Page 127 of Melted by a Man

Jacqueline held my eyes captive as I tilted my head at her in question, wondering if her words meant what I thought. She nodded once, her lips in a hard line as she silently confirmed my suspicion.

“…as long as we have a safety word. Do you have one in mind?”

“Glacier.”

I didn’t know what to say.

I was speechless.

But Jacqueline didn’t let me go. No, she locked me in with her stare, the two of us forgetting about our audience on the grass. It wasn’t until Jacqueline tapped her collar with a finger that she released her hypnotic hold on me and turned towards Mary.

“Can you help me set it up?” Jacqueline asked.

Mary pulled her phone out, “Yes, ma’am.”

“Alright,” Jacqueline stepped back from me and shook her hands out, nerves taking over her body language, “Alright.”

Marco stepped around Jacqueline to hold his hand toward to me, “Before we get distracted, I wanted to introduce myself. I’m the one she took the picture for.” He winked at me after that.

I shook his hand and nodded as if any of this made sense.

Then he stepped back to pat Jacqueline on the back before joining the others.

“What’s happening?” I asked, but all of them ignored me. Signe was beaming though, her eyes bouncing between Jacqueline and me with anticipation. I stared again at the sweatpants and sweatshirt that Jacqueline wore, wondering why this seemed important.

Jacqueline shifted from foot to foot as Mary and Taylor started doing something with the large speaker they set on the ground, “Think you can stick around for a few more minutes?”

I stared at her for a moment before nodding again, because apparently, that was all I could manage right now.

She licked her lips before her eyes shifted to something over my shoulder. I followed her gaze to see the rest of my rugby team scattered where they left their own bags, watching this interaction with curiosity.

I frowned at them, ready to tell Jacqueline we could talk somewhere else, but her back was already to me.

She seemed to be looking for a good spot, her sneaker-covered foot dragging across the grass.

I exhaled a breath and ran my hands through my hair, before scraping one down my face in an attempt to relax. I almost stepped toward her again but stopped. Instead, my leg started bouncing, a restless movement I hadn’t dealt with in quite a while. I wasn’t sure how I could focus on anything else after Jacqueline dropped that bomb on me.

Do you have one in mind?

Glacier.

I wouldn’t get any sleep tonight knowingthat’show she chose her safe word for us.

“How’s it goin’, Zaiddy?” Signe asked as she stepped toward her boyfriend and puckered her lips for a kiss. He had just put his glasses back on, now that training was over, and leaned down to comply with a loud smack of lips.

“Good, how are you?” Zaid replied and glanced up toward the random speaker, “Do you need help with that, T?”

“I think we got it,” they replied.

“What is going on?” I asked again.

Taylor didn’t respond, instead, they just wiggled their eyebrows at me over their shoulder while they stood back from Jacqueline and the speaker.

“Connected.” Mary gave Jacqueline a thumbs up before promptly following Taylor off to the side, giving Jacqueline a wide berth.

“Oi—” I tried asking again, “What are you—”

“Calm your British-booty down.” Taylor pointed at me, then pointed behind me. For some reason, I obeyed, crossing my arms and taking a couple of steps back from Jacqueline like everyone else had, as she shook her hands out.

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