by Ella Frank
No. Fucking. Way.
“Hey, Mom? Can you turn this up?”
Mom hit the volume button until the announcer’s voice was clear, and I sat there with my hand hovering above my plate, my brain trying to catch the fuck up.
“An Instagram post by the Warden has created quite a frenzy of excitement in the social media stratosphere. Not much is known about the origins of the recording that hit last night. In fact, the name of the singer isn’t even known at this time. All that is known is that over five million people have viewed this clip of a blond man singing behind his piano, and have now made this video the most shared, liked, loved, and raved-about clip in years, and it’s only been twenty-four hours. The question everyone, including us tonight, is asking is…who is this guy? Take a look, and see if you know him.”
The show then cut to a shot of Halo—fucking Halo—sitting behind Killian’s piano last Friday in the rehearsal space singing “Invitation.” The recording was focused on him as he concentrated on the keys and opened the song with that fantastic riff I swore I heard in my sleep, and then as the rest of us joined in and Halo launched into the first verse, the camera zoomed in even closer but was careful not to capture any of us on film.
Goddamn Brian. That motherfucker had been recording us without telling us. What had he been thinking? But as Halo glanced across the top of the piano and gave that half smile of his that sent my pulse and cock to throbbing, I knew exactly what Brian had been thinking. He wanted to see the public’s reaction to Halo without the influence of TBD there—and clearly, it had been a winning one, if I was to gauge it on this report alone.
Jesus. Had Killian seen this? Had Halo?
I dug in my pocket for my phone, but before I could call a number, my mom was speaking.
“David? Do you know that young man?”
Shit. I’d completely zoned out there for a minute. I nodded.
“Really? He’s very good.”
“Yeah. He is.” I glanced back at the TV in time to see Halo lick his lip before the segment went to commercial, and before I hit Killian’s number, I said, “That’s our angel.”
Thirty-Five
Viper
KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.
Two hours later, I found myself standing at Halo’s front door with a bottle of whiskey in my hand, as I waited for the man of the hour to open up.
After talking to Killian on the phone, we’d both come to the conclusion that Brian was a scheming little motherfucker. But since the publicity swirling around Halo was unbelievable, we’d decided our manager could live to see another day…for the moment.
Somehow, I’d managed to make it through the rest of my meal and evening with my mom without being a rude asshole and going off somewhere to hide and watch this four-minute video in its entirety. But the second I’d gotten on the train and put my headphones in, I’d opened up that link and let Halo weave his magic, and that’s exactly what he was—pure fucking magic behind that mic and piano.
Just thinking about it had my cock aching, and when the sound of a chain, and then a deadbolt, was undone, I tightened my fingers around the neck of the whiskey in an effort not to grab and attack.
As the door was pulled wide, and Halo came into view in a pair of light grey sweats and a black T-shirt, my lips pulled up. “Hey there, big shot.”
I knew as soon as a flush hit his cheeks that Halo knew exactly what I was referring to as I pushed off the doorjamb and ran my eyes over him.
“You gonna invite me in? Or are you too busy replying to all your adoring fans to spare lil old me a moment of your time?”
Halo laughed. “I don’t think there’s anything little about you.”
“So glad you noticed.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Sure it isn’t.” I took a step forward, and when Halo didn’t back up, I raised the whiskey and said, “Thought you might like to celebrate.”
Halo’s eyes shifted over my shoulder, and then came back to mine. “Are the rest of the guys with you?”
I slowly shook my head. “Nope.”
Halo’s lips parted, and this time when I walked forward, he backed up until I was in the apartment, kicking his door shut behind me.
“So I’m guessing you saw the video tonight,” Halo said.
As I took a step closer and Halo continued his retreat, the adrenaline of this little cat-and-mouse game kicked in. Fuck, he was hot. Here in this place where he was most comfortable. The sweats and the curly hair that I wanted to fist my hands in gave him an I-just-tumbled-out-of-bed look that made me want to drag him right back into it.
