But I’m not leaving now…
“You’re thinking so hard it woke me up,” came Viper’s slow, gravelly voice, thick with sleep, and my eyes shot back up to his face.
A smile crossed my lips. “Maybe I wasn’t thinking anything. Maybe I was just lookin’ at you.”
“Mmm.” Viper adjusted the pillow beneath him so both eyes were on me. “Still like what you see?”
I pushed the sheet down farther, exposing more of his body. I was already busted—may as well own up to it. “I think you know I do.”
“I think you like more than looking.”
“Mhmm. That too.”
“Glad I don’t have to fuckin’ drag your ass back here.” As his eyes fell shut again, he reached for me, running his hand along my hip before trailing it down to the curls nestled around my dick. He moved leisurely, like he was still half-asleep, not gearing up for another round, and I relaxed back into the pillow, content to let him explore.
Hard to believe this was the same guy who’d lashed out yesterday, and all because he’d been…jealous? Disappointed? Feeling possessive? All of the above? That didn’t go along with who he was at all, but he made it clear last night that he wanted me. Damn if that didn’t send a thrill humming through my veins.
“There something you want, Angel?” Viper said, his eyes still closed.
Yeah, there was. No point in beating around the bush; Viper was a give-it-to-you-straight kind of guy, but I wasn’t sure I wanted the answer yet, so I answered his question with one of my own. “And if there was? Would you give it to me?”
Viper lifted his head and pinned me with a scorching look. “With that face, does anyone ever say no?”
I grinned. “There’s a first time for everything.”
“And it is a week for firsts,” Viper said, settling on his elbow, his head in his hand. “Any other firsts you’d like to try before the sun comes up?”
“Is that the deadline, then? You turn into a pumpkin?”
“Nothing that sweet,” he said, the hand he had running circles along my pelvic bone coming up to brush over my lips. “I can see those wheels turning. Ask me, Angel.”
I opened my mouth to say, Ask you what? but Viper was a smart guy, and he could probably guess what was on my mind.
“Okay,” I said, bracing myself for whatever would come out of his mouth next. “What are we doing?”
“Well, I’m getting an eyeful of your delicious dick.”
I looked down to where I’d inadvertently put my body on display when I pushed the sheets off. I wasn’t shy about the way I looked, so I didn’t bother reaching for the covers. I’d rather Viper get his eyeful.
“I mean…what is this?” I asked, gesturing between us.
“A mutual fucking attraction, emphasis on the fucking.”
Snorting out a laugh, I shook my head. “Such a way with words.”
“Half of my charm.”
“I know. I’ve been introduced to the other half,” I said, looking pointedly at his cock. “Is that it, though?”
Viper’s hand went over his heart like he’d been shot. “Geez, Angel, I think you just hurt my feelings.”
“You know what I’m asking.”
“Do I?”
Okay, so he wanted to hear me say it. “I need to know where we stand, since it’s not like we’re never gonna see each other again. And after what happened yesterday, we can’t let whatever this is affect the band.”
“Whatever this is…” Viper repeated, testing those words on his tongue.
I thought back to the pissy way he’d dealt with everyone and the way he called me Halo. To know that I was the cause of his turbulent reaction was an eye-opener, and I wasn’t sure what that meant exactly.
“You were really upset that I left, weren’t you?”
Viper adjusted the pillow under his head again. “You can do whatever you want to do, Angel.”
“Except sneak out in the middle of the night.”
“Hell, you can even do that if you want to. Doesn’t mean I have to fuckin’ like it.”
“Huh. So is the problem that you didn’t tell me I could go or that you didn’t want me to leave?”
Viper opened his mouth to respond, and then snapped it shut.
“Viper?”
He sighed, rolling over to his back, and then he threw an arm over his eyes. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s both.”
“I knew it,” I said, grinning. “You’re a secret cuddler, aren’t you?”
He lifted his arm from his face for a second to shoot me a glare. “I don’t fucking cuddle.”
“Oh, yeah, you’re right. That’s absolutely not why you’d want me to stay all night with you. It wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that you’d want to touch me or maybe lie on top of me.”
“Touching and fuckin’ spooning aren’t the same thing.”
I had to fight back a laugh, because damn, he protested too much.
“You know who I am, Angel,” Viper said.
“I do. But maybe this is more than that.”
“Maybe you want it to be more than that because you’re a romantic.”
“So what if I do? What then?”
“Time for the truth, huh? Okay.” Viper rubbed a hand over his forehead and then ran his fingers through his hair, pushing the wayward strands off his face. “I’m not a relationship guy. You already know that, but as far as what I want from you? That’s up to you.”
“Up to me?”
“I told you. You’re a romantic. You’ll want all the things I can’t give you, so it’s up to you to decide if you’re okay with this being just this. Nothing more, nothing less.”
So Viper didn’t want just a one-night stand, but he didn’t want a relationship either. Fair enough, and somehow more than I expected. Could I do it, though? Keep it to just fucking? With the way the band kept me busy most of my waking hours, I wouldn’t have time for anything more anyway, so having a fuck buddy of sorts to get in a release? Yeah, I could do that. With one stipulation.
