A moment later, his mouth descended on hers, and his tongue pushed into her mouth. Oh, wow. Okay. It was a very . . . aggressive kiss. One with lots of tongue. She tried to participate, but having been Greer the Unnoticed for 99 percent of her life, she wasn’t an expert on kissing. Maybe she was the one who wasn’t good at it? Because his tongue seemed desperate to go down her throat and explore every molar. She staggered against him, and his hand grabbed her ass.
When she could no longer hold out, Greer pulled back from him, gasping for air. “There’s your kiss.”
He growled low in his throat and hauled her against him again, his hands cupping her backside and forcing her to cling to his front. “Let’s go someplace private, you and me.”
“That’s what I want,” she agreed. Private so they could talk and she could tell him about how she felt. How he needed to get over Donna and move on with his life. How she’d always been his friend and now she wanted to be more.
Asher pressed another mauling kiss on her, and Greer heard a few people snicker nearby. She didn’t care. It was Asher, and he was noticing her for the first time in her life as something other than a kid sister. Nothing else mattered. He was being a little wild tonight, but this was just one night. She’d known him forever and known that he’d suffered in the last two years. He was allowed to get a little drunk to take off the edge. He wasn’t like this normally.
“Come with me,” Asher murmured into her ear, and then nipped her earlobe.
That sent little shocks of pleasure through her body, so when he put a hand on her back and led her out of the party and onto the patio, she was all for it. Out here it was a lot quieter, and there were less people to try and talk over.
The night air was rather cool, and she shivered.
“Cold?” He pulled her closer against him.
“I’m fine.” She didn’t want to go back inside, not when they were here alone together. “I appreciate you coming with me.”
“The pleasure’s all mine,” he told her in a low, sexy voice. To her surprise, they didn’t sit on one of the stone benches artfully placed around the large porch. Instead, he guided her down the large set of steps and into the expansive, complex gardens surrounding the manor.
“Where are we going?”
“We’ll have more privacy out here,” he told her, and his voice was pure seduction.
Greer shivered again at that. That . . . did not sound like a bad thing at all, not when he used that sexy tone of voice. So she ignored that her expensive heels sank into the turf and tried to keep up with him. Asher had a plan. He always had a plan, didn’t he? That was why he was so successful at such a young age. He’d become a billionaire before he hit twenty-five, and while he’d almost lost that fortune two years ago, she knew he was doing better than ever now. She’d seen to that.
“Where are we going?” She trusted him, yet she couldn’t help but ask. With no glasses and the lights from the house shining behind them, everything just looked dark. Her hand gripped his tighter.
“There’s a hedge maze up here,” Asher said. “We’ll go in and have some privacy.”
“Oh. Okay.” Even more privacy. She didn’t suppose that was bad, because the things she wanted to talk to him about were pretty personal. Plus, time for more kissing. That’d be all right with her. Her lips still felt swollen from the last round of kisses, and she resisted the urge to press her fingers to them.
They walked in silence for a short while, and she knew they were in the maze when she started to see small, hung lanterns dotting the way. They didn’t provide a ton of light, just enough to guide anyone that was lost enough to wander into the maze late at night. Like her.
“Good enough,” Asher said after they turned a few corners. He led her to a bench.
She sat down, glad that she was no longer going to have to walk on her tiny, rhinestone-studded heels. They were fine for a party, but for walking in the grass? Miserable. “I’m glad we’re getting a chance to talk,” Greer began. “There’s so much I’ve wanted to say to you—”
“Shhh,” Asher told her, and sat down next to Greer. He put a finger to her lips. “Let’s just enjoy the night, shall we?”
“But—”
His arms went around her and then Asher was kissing her again. More deep, mauling kisses that seemed less like fun and more like a struggle not to drown against the tidal wave of tonguing she was receiving. She passively waited for him to be done, noting that he tasted like whiskey. Really strongly like whiskey. He was definitely more drunk than she’d thought. Well, she’d let him finish kissing her and then when that was all done, they could talk.
“Greer,” he groaned when he pulled his mouth from hers. His hand went to her hair and he grabbed a fistful of it, dragging her head back and exposing her neck. “You are so fucking sexy tonight. How is it that you’re so sexy?”
His words sent a shiver of pleasure through her body. “I dressed up just for you.”
“Did you, now? That’s . . . sexy.”
She wanted to giggle at his choice of words. Was everything sexy? The bush nearby, sexy? The bench they were sitting on? But his mouth moved to her neck and he began to press soft kisses there, kisses very different from the ones he’d been mauling her mouth with, and oh, it was all the difference in the world. Ripples of pleasure moved through her body, and as his mouth moved over her skin, she felt her pulse pounding between her legs in a need she’d never had the opportunity to experience with another person before.