by Ella Frank
“Stay over there or we won’t get anything done.” I knew that to be the truth as much as my next breath; Viper’s final words to me last night had been “Tomorrow, you’re mine,” and even though that sent a thrill shooting straight to my cock, I needed to focus on the song. The pressure from all those damn articles waiting for our album weighed on my shoulders, and I wasn’t going to be the one to let them down.
“Okay, Angel.” Viper settled back down in the recliner, laying his guitar across his lap. “You’ve got one hour.”
“Might take longer than that.”
He shrugged. “One hour.”
“And then what? Bikinis?”
Viper snorted out a laugh that only drew my attention to his full lips, the ones that had pulled from me my sleeping fantasy like a confession, and when he saw where my eyes were focused, his tongue came out to swipe along his lower lip.
“If you want that hour, you better stop lookin’ at me the way you are right now, Angel.”
Fuck, how was I supposed to concentrate now that his sexy-as-hell release from last night was all I could hear? There had to be a way to get that in a song, because it was the hottest thing I’d ever heard.
“What I wouldn’t give to be inside that head of yours to see what you’re thinking,” Viper murmured when I didn’t look away.
“I was thinking of the way you sounded last night. How I’ve heard you but I’ve never seen you come.”
“Fuckin’ Christ. Are you shitting me right now?” Viper’s hand disappeared under his guitar like he had to adjust himself, and then he growled as his head fell back. “Read off the last goddamn line or we’re leaving.”
His reaction had me grinning, because who wouldn’t be proud of affecting Viper to the point of torture? Might have to do that more often…
But later. Because right now, there were words to write. “Smacked down…they’ve got you right where they want you. Hands bound…” I scratched through the next line. “I don’t like what we had after that, so let’s start there.”
With his head still back and his eyes squeezed shut, Viper said, “What do you suggest?”
“Um.” I chewed on the end of my pen as I ran threw a few options in my head, but none of them seemed to fit just right. Tomorrow, you’re mine. Gah, fuck. Get out of my damn head, Viper.
Viper opened one eye. “What was that?”
“Uh, nothing.” I glanced down at the lyrics again, tapping my pen along the notebook to the beat, hoping the perfect line would appear out of thin air. “Something tumbling, tumbling…”
As we sat in silence, the quiet was deafening, especially with the others not humming along or cracking a joke or messing around on the keyboard.
“It’s too quiet in here,” I said, sighing.
“I can fix that.” Viper sat up, and as he began to play the song, I sang along with what we had down so far, but then stumbled over that damn fourth line. I cursed, which only made Viper chuckle. “You’re too hard on yourself. You don’t have to be perfect in here.”
“Yes, I do.”
“This is the place for mistakes. Just throw out whatever you’ve got.”
“I don’t have anything. That’s the problem.”
“Then you’re thinking too hard.”
I glared at him. “I don’t see you coming up with anything over there.”
Viper cocked his head to the side, and then began to play:
“That Angel, what a tease,
But damn he loves me on my knees,
Makin’ him say more, Viper. More, please.”
I laughed, shaking my head. “You’re fuckin’ ridiculous.”
“You mean fuckin’ talented. You can say it. ‘Viper, you’re a talented motherfucker.’”
“Because you can churn out inappropriate Seussicals? Hardly.”
“I wasn’t talking about my songwriting skills,” he said, running his hands through his hair, and though it wasn’t his intention, I found my gaze following those strong hands as they landed back on the guitar, one wrapping around the neck of the instrument and sliding its way down, just like he had with my cock—
Ugh, hell, this was not working today, or maybe it was just that I could no longer work one-on-one with Viper without thinking of him outside the band. Like in my kitchen…in Viper’s living room…in…me.
Ever since I’d watched the recording of the two of us in my apartment, the one where I’d straddled Viper and he’d teased my ass with those talented fingers, I couldn’t help but wonder how it would feel to have him go further.
And why did he have to look so damn tempting all the time? I’d gone from never noticing a guy before to being laser focused on everything about Viper. He wore ripped jeans today, a pair so faded it looked like he’d had them for years, and every time he stood up, they rode so low on his hips that I knew if I put my fingers through his belt loops and tugged, they’d fall right off. And damn, wasn’t that a delicious thought.
“Look at that. Time’s up,” Viper said, glancing at a nonexistent watch on his wrist before setting his guitar to the side.
That shook me out of my reverie. “What? Why?”
“I told you to stop looking at me like that. You can’t manage to do that, so your hour’s up.”
Forty-Two
Viper
THE ANGEL COULDN’T say I didn’t warn him, and judging by the lack of protest as I got to my feet, I didn’t think he was about to tell me to stay put a second time. So I wasn’t surprised in the slightest when Halo’s eyes went on a round-the-world trip of my body from head to toe and every inch in between—and right now, there were several extra inches than usual.
Well, that wasn’t exactly true. Around Halo, those inches were becoming the norm, especially since the guys had left and I’d caught him watching me with a new kind of hunger in his eyes. One that was pretty damn close to mine, if I had to place bets.
