Shocked by my actions, I begin to set Trinh back on her feet, but she wraps her arms around my neck. Still in the process of lowering her to the ground, I’m not prepared when she squeezes us closer together. The slow slide of her body pulls a ragged sound from my throat. Trinh stares into my eyes for a breathless moment. The rest of the world spins away from my awareness. Nothing exists except her eyes. They are such a dark brown, they are almost black. Her iris is encircled by a thick ring of charcoal. I feel like I could fall into their depths.
Trinh tunnels her fingers through the hair at the back of my head. Cupping her hands, she tugs my face inexorably closer to hers. I hold her stare, her eyes gleaming like obsidian and coming closer until our noses brush softly. For a long moment, we share soft breaths as we stare into one another’s eyes. Her sweet mineral scent slides over my tongue and settles itself in my lungs.
I can’t see her smile, but her eyes crinkle, and her scent softens with pleasure. As her eyes start to slowly close, mine inevitably do the same. A tiny puff of breath breezes across my lips a moment before her lips follow with a small caress, a mere brush of skin against skin. Humming the barest sigh of pleasure, Trinh presses her lips to mine again. Each slide and press ignites a tingling sensation through every nerve in my body. Trinh’s kisses are just like her: they tease, flirt, are achingly sweet, and leave me craving more.
Her tongue licks a path along the seam of my lips, drawing a groan. Opening my mouth, I let our tongues meet and dance together, making heat and desire rise from the core of my body. Somehow Trinh manages to press even closer to me, plastering herself across my front.
With a wrenching moan, I lift her in my arms and press her against the wall so I can access her mouth more easily. Her tongue brushes against mine, sliding sinuously, drawing me further in. I want to dive into her mouth, delving into every part of her. When Trinh pulls away and gasps a panting breath in my ear, it breaks the hold desire has on my mind. I start to pull back, worried I am gripping her too hard.
When I straighten slightly, Trinh darts back and presses in for another kiss. She ends it with a playful nip to my bottom lip. I have to make myself unclench my hands from the fabric of her clothes. I smooth my hands over the wrinkles I made in her shirt and use it as distraction to pull myself back from the desire roaring through my veins.
I stare at Trinh, lost in wonder. I take in her pinkened cheeks. How her lips are a little swollen and reddened from our kiss. How her usually smooth hair is ruffled up in the back where I must have run my fingers through it. I see the moment when her thoughts return to her by the slight crinkling of her brow.
“What’s an ampoule?” she asks, wiggling in my grip. I carefully set her down.
“I forgot,” I exclaim, shocked that I temporarily neglected my duty as the director of the Bride Program. “It’s like a locket or a vial. It might be a way to store a mate’s pheromones. I need to talk to L’Forn immediately. You might be right; we could create a way to allow mates to be further away from the danger.”
I reach over and press the elevator button.
“Really?” Trinh says, her eyes filled with hope.
“Yes, I have to go. Are you okay to find the storage room on your own?”
The elevator announces its arrival behind me as Trinh nods. When the door opens, I back into it without looking away from her. As the door starts to close and separate us, I instinctively put my hand out to stop it. Rushing back to Trinh, I lean down and press a soft, slow kiss to her lips. Straightening back up, I cup her chin in my hand and rub my thumb over her damp bottom lip.
“I really do have to go,” I sigh sadly.
Reaching my hand back, I stop the doors just before they slide shut behind me. I stare at Trinh standing alone in the empty hallway, looking completely delicious. The urge to abandon my duty and indulge in more kisses is so strong that I feel myself start to lean back toward her.
She must see my intent because she grins and tells me to go, waving me back into the elevator.
“You really are a genius, Trinh,” I yell as the doors start to close. Just before the door seals out all sound, I hear her sweet laugh.
Chapter 9
Trinh
Amere minute or a century passes as I stand here staring at the closed doors of the elevator like a lust-struck idiot. I touch my fingertips to my still tingling lips, the skin there sensitive and buffed silky from friction. Damn, now that was a kiss worth waiting for.
L’Corte caught me completely off-guard. I am still a little shocked at hearing him cuss. He’s usually the very definition of reserved. Hugging me against his front, I watched as his eyes dilated a mere moment before he kissed me. Afterward, he looked completely shocked by his behavior, even though it was only the smallest tentative brushing of his lips against mine.
One taste wasn’t enough for me, so I pulled him down to get another kiss. I expected just a couple of tame kisses. The kind exchanged at a middle school dance. Boy, was I wrong. Who knew so much heat was lurking under his cool exterior? He wrenched control from me, consuming my mouth. With the first flick of his tongue against my lips, I gladly handed him that control.
I can still feel the phantom heat of his hands, framing my face, giving me the feeling of warmth and safety in his touch. Chills pepper my skin as I remember the gentleness of his hold mixed with the demand of his mouth.
I shake myself out of my stupor. I can’t spend all day staring at the elevator like a teenager with her first crush. I have shit to do. I bite my lip and grin, promising to myself to get another sample of L’Corte’s mouth. One taste is definitely not gonna be enough.
Looking around, I check the numbers above each door. It seems like they run in a logical order ascending from 100 up. This should be easy to navigate. I turn and head right. When the hallway splits, I look at the numbers and take another right. But for some reason, this hallway skips from room 110 to room 150. Where did the middle forty rooms go? With a huff of irritation, I backtrack to the last split and take a left instead. What the fuck? This hallway seems to start at room 132. There is nothing logical about this layout. I walk down this corridor just to see where it ends up.
This hall ends in another split. Looking down both new corridors, I feel like pulling my hair out because they all look the same. All these sterile, gray hallways are indistinguishable from each other. Why can’t my tablet have GPS, or a map at the very least? I’m not wandering this floor, lost for hours. That’s not happening. I need to call in the cavalry to save me. My first instinct is to contact L’Corte, but I don’t want to interrupt whatever he is up to regarding bottling pheromones. Maybe D’Merx is available.
Ugh, I hate that I need help. I’m no one’s damsel in distress, thank you very much.
I start to message D’Merx when I hear a strange noise. Holding my breath, I listen intently, trying to figure out what the sound was. I wait a minute, but I don’t hear anything else. It must have been my overactive imagination. Right as I turn back to my tablet, I hear it again. It sounds like a low groan of a man in pain.
“Hello?” I call out. “Is someone there? Are you okay?”
I don’t hear a response. I take a few slow steps in the direction I thought I heard the noise, tilting my head to listen. I know this is stupid. I don’t want to be like Jenny or Brittany or Amber and run up the stairs trapping myself on the second floor. I always got annoyed at the characters in scary movies who decided to check out the eerie noise or explore the scary mansion, but here I am doing it myself. But what if there is someone down here and they’re hurt? I can’t just walk away.
