Page 61 of Ticket to the Stars: Part One

He must’ve taken that as a challenge, because once again, he moved fast. Faster than my mind could follow. The next thing I knew, he’d taken me in his hands and spun me around, pushed my backside against his makeup table, and lifted his hands to my face. The smirk he wore on his handsome face made it seem like he was doing this for my own good, to teach me a lesson.

The lesson being I kissed him back.

Priest’s mouth came down on mine, his lips crashing harder on mine than they had on stage, almost bruising in their dominance. His mouth took hold of mine, and though logic told me I should push him away, the only thing I could do was melt into him as I surrendered.

“Hey—” I faintly heard Bishop’s voice through the kiss. “—get off her, Priest.”

“No,” Priest murmured against my lips. “I’m still making my point.” With every word he spoke, his mouth brushed against mine, his breath hot on my face. It was like we were breathing the same air, and we still weren’t close enough. His mouth returned to mine, kissing me hard.

Bishop tried to pry him off me, but Priest was stronger. His lips never left mine, though I could feel him smirking through the kiss.

Behind the commotion, I heard Deacon mutter, “Oh, my God. This is so fucked up.”

The door to the dressing room opened, and Ramona’s hard voice called out, “What the fuck was that? What the—” She must’ve spotted Bishop struggling with Priest’s immovable body and Priest’s lips on mine, because as she slammed the door behind her, she said it again, “What the fuck is going on here?”

Priest finally pulled his mouth off mine, but he kept his hands on my face. He grinned at Ramona. “Hey. Nothing’s going on here. What’s happening with you?” Acting like nothing at all was wrong here. Too bad Ramona wasn’t blind.

“What’s happening with me?” Ramona chuckled, but it was a mirthless sound, more bitter than anything else. “I was just watching what I thought was the start of a great comeback for Black Sacrament, when the singer did something absolutely stupid and kissed his new bandmate in front of the entire audience. Do you have any idea the shitstorm that’s gonna be headed your way now thanks to this stunt of yours, hmm? It’s not going to be good—not after what happened with Pope.”

“That sounds terrible,” Priest deadpanned. “Let me know how that goes.” His head turned toward me, like he was going to kiss me again. His eyelids looked heavy, and he licked his lips in what must’ve been hunger.

Oh, boy. The way he gazed down at me made certain parts of me heat up, and I couldn’t move. Never mind the fact that I was still pinned against his makeup table with his body, but even if I wasn’t caught between a rock and a hard place, I wouldn’t want to move at all. This was right where I was meant to be.

Shit. Listen to me. I sounded ridiculous and lovestruck.

“Let her go, Priest,” Ramona spoke, the words growled out.

Priest groaned, almost as if he was asking,Do I have to? Do Ireallyhave to?But when he glanced at Ramona, he saw the deadly expression she wore, so he pulled his hands off me and took a step back. “There, happy?”

Ramona held up a hand. “I am the furthest thing from happy right now.”

“Maybe it’s not a good time to tell you that I’m not the only one who kissed Angel tonight,” Priest rattled off, throwing Bishop under the bus.

As Bishop prickled and glared at Priest, Ramona looked between all of us. It was almost like I could see her headache coming on, a cloud above her thick, curly black hair. “You four need to clean yourselves up and go home. Don’t do a single thing until I touch base with you guys tomorrow. There’s going to be some heavy damage control after this.”

She set her hand on the doorknob, but she didn’t leave. She sent us all one last glare and pointed with her other hand as she added, “And stop kissing each other! No more lips better be locking, do you hear? No more.”

Ramona turned to leave, but right then Priest raised his hand like he was a student in class. She preemptively rolled her eyes and asked, “What?”

“So, no one’s allowed to kiss Angel, but does the no kissing rule apply to everyone else? If I want to kiss Deacon to cheer him up—”

Priest’s deadpanned questioning was interrupted by Deacon, who huffed, “Shut the fuck up.”

Ramona forced a smile, though it was more of a baring of her teeth than anything else. “Nobody’s allowed to kiss, okay? Not a single one of you better lock those fucking lips. Now, unless you have any other stupid questions, I need to go handle this.” She didn’t give Priest the chance to ask anything else. She just left and slammed the door behind her as she went.

“Wow,” Priest muttered once it was just the four of us. “Somebody ain’t in a good mood.”

If the situation wasn’t so tense, I might’ve laughed at that. Alas, it was perhaps the most tense situation I’d ever been in in my life, and that said nothing about how things might change because of what Priest did.

Somehow, I had the feeling everything was about to change—and maybe not for the better.

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