Halo had gone from looking at me with curiosity and confusion, to openly checking me out, and that made both me, and my dick, ecstatic. Last night had clearly been a turning point for the angel, judging by the blistering looks and that comment he’d made about wondering what I’d look like coming, and there was no way I was about to let this opportunity, this opening Halo had given me, pass me by.
“I’ll behave. We might be able to get a little more done today,” Halo said as he looked at me from behind the safety of the closed piano, which was on the opposite side of the room to where I’d been on the couch, and that just wouldn’t do anymore.
“There’s no way we’re going to get anymore done,” I said as I walked over and stopped at the end of the piano.
“You don’t know that.”
“Yeah, I do. Nothing good comes when you’re forcing it, Angel. Let it go. We can come back tomorrow.”
Halo let out a grumble and tossed the notepad on top of the piano, then he looked down to the keys as though they’d help him find what he was missing.
Aww, the poor guy was frustrated—join the fucking club.
“Look,” I said as I made my way to him. “Why don’t we get out of here for a while? The guys were right—it’ll help clear your head.”
Halo turned on the seat and angled his face up until he was looking at me. “Get out of here? No offense, but watching women in bikinis is not going to inspire me right now.”
I chuckled and placed a hand on the piano so I could lean down until our lips were but an inch apart. “Thank God for that, otherwise this will be really awkward for you.”
Before Halo could ask what, I tangled my other hand in his hair and took his mouth with mine, taking the kiss I’d been denied until this very moment. Halo’s lips parted in an instant, his tongue sliding over my lip to enter my mouth. I twisted my fingers in his hair and groaned, and as though he knew what I was thinking, Halo began to move.
He pushed up to his feet, his mouth never leaving mine, as he took a step closer to me, his hands going for the waist of my jeans, his fingers sliding through
the loops to tug me to him until I had his back against the piano, and my front against his—but then Halo stopped.
“Angel?”
“I’m sorry,” he said, putting a palm to my chest. “I’m just all up in my head right now.”
I took a step back and shoved my hands into the pockets of my jeans to give him the space he seemed to need, and let out a sigh. “You need to relax.”
Halo laughed and shook his head. “Yeah, this is not helping that plan at all.”
“It will,” I said. “Eventually.”
“Right. But until then, you’re in my head, MGA is in my head, the millions of people who watched the video are—”
“Hey, hey, hey,” I said, moving back into his personal space so I could take hold of Halo’s shirt. I could sense the anxiety attack waiting to happen, and found myself trying to ease his panic. “Breathe. I have an idea. One that might relax and inspire you.”
Halo took hold of my wrists and stared into my eyes. “Pretty sure I felt your idea of relaxation pushing up against me a second ago, Viper.”
I chuckled and raised a hand so I could trace one of my thumbs over his cheekbone—because fuck me, I couldn’t stop myself. “Feel free to use me to relax any time you want, Angel.”
“Such a generous offer. I appreciate you sacrificing yourself for my needs.”
“Hey, I’m all about lending a hand to help a fellow man.” I let go of him and took a step away, knowing if I stayed within touching distance, this would end the way it usually did whenever Halo was around me in private these days.
“Just a hand?” His lips curved.
“Or a mouth. Or anything your…heart desires.”
“Not sure it’s my heart controlling my desires right now, but I’ll think about it and let you know.”
What was that song I was singing earlier? That Angel, what a tease. “Sooo if we aren’t going to be working and we’re not going to be fucking, we need to get the hell away from this empty house and the twelve bedrooms in it.”
Halo laughed as he pushed off the piano. “Have you got any suggestions?”
“Some friends of mine are in town; you might’ve heard of them. The Nothing?”
Halo’s grin disappeared as his mouth fell open. “Are you kidding?”
I realized that I’d somehow stumbled on something he really wanted. “Not kidding, no. We opened for them back when we first started out. I’m buddies with the lead singer and I could get us some tickets. Would that inspire—”
“Yes.” Halo nodded. “Hell yes.”
“You don’t even know what I was gonna say.”
“I don’t care. You just asked if I want to see The Nothing. The only answer you’re going to get from me tonight is yes.”
A smile slowly curled my lips. “Well, that’s certainly good to know.”
Halo swallowed, his eyes shifting over my shoulder to the door, as though checking no one else was with us, then they came back to me. “Would the rest of the guys be coming with us?”
“No. Just you and me. That cool with you?”
Halo took a breath and then bit down on his lip, and I had to dig my fingers into my palms in an effort not to grab him.
“What will you tell them?” Halo asked, and it took a second for me to get my mind off his mouth and back to the conversation.
“Who?”
“The guys.”
“I’m not gonna tell them shit.”
Halo’s brows pulled together. “You don’t think they’ll think it’s weird? Us going to a concert together, without them?”
“Uh, no. Should they?”
Halo shrugged. “I don’t know. Killian, he…”
When Halo’s words trailed off, I shook my head. There was no way he wasn’t going to finish that sentence. What had Killian done? Because if I found out he’d said something to Halo, I was going to track him down whether he was with that damn lifeguard or not.
“He just gave me a look today before he left. It made me think he might know about this.” When Halo moved his hand between us, I took hold of it, halting it midair.
“So what if he does?”
“You don’t think he’d care?”
