He looks naughty.
And so my type.
He’s going to say hi, and ask me to dance, and we’re going to kiss Happy New Year, and then move the party to my room. Pronto. I just know it.
Here it comes. Something like, “Hey, how are you?” Or, “Hi, where have you been all my life?” Or if I’m lucky I’ll get a “Hey, beautiful, you belong with me.”
Fingers crossed I’m lucky.
That mouth of his opens.
Here it comes. A line meant to whisk me right off my feet.
I watch everything about his lips as they begin to move.
“Cam,” he says. “How the fuck have you been?”
No.
No.
No!
That is not the line I wanted to hear.
Immediately, my head snaps to Cam.
“Keen, you made it, asshole!” Cam shouts excitedly.
Keen?
The Wall Street wolf?
Keen Masters, as in Brooklyn James’s half brother?
No.
No.
No!
This man is the man I want to take to bed tonight. He cannot be my fake date’s brother. Is that almost incestuous? I hope not. No. No, it isn’t. No, it can’t be. Never mind. Forget I said that.
The two men collapse into a flurry of backslapping and insults. Keen grabs Cam around the neck and knuckles his hair until Cam stands straight and shrugs him off.
Makayla and I give each other a look. “I guess they missed each other,” she whispers with a little hiccup.
My teeth start to worry my bottom lip. I wonder if he’s sleeping in their bed tonight. I keep that little thought to myself. I doubt Makayla is into that anyway. Then again, she did have that special book-club time with Cam last summer about the threesome. I give her the once-over, and can’t tell. No. I know better. Not my sweet Makayla. There, with that out of the way, I feel so much better now.
When the adolescent boys finish their greeting, Keen swoops in and kisses Makayla on the cheek. He whispers something in her ear that I can’t hear, and I’m not really that happy about it.
I’m about to clear my throat when Keen steps back from Makayla to fix me with an intense gaze. Now I know I fall easily, but the fire blazing in his eyes tells me so does he.
I’m so in.
Cam puts a hand on Keen’s shoulder and then a hand on mine. “Maggie, this is Keen Masters. He’s my best friend. Keen, this is Maggie May, Makayla’s best friend and my former lifeguard cohort.”
Keen’s slow grin is a heat-seeking missile that goes straight between my thighs. “Maggie May. Like as in the song?”
Sigh. The line is perfection.
Unable to help myself, I smile at the touch of flirtatiousness in his voice that screams naughty. “That depends.”
Unabashed, he blatantly scans my body. It’s quick. Socially acceptable. Not blatant. Yet, I still notice. “On what?” he asks low and slow.
Cam and Makayla have started sucking face again, and he and I for all intents and purposes are alone, for now. Taking advantage of this, I stand tall, tits out, and lean a little closer. “On if you know who sings the song?”
The look in his eyes tells me he’s never wrong. “And if I do, what do I win?”
Charmed by his slickness, I smile again, holding back a laugh. “The pleasure of my company.”
First he takes a slow moment to allow his gaze to lazily lower, taking me in, and I mean taking me in, and then within seconds his hot breath gusts along my skin when he breathes, “Rod Stewart.”
We’re not quite eye level, but close enough that I can turn my face to find his ear and whisper, “You’re good.”
There’s a slight cocky nod of his head. “I am,” he murmurs, and that hot gaze of his pins me, holds me in place.
Practically letting me know just how good he is. I think I just gulped air.
After the longest intense moment, he breaks our connection and extends his hand as if to shake. When I take it, he pulls me close enough that he can whisper directly in my ear. “I bet just like the song says, you wreck every man’s bed you’re in.”
Oh.
My.
God.
That sound. Those lips. The way he moves. The way he talks. All resulting in words that blow across the sensitive skin of my neck just below my earlobe. It’s too much and I simply cannot suppress a reaction.
Already primed by the fantasy of him and me anyway, my body reacts at once. Not only do my nipples push against the fabric of my dress and outline themselves among the tiny silver sequins, but my clit pulses, and I have to squeeze my thighs together to settle the tantalizing sensation.
Oh, and as the fire courses through my veins, all I can think is that I’m so ready to get burned. Not holding back, I keep my voice low and say, “Keep playing your cards right and you just might get to find out.”