"I kinda do," I admitted, wrinkling up my nose. "So I should kiss him?"
"You should kiss the shit out of him," she told me. "Throw your arms around his neck, shove your tongue down his throat, and make that boy moan."
So I nodded once. "I'm gonna. Tell me if I do good?"
"Always," she swore, and I felt something vibrate in the air between us just as a cup of that sugary sweet nectar appeared over my shoulder.
"Ladies," Keir said, proving he was the delivery boy this time.
"Keir!" I turned to him with a massive smile just as the crowd of people in the atrium suddenly began counting.
"Three!"
"Two!"
"One!"
"Happy New Year!" everyone bellowed.
"Happy fucking New Year," Aspen agreed, but she wasn't yelling. "Do it!"
"You good?" Keir asked, but it wasn't me he was looking at. Nope, his eyes were on Aspen.
"I'm good with it, she's good with it, and you are definitely good with it," Aspen assured him.
Which made those violet eyes of his shift to mine. "And may it be a very good year," he said, cupping the side of my face and leaning in.
Not caring about the drink he'd just handed me, I swung my arms around his neck exactly the way Aspen had said and leaned in. A hand stole the cup from mine, the fingers small enough they had to be Aspen's. The mouth that pressed against my lips, however, was all male.
This close, Keir smelled of fresh plants and a hint of some perfume. Deodorant or laundry detergent, but I couldn't tell which. I also didn't want to even think about it. Nope, all I could focus on was his mouth.
And he kissed me. Not a polite peck like I'd half expected. Not something to merely keep his promise. This kiss was the kind that made my toes want to curl. My back definitely bent as he leaned in, and my mouth parted. The first time his tongue swept against mine, I moaned.
But I was supposed to be the one kissing him. That was what I'd told Aspen, so I kissed him back, pulling him even closer and leaning my hips in. Body to body, with a few hundred people around to witness this, I kissed the man the way I knew how.
With Keir, the steps were easy. Knowing he was sexy was self-explanatory. Doing this didn't make me second-guess everything, but that was only because I'd done it before. I knew how to like guys. I knew how to make them all hot and bothered. Aspen wasn't the same, so for just a moment I tried to shut my brain off and just go with it.
Our mouths moved. His hands gripped me hard. I might be leaning, but the warmth filling me wasn't only due to the nectar I'd been drinking. There was something about being held by a man this impossibly sexy that set off butterflies inside me. Knowing my girlfriend was watching? It only made this more intense.
Not better. Not worse. I was merely aware of every single movement I was making, and only half of them were intentional. The arch of my back wasn't. The grip of my hands was. The sliding, nearly delirious motion of our mouths, on the other hand, was completely instinctive.
He even felt good up against me. Keir was broad enough and tall enough to make me feel small. His hair was long enough my fingers could get buried in it. And, as my tongue swirled around his, the deep sound in his throat became the best part of it all. It proved he liked this. Hell, maybe that he even liked me as much as I wanted him to.
Then my body jerked to the side and I was alone.
"Tor!" Aspen yelled.
"Bastard!" Keir snarled.
I turned in place to find Aspen's brother planted beside me with his hands still up. Keir was two paces away, and the guy had clearly been shoved.
"She's had too much!" Torian roared.
"You think I don't know that?" Keir asked. "That's why - "
"And you're fucking taking advantage of her?" Torian broke in.
"I asked!" Keir finished.
