me back here.”

“You all packed up?”

Dylan was so appalled at the blatant question that he could only answer, “No?” Why did that matter?

“Doesn’t that make it hard to look after an omega? If you’re both unmated.”

Well, Cam may be unmated, but he wasn’tsingle.Nic didn’t know that, though, along with the rest of the world. Dylan didn’toweNic an answer to even one of these questions, let alone all of them. But then again, if he wanted to get in Ashley’s good graces, pissing off her boss was probably not a great start.

“Uh, no. We take compatibility tests before we’re paired with a client so there’s no issues.”

As they came back to center, Nic got to his feet and Dylan opted to follow him, but Nic, well?—

This fucker pressed hard against Dylan’s shoulder, and pushed him onto his back. Nic washarmless—there wasn’t a hint of aggression in his motions—but Dylan was surprised.

“Hey, what the fuck—” he snapped, a bit of a bark in his tone.

It wasn’t a sexual move, pinning him to the floor. Quite the opposite. Dylan wanted to laugh, but was so flabbergasted by the audacity that he kept his mouth shut. Nic had those good-intentioned vibes, like a cousin who was a little weird.

Nic gripped his shoe and lifted, applying pressure on his leg until Dylan’s hamstrings were singing.

“Let’s cut the bullshit,” Nic said, grinning down at him. With the overhead fluorescents casting his expression in shadow, the beta looked a little… scary.

“Ashley told me a little about you,” Nic continued, and Dylan swallowed back his growl. He didn’t sense any malice from Nic, though he was sticking his nose where it certainly didn’t belong. “You here to cause problems?”

“Not for her. I’m here to do my job,” Dylan said, studying Nic.

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