Falling Angel

by Carmen Richter

“I’m sorry. That’s horrible. Family’s supposed to love you no matter what.”

  “I’m not,” I told him. “Family doesn’t always have to be blood. If my family hadn’t acted the way they did when they found out I was bi, I probably wouldn’t have met Taylor and the girls, because I probably wouldn’t have moved so far away for college. And I honestly can’t imagine my life without them.”

  “I guess I got lucky. When I told my parents that Katelynn was pregnant, I actually expected them to throw me out of the house. They’re the religious type, so I figured I’d get a lecture about how I was going to hell and they’d leave me to fend for myself. And my mom’s never been a warm and fuzzy person. But they hugged me and told me they loved me and they’d help me however they could. Even took Katelynn in for a while, actually. After her parents threw her out. She didn’t tell them until she started showing because she was too afraid of what they’d do.”

  “Oh, my God,” I gasped. “That’s awful. I hate that I feel sorry for her because she abandoned you and Ari, but I can’t even imagine what she went through.”

  “You’re allowed to feel sorry for her. I love how compassionate you are, and I wouldn’t want you to change that. And honestly, that’s why her leaving the way she did was so confusing. I woke up one morning to a note on the kitchen counter saying that she just couldn’t handle being a mom and she had to leave and find herself. I still have no idea where she went or why. And the worst part was, I’d literally just proposed the week before. Spent almost every cent I had in the bank on a ring. And she took it with her. Probably pawned it for the cash,” he sighed. “I’m sorry. This isn’t great first date talk, is it?”

  I chuckled. “Hey, you’ve actually met my crazy ex. I think we can suspend normal first date rules.”

  He laughed as he put his coffee cup on top of his takeout container and opened the door to our hotel lobby for me. And, just like that, we were back to our assumed roles: rock star and bodyguard. At least for the next few minutes, until we got to my suite.

  As short-lived as that “date” was, I’d needed it. I needed to feel normal again. Being able to do things like walk the seven minutes to Café du Monde for coffee and beignets gave me that.

  “I hate that I can’t be out and about for longer than like twenty minutes right now,” I sighed as we walked back into my suite and sat on the couch. “We’ve got a whole free day here, and I don’t even get to enjoy it. Besides this sugary goodness.”

  “I feel like I’m going to get diabetes just looking at these things,” he chuckled.

  “But it’s so worth it.” I picked a beignet up and took a bite, making a cloud of powdered sugar fly off of it and groaning as the flavor hit my tongue. “Oh, my God. I swear these get better every time.”

  He didn’t say anything, and I looked over to find his lips twitching, like he was trying not to laugh.

  “What?” I asked.

  “You’ve got something right…” He leaned in and kissed me, swiping his tongue out to lick the powdered sugar off of my upper lip. “There.”

  I snorted. “Does that line ever actually work for you?”

  “You tell me,” he teased.

  I pretended to think about it for a second, then set the delicious sugary goodness back in the box and kissed him again. A quiet moan rose from his throat, and he pulled me closer. I moved to straddle his legs as our kiss deepened and our tongues met.

  How soon was too soon to tell him how I felt? Because every time he kissed me, every time he touched me, I felt it down to the very fiber of my being. This overwhelming sense of certainty that I was right where I belonged.

  But the first time he’d kissed me was a grand total of three days ago. The first time we had sex was two nights ago. I couldn’t just blurt out that I loved him. Not now.

  I could show him, though. I could feel his hard shaft pressing into my center, and I knew he’d just take care of me and go without before he ever asked me to do anything for him. At least that was how he’d been acting the past few days. It was like he was still trying to make up for running out of my dressing room that first day or something. Trying to show me that he did want to be with me. Well, now it was my turn to show him that I wanted him too.

  With one last kiss, I climbed off of his lap and knelt on the floor in front of him, popping the button on his jeans and sliding the zipper down. His eyes widened a little as he lifted his hips to let me slide his jeans and boxers down just enough for his cock to spring free. I wrapped my fingers around him, swiping at the bead of precum that had leaked out before slowly starting to stroke.

