Page 49 of Fake It ’Til You Mate It

“Yeah. A dryer, too, but⁠—”

“Good. That’ll do the job and I won’t have to walk through Moonburrow naked.” He takes off his shirt, rolling it into a ball so the wolfsbane is contained. He reaches for his jeans. “We’re going to see the witches first thing. For now, we need to get this powder away from us.”

He unzips his jeans. I stand there, staring in disbelief that this is happening.

That’s right. I can handle magic being blast at me. A half-naked Max Lobo? That’s when my brain fries.

He nods at me. “Come on. You’re a shifter. I’m a shifter. The wolfsbane is on our clothes. They have to go.”

Know what? I can’t really argue that point—and maybe I don’t want to—because that’s how, against my best self-preservation skills, I end up in my bra and panties while Max strips down to a pair of dark blue boxer briefs.

Ah. It could’ve been worse. When he changed earlier, he could’ve gone commando.

Damn it. Why didn’t he go commando?

Max catches me looking. He gives me a crooked yet undeniably strained smile, eyes dipping to my cleavage before he forces them back to meet my stare. “You were so scandalized before. I thought, if something like this happened, I should at least keep some underwear on.”

Scandalized. Right. Not ogling the male who’s supposed to be my mate…

I hug my clothes to my chest. “So what now?”

He looks at me like the wolfsbane is affecting my brain. “We go inside before anyone sees you in your underwear.”

“You are,” I point out.

“And I’m the only one who’s allowed to, Killer. Now get inside.”

Huh. Since when is Max the possessive type?

And why does that have my cheeks heating up in a good way?

I don’t know, but one thing is for sure: I go inside, and I hold open the door to invite him in.

There is wolfsbane in my hair, panic in my bloodstream, a wolf in my kitchen, and it’s the middle of the fucking night. This is fine. It has to be.

If it wasn’t, I’d be sprawled out on the floor, doing my best impression of a corpse until my inner opossum decided that the danger had passed enough to let me come back to life.

Instead, I’m hesitating, not sure what to do next when Max calls out my name softly.

“Honey.”

I glance over at him. “Yeah?”

“Did you really give Declan that cupcake for me?’

Okay. That was the absolute last thing I expected him to say. “Really? You want to talk about this now?”

While you’re in your underwear?

I don’t say that part out loud. I don’t have to. Max understands, and he stalks a little closer to me.

Taking the bundle of clothes in my hands from me, he adds it to his, then sets it by the back door, as far from me as it can get while I’m in the kitchen.

“The wolfsbane is wearing off now that we’ve gotten rid of our clothes. It’ll take time to wash them, and it’s just a little nudity between… friends.” The way he tastes the word as he says it tells me that Max isn’t so sure that’s the one that fits… but what else can it be? “I don’t want to think about the wolfsbane. Not now. Not while I can’t do anything about it until tomorrow. But you’re here, and I’m here, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the cupcake you said you made for me since I knew it was supposed to be mine.”

I gulp. “It was a caramel apple cupcake.”

“My favorite,” he grates out.