“Oh, I saw it, Angel. On the TV, on my phone, in my fucking head every time I shut my eyes. I can’t un-see it.”
When Halo’s back hit the edge of his tiny kitchen island, his breath caught and I reached forward to put the bottle down beside him. Then I left my hand in place, effectively caging him in.
“I would even venture to say about a million of the views now added to the tally on that thing tonight are from me. And you know what I saw other than you singing our kickass song behind a piano?”
This close, I could see the way Halo’s eyes darkened, as his arousal began to take over anything other than the fact that I was now wedging my foot between his legs and getting as close to him as possible.
“What did you see?” Halo put his hands on my chest, and for a second I wasn’t sure if he was going to shove me away or pull me closer. But when he gripped the material of my shirt as if to hang on for whatever was about to happen, I had my answer.
I ghosted my lips over the top of his, and when his tongue came out to try and tempt me to stay, I smirked and Halo moaned.
“I saw you watching me.” I shoved my hips forward until my hard cock—that now seemed to want Halo and only Halo—rubbed up against his. “I saw you singing, and watching me.”
“Fuck, Viper.”
“Hmm.” I kissed my way along his jaw, and then up to his ear and whispered, “Yes. That’s exactly what your eyes were saying. Fuck me, Viper.”
Halo twisted his fingers in my shirt and pulled me up so I was looking him in the eye. “That’s not what they said.”
“Yeah. But we both know that’s what you want.”
Before he could protest, I slammed my lips down on top of his, and Halo’s opened, letting my tongue slide deep inside his mouth as his hands trailed down my front and slipped in under my jacket.
A groan escaped one of us, as I put my other hand on the counter beside him and rocked my body along the length of his.
“Damn, you looked sexy on that video,” I said as Halo grabbed my ass. “Singing about losing control, losing your mind, while you eye-fucked me so hard my cock has ached ever since.”
Halo sank his teeth into his lip as he thrust his hips forward. “What… No random stranger offered to fix you up?”
“No random stranger will do. You see, my cock, it seems fixated on a certain angel.”
Halo’s eyes roamed over my face, his expression unreadable, as I brought a hand up off the counter and trailed my cool fingertips under the hem of his shirt.
“Shit,” he said. “Your fingers are freezing.”
“They won’t be for long.” I ran them along the edge of his sweats to the drawstring that was neatly tied and sitting low on his waist.
With my eyes locked on his, I hooked a finger through one of the loops and slowly dragged it free. Halo’s breath left him on a rush, and when he let go of my ass to brace his hands on the counter behind him, I took a step back and lowered my eyes down to what I was doing.
The soft fabric of Halo’s sweats was doing nothing to cover the stiff length inside, and when I had the drawstring loose, I raised my eyes to see Halo’s fastened on what I was doing. The tip of his tongue was running along his top lip, and when my hands froze, Halo raised his head, his eyes asking one thing: Why’d you stop?
Dropping my hands, I took a step back and said, “Take off your shirt.”
&nb
sp; Halo swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat as everything he was feeling flashed across his face. Lust. Uncertainty. Need. And desire. But it was clear what the most dominant feelings were as Halo reached for the hem of his shirt, drew it up his torso, and threw it to the floor.
As his smooth skin came into view, I reached down to readjust my throbbing dick. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d teased myself so hard before I actually gave in. Things came so easily to me these days that I could practically point at someone and know I could have them in my bed in under five minutes, and out in fifteen. But the angel? He was different.
Something about Halo made everything inside my body feel alive, and I had a feeling fifteen hours or days wouldn’t satisfy the fire he was stoking in me.
“You know,” I said, and took the steps to bring me back within touching distance, where I dipped my fingers in under his sweats. “They always say you shouldn’t drink on an empty stomach.” As I curled my fingers around the hard-on inside the angel’s pants, his jaw clenched, and I squeezed. “And I am kinda hungry…”
Halo’s chest rose and fell as he looked down between our bodies, where my hand was working his cock nice and slow.