  “Baby, you don’t—oh, shit,” he groaned as I swirled my tongue around the head and then took him in my mouth.

  I used my hand to make up the distance I couldn’t cover with my mouth for a minute until I got used to his size. And then I took a deep breath before taking his whole length, gagging a little as he slid down my throat.

  “Fuck, angel,” he growled, fisting his hand in my hair, but still giving me full range of motion.

  I raised my eyes to look at him, and the look on his face as he stared down at me slayed me. No one had ever looked at me like this before. The amount of affection in his gaze right now overwhelmed me.

  I wasn’t used to people not wanting things from me. Everywhere I turned in my life, it seemed like people wanted things and expected things from me. Fans, managers, the media, my own family. Even most of the people I’d been in relationships with since I’d become famous seemed to want something from me. Usually the media coverage that came with dating an A-list celebrity. They didn’t want a relationship, really. They wanted the prestige.

  But Ezra? He just wanted me. The real Daphne. The girl behind the public persona. He was one of the few people in my life who had never asked for anything from me. Maybe that was why I was so willing to give him everything. And why I wanted so desperately to show him how much I loved him when I couldn’t say the words. It was my way of thanking him for just being here.

  When I pulled back, there was a quiet popping sound as I released his dick from my mouth. I swiped at the tears that had formed in my eyes and continued stroking with my hand while I gave myself a second to recover. Then I took him all the way to the back of my throat again, and he arched his hips a little, thrusting himself further in, as more expletives spilled from his lips. After another minute, he pulled me off of him and grabbed his wallet from his pocket, retrieving a foil packet.

  “I want to be inside you when I come,” he breathed, pulling me into a kiss and starting to push my yoga pants and panties down.

  I quickly kicked my shoes off and finished removing my pants while he rolled the latex on, and then I climbed onto his lap, letting out a moan as I sank down. He immediately slid his hand between us, rubbing circles on my clit as I rocked over him, obviously determined to take me over the edge too. And, much too quickly, we both unraveled. He sank back against the couch, and I collapsed against him, completely content.

  When I regained the use of my muscles, I got up and pulled my pants back on while he ran to the bathroom to get cleaned up.

  “Okay, maybe being stuck in the hotel all day won’t be so bad,” I teased when he came back to the couch. “I do hate that I’m in one of my favorite places in the world and I can’t enjoy it, though. I was all excited about getting to eat some jambalaya tonight, and now I can’t.”

  “I’m sure you can find someplace that delivers,” he chuckled. “And once we find your stalker and all this is over, I’ll bring you back here. Just for fun, not because you have a show.”

  I smiled and grabbed my beignet again. “I’d love to be able to show you New Orleans. Ari too.”

  Ezra opened his takeout container and finally took a bite. And the groan he emitted made me want to have my way with him all over again. Had I always been this much of a nymphomaniac?

  “That’s fucking amazing,” he said around another mouthful of fried doughy goodness.

  “Told you,” I giggled.


  His phone rang with his FaceTime notification, and he grabbed it and looked at me, his face turning almost guilty.

  I kissed his cheek. “It’s okay, Ezra. You don’t ever have to apologize to me for being a good dad.”

  “Do you want to talk to her with me?” he asked. “I know this is new, but if she’s ever going to see you as anything other than her idol, I need to start easing you into her life, sooner rather than later. You know?”

  “Yeah, of course. I’d love to talk to her.”

  I grabbed my takeout container and curled up next to him while he called Arielle back on FaceTime. Surprisingly, she was the one who answered the call rather than his mom or his sister.

  “Hey, jelly bean,” Ezra said with a grin. “Sorry I missed your call.”

  It made my heart swell with joy seeing how his whole face lit up when he talked to her. Even though he was away from her while he was on this tour with me, he was a better dad than a lot of guys who were with their kids every day. A better dad than my father had ever been.

  “It’s okay,” Arielle said. “Hi, Daphne!”

