“I think he’s got a good handle on it,” Viper said, inclining his head toward me. In response, I began to play again, as Paul stood quietly by, watching with wide eyes. It was easy to get lost in the guitar; it had so many functions I couldn’t wait to try out—
Wait, was I actually considering buying it?
I stopped playing, much to Paul’s apparent dismay, and as I put the guitar back in its stand, Viper said, “What are you doing?”
“I can’t buy this.” I shook my head, wondering if I’d lost my mind even coming here. I had two perfectly fine guitars already. I didn’t need this one.
“Why?” Viper asked. “You don’t like it?”
“It’s more than several months of rent. I can’t afford that.”
“Oh, Angel.” There was a smug look on Viper’s face as he walked over to me and put his hands on my shoulders. “There’s a few zeroes in your bank account now that say you can.”
“But I don’t need it. I just want it.” Ugh, I wanted it so much. I could just imagine all the new sounds I could incorporate into the songs we were working on, and—
“Fine.” Viper shrugged, dropping his hands and pulling out his wallet from his back pocket. “I’ll buy it.”
My mouth fell open. “What? No. I mean, unless you’re buying it for yourself—”
When Viper handed a credit card to Paul, I snatched it out of his hands and shoved it against Viper’s chest. “You’re not buying me a guitar.”
“Eh. It’s a tax write-off.”
“No,” I said. “Absolutely not.”
Viper looked past me at Paul. “We’ll take it. Did you want the red or black, Angel?”
Fuck. He was really gonna buy me this damn guitar, wasn’t he?
“Fine, I’ll buy it,” I said, taking out my own wallet and handing over my card. It didn’t feel real that I had enough on there to cover the cost of the guitar, but I’d seen the check with my own eyes and knew just how many of these guitars I could buy with all that. I really did want it anyway, so having Viper’s permission of sorts? Yeah, okay. Why not.
“Wonderful choice.” Paul nodded as he took my card, and behind me, I heard Viper chuckle. “Which style would you prefer, and I’ll get it ready for you?”
My eyes ventured over to where Viper stood in full black from his hat to his shirt to his shoes. “I’ll take the matte black.” As the store manager walked off, I moved in closer to Viper, who had a victorious grin on his face.
“You’re welcome,” he said. “What are you gonna name her?”
“Him,” I said, my lips curving mischievously. “And I think I’ll name him Viper.” I leaned in close to whisper in his ear, “That way I can touch, play, or lick him whenever I want.”
Eighteen
Viper
THE RUSTY PELICAN was one of the hottest restaurants in Miami. It catered to all kinds of clientele, including celebrities, locals, and tourists. With its waterfront views overlooking the Miami skyline, the guys and I had discovered the hotspot the first time we’d been sent down here to record and made it a point to visit whenever we were in town.
That was exactly what I was doing now, I told myself as Halo walked beside me, down toward the entrance—just, you know, minus the other guys. Nothin’ unusual about that. We’d gone out, spent some of Halo’s hard-earned cash on something he more than deserved, and now we were gonna throw back some drinks, eat some food, and have a good time, which all would’ve seemed completely normal if I hadn’t started it by—
“Here, I got it,” I said, reaching for the door when we got to the entrance.
As soon as I had it pulled open, I realized the move for what it was, and so did Halo, judging by the way he stood there staring at me like I’d grown two heads. There was no way in hell I would’ve opened a door for Killian, Jagger, or Slade, and up until a second ago I would’ve added Halo to that list, but that second had obviously passed.
Halo’s lips twitched. “Thanks.”
“Yeah, no problem,” I said like a total lame-ass, and then rolled my eyes as Halo walked off in front of me. As I followed after him, I gave myself a mental uppercut. This is just a fucking meal. But as my eyes swept around the blue lights that illuminated the shadowed interior, it suddenly felt like a whole lot more. Not that I would know.
“Good evening,” the hostess said with a brilliant smile as she looked to Halo. “Do you have a reservation?”
