Page 34 of Zoe

Billy raised his arms at his sides and flexed his muscles until they popped. “I know; I look good in this, right?” His grin was cocky, and she wished she could find a way to deflate him, but she just rolled her eyes and looked away.

When he came towards her, she stiffened in her chair. “Nope,” she said, shaking her head and not turning to look at him.

“But you don’t know what I was going to…”

“Nope,” she said, still shaking her head.

“What if I had a way out of here and back to your cabin?” he asked.

Zoe snapped a look at him. Her eyes narrowed, and she was sussing him out like a human lie detector. “You don’t.”

“I might have,” he said with a teasing tone.

Zoe drew a deep breath and turned to look at him again. “You don’t,” she replied.

“No, I don’t,” he said, shrugging. “But, I could have had a way out.”

“You know, I’m starting to trust you as far as I can throw you without the aid of magic, and we both know you’re a big guy,” Zoe said.

Billy’s wolf did not like hearing that, and it made its feelings known within him. The truth was, Billy didn’t like to hear it either.

A mate that didn’t trust? Unheard of. “So, if a crack squad of assassins came through that door, you wouldn’t want me by your side?”

Zoe had to think about that one.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

~

Zoe stared at him the whole time she was considering his question. Then she let him have the answer. “Nope, if a gang of assassins came through that door, I’d want you in front of me like a meat shield and Heather at my side because she likes breaking heads and has kickass magic,” she said, giving him a cocky grin of her own.

And you can stick that where the sun doesn’t shine – Mr no sense of humour,she thought.

Billy’s wolf growled long and hard at him. This was not good in so many ways. “You don’t like me, do you?” he asked, sounding surprised.

“Why would I like you? You’ve been horrible since I met you,” she said. Which, in the grand scheme of things, wasn’t exactly true, he’d had his good moments, but she didn’t want tooversharethat with him.

Billy slapped a hand against his chest and choked on a laugh of disbelief. “I rescued you, cooked for you, made you coffee, and I even let you sleep in the bed.”

“Shall I applaud now, or do you need a minute?”

“I played darts with you, and you stabbed me.”

“Not on purpose.”

“That’s yet to be determined,” Billy said and watched her cheeks pink. “Yeah, there is that guilty look you were wearing when you stabbed me.”

“I did not stab you; it was a little prick – you have something in common,” she said, and lord, help her, but she glanced down at his package – it looked far from little, but Zoe was sure he’d get her drift.

“Oh,” he said and mock stumbled back a few steps. “Do not make me prove to you that I’m not a little guy.”

“Go ahead,” she said, waving an absent hand in the air. “I could use a laugh.”

Billy opened his mouth and closed it again. For one second, he looked like a kid who had been called on his bragging and didn’t know what to do about it. Then he tucked his thumbs into the waistband of his jog pants and yanked them down to his ankles.

Zoe’s mouth fell open, and she couldn’t seem to get it closed. She stared – who wouldn’t? It was like having your own personal Magic Mike right there in front of you.

She heard a little squeak catch in her throat and thanked the goddess for the invisible hand that slapped her around the back of the head and knocked some sense into her. Otherwise, there could have been drool on her chin, which wouldn’t have been a good look.

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