  I smiled. “Hi, sweetheart. What are you up to this morning?”

  “Getting ready to go over to my friend Suzie’s house for her birthday party. I got her a t-shirt from your concert as her present.”

  “Aww! I wish I’d known. I would have signed it for her.”

  “I didn’t get it until after I saw you at the meet and greet. And she’ll like it anyway. So, what are you guys doing?”

  “Well, we’ve got a free day in New Orleans, so your dad and I just went out and grabbed a very unhealthy breakfast and now we’re hanging out in my hotel room eating it.” I took a bite of my diabetes in a box.

  Ezra angled the phone so Arielle could see our breakfast. “Yeah, basically what I always say you’re not allowed to eat for breakfast.”

  She giggled. “What are those?”

  “They’re called beignets. Basically fresh-cooked, fancy donuts,” I told her. “There’s a place here called Café du Monde that’s world-famous for them.”

  “I’m not going to lie, it’s absolutely worth the empty calories,” Ezra said as he took a drink of his coffee.

  “He didn’t believe me when I told him how good they were,” I chuckled, resting my head on his shoulder.

  I immediately realized what I was doing and tried to sit up, but Ezra wrapped an arm around me and squeezed tight, keeping me where I was. And Arielle just giggled, so it didn’t seem like it bothered her.

  “You should believe Daphne,” she said. “She’s been to a lot of places. I think she’d know.”

  Ezra laughed. “Yeah, you’re right. And apparently I’m going to be stuck eating really spicy food tonight, if Daphne has anything to say about it. New Orleans is famous for spicy food.”

  “Ew!” she exclaimed, sticking her tongue out.

  “You’re not a fan of spicy food, Ari?” I asked.

  That earned me a fake gag.

  “Her definition of spicy is too much black pepper,” Ezra told me.

  “More crawfish and jambalaya for me,” I teased. “I love Cajun food. It’s one of my favorites. Actually, New Orleans is one of my favorite places in the world.”

  “Really? Even though you’ve been all over the world?” she asked.

  “Yep. I also really love London, though. And Rome. And Berlin.”

  “It’s so cool that you’ve been to all those places!” she gushed. “Do you know how to speak all those languages?”

  “I know a little French and Spanish, and I’m trying to learn a little bit of Mandarin too, because for some reason, they really love me in China,” I chuckled. “But whenever I travel to other countries, I have to have an interpreter go everywhere with me. And when I do interviews, they usually record someone else saying exactly what I said, but in that country’s language, and they play that on TV instead of me talking. That way everyone can understand what I’m saying.”

  “Ari! We’ve got to get going or we’re going to be late! Say goodbye to your dad and Daphne,” I heard a woman saying. I thought it might have been Rachel, but I wasn’t sure. It sounded like her, but a little older. Maybe Ezra’s mom?

  “Okay,” she sighed. “Bye, Daddy. Bye, Daphne.”

  “Bye, sweetie,” I said.

  “I’ll call you tonight, Ari,” Ezra told her. “No concert tonight, so I’ll be able to say goodnight before you go to bed.”

  That produced a huge smile. “Okay!”

  “Love you, munchkin.”

  “Love you too,” Arielle said. “Bye.”

  After he hung up, a thought occurred to me and I turned to look at him. Arielle was a smart kid. It was only a matter of time, and probably not very much of it, before she realized that something was going on between me and her dad. How were we supposed to handle that? What was I supposed to say?

  “How long do you think until she starts asking questions about us?” I wondered. “And what do we say when she does?”

  He sighed. “If things were different, if you weren’t…well, you, I wouldn’t even be doing this so soon at all. I’ve never brought a woman into her life. I haven’t had the best track record with relationships.”

  “Because no one you dated was ready to be a mother figure to her?” I guessed.

  “Yeah, pretty much,” he admitted. “So, when they started asking about meeting her and I told them not yet, they’d break up with me. I get why, but they basically proved my point by doing that, if that makes sense.”

  “It does.”

