Heart & Seoul

A Novella

By Victoria H.
Smith

~ THE SPACE BETWEEN SERIES ~

BOOK 2.5

HEART & SEOUL: A Novella

Copyright © 2014 by Victoria H. Smith

All rights reserved. No part of this book may
be reproduced or transmitted in any form, including electronic or
mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except
in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or
reviews.

This book is a work of fiction and any
resemblance to any person, living or dead, any place, events or
occurrences, is purely coincidental and not intended by the
author.

Published by
Victoria H. Smith

Cover design by
Scott Smith

Cover photo by
monkeybusiness

Editing by
Taylor K’s Editing Services

Layout by
Scott 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 the kitchen counter moaning. “You
wouldn’t be trying to stall for some reason would you, Truman
Drake?”

He leaned his long frame back, looking
seemingly insulted. “Now, why would you say that? Can’t a man just
show his woman a little affection whenever he feels like it? Can’t
he…”

I was thrown for an erotic loop when he
dipped his head, kissing the swell of my breasts.

My breath escaped in small wisps.

“…kiss her whenever he wants,” he continued,
placing small love bites along my chest. “Touch her how he feels
she deserves to be touched.”

He pushed his hands slowly
yet aggressively up my thighs, and I gripped his arms to keep from
turning into jelly.
Good God he is so
good…

He gave a little chuckle against my breasts.
It was low, gravelly, and incredibly sexy, like only he had a way
of doing. I should be mad he could get me to submit to him so
easily, but at the moment I was only focused on his moving
hands.

Looping his fingers around the sides of my
panties, he tugged them down my thighs and I gave into him by
lifting my ass from the counter so he could take them off. With
finesse, he removed the material, sliding them into his pocket.

He brought me closer to him by my naked
bottom. “Can’t he taste her the way she should be tasted,
Lace?”

He didn’t wait for my response before he
eased my legs apart and squatted down. My sense finally came back
to me, and I lifted my leg, pressing my toes onto his shoulder to
hold him back.

I eyed him. “I only ask because you’ve been
ignoring me all day to get things finalized for our trip, which you
know I don’t mind and completely understand. But the minute I come
in to tell you we need to leave for your mother’s, you suddenly
have to have me. You wouldn’t even let me get my cookies packed up.
Do you not want to go because you’ll be bored while we discuss
wedding things?”

That was the reason we planned to meet his
mom today. She received the finished wedding invitations from her
designer friend and wanted to show us before we left. Drake and I
had decided on a small wedding before he started school, but it
quickly turned into an event. Between Mrs. Drake and Adele, I was
quickly overwhelmed. Our “small” backyard wedding at the Drake
house turned into a large one to be held at the Trump Tower
downtown. His mother and I would most likely be discussing more
particulars today, and I feared he might not want to go because of
that.

He stood, frowning. “You know I don’t mind
talking about anything that has to do with you being on my arm for
the rest of my life.”

I bit my lip. I loved it when he was all
cute and romantic like that. I tugged the lapels of his gray button
down, admiring the flash of golden skin the open lapels
exposed.

“
Then what is it?” I asked
him.

Grabbing my waist, he helped me off the
counter. He kissed my nose. “Nothing. So if you’re trying to go,
then we need to leave before we’re late.”

I still didn’t necessarily believe him. But
he started walking off, so I knew he was serious about going. I
turned to finish packing up my cookies, and my eyes widened at the
sudden draft that breezed my nethers from the simple motion.
Whipping back around, I placed my hands on my hips. “Truman Drake,
I think you have something that belongs to me.”

He stopped his black Converses mid step.
“What ever are you talking about, my beautiful fiancée?” Turning on
his heel, he batted his dark eyelashes.

I placed my hand out. “Nope. Not going to
work. Give my panties to me please.”

He didn’t return to me and popped his bottom
lip out in a pout.

I shook my head. “Truman Drake. My panties.
Now.”

Heavy-footed, he made it over to me and,
rather reluctantly, dropped the cream-colored lace into my palm.
“You’re so particular about these. You act like I can’t buy you new
ones.”

After placing my feet through the holes, I
shimmied them on with the grace of a lady, not allowing him to see
the goodies by covering myself with my skirt. If he saw that there
would be no stopping him. “If I let you do what you wanted with
them, you’d be shredding and taking them whenever you wished.”

His lips lifted. Slinging an arm around my
waist, he pushed me up against him. “Damn right,” he said, before
pressing his lips onto mine.

Chapter Two

After waving off Sam, the Drake family’s
gate attendant, Drake pulled his Jaguar through the iron gates and
up the long drive of his family’s split-level ranch home. When we
got to the top, there was a black Rolls Royce parked outside of the
four-door garage where we usually parked. Standing near the
passenger door was an older looking gentleman dressed in all black.
Gloves, billed hat, and all.