Page 32 of Zoe

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Billy figured he’d put his foot in his mouth now, and there was no way back but grovelling for whatever it was he’d done to miff her off.

There was only one thing to do – double down. “You didn’t feel how you were all over me like a rash?”

“A rash!” Zoe exclaimed. She yanked her head back and eyed him like he was an unidentifiable tree fungus.

Billy shrugged. “Hey, I’m not complaining.”

“Oh my god,” Zoe said, turning and walking away from him.

Was she really that out of control? It had felt a little, maybe a lot, overwhelming, but had she tried to suck his face off or something?

Zoe wanted the ground to open up and swallow her whole. Her cheeks were flaming-hot, and she knew there were a lot of good snowdrifts that she’d like to bury her head in right now.

Billy couldn’t help but smile. It had worked, she didn’t seem so miffed off with him now, and he thought he might have sidestepped the tantrum timebomb that had been set to explode.

Now his foot was out of his mouth, and his mate was on the back foot – that felt like a win-win to him.

“Look, I’m not saying it’s a bad thing,” he said, trying to sound sympathetic.

Zoe screwed up her face and wanted to die from embarrassment. She guessed he just wasn’t that into her – which was strange, considering she was his mate and the mating pull was real. But she couldn’t think about that now – the real question was, how was she going to escape the small confines of the cabin and get home so she could crawl under her blankets and die of shame? “Oh my god,” she whispered.

“I do like a woman who is …” He didn’t finish that answer; he let her make it up in her own mind.

Zoe did just that –needy, over easy, desperate for a man to show me some attention? Oh, Goddess, the shame.

So what if I don’t date?

Men don’t rule the world – well, actually, they pretty much do, but who needs a man?

I sucked his face off. Zoerolled her eyes to the ceiling before she screwed them shut and groaned inwardly.

And this is the man who I have to spend the rest of my life with? Wonderful – he thinks I’m out of control and over easy – other than that, my life is going just fine – not.

Billy was a little nervous that she hadn’t said anything. He searched for what to say next but came up empty.

Maybe bailing himself out of the mess and dropping her in it hadn’t been such a good idea, but she was a fiery witch with a comeback line for everything he’d thrown at her so far – had he upset her?

“Zoe..?”

Zoe jolted at the sound of his voice. She headed for her jacket. “I’m gonna go and – find a hole to jump in,” she said back over her shoulder.

By the time she got to the door, he was standing beside her. “I was just teasing you.”

Zoe frowned. Her eyes inspected every knot in the wooden door as she considered his words. “Teasing?”

“Teasing,” Billy assured her.

Zoe pressed her lips together and considered it. “You were teasing a woman of a certain age who had just opened herself up to kissing you and the thought of possibly mating with you?”

Billy winced, and then he cleared his throat, but the words still seemed to get stuck. “When you put it like that…”

“Oh, I do,” Zoe said, turning towards him. “I also have an and.”

“And?” he asked and wished he hadn’t when she zapped him so hard that he was sure any offspring they might have in the future would feel it.

“And,” she said happily before she thrust her jacket at him and walked away.

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