  “Anyway, I guess my point is, you’re the first woman I’ve ever introduced her to, and I kind of feel like I’m doing this backward. But you’re Daphne DeVille. She idolizes you. I can’t just bring you home one day and introduce you to her as a new friend and expect her to accept it and be okay with it. I’d rather have her get used to you as a friend now. If she starts asking questions…well, I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.”

  “Okay. I’ll follow your lead when it comes to her. I just need you to know that I’m not afraid of the two of you being a package deal,” I told him.

  Ezra pulled me into a kiss that could have lit this whole hotel on fire.

  “Don’t be too perfect, angel,” he murmured against my lips. “You’re already way out of my league.”

  “I was told there was a package for Miss DeVille,” I said to the receptionist at the hotel desk, flashing my badge.

  “Yeah. Just a minute,” the guy, who couldn’t have been more than twenty, said, disappearing into a back room.

  It had been two whole weeks since we’d heard from Daphne’s stalker, and since then, she’d gotten plenty of legitimate fan gifts and mail. But something in my gut told me that this wasn’t going to be the same. I couldn’t explain it, but I could just feel that something bad was around the corner.

  “Here you go, sir,” the kid working the desk said as he handed me a manila envelope. “Have a great day.”

  “Thanks. You too,” I told him.

  I opened the envelope as I walked away, and as soon as I pulled out its contents, I found myself making a dash for the men’s room. I barely made it to a stall before I lost my breakfast.

  Okay, maybe this was affecting me more because it was personal for me now. Daphne wasn’t just someone I was getting paid to protect anymore. She was my girlfriend. But even if this was just business, I still would have been horrified at the contents of this envelope.

  There was a full-page image of a room, decorated in the same shade of pink as her hair, with what looked like a fully functional mini recording studio off to one side, complete with a keyboard. And hanging on a sturdy steel ring above the bed were two long chains with handcuffs attached to the ends of them.

  And if that wasn’t creepy enough, there was the note that was with it.

  I know you hate being on the road so much, beautiful, but once we’re together, you’ll never have to leave again. I know how important your music
is to you, though, so I set your room up so we can make beautiful music together.

  I’d seen some fucked-up shit in my time working in security, but this? It took the fucking cake. This felt like the kind of thing that you only saw on shows like Criminal Minds or Law and Order.

  I tried to stand up, but the second I did, more bile rose in my throat and I threw up again. The thought of this freak getting their hands on Daphne was—

  No. I couldn’t let it happen. Not while I was still breathing. Which meant I needed to have a meeting with her and my team to figure out what we could do to tighten down her security. But I wasn’t going to let the first time she saw it be in front of all nine of my guys.

  I finally convinced my shaky legs to support me again, and I stood up and went back to the front desk, waiting for the kid who’d handed me the envelope to finish talking to the guest who looked like they were checking out.

  “Is everything all right, sir?” he asked me.

  “Can you describe the person who dropped this off?” I asked him, holding the envelope up.

  “I’m sorry. It was at the desk when I clocked in this morning. The person I took over for said it was dropped off about ten minutes earlier and they hadn’t had a chance to call you yet,” he said apologetically.

  “No problem. Thanks anyway,” I choked out.

  Damn it. This asshole hadn’t gotten any dumber over the past couple of weeks. This had been their M.O. They would always drop their messages off right before the shift change, so the person at the desk was so busy trying to finish up their final duties before turning the shift over to the next person that they wouldn’t have a chance to call and let us know that someone had a gift for Daphne before they left. Then the person we ended up picking it up from had no idea who had dropped it off. And because we were essentially rent-a-cops with concealed carry permits, not law enforcement, we didn’t have the authority to ask them for security camera footage. That hadn’t stopped us from asking in the past, but Daphne’s schedule was always so tight that we didn’t have time.

  Defeated, I headed back to Daphne’s suite, stopping for a couple of bottles of water from the vending machine on the way. I downed half of my bottle in one gulp, needing to get the taste of vomit out of my mouth.