Page 19 of Legend of Scorpio
“Go ahead. We’re running out of options,” he stated.
“Kiss me.”
“What?” He glanced down at her.
“You heard me. Kiss me or touch me. Skin-to-skin contact.”
“I’d ask why, but if I’m gonna die might as well be having fun,” he stated with a grin.
He dragged her up on tiptoe and pressed his mouth to hers. Right in the middle of the room. Right under the peak. Hot-blooded meeting cold-blooded.
The kiss was more than fun. It exhilarated. Made her tingle head to toe. Made her forget they would probably be baked to death. Made her wish she had more time to explore this oddly fascinating man.
His hands tucked inside her coat and pressed her firmly to him. His tongue peeked past her lips. She tickled it with her own and moaned. As his hands cupped her ass, and he ground against her, the heat curling around them suddenly vanished,and she opened her eyes to see Scorpio staring back. “Did a kiss seriously save our lives?” His query held an incredulous note.
“Seems so.”
“Why didn’t the first one work?”
She shrugged. “Wrong spot? Maybe it wasn’t long enough? Does it matter? Look.”
She pointed, and he glanced overhead, his jaw dropping at the sight of the silver ball lowering, floating without string. When it got close, Scorpio grabbed the sphere, the size of a large grapefruit.
“What is it?” she murmured, still a bit flustered from the embrace.
“I don’t know.” He tucked the sphere under an arm and frowned. “What made you think a kiss would work?”
“I wasn’t sure it would do anything, to be honest. Magic or star power or whatever you call it is a rather new concept to me. However, it occurred to me that this place, while built with Zodiacs in mind, obviously needed a human.”
“Why would you say that?”
“Because I assume you and your other warrior friends are all bulky.”
“Yeah, we’re all kind of buff.”
“Meaning no way you could have unlocked that first door. And the spring solstice is a human thing, meaning not something you might have thought of. Ultimately, though, it was the heat in this place versus the extreme chill outside. Hot and cold, extreme opposites. Man and woman. Also opposites. Human and warrior, not quite opposites, but definitely not the same.”
His lips quirked. “Most definitely not the same. Good thinking. I see now why I needed you for this mission. Now, how about you use that gorgeous brain of yours to figure out how we escape?”
“I’m working on it.” Only she had nothing. The room remained unchanged?—
Creak.
The noise had them both glancing overhead to see cracks suddenly spreading across the ceiling.
“Um, that’s not good,” she stated.
“No shit. Let me see if I can get us out of here. Tuck close.”
“How does hugging you help?” she asked, glancing up at his face.
“Because all warriors have a built-in homing device for home. I just need to…” He frowned.
“What’s wrong?”
“My tattoo isn’t activating.”
“You have a magical tattoo?” She marveled that she still had the capacity to be surprised.