Kiss the Stars (Falling Stars #1)(10)

Acceptance.

Neither of us owed the other anything.

Yet somehow, it felt like I did.

I owed her this—walking away.

I knew better than to dip my fingers into places where real beauty lived.

She wound herself out of my tight grip.

“I guess I usually do find myself in the wrong places,” she said, words thick.

I had the urge to apologize.

For me. For who I was. For who I wasn’t ever going to be.

And I didn’t even know her goddamn name.

Realized in that second that I was in more danger than she was.

That I was the one with more to lose.

That this angel had me enraptured.

Taken in a heartbeat.

My phone dinged and vibrated in my pocket. Sound of it jolted us both from the cocoon.

I dug it free and took a quick glance at the message.

Lyrik West: Where are you, asshole? Been looking for you the last thirty minutes. Meeting in downstairs office in five.





Could almost hear the smirk in the dude’s voice. Had known him for all of forever. Since all the way back to who I’d been, and he’d still invited me here. Up until three days ago, I’d thought there wasn’t a thing in the world that could temp me into returning to this fuckin’ wasteland of a city. Was stupid as shit, relenting.

Coming here nothing but reckless.

A death wish.

Yet here I was.

I glanced back at the girl who stood there fidgeting, that dress hugging her slim curves that I was itching to memorize, face so damned pretty I was having a hell of a time looking away.

She was nothing but temptation.

Sweet motherfucking temptation.

I tucked my phone back into my pocket. “Have to go.”

Her eyes squeezed close for a beat as she said, “I get it.”

“No, you don’t.”

Thing was, I didn’t want her to. Because this girl was looking at me like she might actually be able to see through all of the bullshit, and that was not a place I could let her go.

I moved for the door. Energy stretched tight, a connection I didn’t anticipate flying frantic around the room. The hollowness carved out at the center of me teased and taunted.

Another penalty.

Fact it was always gonna be there and there was no way to make amends.

No way to fill it.

At the double doors, I twisted the lock. Halfway out, I paused and looked back at her from over my shoulder.

Her arms were crossed over her chest, girl standing beneath the massive stained-glass window with her face tipped up to the sky. Moonlight streamed in and covered her in a silvery hue.

A black river of hair cascaded down her back, brushing over her skin that was close to white in the halo of murky light.

Angel.

But I didn’t get a savior.

Not when I was the devil.

She cut those sable eyes my direction.

“Wish I was him,” I told her, words grating up my throat, unable to stop the betrayal before it was out.

But if it were a different lifetime, if this past didn’t exist, I’d want to be him.

The kind of guy who could ask her for her name and her number like a normal-fucking-human being.

Maybe date her. Kiss her and hold her and treat her the way she clearly deserved to be.

Way she wanted to be.

No.

I didn’t know her.

But like I’d told her, she was easy to read.

She cast a gentle smile. “I guess it makes me a fool that I wish you were, too.”

I gave a tight nod. “Lock this door behind me.”

Because God knew I wasn’t the only monster roaming this place.





Four





Leif





“Holy shit, it’s the Leif Godwin, in the flesh.” Ash Evans, Sunder’s bassist, pulled me in for a tight hug the second I walked through the door.

The office was tucked at the end of a cavernous hall, the walls made up of ornate dark woods and the ceilings adorned with heavy crown molding where it cut through a private wing on the first floor. Sounds of the party echoed through the thick walls and vibrated the floors, strains of music filtering to our ears.

Shocks of laughter spiked through the middle of it.

Vibe was different here than when I’d been hiding out upstairs, though.

Up in that attic, it was like I hadn’t been a part of the chaos roaring through the house.

Like I’d gotten lost and had fallen into a dream.

Hallucinating.

Had to have been.

That girl’s stunning face strobed through my mind, the feel of her tight, sweet body against mine still lingering on my flesh, the scent of her still overwhelming and flooding my senses.

Cocoa and cream.

Fuck. I had to have been dreaming. Losing my mind. Losing my grip on reality.

Ash clapped me on the shoulder before he edged back, but he only stepped far enough away so he could grab me by the upper arms, like some kind of old aunt who hadn’t seen their nephew in twenty years and was wanting to get a good look.

If I wasn’t careful, asshole was liable to pinch my cheeks.

“Dude, how the hell have you been?” he asked. “Haven’t seen you in years.”

“Can’t complain,” I told him, fighting the rush of unease.