“But you know what else?”
Halo cursed. “What?”
I released my hold of him and hooked my fingers in the edge of his sweats. I pulled them down until I was at his feet and he was staring at me with untamed lust igniting those light eyes. Then I flashed him a feral smile and said, “I was always taught to eat my meals at a table.”
Thirty-Six
Halo
I COULD BARELY breathe as Viper straightened, his powerful body aligning with mine, and then his lips brushed below my ear.
“On the counter, Angel,” he said, his breath on my neck a whisper that made me shiver.
Overwhelming. That was the first word I’d use to describe what was happening. I lifted myself up onto the counter, my bare ass hitting the cold surface and making me flinch, and then Viper’s hands were on me, tracing up my thighs as he stepped between my legs.
Not for the first time since we’d met, I wondered how we’d gotten to the point where I craved not only Viper’s attention, but now his hands and mouth on me. I kept waiting for the ball to drop, for the fact that Viper was a man to sink in and make me run.
But running was the last thing on my mind right now.
As he lowered his head, Viper’s mouth bypassed my stiff-to-the-point-of-painful erection, and instead, his tongue ran a path along my inner thigh. The move was so unexpected, the skin there so sensitive, that I bucked beneath him, causing him to chuckle against my leg. Then he repeated the move on the opposite side, his lips coming so close to my dick that I could feel his hot breath there, but then he was gone, straightening so we were face to face.
“I think I like making you squirm, Angel,” he said.
I don’t know if it was the cocky tone, or the way he was looking at me with hunger in his eyes, but I found myself making the first move for once, holding either side of his face, and angling my head in toward his for a searing kiss I felt all the way to my bones. Viper opened for me without hesitation, diving in deep, each of us starving for the other. My cock jerked between us, desperate for his attention, and lucky for me, he didn’t make me beg. Keeping his lips fused to mine, Viper wrapped his hand around my erection, warm and tight, and when I moaned inside his mouth, he squeezed.
God, just him touching me had my eyes rolling in the back of my head, but Viper wasn’t content to stop there. No, he was just getting started.
He pulled away from me, his lips pink and slightly swollen, and then he lowered his head, his breath ghosting over the head of my cock. So, so close, but he was still teasing, making me desperate for him.
“I’ve been waiting to taste you from the minute I saw you,” he said, looking up at me with heavy-lidded eyes, a look so sexy I knew it would be burned in my mind forever. Then Viper’s mouth was on me, his tongue swiping over my slit, making me gasp. When he repeated the move, my hand shot out to grip his hair, and Viper seemed to take that to mean I wanted more—fuck yes, I did—and his mouth sank slowly down onto my cock. Warm, wet, and tight, the sinful heat of him was enough to make me come right then, but the threat of embarrassing myself by blowing my load after two seconds kept my dick in check. Barely.
“Shit, Viper.” I panted as he swallowed every inch of me. I couldn’t stop watching the dark head between my thighs, trying to reconcile that it was Viper giving me more pleasure than I could remember having in forever. His mouth moved back up my hard length, his hand following after in firm strokes, a double whammy designed to drive me crazy.
But it was when his fingers grazed my balls that my hips jerked up off the counter, and deviant that he was, Viper cupped them in his palm as he sucked me down again.
God, it was too fucking much. I tugged at his hair like they were the reins to stop his mouth with, but he ignored it completely, probably because it wasn’t “stop” or “slow down” coming out, but curses and unintelligible groans, all of which drove him forward with single-minded purpose.
