by Jet Mykles
Johnnie winced at something he saw. A glance showed Danny that Tyler had stumbled into someone else on the dance floor. As the blond was righting himself, Darien Hughes—Heaven Sent’s drummer—came to the rescue. Very smoothly, the drummer maneuvered Tyler out of the stranger’s arms and into his own before spinning him carefully into Darien’s boyfriend, Christopher Faith. Johnnie smiled, secure that his friends had his back. He raised his glass to Danny. “Ah yes, the club years. I don’t envy you that.”
“It’s okay. I’ve been clubbing for years. And we’ve got to start somewhere,” Danny said with a grin.
“That you do.” He took a healthy swig of his drink, then laughed. “You ready to be a rock star?”
When Danny met his eyes, he found the full brunt of Johnnie’s gaze on him. It was electrifying. The singer was an amazing, dynamic man with a captivating aura that made him an ideal front man for a rock band. He oozed confidence and sensuality from the roots of his waist-length hair to the tips of his designer shoes. If Danny could step into his shoes or be just a shadow of what he was, he’d be a happy man.
Danny gave him the best cocky grin he could muster. “I’m more than ready.”
Johnnie nodded. “Good. Remember that. Even when it gets hard—and it will get hard—remember that.”
Danny thought that was probably it for their talk, that Johnnie would go collect his spouse, but he was wrong. Johnnie kept talking, and Danny was damn well going to stick around until he stopped. They moved away from the bar to one of the little tables set up along the wall. Somehow, no one came to bother them, and it was almost like they were alone during their chat. Later, Danny wouldn’t remember all they discussed, but he’d remember the feeling of talking with Johnnie as people and not as huge fanboy and famous rock star. To his delight, he found he actually liked Johnnie as much as he’d always thought he might. They had a similar sense of humor and found a lot to laugh at.
Johnnie was in the middle of a story about a disastrous gig during their first tour when he was interrupted by a body tumbling into his lap. Instinctively, he grabbed on and held the blond man, who wrapped his arms tightly around Johnnie’s neck.
“I’m sorry.” Tyler’s soft groan was blurred and low, far more suitable for an intimate moment. Danny might not have heard him at all, but there was a break in the music. He tucked his head into the curve of Johnnie’s neck as he settled himself more comfortably in his husband’s lap. “I’m sorry.”
Smiling softly, with a wink for Danny, Johnnie stroked Tyler’s arm. “Sorry for what, blondie?”
“Fuck you. Don’t be coy.”
Danny couldn’t help a small laugh of his own. Johnnie grinned at him over Tyler’s head.
“Yeah, okay.” Johnnie kissed the top of Tyler’s head. “You’re an ass.”
“’M not an ass. You’re an ass.” It was said matter-of-factly and without any rancor. Tyler raised a hand to his face and clumsily rubbed his temple. “I’m spinning.”
“I’ll bet.”
“Why’d you let me drink so much?”
Johnnie kept his tone pleasantly even. “I’m evil and should be punished.”
“Yes.” Tyler sighed, and one hand slid down to rest comfortably just inside the open front of Johnnie’s shirt. “I’m ready to go upstairs now.” No doubt about it, that was a sexual demand and not just an innocent statement.
Johnnie heard it loud and clear. “You’re the boss. But you gotta get up so I can stand.”
Danny wasn’t sure Tyler heard at first. Before he moved from Johnnie’s lap, he brought his hands up to frame the singer’s face and stared into his eyes for a long moment. “I love you. So much.” The words were whispered, but Danny heard them well enough. Before Johnnie could respond in kind, Tyler’s lips were on his in a sweet but intense kiss.
Beautiful. Choked up, Danny decided it was best he left them alone. Quietly, he stood and slipped away. But he couldn’t help one backward glance at the kissing couple. On one hand, it was sad. For Johnnie Heaven to be tied romantically and sexually to just one man didn’t seem right. He should be surrounded by groupies and have his pick of them every damn night. But on the other hand, Danny only had to look at them to know Johnnie wasn’t complaining. He was completely and totally smitten with his spouse, and it looked like—despite Tyler’s earlier outburst—the feeling was mutual.
