Page 54 of Moody as a Minotaur

I hadn’t seen any of the hunters since that morning, but I’d received updates on their movements all day long from the team following them. They’d filmed at the lake, at the cemetery, somewhere downtown, and, disconcertingly, somewhere close to the pub. Although, apparently, Jake had not allowed them to record anything inside the pub or the Willow Lake Inn. More importantly, however, so far, they hadn’t slipped their tail. And it didn’t appear that they’d discovered anything they shouldn’t.

They were supposed to leave Sunday morning, and I was counting down the hours. Literally. I’d set up acountdown clock on my phone and everything. Like most supes, I wasn’t usually much for technology, but sometimes it had its benefits. I glanced at the app, only eighteen or so hours to go. Less, if they checked out early.

By the time we’d retreated to the Willow Lake Pub for a late supper, I wanted to guzzle a couple of gallons of magically enhanced wheat ale and crawl into bed. But the last thing I needed was to get drunk when I’d placed a target on both my and Parker’s backs today. I’d regretted that little stunt ever since we’d done it. How had I let myself be talked into something so dangerous?

My hand shook with anxiety I couldn’t repress as I chalked my pool cue. Gage had done his thing again and cleared away all the magical energy and that wasn’t helping my mood either.

The pub wasn’t as busy as it had been the night before, but it was still busier than normal. It seemed no one wanted to be alone and vulnerable when hunters were in town.

Across the room, Davina was introducing Edith to Gage and Jake. I was surprised Gage was at the pub tonight. He must have trusted his people to let him know if the hunters were close, so he could get away before they saw him.

I gaped as Edith leaned over and poked one of Gage’s horns with a bony finger. Davina and Jake laughed, but Gage’s eyes were turning red as he accessed his demonic powers to read her greatest desires. Well, if she was going to poke a demon, she needed to accept the consequences. She was just lucky she was meeting him now, and not a few months ago, before he’d bonded with Willow Lake.

Parker leaned over the pool table to rack the balls. My gaze caressed the rounded contours of his ass. How many times had I done this exact thing? I’d dreamed about cupping it in my hands and…

“You gonna break?” Parker said when he straightened.

“Uh… Okay.”

As I lined up my shot, Parker sidled over and ran his hand over my ass, exactly as I’d been dreaming of doing to him a few seconds earlier. My hand slipped. The cue ball went spinning off wildly, missing the other balls completely before sinking into a pocket.

“Oops.” Parker laughed. “Sorry about that.”

He retrieved the ball and lined up to take a shot of his own. I thought about doing to him what he’d done to me, but I held back. Once I started touching him, I wasn’t sure I would be able to stop.

And this was just pretend.

I couldn’t get involved with Parker, not for real. Sure, he might know about supes now, but he was still a human. I might have felt different if Parker was my fated mate, but I’d already had one of those.

The best thing Parker and I could do after the hunters left town was to go back to how we’d been before. Everything would be fine. Except…

Now I knew what Parker’s lips felt like against mine.

I rubbed my forehead, wishing I could scrub out the memory, too. Then my chest tightened at the thought of forgetting how Parker had felt in my arms. Fuck. It was like a damn demolition derby in my head right now. All those different thoughts crashed into one another, each trying to obliterate the others. I hated it. My life wassupposed to be orderly. I’d structured my entire world to be tidy and predictable.

Ever since those hunters had walked into town, chaos had nipped at my heels.

Lies.

Great. Now I had another voice in my head competing for dominance. The strange thing about this new voice though was that it had silenced the others.

You’ve been lying to yourself ever since you met Parker,the voice continued.

“Son of a…” I muttered.

“That’s what happens when you let me break,” Parker said.

“Huh?” While I’d been dealing with the voices in my head, he’d cleared the striped balls. He was setting up to sink the eight ball. He called the shot. His cue hit the ball, and it rolled straight into the pocket without protest.

“That went better than expected.” Parker winked at me and rolled his shoulders.

“Hmm…” I frowned.

“Let’s get these racked and I’ll let you break first again.”

“It’s fine. I don’t think my head is in the game tonight.”

Parker glanced around the room. “Oh, I didn’t see that they’d arrived.”