“What about others?”
“Fuck, Angel. Kinky,” Viper said, his lips curving up.
“Not to join, asshole,” I said, giving him a shove, but Viper grabbed my arm and rolled us so that I was on my back and his face was only inches from mine.
“Tell you what.” He leaned in to nip at my lip. “I won’t fuck anyone else while I’m fucking you.”
That sounded an awful lot like something exclusive to me, but I wasn’t about to call Viper out on it.
Eight
Viper
I’M SUCH A fucking idiot, I thought, as I stared down into the most stunning face I’d ever seen. Those were the words that were going to be written across my headstone when my time finally came, because this…this was a bad idea. And how did I know that? Because my reaction from yesterday was so far removed from the norm for me that this could only lead to trouble.
Such a fucking idiot.
“Viper?”
“Huh?”
Halo was looking at me as though he were waiting for an answer to something he’d just said, and when it was clear I had no idea what that was, he chuckled.
“I said okay. I’ll do the same. No one else, while this is happening.”
And that was really where the stupid part came in, right? Because if I wasn’t fucking anyone else, then I was in a—
“I have another question.”
Of course he did. The problem was that with every new question Halo asked, answers I didn’t know I was going to give came flying out of my mouth. Maybe it would be smarter to just kiss him or fill his mouth with something so he couldn’t talk.
Instead, I found myself fingering one of his golden curls and saying, “Ask away, Angel.”
Halo shifted under me, and when he widened his legs a fraction, my body aligned itself nice and snug with his. The change wasn’t lost on him at all, judging by his swift inhale, but he wasn’t about to be deterred.
“So, does
this need to be a secret?” Halo asked.
I stilled my fingers as I stared down into his guileless eyes, but before I answered, I wanted him to be a little more specific. “A secret from who, exactly?”
“Well,” Halo said as his eyes roved over my face. “The guys, for one. I think Killian already knows. But what about Brian? The public? I don’t know. I’ve never fucked a—”
Halo bit off his words, and I lowered my head and said against his lips, “Guy?”
Halo smoothed his palms over my hips so he could grab a handful of each of my ass cheeks and pull me tighter to him. “I was going to say rock star. But then I thought it might give you a swollen head.”
My head definitely swelled, but not the one on my shoulders, and not because of what he’d said. No, my stiffening cock had everything to do with the fact the angel’s fingers were digging into the crack of my ass. My hair fell down, curtaining our faces and making the moment even more private than it already was, and then I said, “I don’t care if the guys find out, and they wouldn’t say shit anyway.”
As Halo nodded, I raised my head and brought my hands up to either side of his face, tracing a thumb over his lip. “As for Brian and the public…” Tell him. Just fucking tell him and be done with this conversation so you can get back to the easy shit. “That can’t happen.”
Just as I’d suspected, a frown furrowed Halo’s brow. “Can’t happen?”
“Right. It’s just better if it stays here in this room, in the mansion. Trust me.”
Halo’s hands stilled, and when I went to lower my head to try and distract him, he brought a palm up to my chest to stop me.
“Um, you want to maybe elaborate on that?”
Knowing by now how determined Halo could be when he set his mind to something, I shook my head and rolled off him to the other side of the bed, where I stared at the ceiling.
“Viper?” Halo shifted onto his side, and I had a sudden desire to go and hunt down a drink from the bar.
“Look,” I said, turning my head on the pillow. It was time to lay this all out for him. Let him know the way things were. The way they had to be. And why. “Things are about to change for you in ways you could never imagine. One of those things is your privacy—or lack of, I should say. And you, especially, have to be careful.”
“Me?” Halo said, his face now a mask of confusion.
“Yeah, you. You’re the frontman of the band, Angel. That means people are going to care where you stick your dick.”
When Halo’s gaze traveled down my body, I groaned, because it was more than obvious where he was thinking of sticking it right now—and that was the problem.
“You see, that look on your face right now,” I said. “If you look at me like that in public and someone takes a photo? Your whole world is gonna blow the fuck up in two minutes flat.”
Halo swiped his tongue over his lip and asked, “How am I looking at you?”
“Like you want to fuck.” When Halo’s eyes widened, I shrugged. “You asked.”
“Okay.” Halo chuckled. “But surely people don’t expect me to be a monk? I’m in a rock band, for fuck’s sake. Whatever happened to sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll?”
“Social media.” When Halo eyed me, as though trying to gauge my seriousness, I said, “No one cares who me or the rest of the guys are fucking. It could be a guy, a girl, hell, it could be two guys and a girl—no one would give a shit. But you? They’re gonna care about you.”
Halo sat up, pulling the sheet with him as he scooted up the bed until his back was against the headboard, and I moved up to sit beside him.
“When you think of iconic bands, the legendary ones, who do you think of?” When Halo said nothing, I reached over and turned his face so he was looking me in the eye. “I’ll tell you who—the lead singer, the frontman. The one whose name and face is instantly recognizable, and starting now, that’s going to be you. MGA is going to want to sell this perfect fuckin’ face to the world, Angel, and the last thing they’re going to want is you attached…to anyone.” Wanting my words to really sink in so I never had to have this fucking conversation again, I added, “Just ask Trent.”
