Viper (Fallen Angel #2)(40)

“You can still come visit,” I said.

“Ugh, I wish. I’m so pale I’m practically translucent, and you guys are gonna come back here all bronzed sun gods. Have I mentioned I hate you?”

I laughed. “Not in the last five minutes.”

“Yeah, well, I do. And speaking of coming home, when are you? I miss your face.”

“From hate to missing me in the span of two seconds. You’re all over the place, Im.” I brought my legs up so I could rest my elbows on my knees, my toes digging into the warm sand. “We don’t have too much longer here. Jared, one of our producers, thinks we’ll have things wrapped in the next two weeks.”

“Thank God. You’re not allowed to leave again.”

“No? You gonna come on tour with us?”

Imogen’s eyes widened. “You’re talking tour already?”

“There’s been some rumbling about it happening before the end of the year. They want the album out stat, so it makes sense a tour would follow pretty quick.”

“It’s just all happening so fast.”

“You’re telling me.”

Imogen’s lips thinned into a straight line. “And are you okay with all this? You’ve been thrown into something huge and overwhelming, so if you aren’t okay, you’d tell me, right?”

The concern on her face made me wish I was there to give her a big, reassuring hug. She wasn’t usually the type to worry—that was my job—so the fact that she cared enough to check in on me made me slightly homesick.

“I promise I’m good. It’s been insane, I won’t lie, but there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing. Swear.”

She let out her breath and nodded. “Okay, good. Because—”

“Angel, I know you might think it’s romantic to fuck on the beach, but trust me, sand gets in all the wrong places. How about you get your hot ass back in my bed?”

I jerked around to see Viper sauntering down the beach toward me, and then realized Imogen would’ve heard him and looked back at the screen to see her eyes wide and staring past me.

“Is that—” she started, but I quickly cut in.

“That’s code for the studio. Gotta go.” Before she could say another word, I ended the call and turned my gaze up to where Viper grinned and sank down onto the sand beside me. I could only stare at him, mouth open, because shit. Had Imogen heard what he said? The look on her face told me she had, and… Shit.

I held my phone up. “I was on a call with my fucking sister.”

“Something wrong?”

“Yeah, something’s wrong. She heard what you said.”

“So?”

“So? So I haven’t exactly told her about…this.”

Viper stretched his legs out and settled back on his hands, unperturbed. “She gonna have a problem with it?”

“I…” I scrubbed my hands over my face and sighed. Would she? How the hell would I know? She’d never guess in a million years that I’d even look at a guy, so it wasn’t exactly something that had come up…ever. “I don’t know. I tell her everything, but I haven’t told her this, and I feel…I feel…”

“Guilty?”

I let out another sigh, staring out at the lapping waves tinged golden by the sun’s dying light. “Yeah. I feel guilty.”

“Because you never planned to tell her?”

I tore my eyes away to look at Viper but found I couldn’t read his expression. “I’m not sure it would do any good to tell her something that could cause problems between us. Not when this is just…” I didn’t voice the rest of those thoughts, because he knew as well as I did that whatever this was between us was fleeting. It wasn’t anything serious…right?

“Uh huh.” Something in Viper’s tone sounded off.

“What? You think I should tell her?”

“I’d never tell you what to do, Angel.”

“But you think I should? Wait… Do you think I’m ashamed or something?”

Viper shrugged, a casual move, but his jaw was set a little firmer than usual, and he didn’t look my way. “Are you?”

“No. Of course not.” I shifted, angling my body toward his. “But you have to understand that telling my sister or my parents or even my friends about this would upend my life.”

“It would.”

“Right. And since you’ve made it clear this is only fucking, why would I risk my relationships? It’s not like I’m gonna date men exclusively after this ends.”

Surprise lit Viper’s features. “You’re not?”

“Well, no. I mean, I haven’t really thought about it. But I haven’t had a reaction to anyone the way I’ve had to you, so…” I shrugged and looked away, feeling heat creeping into my cheeks, and I wasn’t sure why.

We were silent for a long time, and though I wanted to ask what Viper was thinking, because it was obvious something was on his mind, I didn’t want to open my mouth and insert my foot again. Had something I said upset him? It wasn’t anything he wouldn’t have said to me, so I doubted his feelings were hurt by my honesty. Maybe I was overthinking things.

I shoved my cell into my shorts pocket and dropped my legs, mimicking Viper’s pose. With no one else around, we stared out at the water, listening to the sound of waves crashing. Had we ever just sat like this? Still and quiet, not saying a word?