Page 51 of Winter Ends
I shrugged. “Maybe. Or maybe he went to a stall. Not everyone is comfortable taking their clothes off in front of other people.”
Another long silence. “Right, but what about... unless?”
Daniel’s face screwed up as he thought about it.
“Daniel, Aiden might not have ever slept with anyone,” I said it quietly so that not everyone heard. It wasn’t anyone’s business, anyway. That was the problem with games like this.
Across the room, Joe seemed oblivious to what we’d been discussing. He was content to sip at his bottle of beer whileChase and Aiden were away. When it was empty, he frowned at it before standing to grab another.
The game seemed forgotten at that point. Daniel was sitting in front of me, a bottle of water bouncing between his hands. “Well, that was sort of fun while it lasted.”
I laughed. “Oh, yeah?”
He shrugged, biting his bottom lip. He set his water bottle on the floor and spun it between us. “I think this game would have been more fun.”
I laughed. “You wanted to kiss your friends.”
He shook his head, a blush spreading across his cheeks. “Not my friends, no.” The bottle hadn’t stopped spinning yet when he leaned over it and placed a kiss against my lips. My hand wrapped around the back of his neck and held him in place. He made a delicious little sighing sound, which allowed my tongue access to his mouth. It didn’t matter that we were sitting in the middle of a room surrounded by people. I was getting a taste of the man I craved with the realization that he’d admitted to everyone that he’d never hated me.
But where the hell did that leave us?
When we parted, I let out a shuddery breath, resting my forehead against his.
“You never hated me?”
Those wide, doe-like brown eyes twinkled. “Hate is such a strong word. I didn’t want to like you. You reminded me too much of him.”
I could understand that. But I needed to wipe all traces of Arturo Sanchez from Daniel’s memory. He was mine. Only mine.
“Hey, fuckers. We got ten minutes!” Joe shouted as he popped the top off one of the bottles of champagne. Aiden and Chase came back into the room and Daniel and I pulled apart.
Glasses were filled and handed out to everyone. Daniel eyed him wearily.
“You don’t have to drink it. No one will think less of you.”
He laughed. “I know, but I want to. It’s one drink and I’ll stop after.”
We all stood around talking until the countdown officially began. The room filled with whoops and cheers as we all counted down from sixty. You could tell we were all getting tired the closer we got to zero.
But then we were there. “Five, four, three, two... one...”
Warm lips pressed to mine as fireworks sounded in the distance.
“Oh, what the fuck?”
I jumped back from Daniel at Nathan’s shout. Joe and Aiden stood in the corner, Joe’s arms around Aiden’s shoulders as the two of them kissed. They didn’t stop as Nathan marched across the room and yanked his brother away from his friend.
“Don’t you dare touch him.”
“Nathan. Stop.Ikissed him.”
Nathan shoved Joe, ignoring his brother. “I warned you, man.”
“Nate.”
Chase was in on it now and at least Daniel didn’t need to worry now about having ruined the night.
Chapter 33