“More like I don’t give a fuck if he does. Kill doesn’t tell me where to put my dick, and I don’t tell him where to put his. We get along much better that way.”
“And you want to put it…?”
An indecent smile tugged at my mouth as I raised Halo’s hand to my lips and nipped at his fingertips. “Wherever you let me, Angel.”
Forty-Three
Halo
LATER THAT NIGHT, a black Escalade arrived at the mansion to pick up Viper and me to take us to the American Airlines Arena in downtown Miami, where The Nothing were headlining. The others had spent most of the day out, and when they’d come back, they weren’t alone, which meant they weren’t at all interested in joining us for the show. I wasn’t sorry about that, considering I’d be getting several hours with Viper, including the time spent alone in the back of the SUV, something I was now enjoying despite my earlier freak-out.
It hadn’t hit me until this afternoon how crazy my life had become in the last few weeks. I still hadn’t adjusted to the speed and urgency of the music world that I’d been swept up into. I hadn’t anticipated the pressure that would come with not only fronting such a huge band and rebuilding from the ground up, but also going from being a nobody to being the “next big thing”…whatever that meant.
And the craziest part of it all was the surprising and intense sexual attraction I was having for the man sitting beside me, which was eclipsing everything else to the point where almost all I could think about was him. I’d never been one to let another person consume me, but Viper wasn’t just anyone, was he? He was a rush like I’d never felt before. When he walked in a room, my eyes immediately found him. If I heard his voice, I wanted to seek him out. And when his attention was on me, no one else existed—and I liked it.
The farther we drove from the mansion, the more my worries over the music and the band faded away, until all I could see was Viper.
With a privacy shield up between us and the driver, Viper and I sat together in the back, his foot casually hooked behind my ankle, the only place our bodies connected. As the lights of the city passed by in a blur, and with no one else around to see, I let my eyes roam over him.
Damn, he looked sexy tonight. He’d changed into a pair of non-ripped jeans and a black T-shirt, and he somehow looked like he’d stepped off the pages of Rolling Stone. It didn’t even seem to matter what he wore, Viper just had this swagger, this vibe coming off him that made you sit up and take notice when he walked in the room—or simply sat beside him in the car.
“Look all you want, Angel,” Viper said. With his face turned toward me and lit from behind, he was a dark shadow, but I caught the flash of white teeth when he grinned. “You can touch, too.”
Tempting. He was so very, very tempting, and it wouldn’t be difficult at all to close the inches between us and explore the parts of his body that I’d denied myself earlier. But if I did that, we’d never make it to the show, and if we didn’t make it to the show—
A familiar piano riff broke into my thoughts, and as I realized where it was coming from, I jerked up in my seat.
“Shit,” I said, fumbling with the buttons beside me, trying to find the one I wanted.
“I got it.” As Viper pressed the right button, the song grew louder, filling the interior of the car, and I stared at him.
“That’s us,” I said, breaking into a huge grin. “That’s me. On the radio. We’re on the fucking radio!”
Viper chuckled, but the music was so loud I couldn’t hear him. He seemed to like watching me, though, as I drank in the fact that “Invitation” wasn’t just a song in my head anymore, wasn’t just a song we played in the studio without anyone else around. It was out in the world now, playing on radio stations, and holy shit, I couldn’t get over the fact that we were sitting there list
ening to the final version we’d recorded and that others were listening to it too, right now, at the same time.
As the song ended and the next one began, Viper turned the music back down.
“Pretty fuckin’ cool, huh?” he said.
“Are you kidding? That was… It was… Shit, I can’t even talk.”
“Take it all in. You only get to hear your first time once.”
“Isn’t it always like that? Like, every time the new stuff comes out. Doesn’t it blow your mind you’re on the radio?”
“It used to.” Viper cracked his window open before grabbing the cigarette over his ear and the lighter from his pocket. He lit up, sucked in a long inhale, and then blew the smoke out the window. “Guess you get used to it.”
“No way. I could never get used to that.”
Viper’s lips curled as he brought the cigarette to his lips again. “That’s ’cause you’re a romantic.”
“A romantic? Me?”
“Yeah, you know, walkin’ around wearing rose-colored glasses. It’s all new to you. Exciting.” Viper blew another stream of smoke into the night air.
“That’s not a bad thing,” I said, feeling a little defensive. “It’s a huge freakin’ accomplishment to be on the radio or to get to play on a stage where people actually show up to listen to you. That doesn’t happen for most musicians, and it sure as hell never happened to me before. I’m allowed to be excited. Sorry, Mr. Cynical.”
“Don’t be sorry. I like that about you.”
“You do?”
“Yeah. You remind me of how it should feel.” He cracked a smile. “I’m a jaded asshole, what can I say?”
“Jaded, yes. An asshole…eh. That wouldn’t be the word I’d choose.”
“No?” Viper’s eyes glittered in the dark. “What would you choose?”
There I’d gone, opening my mouth and backing myself into a corner without thinking it through. “I haven’t decided yet.”
“Ah. Need any help?” Viper’s hand moved to my thigh and began a slow slide up, and when his fingers grazed over my dick, I sucked in a breath.