“Uh,” Halo said, and then looked back at me, a questioning look in his eyes.
“No, sorry. We don’t,” I said, moving up beside Halo, and when the woman’s eyes shifted to me, I flashed a grin that had her mouth falling open. “But Sabrina told me to stop by anytime I’m in town. Is she around?”
“Oh…” She laughed. “Um, I mean, no. Sorry. She’s off tonight. But of course we have a table for you, Viper,” she said, reaching up to push some of her chestnut curls behind her ear.
As she looked down at the list and map in front of her, my eyes found Halo, who was smirking at me. I arched an eyebrow, daring him to voice the mocking taunt I could see in his eyes, but he remained silent as he turned back to the woman.
“Would you like to sit inside or outside?” she asked.
I was about to answer, but then found myself saying, “Angel? You got a preference?”
Then her eyes lit up on Halo, and she grabbed a pad of paper from her stand and rushed around to us. “Oh my God, you’re the new guy. The new singer for Fallen Angel.”
It took everything I had not to correct her. Halo was the only singer Fallen Angel had had. But Halo was already nodding and taking the pad of paper she was all but shoving at him.
“Will you sign this for me? We get everyone who’s famous to sign a Rusty Pelican menu, napkin, whatever. We have all the other guys up there,” she said, indicating the wall behind us, and sure enough, there was my signature along with the rest of TBD’s, including that fucker Trent’s name. We needed a new group signature up there sooner rather than later.
As Halo handed the pad back to her, she tucked it into the front of her black apron and then grinned at us again. “Sorry, did you say inside or outside?”
Halo looked at me and shrugged. “Outside okay for you?”
Outside was perfect, and where I would’ve chosen anyway, and when I agreed, we followed the hostess to the doors that led outside to the tables lining the patio. She led us past the busiest section to a table on the far side of a sleek fire pit, and as we took our seats, she placed our menus down and said, “Kyle will be out to take your orders soon.”
As she disappeared back inside, Halo looked out at the spectacular view of Miami at night, and me? I looked at Halo. With the string lights hanging between the palm trees that dotted the edge of the patio, Halo’s curls shimmered and his eyes all but gleamed, and wanting that face aimed my way, I said, “Do you approve?”
Just as I’d wanted, Halo turned his head in my direction, his lips curving. He cocked his head to the side, and his astute stare had me doing something I’d never done in my life—I shifted nervously in my seat. What the fuck?
“Do I approve of the restaurant?” Halo asked, and I had a feeling he was fucking with me.
“Yeah…”
Halo pursed his lips and looked back at the multimillion-dollar view before returning his attention to me. “That sounds an awful lot like something a date would worry about.”
When I narrowed my eyes, Halo added, “Would you care what Killian thought?”
“Hell no, but I’m not fucking him.”
Halo licked his lips, drawing my eyes again. Damn, I really wanted to be the one tracing my tongue over them, then he said something that had me just about falling off my chair.
“Good. I’d be jealous.” Halo then leaned a little closer over the table and said, “That’s also something a date would say, just so you know.”
Smartass. “You havin’ fun?”
Halo chuckled and then leaned back in his chair, eyeing me with a sm
irk that made my cock jerk behind my jeans.
“Just pointing out some facts.”
“About dating?”
“Mhmm. It’s the least I can do, since you’ve never been on one before.”
“Keep it up, Angel, and I’m gonna—”
“Good evening, guys. Welcome to The Rusty Pelican.” Kyle, presumably, came to stop by our table just in time to save Halo’s fine ass. “Have you decided what you’d like to eat tonight? To drink?”
Luckily for us, it seemed Kyle had been informed in advance as to who we were and we didn’t have to go through the whole oh wow, you’re so-and-so moment, because right then all I wanted was to be alone with Halo. Shit, maybe I did want to be on a date with the angel—a really fucking private one.
I hadn’t even looked at the menu, but I liked anything seafood, and before I could say a word, Halo was talking.
“We’d like to share the three-tiered seafood tower, thanks.”
