Fuck. How had he managed to screw everything up in a matter of minutes? Oh right. He’d done that five years ago when he’d dumped Ambi for a multi-billion dollar company that was set to be his empire as soon as his father passed away, and a six-figure bank account in the interim.
“Yeah.” His voice was foreign to his own ears. “The hall is fine. I guess.”
Ambi breathed a sigh of relief. He literally watched the shiver roll through her, watched her shoulders sag and her body curl into itself. Was she that glad that she didn’t have to deal with him? Was it really just business for her or was she really good at pretending?
“Right. I’ll book it then. I’ll have the menus emailed to you for tomorrow morning so you can pick what you want. Let me know if there are alternative options you need, as I mentioned. I’ll also have a list of potential entertainment and links to samples of their work to you by noon tomorrow. I’ll need a decision soon, since the party isn’t far away, and this is a busy time for everyone.”
Trey nodded woodenly. The way Ambi rattled off facts like that really was impersonal. It was all business. There wasn’t a scrap of feeling behind it. Not even anger. It was all indifference. He hated indifference. That lack of feeling anything at all.
Ambi nodded at him, tucked her hands back into her pockets, and whirled. She stalked confidently out the door, banking hard to head down the hall.
Hell no. He wasn’t going to let her go like that. There was something in him, something raw and broken, like salt in already shredded wounds, stinging and chaffing and burning. He couldn’t let her leave like that. Like any other person in the world would have. He couldn’t let her, because he wasn’t any other person in her world, and she wasn’t in his.
He caught up to her right at the front entrance. There were only two big sliding doors, one for entry and one for exit, and a bank of windows surrounding it all. He ran after Ambi, his shoes slapping against the tiles so hard that she whirled right by the door.
“Trey- what-”
He couldn’t stop himself. He gripped her arm with one hand, curling her into him. He caught her off balance and her hands slapped against the black wool of his coat as her body melded against his. She capitulated from the shock and his other arm encircled her back. He dipped his head at the same time her lips parted.
The instant their lips met, fire erupted between them. She was the gasoline and he was already roaring. The burn ate at them, the intensity wild and alarming and disarming. He plundered her mouth, licking at her lips with burning passes of his tongue until they parted for him on an exhale, granting him entrance.
It was wrong. It was totally wrong, but nothing had ever felt so fucking right.
Trey swept his tongue in and stroked Ambi’s. His whole body reacted, hardening, melting into hers, as he devoured and claimed. He wanted to back her up against a wall, kiss her until she couldn’t breathe. He wanted her in his arms. Always. He wanted her surrender. He wanted to give her back everything she’d taken and ask for all the parts of himself that she still held locked up within all the parts of her. All the parts that had once been them.
While he was still kissing her, Ambi’s hands balled into fists against his chest. She beat at him before she even pulled away. He nipped her as she pulled back, by accident, but he couldn’t stop the groan that vibrated through his chest when copper blossomed and exploded on his lips.
He let her fall away when she pushed. He let her step back, let her break the magic. It didn’t feel like being saved from drowning. It felt like the exact opposite. Like her absence was the lead weight that dragged him down back into darkness.
“What are you doing!” She held a shaking hand up to her lips. She pressed her fingers there and pulled them away after, to check for blood. There was no evidence of the copper he’d tasted and he breathed a small sigh of relief. It was short-lived since her eyes flashed and crackled with rage. “What do you think you’re doing?” she spat out again.
Trey pointed up at the door, where a bough of something as modern as the rest of the place was strung up. “There’s mistletoe above the door. I was just doing my duty and all.”
Ambi’s eyes flicked upwards then her nostrils flared, and her lips thinned out. “That’s not a mistletoe! You wouldn’t know a mistletoe if it bit you in the fucking dick!”