by Ella Frank
A groan passed between us, and I couldn’t tell if it was me, Viper, or maybe both of us, but damn he felt good. He was rock hard behind his jeans, and my own erection rubbed alongside his as he squeezed my ass to join our bodies together without an inch between them.
Thirty
Viper
I WASN’T SURE what had gotten into Halo in the last five minutes, but the man currently straddled over my lap, moving his hips like a well-oiled piston, was no fucking angel.
What had started out as a tease on my end, a moment to see if I could push Halo into that place where he lost some of the control he swore he hadn’t been writing about from experience, had wound up with the sexy angel’s hands fisting my hair as he molded his body to mine.
It was fucking heaven—or hell, since his sweats and my jeans were still in place, because if I had my way, they would’ve been gone, and instead of Halo sinking on my lap like he just had, he would be sinking over my very stiff—
“Shit.” Halo panted, his breath a whisper above my mouth as he lifted his head, his hips still moving, causing that brain-numbing friction to continue even as he took a time-out.
Not wanting him to think of a reason to end this, or all the reasons why this was a fucked-up idea—and really, it was in the grand scheme of things—I bit and sucked my way along his jaw line to his neck, and then began to kiss my way up under his ear.
The fingers in my hair tightened and twisted, and the bite of pain had me growling by Halo’s ear, making his entire body shudder.
I’d done a lot of crazy, hot shit in my day, but feeling Halo’s body writhing around over the top of me had me hornier than I’d been in my life. My cock was so hard for this guy it was a miracle I hadn’t lost it already, and when I shifted on the chair and brought my face back in line with his, I said, “Give me your mouth, Angel.”
A wild look entered Halo’s eyes as he tugged at my hair again, angling my face the way he wanted it before he lowered his head and flicked his tongue along my lip.
When I parted my lips and he lifted his head a fraction, I hauled his body flush to mine. “Give me your fucking mouth.”
Halo’s lips curved as he shifted up a fraction on his knees, and then he crushed his lips down on top of mine. As he slid his tongue deep inside my mouth, my fingers trailed around the back of his sweats and then slipped underneath them to the freshly showered skin.
Warm to the touch, and still a little damp from his shower, Halo’s skin was so smooth it made me want to rub my naked body all over it. I palmed his tight ass, spread his cheeks apart, and trailed my finger up and down his hot channel, and when I pressed the pad of my finger to his entrance, I drove my tongue inside his mouth, capturing his surprise.
Halo moaned and shoved back onto my hand, clearly liking what I was doing to him, and as we made out like a couple of horny teenagers, I knew every goddamn second of this would be used later…when I was alone.
“Viper, God, you gotta…” Halo raised his head, and as he sat back on my thighs and his bare ass filled my palms, he squeezed his eyes shut. “Shit.”
“Mmm.” I rocked my hips up against his, my eyes devouring the flush on his cheeks, the lips ripe and wet from mine, and when he opened his eyes again, I shook my head. God he was beautiful. “Fuck. If I had your face, I’d be a billionaire.”
Halo freed his fingers and ran them down the back of my neck. “Is that your way of saying—”
“You’re fucking gorgeous? Yes.”
A smile tipped Halo’s perfect lips up as he smoothed his hands over my shoulders, and while I wanted him to keep going further south, I had a feeling this was as far as he was willing to go today. I wasn’t about to push him and fuck this up.
“Come on, Angel,” I said as I removed my hands from his sweats. Away from temptation. “I can’t be the first person to tell you that.”
Halo ran his hands through his hair and sighed. “You just have a…certain way with words.”
“Oh yeah?”
Halo nodded. “Yeah.”
“Well, I must be sayin’ something right. I’ve got you on my lap hard as a rock and your mouth looks like I’ve—”
Halo put a finger to my lips.
“What?” I said around the finger.
“You were about to ruin it by running your mouth.”
