A sharp woman in a suit handed me the envelope for Best Supporting Actor and a small note with all the nominees.
“Prompter is in the middle if you need it.”
I smiled. “I’ll be okay. Thank you, though.”
“Three minutes until your cue.” The stagehand was back, and she gestured me toward the edge of the heavy curtains. The Maher Concert Hall was one of the biggest venues in Slate City. Not as big as some of the ones in Concordia or elsewhere, but Slate City loved hosting the DCAs, and I hoped they never moved. Yet another reason to love this show: it was nice to have an event I didn’t need to travel to.
Jasmine touched my elbow. “Eva, are you okay?”
I frowned. “I’m amazing, why?”
“Because you said you wanted a candle? But there’s no candle back here.”
Shrugging, I walked backwards toward where they were waiting for me. “So it’s not a candle? But you have to smell that. I want my whole apartment to smell like that.”
“But—” her face turned to panic and she stepped toward me, “watch out.”
The words were too late. I bumped into something hard and metal and full speed, the momentum and my high heels too much to come back from.
Fuck.
I closed my eyes, prepared to make sure I was quiet after the fall… but I never hit the ground. Arms caught me, that strange hard surface pressing into my side.
“Woah,” a voice said. “Sorry about that.”
I stared at the man who caught me as he steadied me on my feet. One of the men from the rock band going on after me. What was their name again?
Dark hair that fell over his forehead and blue eyes filled with concern. He had a bass guitar strapped to him. That must have been the thing I ran into.
That delicious scent of cinnamon-tinted apples was so much stronger now. It was so weird that they’d have something so strong back here…
The man’s hands were still on my arms, steadying me. He searched my face. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah,” I managed. Then I inhaled.
The scentburned. Seared. Tore through me and remade me in the space of seconds. It was the only thing I ever wanted to breathe. Other scents melded with it and only made it better. Bourbon and mint and citrus and maple syrup.
Perfume exploded around me.
Perfume, when I’d never perfumed foranyone.
Not outside of my heats. Plus, the suppressants helped with that. But this? There was no controlling it. Pure longing and instinct.
Less than a second had passed, and my world no longer made any sense.
The Alpha’s eyes widened, his fingers tightening on my arms. He looked just as struck as I was. All of them. All four of them stared at me the way I was staring at them. Like we were in a bubble completely locked away from the rest of the universe.
“Miss Williams,” the stagehand whispered, tone urgent. “We need you now.”
But I couldn’t move. This was…
Ohfuck. This was scent-sympathy. The Alphas in front of me were my scent matches. And everything I ever thought I’d do in this situation decided to evaporate like mist in the morning. Or sweat on skin.
Shit, I shouldn’t be thinking about sweat right now. Or anything to do with skin. Their skin, my skin, anyone’s skin.
Does his skin taste like cinnamon?
A whole brand new wave of perfume rolled