“Got it,” Kyle said. “And to drink?”
Finally locating my tongue, I said, “The best whiskey you have on hand for me.”
“Vodka for me, thanks,” Halo added, then Kyle vanished, and I heard myself say, “Is it also customary for one party of the date to order for the other?”
“Are you finally admitting that’s what this is?”
“You’re pushing awfully hard tonight, Angel, for someone who told me he was cool with things being as is.” I watched him closely, not quite sure what it was I expected to see. Denial, indifference, humor? But what I got was an intensity I didn’t have a clue what to do with.
I’d been looked at many ways in my life, with awe, lust, hunger, and power. And as Halo’s eyes ran over my face, I saw all those things, but when they finally settled and locked on mine, there was also a fierce interest in getting to know the person sitting opposite him—and that was a first.
“And you’re avoiding the question,” Halo said. “Look, I know what I said, and if that’s still all you want, then I guess that’s cool—”
“You guess?” I chuckled.
Halo rolled his eyes. “Well, yeah. It’s not like anyone could make you do anything.”
I rubbed my hand over my jaw. “Oh I don’t know, Angel. I find myself doing all kinds of things for you. Things I never thought I’d do.”
Halo’s cheeks colored, and fuck, something in my stomach flipped from knowing I’d caused that reaction. The same way it had from the very beginning.
“Like opening restaurant doors?” Halo asked.
And finally I gave in and nodded. “Like opening restaurant doors.”
“So it is a date?”
“Jesus.” I laughed and ran a hand over my face. “It’s a fucking date. Happy?”
“Delirious.”
As Halo crossed his arms, I muttered, “Smug fucker.”
“Hey, don’t even try to take this away from me. How many firsts have you given me over the past month?”
I touched the tip of my tongue to my top lip, thinking about each and every one of them. “A lot. I’ve enjoyed every damn one of them, too.”
“Mhmm. And this is me giving you a first. Your first date. Aww, welcome to being an adult, Viper. How’s it feel?”
“Right now? Pretty fucking painful.”
A booming laugh that made me want to grab him left his lips.
“Seriously.”
“Seriously,” I said, sitting forward in my chair. “It feels…right. You feel right.”
Halo’s grinning lips clamped shut, but before he could respond, Kyle showed up with a tray and the most delicious-looking tower of seafood I’d ever seen. A second waiter put our drinks down in front of us, then, without any further lingering, they disappeared back inside.
“So this is what you thought we should eat tonight, huh? What if I don’t like seafood?”
Halo arched a brow at me. “Yeah, okay. You brought me to a seafood restaurant. And even if you don’t, too bad. Live a little. You always eat off my plate anyway.”
I’d like to eat off you right this second, I thought, and as though Halo knew exactly what I was thinking, his lips kicked up at the sides.
“I also saw a dessert on the menu that I thought we could order to go. It had three sauces, ice creams, and things you dip in it before you suck it off. I’ll share that with you too. If you’re nice to me.”
I reached for some lobster and shrimp, as Halo took some sushi.
“Not sure I know how to be nice, Angel,” I said, finding that I actually meant it. What if we did this thing, dated, and I fucked it up because I was an asshole? The probability of that was pretty damn high, and—
What the hell? Since when have I been so goddamn insecure?
Halo dipped his sushi in a bit of soy sauce before eating the whole thing in one bite. Once he’d swallowed, he licked a drop of sauce off his finger and said, “Yeah, but by nice I mean bad. Come on, Viper. You said earlier that you know who I am, so how about you give me a bit of credit here, huh? I’m not exactly naive when it comes to you.”
No, I didn’t suppose he was. And yet here he was, wanting to…date me. A guy. Someone he’d never even considered until I made him. And that had me thinking.
“What was her name?”
Halo’s hand froze midway to his mouth. “Who?”
I could tell he knew what I was asking even though he hadn’t answered. But if he thought I was going to back down then he was in for a shock. The angel had said he wanted a date, and wasn’t this what people did on dates? Asked about exes?