The strings that held my self-control together were already thin where Viper was concerned, but now they were practically nonexistent. I could feel the impending surge, a massive wave beginning to crest. My breaths became unsteady, my body jerking as I undulated against his mouth, getting closer…closer…
Had it not been for Viper’s hands holding me steady as an orgasm so strong I almost blacked out hit, there was no way I would’ve been able to keep myself on the counter. My head fell back, and I couldn’t feel anything other than the powerful climax and Viper’s mouth, sucking every bit of me down his throat. As if he’d gotten a taste of something he liked and wanted more of, Viper moaned around my dick, greedily swallowing until there was nothing left.
My whole body was shaking as Viper tore his mouth away, licking the head of my cock one last time before lifting his gaze to mine. He looked momentarily satiated, though I could still see the desire lurking in the depths of his eyes.
He hooked his hands behind my knees and hauled me forward to the edge of the counter, bringing our bodies flush against each other. With one hand still tangled in his hair, I pulled his head back, taking in the heat that now stained Viper’s fierce cheekbones, the hair that lined his jaw and surrounded the sultry lips that had just been wrapped around my cock. Viper was all man—a sexy-as-fuck man. Or, as I was currently thinking, a sexy man I wanted fucking me.
That realization had my lips slamming down on Viper’s, and as he opened to me, I could taste myself on his tongue. His hands slid up my bare back, pressing me against him, and the surprising thought that entered my mind then was: I want to be even closer.
When I lifted my head to take a breath, I looked between us. I was completely naked, my pants and shirt on the floor, but Viper had managed to stay clothed, and having seen at least the top half of him, that was a tragedy.
“Your clothes are still on,” I said.
“There’s a reason for that.” When I quirked a brow, he nipped at my lower lip. “Because if they come off, someone’s getting fucked.”
Another shiver rolled through me, because holy shit, what would that be like?
Viper leaned back, cocking his head to the side. “You’re not looking too angelic right now, Angel.”
I grinned. “You’re enough to corrupt anyone.”
“Ah, so you’re like a fallen angel?”
Hmm. That seemed a pretty apt description of me at the moment, didn’t it?
Viper’s gaze fell down my naked body, and with a groan, he pushed away from the counter. “You need to put your fucking clothes on unless you want this to go any further tonight, and I”—he rounded the counter and picked up the bottle of whiskey—“could use a fucking drink.”
I couldn’t hide my surprise as I slid down off the counter and picked my clothes up off the floor. Viper wanted to stop? He was walking away without getting anything
out of it on his side? Had we stepped into some kind of alternate universe?
“But…you didn’t…” I didn’t even know how to voice what I was trying to say, but Viper knew.
“Trust me, I know,” he said, and when he saw I still wasn’t dressed, he rubbed a hand over his eyes and turned his back on me. “Clothes, Angel.”
I quickly threw on my T-shirt and sweatpants, wondering why the sudden halt. Part of me felt a little disappointed, especially after watching the video of the two of us together and how hot that had been, but the truth was that I wasn’t sure I was ready for all that “going further” entailed. Hell, I was still coming down off the high of what we’d just done; reality hadn’t set back in yet. By all means, I should’ve been the one putting a stop to things, so having Viper put his foot on the brakes, albeit grudgingly, made me wonder what exactly was going through his head.
One thing I knew for certain, though: this thing between us was far from over.
Thirty-Seven
Halo
“EVERYONE HERE? WHERE’S Viper?” Brian stuck his head out of the rehearsal room. “Viper! If you could grace us with your presence, that’d be great.”
When Brian turned back to face the rest of us, he shook his head and checked his watch.
“You in some kind of hurry, man?” Killian asked, where he lounged on the couch beside me with his legs casually crossed at the ankles. We’d all been called together by Brian the day after the “Invitation” video had gone wild, presumably to figure out what the hell happened next.
“Time is money,” Brian said, turning on his heel, and as he opened his mouth to yell again for Viper, the man in question shoved past him into the room, nearly knocking Brian off-balance. When our manager didn’t say a thing as he steadied himself, Viper smirked and flopped into a chair opposite Killian and me.