Good for them. Danny turned toward the dance floor and the single men who were there. A new DJ had taken over, and the first pounding beats of dance music filled the air. He could feel happy for two men in love while lamenting the leash on the rock icon. Who knew? Maybe he, Danny Champion, could fill the gap left by Johnnie’s fidelity.
With that happy thought, Danny shimmied into the fray. He rubbed up against several writhing bodies, most of them male, and reveled in the freedom of being in a crowd where he didn’t have to worry if the men were receptive. At a gay wedding, the heterosexual males who didn’t welcome advances had no business on the dance floor.
He never did find the red-haired cutie again, but he cozied up to a very pretty man with cocoa skin, black hair, and blacker eyes with an exotic slant that Danny found hypnotizing. The fact that he had a devastating smile didn’t hurt any. They danced close together for a while, then even closer when Danny wound an arm around the guy’s waist to bring them groin to groin. Oh yes, things were looking up for an early a.m. frolic.
Talking on the dance floor was impossible, but the hottie responded with an eager nod when Danny pointed toward the open arch that led to the next room.
“Whoa.” Hottie laughed, combing damp black fringe back from his forehead. “It’s intense in there.”
“It sure is.” They shared a look, both wearing the same knowing grin. Danny offered one of the bottles of water he’d snagged from a convenient table on the way out. “I’m Danny.”
Hottie took it. “I’m Donnell.” His voice was higher than Danny had expected but pleasant. Both men opened the bottles and replenished their fluids.
“Are you a friend of the groom or ”—Danny paused, then chuckled and shrugged—“the groom?”
Donnell laughed. “I work for the Ysell Gallery. We display some of Reese’s work.”
“Oh. Wow. I didn’t know he had stuff on display.”
“He sure does.” A damp curl of hair dropped back over Donnell’s forehead. “What about you?”
“The best man is my band’s producer. And a friend.”
“Oooh!” Dark eyes lit up, and Donnell took an enticing step closer. “You know Brent?”
Danny reached up to slide his hand down the soft fabric of Donnell’s deep red silk shirt. “Yeah.” No, he was not against using Brent’s name to get sex. So sue him.
Donnell dragged a finger along the waistband of Danny’s slacks. “Would I have heard of your band?”
“Maybe. The Indigo Knights?”
After a brief moment of thought, Donnell shook his head. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay. You will soon enough.”
They were now pressed together, Donnell’s hand a light weight at the small of Danny’s back and Danny’s fingers sliding into the soft hair behind Donnell’s ear.
“That sounds”—Donnell stared at Danny’s lips—“promising.”
“Mmm.”
Danny made so bold as to lean in and touch his lips to Donnell’s. Donnell responded by opening. He also flattened his hand on Danny’s back and pulled so they were pressed close enough for both to realize the other was hard.
“You in Elm Lodge or Oak?” Danny murmured against Donnell’s lips. All the guest lodges at Genesis were named after trees.
“Elm.”
“My room’s closer.”
“Let’s go.”
Chapter Three
Despite the god-awful wind chill and the horrible snow, Danny whistled as he hurried from the train stop to his building. A pizza takeout box prevented him from putting one gloved hand in the pocket of his overcoat, but it wasn’t that long of a walk a
nd took even less time if he trotted. Plus, the action helped to keep him warm.
What the hell was he doing in Chicago anyway? He was a southern California boy. His blood was too thin for snow! But to follow his dream, he’d brave the weather and suffer the indignity of being the only member of his band who had to get a job to pay the bills for his tiny little apartment. He’d bear the culture shock of coming home from an expensive, all-expense-paid weekend at a posh ski resort to immediately agree to take the lunch shift at the pizza place where he worked. Although he’d been able to save up enough to cover January’s rent, he was still low on utility and food money, so the extra shift, even right after his time off, was welcome. The savings that had helped him moved to Chicago had dwindled to under a thousand dollars, and he really didn’t want to use any more of it if he could help it.
