Page 12 of Her Fake Mate

“You know,” I say with a little smirk. “Like if I had a boyfriend, he’d just grab it. Bare hands.”

Zander blinks. “You’d prefer to date an idiot over someone who understands proper pest removal?”

Good lord. “It was a joke, Zander.”

“It was a terrible one. Keep looking, we need hornet killer.”

Sheesh. “It wasn’t that bad.”

“I didn’t laugh.”

“No, you didn’t,” I grumble as we round the corner to another aisle. “But…”

I do run into him this time. It’s like smacking face-first into a brick wall. I step back, shaking my head. “Ouch. What the hell, Zander? You can’t give a girl some warning? You…”

I stop. He’s staring at the woman in the aisle.

“Terra,” he says softly.

I know in a heartbeat that when Zander said he had someone he wanted to be his mate, it’s this woman.

I can see why. She’s gorgeous. Wolves always look like they’re Olympic swimmers, and she’s no different. She’s tall, with sculpted arms that are on display in her tank top. Even in leggings and an athletic top, she looks beautiful. Her curly auburn hair is truly beautiful, and even in the fluorescent lights of the hardware store, I can see how luminous it is.

Her skin is smooth and olive toned. Really smooth. Does she not have pores? I wonder what her skincare routine is like…

She blinks. “Zander.”

“What are you doing here?” he rumbles.

She holds up a pair of gloves. “I found a paper wasp nest under my mom’s chicken coop. I wanted to get it for her.”

“Good choice. Proper hand coverings are important for removing insects,” Zander grunts.

I blink. Hand coverings? What the hell? Terra looks just as confused, so I decide to swoop in and help him out a little. “He means gloves,” I blurt.

Zander stares at me like I just grew a second head, but I ignore him. I had to step in. The secondhand embarrassment was just too bad.

Hand coverings. Who calls them that?

Terra seems to notice me for the first time. Her green eyes, a much deeper shade of emerald than mine, blink. “I know what he means.”

Oh. Okay then.

“Sorry. It was just kind of weird. But speaking of weird, what type of moisturizer do you use?”

Oh, no. Now I’m the weird one.

Both Zander and Terra are staring at me.

Shit.

“Because ever since we moved up here, my skin has just been really dry,” I say in a blob of words. I can’t stop them, and I keep going. “And I just really think your skin looks good. Nice. It looks like you airbrush your face. Not that I’m assuming what type of makeup you wear. But if you did wear makeup… what kind is it?”

I feel my cheeks burn and assume that I’m blushing like crazy. Given the fact that I very much do have a very dry face right now, I’m sure that I look terrible, especially compared to the smooth and luminous Terra.

She looks at Zander, then at me. “I’m so sorry,” she says in a musical voice. “Who are you?”

My heart kicks. Is Zander going to introduce me as his girlfriend?

---