“The girl you sang about in your audition video. The one who broke your heart. What was her name?”
Halo’s mouth fell open, and I could see the question why in his eyes. But before he could ask, I said, “She still in the picture at all?”
When he seemed to get past his shock, Halo popped the rest of the tuna sashimi into his mouth, and once he was done, he picked up his drink, took a long sip, and then wiped off his mouth.
“You jealous?” he asked.
I snorted but didn’t answer.
“Viper? Are you jealous?”
Was I? I thought back to the hundred and one times I’d watched that audition video of Halo before we agreed to permanently hire him, and remembered thinking what a dumbass someone would’ve been to let him go.
Was I jealous? Yeah, I’m fuckin’ jealous. Of some nameless girl I don’t even know.
“And if I am?”
Halo grinned as though the idea pleased him immensely, but instead of giving me shit, he put his napkin down and said, “Phoebe. Her name was Phoebe. And to save you the agony of asking a question I know you’re dying to ask but probably won’t, we dated for three years.”
“Three years?” Fuck me, that was, like…twenty-one in dog years. I couldn’t imagine waking up with the same person for—
“You freaking out over there?”
“No.”
“Liar,” Halo said, and when he smiled, I tried to imagine not waking up and seeing his face. “Anyway, she wanted different things to me. Or should I say for me. She thought I was wasting my time in the dive bars when I could’ve had a career more like my mom’s. With the symphony.”
I was listening to everything Halo was saying, but instead of having anything remotely intelligent to say, I blurted out, “She was wrong. You don’t belong in an orchestra. You belong center stage, Angel. Under a fucking spotlight.”
A pleased sigh left him. “Do you remember that night at Li’s when you said people would look at me, at us, and wonder who I was to you?”
I nodded. I’d purposely been fucking with him, and it had worked. He’d looked totally freaked out that the other customers might think we were together. But when Halo leaned over toward me tonight, there was no concern in his eyes, not even a hint.
“Tonight, I wish I could tell everyfuckingone,” he said.
Nineteen
Halo
WHEN I WOKE the next morning, the soft strumming of a guitar filled m
y ears. It was a beautiful sound, one of my favorite sounds in the world, though the song itself was unfamiliar.
Keeping my eyes closed so Viper would continue playing, I let the music lull me, my thoughts drifting back to last night, when he’d finally admitted we were on a date.
Yep, the perennial bad-boy bachelor of the group had gone on an official date, and somehow, even with all the choices available to him, it’d been with me. That filled my stomach with a million damn butterflies, because though we’d gone out alone before, last night had been different. He’d opened the door for me, for God’s sake, which I knew had surprised him as much as it had me.
Somehow, over the last few weeks since we’d been in Miami, I’d gotten over the shock of falling for a man—although that was largely due to the fact that no one in our inner circle had questioned what was happening with Viper. Sure, the guys gave us shit for it, but Viper had assured me they would’ve done that regardless of gender. But in the back of my mind, I considered what would happen when we got back to New York. Here, it was like being in the safety of a bubble, but what happened when we ventured outside of that? What would my family say? My friends?
And more importantly, would whatever this thing was with Viper continue once we were back to reality?
Not wanting to think any more about the what-ifs, I opened my eyes to see Viper sitting in a chair across the room, naked and with my new guitar across his lap. Dawn was just breaking, sunlight filtering in through the opening where the curtains met, giving me just enough light to see him.
Damn, he was beautiful. Not a word I ever thought I’d associate with a man, and not one Viper would ever want to be called, but it was the truth. Every inch of his smooth olive skin was on display, and it surprised me now, as it always did for some reason, that Viper wasn’t covered in tattoos—or that he didn’t at least have a few hidden ones. No, the only thing hidden on his body was the Prince Albert piercing at the head of his cock, and that had most definitely been a welcome surprise—especially because he knew just how to use it. The thought of him inside me made me shudder and lick my lips, and the small movement caught Viper’s attention.
VIPER (Fallen Angel Book 2) Page 9