Lore removed his thumb. His soft lips pressed against mine. My mind blanked. Stiffened limbs relaxed. On instinct, I responded. A need I’d only ever experienced hints of filled me, drowned me; made doing everything impossible, except getting closer to that warmth and oneness.

Without conscious thought, I dug fingers into soft hair and pulled closer. It wasn’t enough.

I wrapped my leg around another. I hugged a sturdy waist wrapped in silk and pulled it to mine so there was as little room between me and that oneness as possible.

And just as I was about to open my mouth and devour a loud throaty noise sounded beside my ear.

Shocked, I opened my eyes wide and let go. Lore took several steps away from me while rubbing his lips dry with both sleeves. He looked, dazed for a second before he sobered, and when he did, he looked so disgusted.

A security guard tapped his foot and pointed at the door to the side of the hallway that had a sign saying it was a rest area. My cheeks burned.

Lore, half calm and half flustered, bowed low.

“I’m truly regretful.”

“I don’t expect much from a Halfling, but you…”

He kept bowing. “Again, I apologize. I didn’t want to do anything here but there wasn’t enough time to tell Mia. She is my current substitute jailor and doesn’t know the rules.”

The guard looked at me as if I was the smelliest pond scum that had ever scumed and he couldn’t wait to grab a mop to scrub it out of existence. I looked to Lore, feeling a bit wronged. He didn’t look at me.

My heart started pounding in panic and my face chilled. Maybe, the kiss that blew my fucking mind — that was incomparable to everything I’d ever experienced — wasn't something he even wanted to do. It was very possible that he was forced because of my inability to act… and then maybe, I couldn’t stop myself because of his insanely high bardic seduction skills.

He had to have those considering a mere chaste kiss made me lose myself to lust... But even if it did that for me, for Lore, considering his reaction just now, he obviously wasn’t into it.

As a love ‘em and leave ‘em type of bard, of course, Lore knew how to kiss well. He also knew how to pretend to enjoy it. But that was what it had been. Pretense. Despite my wanting it to have been otherwise.

Shit. Now I felt like a complete asshole. And somewhere inside, where that oneness and, yes, joy, had been, ached with the pain of rejection.

“I... I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

My face once more burned with embarrassment. I really needed to take these useless one-sided urges and throw them out a skyscraper window.

I bowed in apology, grabbed Lore’s hand, and ran into the rest area. Once we entered, Lore brought me into a small room with a couch and chairs so fluffy a person could get lost in them. I threw myself onto the couch and buried my face. I even grabbed a nearby pillow and covered my head with it, briefly wishing I could just die.

Lore and I sat there for a good 10 minutes not saying anything. Slowly, I calmed down, removed the pillow, then looked at him. He seemed too composed and deep in thought. Like nothing fazed this guy. Except his hair was messed up from where I’d shoved my hand into it. God, it had been so soft and silky. No! Bad brain.

“Alright,” he said. “According to a friend of mine in the party, someone is coming. We should fix our… appearance. Then leave.”

“How.”

“Just look in the mirror, and choose the refresh option.”

I did as suggested. An interface asked if I wanted to refresh back to perfection. When I agreed my visage instantly changed back to how I looked before the party. Damn. This would be useful in real life.

We exited the room together and almost ran into two people. For one awkward moment, the four of us stared at each other, surprised. Then we both nodded as if agreeing to not speak of this.

Very quickly after that, we made it back to the party. Lore was almost immediately grabbed by other people and dragged to do a few more of those challenge booths.

I’d done little this night except being Lore’s alibi but, even then, I was exhausted. Waiting to be caught for the ten or so minutes he’d been down there was mentally draining. And my lowered level didn’t help my mental facilities.

So, I went to the stage area where the bards battled with music and people danced or sat at cute round tables. I listened to foreign music. It wasn’t terrible but it was completely different from the pop or rock songs that I enjoyed.

Actually, judging by the lyrics it was closer to the country music that my uncle liked to annoy me with on our road trips. But the actual sound of the music was closer to classic.

A woman played on something like a lute, and she sang with a deep husky voice. But I had to admit, the lyrics were pretty entertaining.

They described how her no-good wife left her for traveling troubadour. Her pet left her to marry a richer woman’s pet. She died, in the sim, losing over half her wealth. But it was all gonna be okay because she found someone new to love, happily and forever. And the song ended.

The audience and I cheered politely. For some reason, a chill ran down my spine as if someone with bad intentions watched me.

When I looked around I didn’t see anyone aside from the person behind and to the left of me; a blonde woman, with her hair tied up in cool roses and wearing pink robes with white accents. Her nose practically stuck to the book she read, so I couldn’t see her face. Since she faced the stage and not me, I ignored her.