Heart & Seoul by Victoria Smith

Chapter One

    I took a moment to assess the current
situation at hand.
    My heels were on the floor. They’d fallen
from my feet. I was sitting on the kitchen counter, my ass
physically pulled to the edge only minutes prior. The skirt of my
yellow sundress had been pushed up and Drake was corralled between
my legs. He nipped hungrily at my neck, gripping my thighs with
strong hands. Any other time, I’d be welcoming his pursuit. But
seeing as how I was in the middle of something when he attacked me,
and we were mere minutes from being late for our afternoon meeting
with his mother, this intrusion couldn’t have come at a worse
time.
    Rather hazy-eyed, I glanced at the container
next to my thigh that only held two sugar cookies in it, then to
the vacant circles on the still warm cookie sheet resting on the
range. He’d only let me put two cookies in the container before he
snatched me up and propped me on the counter. I still had the
spatula in my hand for pity sake.
    I grasped his bicep with my free hand,
fighting myself not to move my hand hotly along the muscled
contours of his arm. I pushed at him, but he didn’t budge from my
neck.
    “Drake,” I gasped, closing my eyes. “Drake,
we’re going to be late to see your mom.”
    He simply switched sides of my neck, moving
his lips along the sensitive skin under my earlobe. “Only a few
minutes.”
    “I don’t want…” He was kissing up my throat
now. My lips parted and my eyes rolled back as I unintentionally
tilted my head for him. “I don’t want to be rude.”
    His tongue peaked out, flicking underneath
my chin. “Then let’s cancel.”
    “ Cancel?” I
sighed.
    “Mmmhmm.” He brushed his lips along my jaw,
following the line up to my earlobe, which he quickly drew into his
mouth. “We haven’t christened all the surfaces in the new apartment
yet. Sounds like way more fun than spending the afternoon with my
mom.”
    Oh… That did sound like
fun.
    “What do you say?” he breathed.
    I opened my eyes, forcing myself to come
down from my high. “We probably shouldn’t. We’ve had today planned
with her for weeks and don’t you want to see her before we leave
tomorrow?”
    Our trip to Seoul was mere hours away. I
found it hard to believe that he wouldn’t want to see her before
doing something this big. They’d worked so hard together making the
preparations to find his birth mother, like contacting the
appropriate agencies and scheduling appointments so he’d be good to
go when we arrived. Not to mention, he’d hurt her if he just took
off without saying goodbye. She would want to wish him well.
    He heard this, but he didn’t stop his lips
from moving along my ear. “Yeah, I do. So let’s just be late
then.”
    I grabbed his arms, and finally, he pulled
back a bit. It was hard to say no to that handsome face. Ignore
that sexy, inky black hair. He had it styled in an intentional
tousle, thick and waiting for my fingers to muss it up more. His
plump lips were still wet from kissing, and the way his dark brown
eyes blazed over me, like he could already envision himself inside
me, I was questioning stopping him. In the end, I allowed myself to
be the strong one.
    “I told you I don’t want to be late,” I
said. “Now, let me finish packing up these cookies I made for tea
with your mom.”
    I gripped the edge of the counter to hop
down, but he didn’t let me, grabbing my waist.
    “Lacey…” he said, shooting me a set of his
best puppy dog eyes, “just a few minutes.” He leaned in, taking my
neck again. “What will a few minutes hurt?”
    I scrunched up my nose, suddenly growing
suspicious. Why was he pushing so hard for us to be late? Now that
I thought about it, the way he came at me was so random. Especially
since he’d been ignoring me all day. He’d been hunkered down in our
room, finalizing the plans for our trip. I literally told him it
was time to go, then went to grab my cookies out of the oven. The
next thing I knew, I was on