Page 88 of Moody as a Minotaur

“I feel like I should be asking you that.” He brushed my hair from my eyes. It was such an intimate thing to do, the kind of thing a lover would do. Levi’s gaze caught on mine. “You’re gorgeous. I’ve always thought so.”

I snorted because, yeah, no. I really wasn’t. But it was nice that he liked the look of me. I liked the look of him too. Even when his nostrils were flared and he was taking short, huffing breaths. Hmm, maybe I liked him best that way because it meant he was teetering on the edge of his control, and I’d discovered I rather liked a wilder, less contained Levi.

And I was hoping for a lot more of that in the next hour or so.

I wanted to shred his every doubt. I wanted to make him a little wild. I wanted to make him realize that I was serious when I said I chose him. And I guess I wanted him to choose me too.

That whole fated mate thing was fine for some, but not for me. I was the captain of my own damn ship. And right now, we were sailing into orgasmic waters… or something like that. Honestly, the metaphor got away from me because we were standing beside Levi’s massive bed, and I was ready to dive into those orgasmic waters.

Jesus. Why wouldn’t my mind stop already? Orgasmicwaters? What did that even mean? Because when I thought about it literally, it sounded pretty damn gross.

Enough.

I had better things… uh,people… to do. Levi. I was going to do Levi.

But that didn’t sound right, either. Whatever I’d share with Levi tonight would be far more earth-shattering than a physical release.

As Levi’s gaze held mine, the color of his eyes deepened to a rich brown, like they did when he shifted into his minotaur form. His nostrils were still flared. His cheeks had darkened and were a wonderful shade of pink that reminded me of the raspberry sherbet I’d had on our summer menu.

I rested my hands on his chest, and his breathing quickened, but he didn’t move away. With my gaze locked on his, I slowly slid my hands up to the top button on his dress shirt. I unfastened the first button. Levi held his breath. I moved to the next button. Levi released his breath on a shuddering exhale. The pattern repeated—button, inhale, button, exhale—until I had to tug his shirt from his pants. I quickly dealt with the remaining two buttons. Only then did I let my gaze cascade down his torso.

A thick mat of dark curly hair covered the skin I’d exposed. Eager to know everything about him, I slid my fingers through it to see if it was as soft as it appeared. It was. And then I saw the dark lines of his rune tattoo. Levi’s breath caught as I traced it with my fingertip.

“So, this protects you?”

He nodded.

I leaned forward and pressed a kiss to it.

“Thank you,” I whispered to the tattoo. Because magic was real and even if I didn’t have my own magic, I could offer my thanks to the magical marking that’d kept Levi safe all these years. It couldn’t hurt, right?

Levi shivered.

“Is this okay?”

Levi let out a tortured sounding groan as he nodded.

“Words, Levi,” I said. “I need words.”

“Yes,” he whispered as another shiver rolled over him.

Emboldened by his response, I tackled the buttons on his cuffs next. I was half-tempted to roll up his sleeves to expose his forearms—because hello, that was sexy as fuck—but decided I could do that another day. Because there would be other days. A lot of them.

Instead, I slid my hands under his shirt again, over his chest hairs, to his shoulders, where I nudged the shirt off until it dropped to the floor.

I’d never seen Levi shirtless in his human form before. And fuck me. My imagination had not prepared me for what I found under his fancy dress shirt. For a guy who sat behind a desk all day, he was surprisingly fit. I hadn’t expected that. He didn’t have a six-pack, but his strength was right there in front of me. He wasn’t lean by any definition, but he was beefy, brawny, built… There were so many beautiful words I could use to describe him.

The soft light from the bedside lamp highlighted the dips and hollows of his chest, and I followed each one with my eyes. His pecs flexed under my perusal, as if begging for attention.

But I had other things I needed to do first.

I snagged his leather belt and slid the strap through the buckle. Then I went for his pants. I didn’t stop until he was naked before me.

I stood back to admire him, because let me tell you, there was a lot to admire. He could have been the model for an ancient Greek sculptor. Every part of him was gorgeous… and let’s just say his package was proportional to the rest of his body. And right now, his length was thick and hard with arousal.

Sweet baby kittens.

“Parker?”