I waited until he was out of earshot before growling at Colt. “Why’d you let me say yes?”
His arm curled around my waist, pulling me snug to his chest. “Shush.” Colton rested a finger against my lips. “It’ll be fun,” he whispered, his mouth hovering a breath away from mine. My heart began to flutter when his warm tongue lightly traced over my lips, easing inside. He kissed me long and slow, stealing my breath and making me dizzy with want.
Ahem. Blex cleared his throat, drawing us from our trance. “Everyone is in their seats waiting on the two of you. Coach wants to say a few words before we eat.” Oh God. How embarrassing.
Colton’s teeth bit into his bottom lip as he huffed out a deep sigh, shaking his head with laughter. “Sorry, guys.” He shrugged, holding his hands up. “My girl’s a little distracting tonight.” Then he fucked me with his eyes right there in front of the entire basketball team, coaching staff, and cheer squad.
A chorus of hoots and cheers rang in my ears as I shielded my heated face with my hand, allowing Colt to lead us to our table, where we were seated with Finn and Blex.
“Damn that was hot,” Finn announced. “I’m gonna need you to teach me how to do that smolder thing, Fowls.”
Colt chuckled. “Sorry, bro, some things can’t be taught. You either got it...or you don’t,” he jeered just as Coach stood, blowing his whistle to silence his players.
“Merry Christmas, everyone.” Mr. Grady’s eyes flitted from one table to the next, making his way around the room. “I’d like to start the evening by thanking each of you for being here tonight. I realize most of you are missing out on festivities back home, and we hope you know how much we appreciate your dedication and your commitment to this team. Tonight, we want you to forget about the game and enjoy yourselves. We’ve got a great meal being brought out to your tables shortly. DJ Ritchie will be taking over in about an hour, and we hope you’ll stick around to enjoy a couple of drinks.” His eyes narrowed, trailing around the room, “Those of you of age, of course, and some dancing. Bon appétit!”
As if on cue, servers appeared with trays of food and pitchers of water, filling our glasses. Dinner was a feast of honey glazed ham, rib roast, garlic mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and buttery rolls. The types of food you’d expect to find at a family holiday gathering. It was absolutely delicious.
“Would any of you care for a glass of wine?” a waiter asked, passing out wine lists to each of us. I stared down at the menu in my hand, waiting for one of the guys to tell the man we were underage, but Blex, Finn, and Colt started discussing our options like ordering wine with dinner was something they did every day.
“We’ll take four glasses of the Cabernet Sauvignon, please,” came Colton, collecting the wine menus and passing them back to the man.
“What are you guys doing?” I muttered when the waiter had walked off.
Colt’s arm went around my shoulders, his lips to the shell of my ear. “It’s a private party, Al. No one is going around checking IDs. They won’t tell us anything if we don’t draw attention to ourselves.”
“I don’t even know what you just ordered. I’ve never had wine. We aren’t this fancy in Texas, Colton,” I teased, poking fun at his new lifestyle, which, to be honest, was quickly growing on me. What girl wouldn’t enjoy getting all dolled up for fancy dinner parties and weekends at beachfront mansions?
“It’s a popular dinner wine,” Colt answered. “You’ll like it. It’s strong, so sip it,” he added with a sly smirk. “Remember, I said don’t draw attention to yourself.”
The wine was disgusting. I can’t even explain the taste, but it wasn’t sweet at all, and I was a sweet drinker, on the rare occasion that I did drink. I’d consumed more alcohol last summer with these boys than I’d probably ever drank before, combined. But I sipped that wine anyway because everyone else around me was drinking it and I wanted to fit in. I could be classy, damnit.
“You don’t have to drink it, Alex.” Colt laughed, watching my face pucker as I took another swallow between bites. I liked it better that way. The food erased the lingering yuck from my taste buds.
“It’s fine,” I said, forking a bite of ham into my mouth.
“You look like you just got a whiff of ass, Lexi,” Finn argued from across the table.
“Shh,” I hissed, looking around to see if anyone had heard him. “I’m trying to be sophisticated, Finley.” I widened my eyes at him, indicating for him to shut up.
He shrugged, his shoulders shaking with a chuckle. “Well, I’m just letting you know, as your friend, that you are not pulling it off.” He winked.
Glaring at Finn, I grabbed my glass, chugging the last of it while making a conscious effort to control my outward reaction. It burned the whole way down, and I felt my cheeks flush as I hurriedly chased it with a bite of potatoes, giving the jerk across from me a snide smirk.
Ignoring the boys’ laughter, I concentrated on my plate, feeling relieved to have that wine business over with. Then our waiter returned while I had a mouthful of food and refilled that fucking glass. When he walked off, Finn raised his brow in challenge.
“Just drink your water, babe.” Colt moved to grab the wine, and I swatted his hand away.
“It’s really not that bad anymore,” I insisted. “I think I just had to get used to it. Leave it.” I don’t know why I felt the need to keep up, but I wanted to fit in. Somehow in my mind, that equated to drinking the nasty wine.
Colt shrugged. “Drink it slowly, Allie, or it’ll sneak up on you.”
This time, I listened to him, figuring if I finished anytime soon, that waiter would be back, topping it off again.
Halfway through the second glass, I got the warm fuzzies. I was feeling hot everywhere, but it was an enjoyable heat, the kind you get cuddled up in front of the fire on a cold night, wrapped in your favorite blanket. My skin tingled.
“You need to just fuck that girl and get it over with,” Finn said to Blex, regarding the new cheerleader, Georgia, who he couldn’t seem to tear his eyes from. Georgia was a beautiful redhead with freckles on the bridge of her nose and just under her eyes, which were green like Colton’s. And she was nice. I sort of steered clear of the cheerleaders in order to avoid Lyla, but she was always coming over to talk to me. I’m sure it had more to do with getting close to Blex than her desire to be in my company, but I didn’t even care. I liked her, and I hoped they ended up together. Blex deserved a good girl.
“I think I might ask her to dance in a minute, but I don’t want to be the only ones out there.” His eyes darted to the empty dance floor. DJ Ritchie had kicked things off about thirty minutes ago, and it was still bare.
“We’ll go!” I offered, all too eager to feel Colton’s hands on my body. Apparently, wine made me horny. It didn’t taste quite so awful anymore either.
“Will we?” Colt teased.