So, all things considered, Danny could brave the hellish cold.
Once in the lobby of his building, he breathed a little easier. Just being in from the wind raised his body temp enough that he could loosen his scarf as he began the three-story climb to his place. He even jogged up, telling himself he was working off the pizza in advance. Cash wasn’t in the main room when Danny entered the apartment, but there was nothing new about that. He’d been out cold when Danny had come in last night and long gone by the time Danny woke in the late morning. After putting the pizza on the table in front of the couch, Danny went down the hall and tossed his coat and scarf through his open bedroom door before sticking his head inside Cash’s room. Cash sat with his eyes glued to the monitor, fingers flying over the keyboard. He wore jeans and a sweater, outside gear that told Danny he’d gone to school today. Or, at least, had gone out. Otherwise, he’d be wearing sweats, and his hair wouldn’t look like it had been introduced to a comb.
Danny knocked on the door frame to get Cash’s attention. “Hey.”
It took a moment for Cash’s fingers to wind to a stop and his head to turn. For a second it was like he’d never seen Danny before in his life, but then recognition dawned as his brain emerged from whatever cyberspace he’d been in. “You’re back.”
“Hungry? I’ve got pizza,” Danny prompted, to further encourage the human in his roommate.
Finally, it was there. Cash nodded eagerly. “Yeah. I’ll be right out.”
Danny visited the kitchen to grab the roll of paper towels, a bottled iced tea for himself, and a soda for Cash. He sat and had just opened the lid of the pizza box when Cash came out.
“Not deep dish?” Cash asked as he sat. They made both where Danny worked.
“Not tonight.” He picked up a slice, folded it in half, and raised the pointy end toward his mouth. “I’m in a New York state of mind.”
He couldn’t be sure if Cash even got the Billy Joel reference. Sometimes Cash surprised him with some musical knowledge, but for the most part he was oblivious. “Sorry I wasn’t up when you got back,” Cash said, digging up his own slice.
“You were out like a light. Tough day?”
“Yeah.” Chewing. “Was trying to get the coding done before classes started. Then George’s server tanked, so we had to track down Mr. Trautmann to get into the lab at school.” He rolled his eyes as he took his second bite, then talked while he chewed. “George is a complete tool. He needs to replace that dinosaur, like, yesterday.”
Danny grinned. He enjoyed Cash’s depictions of his few friends. They were all tools, as far as Cash was concerned, and were clearly not as talented as he, though Cash would never utter those words. He simply saw it as fact and resigned himself to putting up with his lessers. Danny figured the attitude came with working with computers so much, inanimate objects you just dealt with. “So you were at school all day?” Cash’s spring session didn’t start for another week, but Cash was both teacher’s assistant and prize student and so was known to go in at odd times.
“Yesterday and the day before.” He growled as he used greasy fingers to open his can of pop. “Trautmann hosed the files for the intro class as well as the backup, so I had to recreate a bunch of stuff from scratch.”
“Ouch.” Danny knew next to nothing about technology, but he’d heard enough from Cash to know that backup was king.
“Yeah.” Cash swallowed the second-to-last bite of his slice. “I went ahead and made my own backup this time.”
Danny nodded vaguely, then flipped on the television, and they watched a South Park rerun in silence for a while as they scarfed down the rest of the pizza.
With a satisfied sigh, Cash sat back, swiping grease from his hands with a paper towel. “How was the wedding?”
Danny grinned, wiping his own hands. “It was awesome. Tons of people, tons of food, and a great party. Luc and Reese were over-the-top happy.” He finished his fourth slice as he told Cash all about the continual party. He talked around the guys he’d hooked up with, sure Cash didn’t really want to hear about his exploits. “They spoke their vows right before the stroke of midnight so they were kissing over New Year’s.” Danny couldn’t help a sappy grin. “It was incredibly romantic.”
Cash snorted, tossing his paper towel onto the box to land beside the two remaining slices.
“What?”
Cash shook his head. “There you go with that romance stuff again.”
