Holy fuck.Heat spread over Dani’s entire body. She didn’t know nerdy, good boy Theo had such ferocity in him.
She liked it.
“I didn’t realize you had a name kink, Dr…. Galanis,” she exaggerated.
“I didn’t either…Daniela.”
He stared at her with hooded eyes, and for a moment she thought he might legitimately hoist her against his waist and plop her down on a table in the research hall.
“You are making itveryhard to focus,” he said, leaning into her ear. He grabbed her by the hips and pressed his groin into her.
“Seems your focus isn’t the only thing of yours I’m making hard,” she said, pressing back to satisfy her own tension building in her core.
“You have no idea.”
“I dunno…I think I have a pretty good idea,” she said, allowing her lips to graze his ear and then pulling it into her mouth, sucking on his tender lobe like she wished she could do to his cock.
She grabbed him by his belt loops, pulling him closer to her, when a child came jumping down the stairs onto the landing right above them. They quickly broke apart and straightened themselves up before the child’s parents rounded the corner. Dani tossed the mom a bashful smile, and then Theo took her by the hand and guided her the rest of the way up the stairs.
“We should probably be a little more discreet,” Theo whispered. “I don’t want to get arrested for public indecency.”
“Hey, that’s an option to get us out of here without having to worry about Pierre intervening with the police. Your face would probably be plastered all over if you got arrested,” she joked.
“Perhaps. Though I’m not sure I want the very first photo for my mom to see of me alive to be a mugshot because I got caught with a hard-on in the library,” Theo said, smiling.
“Then perhaps we’d better behave,” she said. “I don’t think I can handle having to explain that situation to your mom.”
To be honest, Mrs. Galanis semi-terrified her. Not that she didn’t love her, but she had high expectations for her son, and Dani wasprettysure getting Theo arrested wouldn’t exactly help her “reckless” image no matter the circumstances.
They finally made it to the rare collections room and swiped their badges. It was like Candy Land for librarians. One-of-a-kind texts that only a limited number of people could get their hands on. She walked around the roughly five-hundred-square-foot room bordered on two sides by shelves and shelves of books in all shapes and sizes, scanning the bindings of the various titles while Theo went over the list of instructions and handed her a pair of gloves. The wall of windows on the other two sides of the room looked out into the library atrium. Another area had books in protective cases, and in the center sat two large wooden tables with felt tops to review the materials.
“I wish I could read these,” she said, running her white-gloved finger along the spines. “I feel like I’m not going to be much help other than watching you read.” Which was sexy and all, and, honestly, it was one of her favorite things to do when he’d come over and they’d literally spend an afternoon reading in silence, but not a great use of time under the current circumstances.
“Then, here,” he said, grabbing a piece of scrap paper and a pen on the table and scribbling a few words. “Why don’t you go through the books, check the indexes, and look for this.” He held out the paper, which said “Παπατ?νης, Δημητρ?ου.” “This is Demetrios’s name in Greek. If it’s there, then find that spot in the text and I’ll take a look.”
“This is going to take forever.”
“Do you have other plans?”
“Well, no, but aren’t you getting hungry?”
“Let’s go through this shelf and once we’re done, we’ll find Andreas so we can get something to eat.”
“Oh!” she said, grabbing his arm. “There’s this place I wanted to check out in Athens. It’s supposed to have thebestkebabs…”
Dani’s voice trailed off as Theo tipped his head at her and raised his brows.
“No time for Fodor’s best-of list?” she said, scrunching her face.
Theo laughed. “Look, once we make it out of this mess, I promise you, I’ll bring you back for a real vacation and we’ll go see all the sights, eat all the kebabs, and drink all the ouzo. But for now, let’s figure out whatever we can about the eye of the Minotaur, and then get the hell home.”
“You actually want to come back here after this?” she asked, wrinkling her forehead.
“I mean, I assumed I would eventually. I love it here. You don’t?”
“I…I don’t know. I love being here withyou,” she said, almost surprised by her honesty. And judging by the way he smiled at her tenderly, it seemed her honesty surprised him, as well. “But,” she continued, “I’m worried I might have PTSD. And that makes a big assumption that there even will be an ‘after this.’ ”
He took a step closer and placed his hands on her shoulders. “Therewillbe an after, I promise. One way or another, wewillget home, okay?”
