Page 36 of Moody as a Minotaur

“But after I’ve talked to them, you and I are going to sit down and have a nice long chat.”

Levi’s gaze snapped up to mine again. “Oh?”

“Yes.” I nodded.

Because I was feeling bold or reckless or just completely unmoored, I got up and crossed the scant space between us. I braced myself on the arms of his chair and leaned over until my face was level with his. His gaze dropped to my lips. His mouth moved like he was trying to bridge the gap with his lips, like he was trying to taste the air I breathed. Ha! I knew this attraction wasn’t one-sided.

“And you’re going to quit avoiding me.”

Levi swallowed. His Adam’s apple bobbed. I wanted to lick it. His pupils were blown, and I’d like to think that was because he liked what he saw, but was that true?

Huh.

I’d always thought I knew Levi. That I understood him. Now I wondered if I ever knew him at all.

11

DREAMING ABOUT KISSING AND OTHER FANTASIES

LEVI

Parker leaned over me, trapping me in my chair. It was pure temptation to have him so close. How was I supposed to control myself? My cheeks were hotter than a hellhound’s fire. I fisted my hands so I wouldn’t reach for him and yank him close. Although, would that be so bad? Because he hadn’t run away from me, and that opened the door to so many things…

He hadn’t run away from me…

If Parker accepted the supernatural world… If he acceptedme…

Could this really be happening? I swallowed hard.

With his face this close to mine, I could feel the heat of his breath against my skin. A delectable scent I only associated with Parker wrapped around me. It was a lot like the aroma of coffee and the apple pastries that he’d brought with him: warm, sweet, rich, inviting. Complex and mouthwateringly good.

It would be so damn easy to lift my face a little and taste his lips. How many times had I dreamed of doing exactly that?

“Sound like a plan?” he asked.

Huh? What had he been saying? He moved to retreat, to get out of my space. As he straightened, I followed, like an invisible cord tethered us together. He stepped back. I stood, stepping forward until we were almost touching again.

Parker stared at me with his head tilted back so he could look into my eyes. He wasn’t a small man, but next to me he seemed petit. Fragile. The urge to protect him, shelter him, give him anything he might ever want surged through me.

I wanted to close that scant distance between us.

His ass would hit my desk. I would crowd closer, caging him in so he couldn’t run.

My nostrils flared as I breathed in deeply, needing more of his scent as my mind filled with all the things I wanted to do to him. A cornucopia of fantasies. Apornicopia, if you will. Because, yeah, there would be a lot of that.

His hands were always so damn sexy when they were wrapped around the pool cue when we played at the pub—yes, I stared at his hands around the pool cue every single time we played, because is there anything more phallic that a hand sliding up and down a long cylindrical object? Anyway, right now he wasn’t fondling a stick. He’d curled those tantalizingly seductive hands around my hips.

In my mind, he tugged me closer until my hips were firmly against his.

Feeling his body against mine would be fucking magic.

I could so easily imagine my huge hands resting on his waist. I could crush him so easily. I never would, of course. I was capable of many things, and over the years I’d had to do unspeakable things to survive, but harming Parker was something I’d never do.

That didn’t change the facts, though. And the fact was, he was just so…human.Breakable.

Parker stared up at me and licked his bottom lip like I was one of his pastries and he couldn’t wait to try me. I wanted to taste him, too. To slide my tongue over his. To hear his moans. To lap at his sweat.

He’d rise on the balls of his feet as I bent down to meet him, and his mouth would meet mine. I could so easily imagine it: his lips moving against mine like he was tasting me, sucking my bottom lip between his, before moving to my top lip. His tongue would slip along the seam of my mouth as I opened for him.