“Trent? What do you mean?” Halo said, just as I knew he would, because if anything was going to bring it home for Halo, it would be this.
“You were a big TBD fan, right?”
When Halo’s eyes narrowed, I could see him trying to guess where I was going with this, but he never would, no one would have, and that was the point.
“Right.”
I nodded and dropped my hand away from his face. “Then did you know that Trent is bisexual?”
Halo scoffed. “Yeah, okay, that’s why he only ever dated the latest lingerie model to hit the magazines.”
“That’s exactly why.”
Halo’s mouth fell open. “You’re serious? You’re not just saying that ’cause you hate his guts? Actually, why do you hate him so much?”
“It’s hard not to resent the guy who destroyed your fuckin’ band. How would you feel if you spent almost every damn day with someone and they walked out on you? When that level of trust is broken, you’d be fine telling that person to go to hell, trust me.”
“But why did he walk out?”
“Dunno. Which makes it even more fuckin’ frustrating. He didn’t bother to talk to us like a normal human being. Just walked out of the studio one day and never came back.”
“That’s weird that he just left like that.”
I rubbed my hand over my face and shrugged. “I should’ve seen it coming. Kill and I had noticed he’d been restless for a while. We’d all been fighting a lot, disagreeing over the direction of the band, and—” I snapped my mouth shut when I realized what had been about to come out. Shit, that was the last thing I wanted to talk about.
“And?” Halo prompted.
“And then he left.”
Halo’s eyes narrowed. “You’re lying.”
“I’m not fuckin’ lying.”
“Then you’re not telling the whole story.”
Perceptive angel. “That’s because there’s nothing to tell. Things were going to shit, we all got drunk one night...”
“And you slept together?”
My eyebrows shot up as he hit the nail on the head. “I wouldn’t say slept together. I’d say had a drunken night of sex that didn’t mean anything, and a week later he fucked off.”
“Wow. Okay... I didn’t know that,” Halo said, as he digested that bit of info.
“No one knows that but Kill. Because it was a mistake and we both knew it. It’d be like me fucking Killian. It’s just all wrong.”
“So you and Killian have never...?”
“Fuck no.” Done with the conversation, I straddled his lap and cupped Halo’s face. “Can we please stop talking about this now?”
“Yeah, fine. But I just want you to know I get what you’re saying about being careful. And no offense to Trent—”
“Offend him all you like. I don’t care.”
Halo snorted and wrapped his fingers around my wrists. “I’m not going to pretend to be someone I’m not, Viper. That’s not who I am. I can’t fake-date someone. I won’t. But since we aren’t dating, it doesn’t really matter anyway, does it?”
No, I supposed it didn’t…
Like I said—I was such a fucking idiot.
Nine
Halo
“CANNONBAAALL!” CAME THE cry as Slade ran toward the pool and jumped into the air, tucking his body into a ball. His aim was perfect—a massive splash of water drenched Jagger and his “lady friend,” and as she shrieked, Jagger let out a string of curses in Slade’s direction.
“Don’t you pull that shit over here unless you wanna fuckin’ starve,” Killian said, where he was flipping burgers on the grill, the lifeguard he’d been hanging out with by his side. It’d been a long couple of days in the studio working with our producers and finally getting somewhere now that Viper’s mood had taken a more…positive dir
ection, and today was a much-needed day off to relax and rejuvenate.
“Halo, feel free to drown him while you’re in there,” Jagger said, as he toweled himself off and shot Slade a glare, to which Slade only gave him a big, cheeky smile.
I hitched my arms over the edge of the pool to catch my breath. I’d been taking full advantage of the Olympic-sized body of water in the backyard, swimming laps in the mornings after I slipped out of Viper’s guesthouse—a luxury that was impossible to come by in New York.
“Viper,” Killian called out toward the house, where Viper had gone to get the packages of hot dogs. “Bring another case of beer with you.”
Viper emerged from the house, his sunglasses still on and black swim trunks low on his hips, the rest of him gloriously naked. I tried not to stare, since I didn’t have shades on to hide behind, but it was damn near impossible.
“Already on it,” Viper said, and when he reached the barbecue, he handed off the hot dogs to Killian and bent down to fill the cooler with more cans of beer. When he finished, he took a couple of cans from the bottom that had been chilling and sauntered over to the deep end, where I was still draped over the side of the pool. He placed a beer in front of me and then sat down, cracking open his drink as he swung his legs into the pool.
Nonchalant. That was the way we’d decided to play this thing around the guys, not giving them a clue what was happening behind closed doors. Or, more specifically, what Viper was introducing me to behind his closed door nightly.
“Thanks,” I said, flipping open the tab and taking a long swallow, keeping my eyes directly ahead instead of where they wanted to be. But I could feel the heat of his body beside me, and that was enough.
“It’s a shame you’re wearing these.” Viper’s foot moved between my thighs, rubbing along my dick through my swim shorts as he kept his eyes on where the others were.
VIPER (Fallen Angel Book 2) Page 4
