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“I can’t believe you did this. It had to have taken forever to put together,” I said, looking back up at the beautiful instrument. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.
“It didn’t take as long as I thought it might. Only a few months.”
I whipped my head around in surprise. “You’ve been working on this for months?”
“I guess they had to put out a mass call for feathers.” Viper shrugged.
“But…”
“But what?”
“You didn’t want to be with me then.”
Viper blinked, clearly not expecting that to come out of my mouth. But it was the truth, wasn’t it? This wasn’t a small surprise, and if it had taken months, that meant he’d started at least the design while he’d been insisting what we had was nothing more than a casual fling.
For some reason, that knowledge knocked me on my ass, especially when Viper said, “Angel, I may not have admitted it to myself, but I always wanted you. I guess my subconscious caught on to my feelings a little faster than I did.”
Before the words were out of his mouth, I was moving, wrapping my arms around his neck as I pulled him against me, crashing my lips down on his. All the things I wanted to say were unleashed in that kiss: thank you, I love you too, and, of course, I fucking knew it.
“This is the best gift anyone’s ever given me,” I whispered against his mouth.
“I’m glad you like it.”
“I love it.”
“Then Angel?”
“Hmm?”
“Get up there and play me something.”
I grinned and planted another quick kiss on his lips, and he swatted my ass as I jumped up onto the stage. Stairs led up to the raised platform, and I took them two at a time in my eagerness to get up there, and as I reached the top, I had to crane my head back to take in the entirety of the wings.
This close, I could see the details. Each individual feather shimmered, and when I brought my hand up to touch, they were even softer than they looked. From the audience, it looked like they rose up from the floor, but in reality, the wings were attached to the sides of the piano, flowing down and curling off the platform. The body of the piano was almost blinding under the light, a radiant, dazzling white that looked as if there were crushed diamonds embedded into every inch.
It took my breath away, made me hesitant to touch any more of it, but then Viper called out to me, telling me to sit my ass down or he’d come up here and force me to.
Bossy bastard, I thought with a smile, as I rounded the piano and carefully pulled out the padded white leather bench. I couldn’t see his reaction when I sat down, since I faced the back wall, my back the view the audience would see. I could only imagine the way I looked between the gorgeous wings. Like they were a part of me.
I ran my fingers softly along the keys, ones that had never been used by anyone else, and the sound that flowed out was so smooth and perfectly tuned that I subtly segued into “Invitation.”
My head fell back as I played the riff, taking in the majestic surroundings. I imagined playing this every night in front of thousands of people. And then…I imagined playing it naked in front of an audience of one.
Twenty-One
Viper
AS HALO TOOK his spot on the leather seat and laid his fingers on the piano keys, a rush of air I hadn’t known I’d been holding left me. From where I stood in the center of the warehouse, Halo appeared just as I’d imagined him: majestic, ethereal, an angel who had finally gotten his wings, and in that moment, he had literally taken my breath away.
The piano was nothing short of spectacular in its grandeur. The wingspan alone was something out of this world. But the sheer elegance and craftmanship that had gone into creating this one-of-a-kind showstopper was what made this instrument unlike anything anyone had ever seen—just like the man who would play it.
God, I loved him, and where that thought used to make me break out in a cold sweat, it now calmed that part of me that used to be so restless, so…unfulfilled, despite the unbelievable life I led.
It was ironic, really, that it had taken an angel to make me fall this fast and this hard, because really, what were the odds that someone as good, someone so damn pure, would ever risk his heart on someone like me? But Halo had, and as he sat there testing out the keys beneath his fingers, I waited to see what this first flight of his would look like.
With the spotlight shining down on his golden head of hair, and his hands now positioned on the keys, when Halo’s back shifted and he began to play the opening riff to “Invitation,” my stomach flipped on itself.