I flicked my tongue over the tip of his index finger, and when Halo’s hips punched forward, I reached up and wrapped my fingers around his wrist. “I think you like it when I run my mouth.”
Halo looked at the mouth under discussion, and then nodded as he scooted back off my thighs and got to his feet, tugging his arm free. “Your mouth is…”
I reached down and palmed myself, adjusting the hard-on that Halo had once again caused and had yet to satisfy. “If you stop there, Angel, I’m gonna start thinking you’re a sadistic little fucker.”
Halo laughed as he too rearranged himself. “I was just going to say that it’s rather talented when it’s not busy mouthing off.”
Despite the fact he was giving me the worst case of sexual frustration I’d ever had, I found myself laughing at the ballsy angel as he turned around and walked to—fuck me—his camcorder.
As Halo pressed a button I assumed was off, he glanced at me with a grin that was right on my side of fucking trouble. I had no idea what had made me think he was an angel when he could make me feel like I was burning up from a make-out session.
“And tonight,” Halo said, “I’m going to have a really good time remembering that. So…don’t ruin it.”
I sat there staring at his teasing grin and couldn’t help but wonder if this had been his plan all along. Either way, I wasn’t about to complain. Well, not about the video, at least. But maybe the fact he didn’t invite me to stay and watch it with him when we finished up later that day.
Thirty-One
Halo
BRIAN ARRIVED AT Killian’s at ten sharp Friday morning, his shiny black Oxfords squeaking on the marble floor. He wasn’t a large man by any means, but his position as manager of TBD meant his ego more than made up for his lack of height. He’d brought along a rep from MGA, presumably to make sure we were on the right track.
Still annoyed by their last run-in, Viper ignored Brian, as well as the rep, leaving the niceties to Killian, and I kept my distance as well, not wanting to be singled out again for “ruining the band” or whatever it was Brian thought about me.
Today, we’d be playing them the two new songs we’d been working on. Somehow, Viper and I had managed to finish the lyrics to what we were tentatively titling “Invitation,” though how I’d been able to concentrate enough to write anything after straddling his lap, I had no idea. Even now as I watched him tune up, his lips set in a serious line, I had the insane urge to walk over there and attack him.
No—I couldn’t think about that right now, as hard as it was not to. The future of TBD rested on how we did today, and I couldn’t afford another screw-up, or they’d kick me out for sure this time.
I turned away from everyone and paced as I hummed the scales, warming my voice up. Don’t think about the pressure. Just focus on the songs. Think about the words…feel the music. Easier said than done, considering what both these songs made me think of.
“How you doin’ over here, Angel?”
I glanced over my shoulder to see Viper, and when he got a look at my face, he stepped around in front of me. “You gotta get out of your head.”
“I’m not in my head.”
“Yeah, you are.” Viper touched a finger to my forehead. “I can see the wheels turning, but we need you focused. We need you thinking about the songs, the mood, the vibe…”
Which would be no damn problem if he kept on touching me.
Viper looked over my shoulder to where the other guys were busy warming up, and then brought his eyes back to mine.
“You need me to take you out into the hall and remind you what these songs are about?” Viper’s voice was low enough that I knew no on
e else heard, but that didn’t stop me from whipping my head to the side to double-check.
“What? Worried everyone in here knows you were riding me the other day until my cock ached?”
“Jesus,” I said.
“Don’t be. They have no idea.” Viper leaned in a fraction and whispered, “But I do.”
If I’d wanted to attack his mouth earlier, feeling his warm breath on my cheek just magnified that desire, like, one thousand percent.
“Mmm, yes. That look you have in your eyes right now, Angel…”
What? Pounce and devour?
“Use it, and then come find me later and use me.” Viper punctuated his invitation with a flick of his immoral tongue across his lips, and as he moved around me, he made sure to brush his shoulder up against mine.
Use him? Shiiit. As if that wasn’t going to be running through my head for the next however many minutes, hours, or whatever until we were done here. But Viper was right.
