Stand: A Bleeding Stars Stand-Alone Novel

Flames leapt beneath the surface of my skin, tingles building.

Everything shivered. Tightened. The threat of bliss.

And suddenly he was there, a big hand on the back of my neck to keep me supported while he gripped the mass of himself in the other. He guided the swollen head of his cock to my entrance. Barely touching.

A tease.

I whimpered, so turned on I couldn’t see. “Zee…please…I’m so close.”

“What do you need?”

“You.”

He surged forward, and a scream burst from my throat.

So big. Too much. Never enough because I would forever want more.

He ground his teeth, barely clinging to a thread of control.

I could feel it.

The tension that ran on a circuit through his body. Energy alive. The space between us one.

“Zee.”

He rocked and fucked and stole my sanity, a hand on the back of my neck to keep me steady.

Every restraint decimated.

He took me in a way he never had.

Manically. Desperately. Unhinged.

Falling.

Gravity too great to resist.

His and mine.

Colliding.

Edging back, he pulled out as far as he could. His cock was slick as he withdrew, our breaths shattered as we both watched where we were connected.

Wild eyes flicked to mine, and he pressed his thumb into my mouth. I sucked desperately, and he tugged it free, dragging our attention back down as he swirled it around my clit as he drove into me as deep as he could take me.

That was it.

I flew.

Gone.

Bliss.

It blinded and bounded and shot me to a place that shouldn’t exist. A place where darkness and light were one and the same.

Weightless.

Stars.

Zee sank his fingers into my ass and dragged me off the edge. He fucked me with wild, uneven strokes before he roared when his orgasm hit him, full speed.

My name.

My name.

My name.

Uncontrolled, I crumbled in his hold. The world alive, the walls a thunder of energy.

Someone was suddenly pounding on the door. “Zee…asshole…are you in there?”

Zee jerked back. “Shit,” he muttered. He threaded his fingers through his sweat-drenched hair as he wildly looked around.

More pounding. “Zee.”

“Yeah, give me a second,” he hollered over his shoulder as he set me on unsteady feet. He kept a hand on me while he quickly resituated his pants and moved us back to the other side of the room and helped me into my clothes.

A fist hammered on the door, and Ash’s voice bled through. “Not joking, Zee. We’ve been looking for you for fifteen minutes. We should’ve been back on stage for the encore five minutes ago. Crowd is about to lose their shit, man. You know the routine.”

My heart raced as I frantically struggled to get back into my clothes. Shaking, I smoothed them out just as I tried to work out the knots in my hair.

“How do I look?” I whispered beneath my breath, feeling the flush of redness hit my cheeks.

Arrogance filled his smirk. “Like I just fucked you.”

I chewed at my lip, dropped my gaze. “Zee.”

He set his palm on the side of my face and forced me to look at him. “You look like a fucking vision, just like every damned time you walk in a room.”

He gripped me tighter. “And what you look like right now? You look like you belong to me.”

Emotion clogged my chest.

More pounding. “Now!”

Zee shouted toward the door, “I’m coming, I’m coming.” He tugged his shirt back over his head while I slipped back into my shoes.

Then Zee slanted me a smile, unlocked the door, and threw it open.

Ash was on the other side, the guy appearing half pissed, though a knowing grin slid to his face the second he saw Zee towing me out by the hand.

“Now, you know I never want to get in the way of the lovin’…because there’s no reason to tell any lies, we all know that’s the most important thing…but we’re just about to have a riot on our hands. Need to get our asses back on that stage. Pronto, baby. You two can get back to the good stuff after.”

“Let’s do it,” Zee said.

Ash reached out and squeezed his shoulder. A statement passed through his eyes. Something that looked like encouragement. Maybe approval.

Still, Ash’s expression brimmed with all the same questions I needed answered as well. It passed just as quickly, and the three of us were racing down the dank, dark halls.

We headed in the opposite direction of the one Zee and I had originally taken. It looped around to the other side where there were a handful of dressing rooms and a big room to the back with a bar and sofas.

The noise level grew, and we increased our pace. Heading down another hall, we broke into an open area where the crew was bustling around, and a bunch of people were gathered at the side of the stage.

The emotion that had almost exploded back in that room softened when I saw who was waiting in the wings—Tamar, Shea, and Edie.

Only Willow was missing from this group of women who’d somehow so quickly become important to me.

Zee led me right up to them as if that was exactly where I belonged.

Tamar saw me first. Her striking face twisted into a wry grin, eyes wide with suggestion.

“Well, look who we have here.” Her grin grew as it landed on Zee. “If I wasn’t so proud of you, I’d tell you that you’re grounded for the rest of your life, going around and causing this kind of trouble. The audacity.”

It was pure affection.

Zee pointed at her. “I don’t have time to tell you to watch yourself…so take care of my girl, will you?”

He dipped down and pecked me on the lips.

Twice.

So sweet.

God.

“Gladly,” Shea said, catching on while Zee walked backward, keeping his gaze on me, before he quickly spun around and joined the circle where the band was huddled.

They all took to the stage, Sebastian included. There for the encore, a mandatory piece of this momentous farewell.

Everything went wild. The screams and the cheers and the crushing wave of energy.

Because these bad, bad boys meant something to these people.

They had created something no one else could. Had a chemistry that could only be found in their bond. This mixed up, mismatched family.

My lips parted in awe.

Because this…this was beauty.

It was belief.

It was love.

Shea slipped her fingers through mine. Gently, she squeezed. “I’m really glad you’re here.”

I squeezed back, my voice a whisper as my gaze locked on these brilliant boys. “I really am, too.”



Zee drove us back to my house. He parked in the driveway, and everything went still when he clicked open his door and came around to my side.

He helped me out and then into the welcoming darkness of my tiny house, down the short hall, and into my room. The only illumination was the small bedside lamp he clicked on that radiated a dull, dim light.

He glanced back at me, gently tugging me into the attached bathroom where he turned on the shower, slowly undressed me as the room filled with steam, my movements even slower when I helped him from his.

Savoring.