“I give you five minutes, tops, before Noelle’s drinking her shots straight from Lex’s luscious lips.”
That wouldn’t do. Jasper headed for the door—and told himself he was rushing for Noelle’s sake, not his own.
He didn’t believe it either.
Chapter Ten
The process, as Rachel explained it, was simple—drink a shot, then celebrate with the other O’Kanes gathered around the makeshift bar. Eight shots, eight passes around the cheering crowd.
The liquor ranged from the really cheap moonshine apparently favored in the other sectors to an exquisite, high-end single malt whiskey—which explained how Dallas could afford to throw pre-Flare artwork at Lex like it was nothing.
The whiskey burned smooth all the way down, worth every penny Dallas charged, and Noelle barely had time to lift the empty glass triumphantly above her head before someone dragged her into the crowd. Lips landed on her cheek. Someone else swept her into a hug. The redheaded stranger from Dallas’s party snatched her away from Amira and planted a kiss right on her lips before passing her on to the next person in the circle with a grin.
So it went, all the way around the circle. Kisses, hugs, a few pats on the shoulder and one or two on the hip, but all fond and good-natured instead of lascivious. Ace got her last and sent her back to Rachel with a swat on the ass.
Noelle still held the shot glass in one hand, so she slammed it on the table upside down and laughed. “Do I do that every time?”
“Do what?” Rachel asked innocently as she handed over another shot. “Vodka’s up. Next is the tequila, so pace yourself.”
Sound advice, but Noelle downed the vodka and dropped the shot glass this time before she was whisked away by the revelers. Her skin tingled more this time around, and she was laughing by the time she reached the table again.
The tequila made her cough, but she drank all of that, too, before spinning into the crowd with a triumphant noise that felt right. Ace grinned and claimed his kiss before passing her along. It took longer, the hugs lingering and the kisses coming in twos and threes.
She was only halfway around the circle when the dizzy warmth crept from her stomach up into her chest, which was right about when the latest man relinquished her quickly.
To Jasper.
He looked down at her with a half-smile and rubbed her bare upper arms. “Sorry I’m late.”
The warmth of his hands shot straight to her core, though that could have been the tequila, too. Or the vodka. Maybe the whiskey, making its presence known with a slow burn that turned her smile wickedly bold. “You missed two kisses. I gave them to Ace instead.”
“Hell yeah, she did,” Ace called from the opposite side of the circle. “You gonna come get them, brother?”
“Wouldn’t be the first time.” Jasper tilted her head back with his fingers under her chin. “Three shots. Still steady on your feet?”
“Steady enough,” she lied, fidgeting under his unwavering gaze. He had a way of looking at her that made the rest of the room seem frozen, as if they couldn’t possibly be interrupting anything because nothing important would dare happen while his attention was fixed on her.
“Good.” He released her, but not before brushing his lips over hers. “Congratulations, sweetheart.”
No, that warmth wasn’t the liquor. It was all him, and it expanded to fill her as she leaned up to kiss him once more. “See you next time around,” she whispered against his mouth, then laughed and spun into the arms of the grinning man next to him.
She wasn’t steady on her feet by the time she came back around to Ace. He whirled her like a dancer, and the room kept on moving, dipping dizzily to the side before righting itself. She stumbled back toward Rachel and crashed into Jasper.
Again.
Blinking, Noelle pulled back to peer up at him. “Did you come to get your kisses from Ace?”
Jasper didn’t answer. Instead, he picked up the next shot Rachel had poured and tipped it back. Then he slipped an arm around Noelle’s waist, dragged her close, and bent his head to hers.
Liquor spilled across her tongue. Not the whole shot, not even most of it, but enough to give her the taste of it. His lips crushed against hers, hot and a little rough, the sensation a thousand times more intense with the entire gang forming a cheering, catcalling wall around them. She couldn’t forget that everyone was watching as he chased the booze with his tongue, and then she couldn’t care because he knew how to kiss her knees weak.
Lex’s voice cut through the cheers, close and wry. “That’s real subtle, Jas.”
Jas released Noelle, and she swung around to face Rachel. “That has to be cheating.”
“Not exactly,” she hedged. “Technically, you don’t have to finish every shot. Not by yourself, anyway.”
“Jasper just hung a big ‘no trespassing’ sign on you.” Lex wound her arm around Noelle’s shoulders. “Good thing I like to live dangerously.”
Jasper glared, and it was hotter than it should have been. His furrowed brow and his tight expression, all of him poised as if he’d snatch her out of Lex’s grip at a moment’s notice.
Smiling slowly, Noelle leaned in to the other woman. “He didn’t ask me if I wanted you to trespass.”
“Do you?” A whisper, and Lex’s breath stirred the hair curling against the side of Noelle’s neck.
Noelle wasn’t sure what made the decision for her. The vodka, maybe, or the tequila. Some bit of wildness buried deep inside her, only uncovered when liquor had burned everything else away.
The way Jasper’s gaze all but dared her to do it.
She only had to turn her head a little bit, and then Lex’s mouth was pressed against hers. Soft lips, more yielding than Jasper’s, and gentler. It seemed that way, at least, in the moment where Noelle could only kiss the other woman awkwardly, terrified it might be a mistake after all.
Lex licked her mouth and tilted her head to part Noelle’s lips with her tongue. Still soft, but no less demanding than Jasper’s kiss, especially when she eased Noelle down to sit on the edge of the table and inched a hand under her shirt to stroke her belly.
Then Lex broke the kiss with a slow smile and reached for the next shot on the table. “Gin,” she whispered huskily, pressing the glass into Jasper’s hand.
He growled. “You like to play with fire.” But he drained the shot, jerked Noelle’s head back by her hair, and fused his mouth to hers. Moaning, Noelle tangled her fingers in his shirt, clinging to him to try to keep her balance.
Even that wasn’t enough when Lex pressed parted lips to her throat, teeth closing lightly on her pulse as Jasper licked the taste of gin onto her tongue. This time, Noelle really had forgotten about everyone else until Ace shouted, “Fuck, Jasper, let her breathe!”
But breathing was overrated, and doubly so when Jasper nudged Lex out of the way to lick Noelle’s throat, soothing the ravaged skin. She grasped at his hair, tangling her fingers in the short strands as much as they’d allow as her heart beat its way toward her throat. “Aren’t you supposed to let everyone else congratulate me after each shot?”
“You eager to get up?” he asked, nudging Lex’s hips harder into the open vee of Noelle’s legs.
“Not really,” she managed in a shaky voice. It took another deep breath to strengthen her tone. “But I want to do it right. I want to belong.”
“That’s a done deal, baby girl.” Lex lifted Noelle’s hand and nodded to the fresh ink encircling her wrist and forearm. “You belong. You always will.”
The words hit her in a place the alcohol couldn’t, and she tilted her head back to stare up at Jasper. “Three more.”
Three more shots and three more kisses, each one dirtier than the last. By the time Jasper let her taste the abrasive, fiery moonshine from his mouth, Noelle had to wrap her legs around Lex’s thighs just to keep the room from spinning.