by Frank, Ella
I couldn’t move. I couldn’t blink. I didn’t even breathe as I stared in wonder at the stage. Elevated on a special platform sat a grand piano, but it was unlike anything I’d ever seen.
The piano’s body was a glittering white that seemed to sparkle on every inch of its surface the spotlight hit, even down to its curved legs. But the most impressive part, the part that caught your eye and wouldn’t let go, was the enormous wings the color of freshly fallen snow that seemed to rise from the ground. They stood tall, maybe fifteen feet on each side, framing the piano. From where I stood, it looked like whoever sat there was flying, the feathers sparkling in the light against a dark background that could’ve been the night sky.
“That’s…” I choked on the words as the piano blurred. “For me?”
“It’s all yours, Angel.” Viper’s voice was low as he watched my reaction. “Do you like it?”
“Oh my God.” I ran my hands over my face to hide the way I wiped the wetness from my eyes and then looked between the piano and Viper, back and forth, because I couldn’t believe what he’d done. It just wasn’t sinking in.
I needed to be closer.
I grabbed Viper’s hand and half ran toward the stage, and the closer we got, the more the wings loomed large in front of us. Jesus, they were magnificent, the most beautiful things I’d ever seen in my life.
When I stopped in front of the stage, Viper nudged me toward it. “Go on. I want to see how you look up there with your angel wings.”
My angel wings… That was why he’d done it. Because this was how he saw me—his angel—and as I turned to face him, I could see the love he had for me written all over his face. In his eyes, in his brilliant smile. There was no hiding it, all that love manifesting into a gift he’d painstakingly created just for me.
“I can’t believe you did this. It had to have taken forever to put together,” I said, looking back up at the beautiful instrument. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.
“It didn’t take as long as I thought it might. Only a few months.”
I whipped my head around in surprise. “You’ve been working on this for months?”
“I guess they had to put out a mass call for feathers.” Viper shrugged.
“But…”
“But what?”
“You didn’t want to be with me then.”
Viper blinked, clearly not expecting that to come out of my mouth. But it was the truth, wasn’t it? This wasn’t a small surprise, and if it had taken months, that meant he’d started at least the design while he’d been insisting what we had was nothing more than a casual fling.
For some reason, that knowledge knocked me on my ass, especially when Viper said, “Angel, I may not have admitted it to myself, but I always wanted you. I guess my subconscious caught on to my feelings a little faster than I did.”
Before the words were out of his mouth, I was moving, wrapping my arms around his neck as I pulled him against me, crashing my lips down on his. All the things I wanted to say were unleashed in that kiss: thank you, I love you too, and, of course, I fucking knew it.
“This is the best gift anyone’s ever given me,” I whispered against his mouth.
“I’m glad you like it.”
“I love it.”
“Then Angel?”
“Hmm?”
“Get up there and play me something.”
I grinned and planted another quick kiss on his lips, and he swatted my ass as I jumped up onto the stage. Stairs led up to the raised platform, and I took them two at a time in my eagerness to get up there, and as I reached the top, I had to crane my head back to take in the entirety of the wings.
This close, I could see the details. Each individual feather shimmered, and when I brought my hand up to touch, they were even softer than they looked. From the audience, it looked like they rose up from the floor, but in reality, the wings were attached to the sides of the piano, flowing down and curling off the platform. The body of the piano was almost blinding under the light, a radiant, dazzling white that looked as if there were crushed diamonds embedded into every inch.
It took my breath away, made me hesitant to touch any more of it, but then Viper called out to me, telling me to sit my ass down or he’d come up here and force me to.
Bossy bastard, I thought with a smile, as I rounded the piano and carefully pulled out the padded white leather bench. I couldn’t see his reaction when I sat down, since I faced the back wall, my back the view the audience would see. I could only imagine the way I looked between the gorgeous wings. Like they were a part of me.
I ran my fingers softly along the keys, ones that had never been used by anyone else, and the sound that flowed out was so smooth and perfectly tuned that I subtly segued into “Invitation.”
My head fell back as I played the riff, taking in the majestic surroundings. I imagined playing this every night in front of thousands of people. And then…I imagined playing it naked in front of an audience of one.
Twenty-One
Viper
AS HALO TOOK his spot on the leather seat and laid his fingers on the piano keys, a rush of air I hadn’t known I’d been holding left me. From where I stood in the center of the warehouse, Halo appeared just as I’d imagined him: majestic, ethereal, an angel who had finally gotten his wings, and in that moment, he had literally taken my breath away.
The piano was nothing short of spectacular in its grandeur. The wingspan alone was something out of this world. But the sheer elegance and craftmanship that had gone into creating this one-of-a-kind showstopper was what made this instrument unlike anything anyone had ever seen—just like the man who would play it.
God, I loved him, and where that thought used to make me break out in a cold sweat, it now calmed that part of me that used to be so restless, so…unfulfilled, despite the unbelievable life I led.