These songs were about sex. More specifically about being frustrated because you wanted it but couldn’t have it. Not to mention losing your mind because the person in your bed was like a drug, and as I turned to watch Viper walk back to his amp and get situated, I suddenly had no problem feeling either of those two things.
That sinful man had managed to focus me in the best way possible—by all but stroking my dick.
“Right,” Killian said as he, Brian, and the MGA rep came through the door of the rehearsal space, Brian texting away to someone he clearly deemed more important than the band he was there to see.
“You losers ready?” Killian said.
Slade snorted and flipped him off from behind his drums, as Jagger tugged his cuffed sleeves to his wrists, making sure he looked as good as he was no doubt going to sound.
Killian shifted his eyes to Viper next, who was eyeing Brian like he was a piece of dogshit, and said, “You good, V?”
When Viper said nothing in response but continued to glare in Brian’s direction, Killian shook his head and looked to me instead. “You ready?”
No. But hell if I was about to tell Killian I had a sudden case of nerves.
Viper had vouched for me when we’d arrived today, telling the guys I’d nailed down these lyrics like I was born to sing them—his words, not mine—and that pressure from a second ago began to creep back in, almost choking me up.
I raised my eyes to Viper, whose lips crooked up, and I was instantly reminded of the way that expression had felt when he’d done it against my lips and I made myself tear my eyes from him. “I’m ready.”
“Good.” Killian clapped my shoulder and nodded toward the piano in the corner of the room facing the rest of the band. “Then let’s do this fucking thing.”
Yeah. Sure. Let’s.
I walked around and took a seat at the piano, and as I stared down at my fingers, I willed them not to mess this up for me. I needed this to be perfect. Hell, I needed it to be better than perfect, and as I stroked my fingertips over the keys, I closed my eyes and lowered my head. Testing the first few notes, I worried my lip with my teeth and then looked to where Brian was standing by the door watching me.
His eyes were shrewd, his curiosity clearly piqued, as he’d stopped texting for the moment to see what the “newbie” was about to pull out of his ass. The MGA rep by his side merely stood with his arms crossed, leaning against the wall, face impassive, like he couldn’t care less about being there. Or maybe that look meant he wasn’t expecting much.
I glanced over at the guys, who all watched me, ready for my signal, since the first song began with a piano intro. After giving them a nod, I adjusted the microphone in front of me and then began to play the opening of “Invitation.”
Any remaining nerves flew out the door once the guys joined in, rounding out the sound, and I relaxed into the music. My voice came out crisp and clear, and as I sang into the mic, I lifted my head to see Viper in my line of sight. His gaze was on me as he played, his back to our visitors, and as I sang the lyrics we’d written together, they took on a more intense meaning. Even from across the room, I could see Viper’s eyes darken as I sang, “I wanna be the one that makes you fall from grace.”
Viper had reworked that line yesterday, grinning at me in a way that told me it was exactly what he wanted to do. My dick had liked that a little too much.
As we launched into the chorus, I could see Brian out of the corner of my eye. He hadn’t once put down his fuckin’ phone since we started playing, which annoyed me to no end. I almost stopped the song right then to call his ass out, but the rational side of my brain won out and I focused back on Viper. His fingers were quick, his voice blending with mine as he joined in on background vocals.
With everyone playing their parts to perfection, it sounded unreal, and once again, it hit me that I was playing with the TBD, that we were singing one of my songs. How had I even gotten here? It seemed like I was still caught up in some far-fetched dream, but if that were true, then I had nothing to lose, did I? As the song came to a close, an idea I’d been thinking about for the last line crossed my mind again, and though I hadn’t practiced it before, I thought, Fuck it. Just go for it.
I ended the song on a high note—literally—and when I looked up again, Viper’s eyes had widened and then he mouthed, Damn. I grinned, pretty pleased at having pulled that off, and then I looked to where Brian finally lowered his phone, tucking it in his pocket, and then he clapped.
