Page 39 of Ticket to the Stars: Part One

What was I doing? What was he doing? What were we, collectively, doing together? This was bad. So bad. Cleo would love it, but I’d only regret it. Thiscouldn’thappen.

“What the hell is going on?” Bishop’s voice rang out, jerking both Deacon and me back to reality.

Deacon’s arm fell off my back, and his hand flew off the back of my head like I’d just turned rancid. I crawled off him and hopped up, on my own two feet, but not very steady. I whirled around to find Bishop had woken up and come down the hall. Wearing his usual nighttime clothes, he was disheveled yet still very accusatory.

He did not look happy to have seen us in that position.

Deacon got up, and unfortunately for us both, I still stood way too close to the couch, so when he stood, he ended up standing less than a foot behind me. That probably didn’t make the situation look any better.

Bishop didn’t move, though his hazel stare flicked between Deacon and me. “What were you two doing?” He sounded… well, it kind of sounded like he was jealous, but maybe that part was all in my own head. Maybe a strange part of me wanted him to be jealous, since he didn’t remember our time together as children.

“Nothing.”

I said that the exact same time Deacon huffed, “It wasn’t what it looked like.” If there were two things to say to look guilty, we’d have it covered.

Crossing his arms over his chest, Bishop frowned—and that was the first frown I’d ever seen on his face. It didn’t go well with his boy next door features. Where were those dimples when you needed them?

“Really?” he asked. “Because it definitely looked like something—” Behind him, someone else appeared, though this one was caught in a yawn and still very much shirtless from his slumber, his tattoos on display.

Priest ran a hand through his blond hair, blinking his gray eyes at Bishop, then at me and Deacon. “What’s going on? You guys are being way too loud.” He sounded quite whiny. The man was definitely not a morning person.

I opened my mouth to answer, but Bishop saw fit to speak first, “I just caught Angel on top of Deacon.”

That must’ve been a shock to Priest’s system, because he was wide awake now. “What? You didn’t… they didn’t—” He looked at us. “Did you?” Now he took up the same stance Bishop did: he crossed his arms like he was about to scold us for our inappropriate behavior.

“We didn’t,” I said.

Behind me, Deacon huffed, “Yeah, as if I’d ever want to be with her.” He shook his head and walked around me, shooting both guys a glare before wandering down the hall and locking himself in his bedroom.

My heart stung hearing that, but I didn’t know what I expected. Last night had to have been a fluke.

As if on cue, my eyes landed on our plates on the coffee table, on the Advil bottle he’d given me. I felt better now, but I couldn’t lie. My feelings were a little hurt.

Probably a good thing I didn’t kiss him after all.

Priest and Bishop both were watching me, and I tried my best to shrug off what just happened by saying, “I wasn’t feeling good last night, so I came out here. Deacon stayed with me and we both fell asleep. That’s it.”

Priest smirked as he came over to me. He got a little too close as he circled me. The dude even sniffed me. Then he said, “Yep, still a virgin. Should’ve known our boy Deacon couldn’t handle popping this cherry. I think we all know I’m best-suited for that task—”

“You’re disgusting,” I huffed and whirled around, slapping him right on the star tattoo on his chest. I hate to inform you that his chest was as hard as it looked… and it looked pretty damn hard. Made sense. He worked out a heck of a lot.

All Priest did was continue to smirk, so much so that I wanted nothing more than to wipe that stupid smirk off his attractive face. God, why’d he have to be so nice to look at? And why on God’s green earth did he have to be shirtless?

I stepped away from Priest as I said, “And for your information, I’ve never been kissed, either. As if I’d want to give my first kiss to any of you. Please.” I flicked both Bishop and Priest off as I went to my room, pulling a Deacon.

It was only once I was alone in my room that I realized what I’d let slip. Not only did these guys know I was a virgin, but now they also knew I’d never been kissed before. Never had a boyfriend, never been kissed, never had sex. The trifecta.

Was it too much to hope they’d let it go?

Chapter Seventeen – Angel

The car ride to the recording studio was awkward, or at least it was for me. I sat in the back with Bishop, while Deacon sat with wireless headphones on in the front seat with Priest. Priest was driving, though he kept glancing in the rearview mirror at me. Ramona was supposed to meet us there.

Why were we all going? So the whole band could hear how Priest and I sounded together. It would help us to narrow down the choices of what songs we would redo and all that.

Honestly, my mind was still on what happened earlier. The whole almost-kissing-Deacon thing and then Bishop seeing us… and then me stupidly proclaiming I had never kissed anyone before.

Yeah, I had the feeling I’d come to regret that slip-up.

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