It was ironic, really, that it had taken an angel to make me fall this fast and this hard, because really, what were the odds that someone as good, someone so damn pure, would ever risk his heart on someone like me? But Halo had, and as he sat there testing out the keys beneath his fingers, I waited to see what this first flight of his would look like.
With the spotlight shining down on his golden head of hair, and his hands now positioned on the keys, when Halo’s back shifted and he began to play the opening riff to “Invitation,” my stomach flipped on itself.
Jesus. The first time I’d heard him play this back in that little Savannah bar, I’d known it was something special. But in this mammoth space, with the piano all miked up and the speakers set for impact, what I was hearing and seeing was fucking phenomenal.
As though Halo realized at the exact same time I did just how goddamn good he sounded, he let his head fall back as his foot moved on the pedal, and then his fingers flew across the keys and led him into the chorus.
He was like nothing I’d ever seen before. Passionate, talented, and one hundred percent in the zone, and as he made the transition into the second verse, I found myself moving toward him, no longer content to be this far away from the angel lighting up the darkness.
I jumped up onto the center of the stage with ease, as Halo shifted on the seat and bent his head down over the keys. He was mesmerizing in his concentration, his skill making him even sexier, if that was possible, and I couldn’t take my eyes off him. Instead, I took hold of the thin black rail of the stairs leading up to where he was, and then I raced up them.
When I reached the platform, I stepped around the enormous wing closest to me so I was standing at the back of the piano and looking across it to where Halo was launching into the final chorus.
His curls had fallen forward, all around his face, and the tip of his tongue was flirting with his top lip, as it did whenever he was concentrating or all up in his head. His beautiful eyes were shut as though he were in another time, or maybe a different plane of existence—that was how unearthly he seemed just then. As he came to the end of the piece and his fingers wen
t still, silence once again filled the warehouse and the angel finally opened his eyes.
Pure, undiluted pleasure radiated from those light eyes as they took in the piano in front of him, and when Halo finally raised his gaze and spotted me standing opposite him, he sucked in a breath.
His cheeks were flushed pink, the adrenaline of what had just happened still thrumming through him, and as I began to walk over to him, the pleasure in his eyes shifted and a whole set of new emotions began to take their place.
Love. Lust. Arousal. It was all there, mixed up with a healthy dose of excitement swirling in my angel’s eyes, and when I made my way around the second wing and stopped beside him, Halo shifted until he was looking up at me, and I close to fell to my knees.
With unsteady hands, I reached for his face, cradling it between my palms as I lowered my head and said across his lips, “You are extraordinary.”
Halo’s lips parted on a soft moan, and I sucked his lower lip between mine, needing a taste of him. But then he reached up to cover my hands and pulled back a fraction to say, “This gift, what you’ve given me tonight, Viper. That’s extraordinary.”
My heart thumped uncontrollably at the sincerity in his words, the total love and adoration in his eyes, and I didn’t even care that he could no doubt see the exact same emotions swirling in mine.
I wanted to worship every single inch of this man, shout to the entire fucking world that he was mine, and as I pushed his hair back behind one of his ears, I kissed my way along his cheekbone and said, “I’m so fucking crazy about you.”
Halo turned his face toward me, and I couldn’t wait another moment to take that mouth with mine. I crushed my lips down onto his, and as he tilted his head back, I threaded my fingers into his hair and groaned.
Fuck, he was so damn delicious that I could kiss him forever and never get enough. But I needed him closer to me. I wanted to feel him pressed up against me as I devoured his sweet, sweet mouth, and as though he could read my mind, Halo moved to his feet until he was standing opposite me.
“I want you so fucking bad right now,” I growled against his lips, and when Halo curled his hands around the lapels of my jacket and tugged me forward, I could feel just how badly he wanted me too.
Halo’s eyes shifted over my shoulder to the empty black warehouse behind me and then came back to mine, and that arousal I’d seen swirling to life a minute ago was now in full control. His pupils had dilated, his breathing was coming at a rapid pace, and when he scraped his teeth along his lower lip and said, “Then take me,” nothing in the world could’ve stopped me from taking the angel up on his invitation.
Twenty-Two
Halo
AS MY WORDS lingered in the air between me and Viper, he reached up, wrapped his fingers over my right hand, and pried it free from his jacket. Then he laced his fingers with mine and stepped around me.
Viper led me around the side of the piano and past one of the mammoth wings, and as we went, I reached out to gently run my fingers across the feathers. They felt luxurious under my fingertips, and when he guided me around to the back of the instrument, I traced the tip of my index finger along the curve of the lid and tilted my head back to once again take in their sheer magnificence.
“They’re breathtaking,” I whispered, as though I were in the presence of some kind of deity.
“So are you,” Viper said as he moved in behind me, wrapping one of his arms around my waist as he pushed my hair to the side so he could press his mouth to the sensitive skin of my neck.
At the touch of his lips, I automatically angled my head to give him better access, and Viper took immediate advantage. He kissed his way up to the spot under my ear, and as he flattened his palm on my stomach, I moved back into him.
He hummed by my ear, and a tremble racked my body. “You feel so fuckin’ good in my arms, Angel.”
