Closing my eyes from having to look at Viper should’ve been enough to block him out, but with the way I could feel his breath on the back of my neck, and with the image he’d asked me to conjure in my mind, it was impossible to think of anything but him. Think of someone forbidden? There was nothing more off-limits in my world than getting myself off to Viper, for several reasons.
“Whatever you’re thinking right now, go with it,” Viper said. “Now try again.”
Something in my expression must’ve given me away, but it was a good thing Viper couldn’t see anything beyond that. Keeping my eyes closed, I thought back to last night when I’d lain in bed, stiff cock in my hand, and even now, I could feel the deep ache, the hunger I’d felt about someone I’d never expected.
The lyrics left my tongue, punctuated by soft moans that told the listener exactly how far gone my desire for the forbidden one went.
When I finished the verse, without interruption this time, I opened my eyes to see Viper staring at me with that same lust-addled expression I’d seen at the bar last night, but it flickered out, and he gave me a nod.
“Better. Much better. Keep going.”
I hadn’t memorized the chorus yet, so I looked down and kept on the same way, since Viper hadn’t seemed to find fault with it, but three lines in and he waved his hands to get my attention.
“No. No, no. That’s all wrong again. You did the verse right, but that hard edge you had earlier was what we need here. Like I said, you need to build it throughout the song.”
I tried again, but even I could feel the way I shied away from owning the words. For fuck’s sake, the chorus included the words “blue balls.”
“Again. Harder this time.”
But no matter how many variations I gave, Viper shot them all down, until finally he growled in frustration.
“No, it’s just not right—”
“What the fuck do you want from me, then?” He wasn’t the only one getting annoyed as shit.
Viper spun to face me and pointed. “That. That right there. Get pissed.”
“Not hard to do around you.”
He raised an eyebrow. “No?” He reached for the back of his shirt and pulled it up over his head, and as he dropped it to the floor, I took a step back.
“What are you doing?”
With a shrug, Viper stepped toward me. “It’s hot in here.”
“No, it’s not. Put your shirt back on.”
“No.”
It wasn’t the first time I’d seen Viper half-naked—he ripped off his shirt during almost every show—but it was only the two of us here, and I didn’t need any more images of Viper to add to the erotic slideshow in my head.
“Viper. Put it back on.”
With a walk so cocky it could only be described as a strut, he said, “Why? Is it bothering you? Annoying you? Do you feel frustrated that I’m not doing what you want me to?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Because with this song, you’ve gotta make every single person in the stadium want to fuck you.” He moved in even closer, his body only inches from mine and radiating heat I could feel through my shirt. “Can you do that?”
Twenty-Four
Viper
AS MY WORDS lingered between the inches separating us, I was close enough to see Halo’s eyes darken a fraction, and his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed in a gulp of air. I wasn’t sure if it was my nearness, my nakedness, or the entire situation that had him all deer in headlights right then, but when he didn’t immediately answer, I said, “Angel?”
“What?” The guilty response and the look that crossed his face made my cock punch against the zipper of my jeans.
“Can you do that?”
Halo nodded.
“Good.” I turned away from him and made my way to the wall of windows that overlooked Central Park, then leaned my ass up against it and crossed my arms over my chest. “Show me.”
Halo ran a hand back through his tangle of hair and took in a deep breath, and when he brought his eyes back to mine, there was a look of determination in them before he let them fall shut and he began to sing from the top.
With a safe distance now separating us, I took a moment to really look at the man who was moaning and groaning his way through the song I’d penned about him.
There was something incredibly hot about hearing that smooth, husky voice of Halo’s lamenting over the idea of fucking someone out of his system, and that was exactly what I needed him to bring to this song.
The need. The want. The ache that went with wanting someone you couldn’t have. And if Halo opened his eyes right then, I knew he’d see all those things on my face.