Halo (Fallen Angel, #1)(43)

A line formed between Halo’s brows. “This isn’t about me.”

So defensive…again. “With songwriting, if you wanna make it good, you’ve gotta make it personal.”

I could practically see the way he was thinking back to last night, back to the song I’d written for him. The one that told him exactly how I wanted to destroy his body in the best way.

Fuuuck. Drops fell down his neck from his still-wet hair, and I had to hold on to the arms of the recliner to stop myself from going over there and following them with my tongue. I’d gotten a taste of him last night, but it hadn’t been enough. Not nearly enough.

Halo followed my gaze, reaching up to his neck in a self-conscious move, and when his fingers came away wet, my resolve crumbled.

I leaned forward, wrapping my hand around his wrist, and then I sucked two of his fingers inside my mouth. Halo drew in a sharp breath as I swirled my tongue around his fingers, making sure I got a thorough taste of him. A protest was forming on his lips, so though I hadn’t nearly had my fill, I slowly withdrew my mouth and sat back, picking up the pen again like I hadn’t just tongue-fucked his fingers.

“So after this line,” I said, “maybe since you’ve mentioned what you’ve lost, you could have the last two talk about why or how or what you’ve gained instead.”

Halo stared at me, probably wondering how I could be so nonchalant and back to business, especially when the heated look he was giving me told me he had lost his focus completely.

My lips twisted as I tried to hide my amusement. “Is that good for you?” He could take that any way he wanted to.

Swallowing, Halo dropped his gaze and then pushed off the couch, heading over to the tripod. Something about the way his hands shook slightly satisfied the craving in me, the one that wanted to see the angel desperate for what I wanted to give.

“This okay?” Halo asked, his finger pausing against a button. “I want to make sure we don’t forget anything we work on.”

“I’m into it if you are,” I said, as the red dot flipped on, indicating it was recording. If it was anyone else, I never would’ve believed the camera setup was anything other than an exhibitionist fetish—which I had no problem with whatsoever—but with Halo, it was hard to tell.

As he sat back down, he pulled the guitar into his lap and began to play, singing along until he hit the last line we’d worked on. It didn’t escape my notice how well he played, or what an intricate riff he’d come up with. And it wasn’t just the guitar, either—he’d been the same way with every instrument the other day.

“Tell me, Angel. How’d you get to be such a little prodigy? Too much time watching music videos? Go to a fancy-ass school?”

Halo’s mouth crooked, but his fingers never stopped moving. “Both. It helps that my parents are musicians. My sister and I never stood a chance.”

“Musicians, huh?” Okay, that explained a lot.

Halo looked my way and nodded. “Yeah, my father’s a professor at the New York Conservatory of Music, and my mother is a classically trained pianist. Cheryl Olsen.” As he lowered his gaze back to his fingers to play around with a new bit he’d just added, he said, “She plays at Carnegie Hall a lot.”

Well, I’ll be damned. Halo was just full of surprises, wasn’t he? “You fucking with me right now, Angel?”

Halo’s fingers stopped, and he shook his head. “No. Why would I lie about that?”

Cheryl Olsen was one of the most brilliant musicians I’d ever heard in my life. She’d received numerous accolades over the years and was renowned as one of the most accomplished pianists of our time, and here Halo was telling me she was his…mother?

“Because your mom’s super fuckin’ talented, that’s why.”

Halo grinned and then started laughing, and the way that smile made his face transform from serious to stunning made something other than my cock ache.

“What?” I said, as he tried to get a handle on himself.

“I’m just trying to imagine her reaction to what you just said.” That seemed to amuse him all over again. “Actually, I’m trying to imagine her reaction over the fact that a badass like Viper from TBD even knows who she is, period.”

“Why? Do I seem that uncultured?”

Halo’s mouth parted as though he were about to say something, but then he snapped it shut.

I shrugged. “My mom used to take me to Carnegie Hall whenever she was able to save up enough money for a ticket. It was kind of a thing with us.”

Halo’s eyes softened slightly. He was looking at me in a way I couldn’t quite decipher, and wasn’t sure I liked, so I refocused on the words we’d been playing around with earlier.

“Okay, then. Now that I know who you’re related to, you better give me something fucking kickass.”

“No pressure,” Halo said.

“Take it away, Angel.”

Halo’s fingers moved over the strings again as he began to sing the chorus, and when he reached the point where we had stopped, he shut his eyes and finished, “You’ve gotten inside of me. To the darkest parts of my soul…” His eyes flew open and landed on me. “That’s it. ‘With you, I lose my mind. With you, I lose control. You’ve gotten inside of me. To the darkest parts of my soul.’”