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“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.
