Page 2 of Rauf: Minotaur Mates

I wanted to be the male she was laughing with. Instead I stood beside a repair stall with a pump part in my hand, watching them.

Was he courting her? He’d come out of the Agency office, and she’d been waiting for him. Maybe the papers were already signed. Maybe she’d spent last night in his house and that smile was for her husband.

My fingers hurt. I loosened them before I damaged the coupling.

Korfas put his hand at the small of her back.

I wanted to fuck his shit up.

I could cross that street, get hold of his coat, and drag him away from her. He’d fight me. Korfas wouldn’t stand there and take it, and right then I wanted him to give me an excuse. Let him swing first. Let him try to put me on my back in front of her.

My free hand closed into a fist.

Then what? Knock the deputy into the dirt and introduce myself to his bride?

Fuck.

I hadn’t come here for this. I’d paid for the part. The truck was right behind me. I could get in it and be out of town before Korfas even knew I’d been here.

He turned toward the cider house, his hand still resting on her coat, and she went with him.

I took another step.

The woman glanced back.

Her eyes met mine, and need surged through me so hard that I almost reached for her. There was a whole street between us. I wanted it gone.

For one second she looked straight at me. Her gaze lifted to my broken horn, then came back to my face. Her lips parted, and I wanted to hear whatever she might say badly enough that I leaned toward her.

I could call out. I could ask her name.

Then Korfas would turn around, and I’d have to talk to him while he stood there touching her. I’d have to hear who she was to him. She might smile at me, too.

I didn’t want to know. I didn’t need a bride or a fight or another reason for Remmen to come banging on my door.

She’d smiled at Korfas. I could leave it at that.

I made myself turn away.

The truck door stuck, and I hauled it open harder than I needed to. I set the coupling on the passenger seat and climbed in. Through the windshield I could still see the Agency steps. If I looked a little farther along the street, I’d see her again.

I started the engine and pulled away from the market. By the time I reached the road out of town, I was gripping the wheel with both hands to keep from turning back.

I would go home and pretend I’d never seen her.

1

TERESA

I was kissing a monster and I felt nothing.

Did that make me the real monster?

An inappropriate laugh threatened to bubble out of my throat and I knew Korfas would take it the wrong way. Hell, I wasn’t sure there was a right way it could be taken.

My mouth was firmly closed, and so was Korfas’s. His coat scratched my palms where I had them braced against his chest. I could feel that more clearly than the kiss. A part of me wondered if I should open up to him and see if he might take control. Then again, he was a seven-foot-tall minotaur with horns built for goring and I wasn’t sure control was something I needed from him.

Restraint. Yeah, that might be nice.