I treated one shoulder and two hamstring injuries while we were there, and I got to do an assessment on one of the linebackers’ recent MCL repairs. My eyes constantly went to Axel as they practiced and ran drills, and good Lord, he was just as spectacular as ever in his abilities on the football field as well as his ass in those pants. Nope. Not looking at that, I thought as I sneaked one more peek.

After practice, Christopher and I were chatting with one of the trainers about extra warm-up exercises that would help to prevent more pulled hamstrings when I felt a slight tug on my ponytail. When I turned around, I caught Ax looking over his shoulder at me with a wide grin as he followed his teammates to the locker room. And then he winked. Fucking winked!

Dammit, why did he have to be such a sexy bastard?

In the locker room, one of the offensive linemen, Leo Langley, came up and grabbed me in a headlock, rubbing his knuckles across the top of my head. “Wassup, Li’l Doc.”

“I’m apparently getting a noogie from a big, stinky lineman,” I screeched, laughing uncontrollably and swatting ineffectively at Langley’s massive arms.

“I like you, Li’l Doc. You’re gonna fit right in here,” he bellowed, his loud chuckles spreading to the other guys, who were standing around watching the spectacle as he picked me up under his arm and carried me around the locker room like a football. “You’re so tiny, I bet I could keep you in my pocket.”

Then I heard a low voice that somehow rose above all the laughter at Langley and his antics. “Get your fucking hands off her right now.” The big lineman set me gently on my feet, and our bodies turned in tandem to find Axel stalking toward us, his face red with anger and his eyes narrowed to mere slits. Seriously?

Langley held his hands up in an apologetic gesture. “Hey, dude. No need to get crazy. Me and Li’l Doc are homies, right?” he said, turning to me and holding up his fist, which I bumped with my own.

“Yep, homies for life,” I said before turning back to Ax to try and figure out why he was growling like a mother tiger whose cubs were being threatened.

What the hell was his problem? His face was almost purple as he took another step toward Langley, but I headed him off with a hand on his bare—yum—chest. He let me push him backward into a corner, but his eyes were still on Langley, who didn’t seem overly concerned about the threatening glares Axel was throwing him. I needed to set some shit straight with him. ASAP.