Danny sucked grease from his fingers, then wiped them on his own towel. “Sorry, I was there. It was very romantic.”
Cash kept his eyes on the TV screen. “Yeah. Okay.”
“It was!”
“If you say so.”
Danny stared at him. “You don’t believe me.” It wasn’t a question.
Cash met his gaze for a second, then shook his head. “I still don’t get why two guys need all that wedding stuff.”
Danny felt his heart fall a little. “You just don’t like weddings, do you?”
“Not really.
“Are your parents married?”
Cash glared mildly. “Yes. Happily. But that’s got nothing to do with anything.”
That blew Danny’s burgeoning theory. “So what is it? What’s with you and weddings?”
“It’s just pointless. It’s just a party.”
“What’s wrong with a party?”
“Nothing, I guess.” Some kind of understanding dawned. “Oh, okay, I get it. It’s a party. This was a networking thing?”
“Huh?”
“The wedding. It was a networking thing for Heaven Sent?”
“No!” How horrible. A wedding was an event, a declaration of two souls. To reduce it to… “Okay, yes, some networking went on. Of course. But Luc and Reese did this because they love each other.”
Cash shrugged. “Okay.”
“If I say so?”
Cash’s attention was back on the television. “Sure.”
Danny sat back on the couch, watching Cash’s profile as he thought about what Cash had said. Why couldn’t he see the magic? Was he really that clueless about people? “It’s not the wedding. It’s the romance that bothers you.”
Another shrug. Clearly, Cash was done with the discussion.
Danny wasn’t. “You do realize that most of the romantic ballads in history were written by men?”
“For women.”
“Ha. You don’t know that.”
“Huh?”
“You have no idea how many of those ballads were written by men who hid their sexuality.”
Cash rolled his eyes. “Okay, fine. I don’t know for sure. But most of romantic literature is centered around a man going after a woman.” He thought for a second. “So is Reese the girly one? Luc doesn’t seem the type.”
Danny’s jaw could not have dropped farther open unless it unhinged. “Did you really just say that?”
“What?”
Danny shook his head to clear it, his blood up at this obvious challenge. “So you’re saying that only ‘girly’ guys can be romantic?”
“Well, yeah.”
“And by ‘girly’ you mean ‘faggy guys with limp wrists and lisps’
? Chicks with dicks?”
Cash’s eyes narrowed warily. “Look, I’m not trying to be insulting. It’s just that there’s no reason for a regular guy to be romantic with another guy. It’s unnecessary.”
“Unnecessary?” Danny twisted around to face his roommate, one knee bent on the couch. “So you think gay men just kinda do the ‘you wanna?’ ‘yeah, you wanna?’ then go off and fuck?” He banged his fist into his palm for emphasis.
He got a flinch out of Cash for that. “Oh come on.”
“That is what you think!”
Cash threw up his hands and slumped back. “Okay, maybe it’s not that cut-and-dried. Yeah, guys go on dates. Yeah, they buy each other, I dunno, Valentine’s Day presents and stuff. But guys can just be, I dunno, straight with other guys.” He smiled. “No pun intended.”
Danny cocked his head to the side, unwilling to let this go. “You don’t think a guy likes to be romanced?”
“No.”
“Not even by a girl?”
“No.”
“Because it’s unnecessary for a guy to be wooed?”
Cash grinned. “‘Wooed’?”
“It’s a perfectly good word.”
“Okay, then, yeah.”
That’s it. He’d held back his own attraction to Cash for a long time. Maybe he was still high off the romance of the weekend. Danny was up on his knees beside Cash before the other man had a chance to react. He grabbed Cash’s hand and held it between both of his.
“What the hell…?”
Danny gazed into Cash’s eyes and pitched his voice low. “Have I ever told you how gorgeous you are?”
Panic was the first reaction he saw, and it settled into narrow-eyed disbelief, but somewhere in between those two extremes, Danny saw something else. A spark of…interest? Hope? Cash tried to pull his hand away. “Quit it.” His voice was soft, surprised. Uncertain.
