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Joshua stiffened. His nostrils flared as he scented the air like a predator.
“I’m not sure whether to be hungry or horny?” she said. “What’s that smell?”
“That, it seems, is the next step.”
“Death by air freshener? Why wouldn’t they use sewage or old fish instead?”
"It’s not air freshener,” he murmured, a look of realization slowly dawning on his face. "They're pumping pheromones into the cell."
"Pheromones?" Keri repeated, confusion giving way to alarm. "Why?"
But even as she asked, she felt it — a warm, unfamiliar sensation washing over her. She shifted uncomfortably, suddenly hyper-aware of Joshua's presence. She remembered part of what she had overheard.
“And the human test subjects?"
"Responding as expected. The mating drive is almost impossible to resist."
Their eyes met, and she was struck by how utterly captivating he looked in the dim light, his chiseled features almost glowing with preternatural beauty. Had he always been this handsome?
Joshua's gaze smoldered with barely restrained hunger as he drank in the sight of her. Keri's skin prickled with goosebumps, her body responding to his intensity even as her mind screamed danger.
“Uh oh,” she said.
“What?” he snapped.
“Horny is winning out over hungry.”
Then she told him about the snippet of conversation she had heard before she had been knocked out.
“Breeding stock,” he muttered. “Mating drive.”
"I don’t like this," Keri managed, even as her body betrayed her with a rush of unwanted desire.
"Agreed," Joshua said, his voice strained. "They're trying to manipulate us, push us together."
Keri nodded, trying to focus on the implications rather than the way Joshua's lips moved as he spoke. "But why? What do they gain by this?"
"I have a theory," Joshua admitted. "But it’s evil, even for the Vasiles. We’re only this clear-headed because I didn’t drink from you.”
Keri nodded again, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to concentrate. The pheromones seemed to be growing stronger, clouding her mind with a haze of desire.
She tugged at her restraints, desperate for some kind of distraction. "These cuffs," she said. "There has to be a way to get them off."
Joshua's eyes flickered to her wrists, then quickly away. When he spoke, his voice was tight with barely contained emotion — hunger? Desire? Rage? Keri couldn't tell, and that terrified her even more.
“We need a distraction. Tell me about yourself,” she said desperately.
“No.”
Keri flinched at the venom in his voice but pressed on. "Look, we're trapped in a cell with no way out, being drugged with... lust pheromones or whatever these are. If we're going to survive this, we need information. I need information."
“I’m not the subject of an article you are writing,” he gritted out.
“Work with me here. I’m just trying not to jump your bones right now.” The itchy neediness was embarrassing as well as uncomfortable.
For a long moment, Joshua simply stared at her, his expression unreadable. Keri held her breath, acutely aware of how easily he could hurt her, pheromones or no.
“I’m an assassin.”
