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“I fuckin’ heard that,” Viper said, where he waited for me in the doorway.
Levi’s mouth quirked up. “Good luck out there.”
As I joined the others, I took in a deep breath, and as I let it out, Viper curled his fingers around mine. He didn’t seem to care in the slightest about the people milling around backstage, fitting us with mics, brushing last-minute powder on our faces. I squeezed his hand back and grinned when he looked my way, and he cursed.
“Fuckin’ Levi was right. Smile and everyone falls in love.”
“Pretty sure I only care about one person falling in love with me.”
“Pretty sure?”
I laughed and rolled my eyes, and Viper squeezed my hand back. He smelled so good, and somehow looked even better. Something about him wearing all black played into his bad-boy image and made him look dark and dangerous. And seriously fucking sexy.
Much like the Rolling Stone shoot, we’d decided to play up the Fallen Angel aspect by putting me in an all-white fitted suit, my shirt open to mid-chest, while the others wore black in various textures and styles. Jagger, of course, was dressed to the nines in his best suit. Viper wore his leather jacket, Slade kept it simple with a black T-shirt and ripped jeans, and Killian wore a vest over a plain tee.
Not a shabby-lookin’ band, if I said so myself.
Once we had our mics on, Viper gave my hand one final squeeze, and then we waited for our cue. I could feel the excitement radiating from each of the guys, and I wondered if this was what it would feel like when we were in the wings waiting to go on stage for our tour. Not for the first or fiftieth time, I marveled over where this year had taken me. Only a few months ago I’d been playing at a dive bar in the two o’clock spot, me and a couple of customers there for the one-dollar beer and free peanuts. And now? I was about to be on millions of television screens across the country.
I reached under my sleeve and pinched myself hard. Yep. Still here. Still real. And so was the host’s voice coming off the stage as he introduced us.
“My next guests have taken the music world by storm, their chart-topping singles ‘Invitation’ and ‘Dark Angel’ selling a record-setting number of copies and kicking off their new album, Corruption, which drops today. Ladies and gentlemen, Fallen Angel.”
As the curtain opened, the lights were blinding and cheers filled my ears. Smile. Don’t forget to smile. I tried for an easy grin as I waved at the crowd and followed the others over to where Jaime Jones stood. After shaking his hand, I turned and waved again before settling onto the couch in the front, since Slade and Jagger had already commandeered the two in the back, the bastards. Viper, of course, took the seat beside me on the end, with Killian sitting closest to Jaime.
“Well, well, well,” Jaime said, setting off another round of screaming from some of the more vocal fans in the crowd. “I think this is the loudest audience we’ve ever had—”
More shouts and applause cut off his words, and I laughed. Compared to the crowd that greeted us for Carly Wilde’s show, this group was deafening—and that was pretty fucking cool.
“All right, we know you’re excited, knock it off,” Jaime teased, and when the cheers died down enough, he said, “So I hear your album dropped today—” He barely got the words out before they started up again, and Jaime dropped his head on the desk. As he stood up, he laughed and waved his hands. “Do you guys want an interview or what?”
The response was wild, and I glanced at Viper to see that smug look on his face, the one I loved. He wasn’t surprised at all by the reaction we were getting, but I was blown the hell away.
“Fine, we’ll have to talk like this,” Jaime said, yelling over the noise. “Welcome to the madhouse. I mean show.”
“I dig it,” Jagger said, shooting a wink to the crowd, which didn’t help cut the screams at all.
Jaime held up a copy of the Corruption album. “So, I got an early copy of this, and I’m not gonna lie, I’ve been playing it everywhere. My office, my car, my nightly bubble baths.” As laughter replaced the cheers, Jaime looked up. “What? You’ll be doing it too. Now, I gotta know, with songs like ‘On My Knees’ and ‘Take Me Now,’ am I right to assume you guys are really, really horny?”
My eyes popped wide as the audience went crazy, and I didn’t dare look at Viper this time.
“We’ve got a blusher,” Jaime said, looking in my direction. “You’ve gotta sing these songs, Halo. How you planning on singing that ‘Hard’ song with all these eyes on you? I heard those lyrics. You guys are dirty bastards. I love it.”
