the words could be a trap. Next to Jasper, Dallas opened his mouth and then shut it again without saying a word, watching the two women instead.
After a long silence, Six tilted her head. “I can’t tell if you’re all damn good liars or just fucking crazy.”
“See?” Bren straightened off the wall and walked around behind her. “Told you she was smart.” The chain rattled as he unlocked it and then let it clatter to the floor.
Dallas tensed, and Jasper knew it was taking all of his self-control not to haul Lex away from potential danger. Six seemed to notice too. “He’d snap my neck if I laid a finger on you, wouldn’t he?”
“Dallas? Probably.” Lex smiled slowly. “Unless I got to you first.”
Bren laid his hands on Six’s shoulders. “You want to hurt Wilson Trent?”
She carefully untangled herself from the chains. “I want to hurt Wilson Trent. But I’m not going to spill my guts and trust you not to dump me in the river when I’m done.”
Jasper couldn’t fault her for that. “Fair enough. What do you know about the drop tomorrow? We figure Trent’s got plans for us. Ugly ones.”
She studied each of them before turning just enough to stare at Bren’s hand resting on her shoulder. “I’ll tell him.”
Bren nodded slowly. “What do you say, Dallas?”
“We’ll be in the hall,” Dallas replied, inclining his head toward the door. “Talk fast, sweetheart. We’re late to a party.”
Jasper crossed his arms over his chest. “You sure you want to be alone with the face-biter, Bren?”
He made a dismissive noise and stroked the backs of his fingers absently down the length of Six’s hair. “We’re past that. If I piss her off, I think she’ll at least give me a good warning punch first.”
She jerked her head away from him. “Touch me again and I’ll bite your fucking hand off.”
“See? When she figures out I’m not going to maul her, we’ll be fine.”
Lex didn’t move for a long moment, then rose. “Tread lightly, sweetheart. They’re not going to hurt you unless they have to…but I’m not as nice as they are.”
“That’s enough, Lex,” Dallas said, stepping forward to rest a hand on her hip. “You and Jasper go to the party. You shouldn’t miss your girl’s big moment.”
She took a single step back, another, and then relented with an annoyed exhalation. “Yes, sir.”
The door slammed behind her, and Jasper rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Her girl?”
Dallas snorted. “I was talking to both of you. If you plan on making any grand gestures, I suggest you get there before Lex does.”
“She wouldn’t.” Not even someone with Lex’s sexual appetites would try to snatch up Noelle when her attention was so obviously focused elsewhere.
“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
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
“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.”