And God, it felt good to be there. The heat from Viper’s body emanated from his clothes to surround me, and when he slid his palm down to cover the erection now throbbing behind the zipper of my pants, a soft moan left my lips.
I turned my head, wanting Viper’s mouth on mine, and when my eyes found his, the love that had been swirling in them earlier was still there, but now it was mixed with that dangerous edge I craved so much from him. The one that told me he was as turned on by me as I was by him, and it was still such a damn rush to know that this irresistible, compelling man was mine.
“Kiss me,” I said, and my demand had those wicked lips of Viper’s curving before he lowered his head and brushed them across mine in a flirt of a kiss that wasn’t nearly enough. “Viper…”
“Right here, Angel. Whaddya need?”
My breathing was coming a little faster now, his tease making me even greedier for him. And with the night, the gift, and the actual playing of this spectacular piano, my lust and desire for Viper—the man who’d gone out of his way to give me such a perfect moment in time—was at an all-time high.
“I need…” My words trailed off into a moan as Viper squeezed me through the front of my pants.
“Tell me and I’ll give it to you. Whatever you want,” Viper promised, his raspy voice making my balls tingle.
I reached down to press my hand over the top of his, and Viper groaned as I bucked my hips forward, thrusting my aching length into his palm, wanting—no, needing—more friction.
“Undo my pants,” I said, panting, watching his eyes as I issued my request, and without breaking the searing connection, Viper popped open the button on my pants and slowly drew the zipper down.
“Like that?”
I nodded, but when Viper raised a brow and didn’t move, I said, “Yes. Just like that.”
“Oh, I could get used to this,” he said, and chuckled. “Tell me…what’s next, Angel?”
Viper’s breath was warm as it floated across my lips, and his eyes were close to black as they roamed all over my face, waiting for my next instruction, and there was no way I wasn’t going to give it.
“Your hands…” I said, and swallowed. “I want them on me.” Viper slid one of his hands down into my pants beneath my briefs, and then wrapped his fingers around me. “Yesss. God. That’s perfect.”
“I’ll fucking say.” Viper lowered his head and flicked the tip of his tongue over my earlobe. “You’re so damn hard.”
My cock jerked at the compliment as Viper gave it a nice, slow stroke, and when my eyes fluttered shut from the pleasure, he did it again, pulling from me a throaty moan. My head fell back on Viper’s shoulder as he began to work my length, my hips pumping forward, my dick sliding in and out of the tight hold he had on me, until he nudged me forward a step, and my stomach came into contact with the piano.
My eyes flew open and focused on the spotlight that made the closed lid glimmer like diamonds, as Viper released my cock and tugged my pants down my hips. Then I licked my lips and smoothed my palms over the white wood finish, much the same way Viper was now trailing his fingers up the sides of my thighs and over my ass.
My heart was thundering, my dick throbbing, and as I looked out to the pitch-black warehouse in front of me, I thought about what was going to happen here on this stage. It was exciting, exhilarating, and so fucking hot that when I heard Viper rip open a packet and unzip in the otherwise silent space, a needy moan ripped out of my throat before I could stop it.
My voice echoed all around us, the stage set to amplify the best sound out of all the equipment and voices on it, and right now that was my desperate pleas and Viper’s sexy-as-hell chuckle.
“Damn. I always said you had a voice sent from fucking heaven.” Viper moved in behind me and smoothed one of his palms over the bare cheek of my ass. “And tonight, I’m gonna make you fly high while you sing just for me.”
Oh, shit. Viper’s voice was rough and raw with the lust that was riding him, and when he put his other hand on my shoulder and urged me down over the back of the piano, I squeezed my eyes shut and willed myself not to lose it before I felt
that powerful body behind me, taking me.
“Mmm,” Viper said, and ran his hand down over the material of my jacket. “So proper in this jacket of yours…” Then he molded both his hands to the curves of my ass and bent down over me to say by my ear, “But not so proper down here. Are you, Angel?”
Viper slid a slippery finger down the crack of my ass, and never had I been so thankful he was like a Boy Scout when it came to impromptu sex—always so damn prepared.
Goosebumps covered my skin as Viper kissed his way along the shell of my ear and massaged the pad of his finger over my hole, and when he eased his finger inside me, I shoved back onto him.
Viper groaned, his teeth replacing his lips as he nipped at my lobe and a second finger entered me. As he rocked his lower body against mine, Viper’s hard cock brushed up against my naked skin, and I all but whimpered.
I reached out on either side of myself, trying to find something to hold on to. Trying to find something to ground me to reality. But the piano was too wide, and instead I found myself spread open to the man behind me, laid out like an offering for Viper to do with as he pleased, and I shook at that idea, knowing that Viper would bring me nothing but the ultimate pleasure.
Never in all my life had I expected to be so consumed by another. But every time I was with Viper like this? Whenever we were stripped down, naked, and vulnerable with one another, the feelings and emotions between us intensified, and I was starting to believe there was no limit to how much I could love the man who was mastering my body like it had been designed specifically for him.