She hadn’t even realized the dangerous territory she was crossing. When Cip draped an arm around his neck, it had meant to be a gesture of sociability and perhaps even playfulness, but when he suddenly drew her in and felt his breath brush against the crook of her jaw, she felt something leap from her chest and coil in her stomach. The smile on her face faltered into momentary shock, her small frame molding into the side of his. Her eyes searched his, and her brows even furrowed trying to extract something out of him. It wasn’t reciprocated desire, but something more. Truth. Her hand slowly slung away and attached on her hip, though her body was left in a slant at how he held her. “Did you hear that girls?” she said, masking her face with a smirk though kept his eyes on him. “We just raised the notches.”
Finally—finally she pulled her eyes onto her team again and broadened her smile. Reaching out, her hand cuffed at Gus’ broad shoulder. “Oh, the groom himself? What a pleasure.” She slinked away Aleks’ hold and twirled. “Eyes on the cups, boys,” she grinned and tapped them both on the nose before rejoining her group. The cups were then filled with beer up to a quarter. Cip slapped her hands together and rubbed them, readying herself for the next round. “We gotta win this,” she said and used to hip to bump her adjacent team member who nodded her head and screamed with excitement, yelling something across the lines of Let’s kill these bitches! Which was far more… enthusiastic than Cip was inclining towards, but hey, at least it hyped up her team.