Page 47 of Moody as a Minotaur

I pressed my lips together to hide my grimace. They still tingled from kissing Parker. And, holy Magic, what a kiss it’d been.

After years of dreaming about it, it had actually happened.

His body had felt perfect pressed against mine. Irubbed my lips together, wishing the feeling of his lips against mine could linger there forever. It’d been so long since I’d felt another’s mouth against mine that I’d forgotten how encompassing the feeling could be.

Davina smirked like she could read my mind, although I was sure as a medium that wasn’t part of her magic. She slid into a booth beside Parker’s grandmother. Based on where her coffee was placed, they had been seated across from one another before now. Davina slid the mug toward her and lifted an eyebrow in a silent challenge that asked if I was going to do this or not.

“I’ll get us some fresh drinks,” Parker muttered. He walked away, leaving me with nowhere to hide.

Some restaurants had lots of tables in the center of the room, or booths with high backs and dividers. Restaurants like those were like mazes themselves. They were comforting. But unfortunately, the Flying Rowan Café wasn’t like that. It was too small to have a convoluted configuration of tables.

Or was it? Would Parker let me play with the table layout? Another half a dozen or so tables would be great. A full dozen might be pushing it.

But, even if he would, there wasn’t anything I could do about the situation right now.

I eyed the booth. I hated those things. They were never big enough for a guy of my size, but I sighed and shuffled toward it anyway.

After removing my jacket—which Parker had reminded me to put on before we left the motel—and hanging it on a hook at the end of the booth, I wedgedmyself onto the seat and slid over until my shoulder hit the wall. The table was snug against my torso. If I took a deep breath, the whole table would jiggle. The feeling of vulnerability around being too exposed had now been replaced with the feeling of being trapped. I wasn’t sure which was better.

Parker returned a minute later with mugs for the two of us and a fresh pot, which he set in the middle of the table after topping up Edith and Davina’s cups.

Wait, hadn’t he wanted coffee?

Then he slipped off his jacket and slid into the booth beside me, and I forgot what I was thinking as his shoulder rubbed against me. I had the strangest urge to put my arm around his shoulders. Just to get it out of the way and give us a few more inches of space. Really.

His body was warm against mine. Each movement he made, from pouring milk in his coffee to stirring in sugar, had his body jostling against mine. My skin heated at the brush of his arm against mine. I inhaled deeply to parse out his scent from the aroma of coffee and sugar and pastries and pizzas. The way his leg flexed against mine when he reached for the napkin from the stainless-steel dispenser in the middle of the table just about did me in. Every bit of me was fixated on him.

“I thought you wanted tea,” I grumbled. He drank his tea without any extra things. If he’d been drinking tea, he wouldn’t be wiggling around beside me.

“The coffee was freshly made, and it smelled good.” Parker shrugged, making his arm brush against mine again with the motion. Was he trying to kill me?

Edith cleared her throat. I glanced over to find her staring at me. Uh. Right. Parker and I weren’t alone. I tried to press tighter against the wall to create a gap between us. It was the only way I was going to be able to think. Instead of letting me have my space, though, Parker followed until we touched again. I had half a mind to push him away to save my sanity.

“Thanks for moving over,” he said, flashing me a smile. “It’s nice not to have half my ass hanging off the end of the bench.”

Son of Daedalus, now I was thinking about his damn ass. About how nice it was. Nice and round and…

“I guess I should make some bigger booths, hey?” Parker joked, bumping his shoulder against mine.

Damn it.

I took a gulp of my burning hot coffee.

“We need to talk about Fin,” Edith said.

“Oh?” Parker said.

I took another big chug of my coffee, mostly so the cup would hide my face. I’d always thought I could mask my emotions reasonably well, but Parker’s grandmother was staring at me like she was Jane Goodall, and I was a new breed of chimpanzee.

Davina leaned forward. “Because he is hanging out with hunters.”

I inhaled in surprise and promptly choked. I coughed to expel the coffee I’d inhaled, and it splattered across the table. Everyone turned to stare at me. Again.

“Oh, jeez,” Parker muttered as he scrambled out of the booth. A moment later, he reappeared with a glass of water. “Here.”

Heat burned my cheeks, but I grabbed for the napkin holder. I was still coughing, but at this point, I knew I wasn’t going to die. I just had to convince my body. I wiped at my face before mopping up the mess on the table.

When everything was settled again and Parker was back in the seat beside me, I itched to take a drink of my coffee or that water Parker had brought, but I didn’t trust Edith not to say some other outlandish thing in another attempt to kill me.