Wait…what? He was clapping? He hadn’t even been paying attention, or so I’d thought. The man standing next to him didn’t join in, but nodded in what looked like approval.
“Fuck yeah,” Killian said, coming over to throw a fist bump my way. “Where the hell did that come from?”
I shrugged. “It just seemed like it would fit.”
He shook his head then said to Brian, “What’d I tell you? We’ve got a genius on our hands.”
As I rounded the piano, Brian came over and held his hand out to me, the look he was giving me a complete one-eighty from the one he’d shot my way after the show-that-won’t-be-named.
“That was impressive,” he said, as I returned his handshake. “What’s your name again, kid?”
“It’s Halo,” Viper snapped from behind him. “Fuckin’ write that down.”
“You got anything else you wanna show me, Halo?” Brian asked.
I nodded. “Yeah, we’ve got another.”
“Good. That’s good.” Brian smoothed back his slicked-down hair and motioned for us to keep going as he took up his spot by the door again.
This time when I sang, I wasn’t able to look at Viper, since I was behind the mic stand beside him, but I felt his penetrating gaze on me the entire time, lighting my body from within and giving me the perfect amount of assertiveness to sing those filthy but sexy-as-hell lyrics.
Once we’d finished playing, Brian had nothing but praise for the direction we’d veered off to. The rep beside him said MGA would be in touch, but offered no more indication of whether he’d liked our new sound, and since it was MGA’s opinion that mattered, not Brian’s, we weren’t sure where that left us.
But as for the rest of us? We knew we’d left it all on the floor, so if MGA didn’t like it?
Fuck ’em.
Thirty-Two
Viper
THE SURPRISES COMING out of Halo at every turn were keeping the rest of us on our toes, that was for damn sure. If Brian and MGA couldn’t see his worth, then they were idiots, because Halo had just poured his heart and soul out, and I’d be damned if they went stepping on him again.
For his part, Halo looked pleased as hell. The smile on his face hadn’t disappeared once, and as he chatted with Jagger across the room, he’d occasionally look in my direction, and that smile would grow wider—and that stirred up a little something in me.
It must’ve been obvious what I was thinking, because Killian stepped in front of me, blocking my view of Halo.
“V,” he said. “What are you doin’
?”
I lifted my arm, showing I’d been tying up an extension cord. “Baking a fucking cake.”
“That’s not what I mean, and you know it. What’s going on with you and Halo?”
“Nothin’.”
“Halo isn’t looking at you like it’s nothing. And for that matter, neither are you.”
I narrowed my eyes on him. “And that’s your business why?”
“Because it’s something that affects the band, that’s why.”
“I already warned you this would happen, Kill. You didn’t seem to care so much then, did you?”
“I thought he was straight.”
“Yeah, not so much.”
With a sigh, Killian gripped the back of his neck. “Really? I thought after what happened with Trent, you’d somehow manage to restrain yourself.”
I reared back at the low blow. “Fuck you for that.”
“I didn’t mean that, I just… We’ve got a good thing going right now. I don’t want to screw this up.”
“You mean you don’t want me to screw this up.” I scoffed. “Thanks, friend. I’ll file that under ‘things I don’t give a fuck about.’”
“Just…be careful, okay? None of us need this to turn ugly.”
“Jesus, it’s nothing. We’re not fucking, we’re not dating—”
“But you want to.”
“What, date?”
Killian rolled his eyes. “Yeah right. That’s not in your make-up.”
“Look, I’ve made it clear what I want from him. It’s not up to you what happens next, so get lost with the fucking warnings. He did good today. How about you focus on that.”
“Yeah, he did real good,” Killian said, chewing on his lip as he looked over at Halo. “You think it’s enough?”
“To keep our contract?” I shrugged. “If it’s not, then they’re not where we need to be.”