Runaway Rock Star

by C. J. Anthony

  Lucas suddenly broke away and rushed to the curb, throwing his arm up to hail a cab that was speeding by. Brandon swayed in place, feeling whiplash after that moment of closeness. He tried to tell himself it was just the wine going to his head. The cab stopped at the corner, and Lucas hurried toward it.

  “Harris, get a move on!” he called back.

  IT WAS a short ten-minute cab ride to the Newport Music Hall, which was straight up High Street from the restaurant. Lucas bought their tickets, and when they walked in, Lucas paused to look at all of the photos and posters on the walls.

  “Holy crap, a lot of people have played here.”

  “Yep. It’s known as ‘America’s Longest Continually Running Rock Club.’ The name and ownership has changed a couple of times over the years, but it’s always remained a music venue. A lot of big acts have played here, from the 70s through today. U2, Kiss, Queen, AC/DC, Pearl Jam.”

  Brandon finally pulled Lucas away to see the rest of the venue. As soon as he saw the stage, he gaped.

  “Whoa… that’s freaking awesome.”

  The Newport was your typical down and dirty, basic rock club. But the stage was the star—an oval rotunda with roman columns as the backdrop. The main floor was sunken down about four or five steps, and the elevated part surrounding the floor was also wide enough for concertgoers to stand. There was even a balcony surrounding the room, for those who wanted more of a bird’s-eye view.

  “I wanna play here!” Lucas said.

  Brandon laughed. “I think they’re a little below your status, Mister Arena-Show.”

  Lucas’s mouth drooped and he looked sad.

  THE OPENING act started to play, and Lucas wanted a beer so Brandon followed him back to the bar. Lucas ordered for both of them, while Brandon watched the crowd and listened to the music.

  “The band’s not too bad,” Brandon said as Lucas handed him a bottle. Lucas just grunted and took a long drink from the bottle in his hand without so much as a glance at Brandon. Wonder what’s up with him now? Brandon thought. He’d been all eager and excited puppy dog from the moment they’d walked in the door, and now his hard façade was back.

  Lucas tapped Brandon on the shoulder and motioned over to the right side of the floor. Brandon nodded and they headed over to find a spot on the elevated area of the floor to watch the stage.

  Lucas seemed antsy. He was already on his second beer and would periodically wander off through the crowd and then come back to where Brandon remained.

  “Everything okay? Did you want to move somewhere else?” Brandon asked him after the fourth time Lucas had wandered.

  Lucas smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, no, this is great. Curse of the job… just curious about acoustics and the technical aspects of the place. Experiencing the show from out here—instead of the stage—gives such a different perspective, you know?”

  Brandon nodded and smiled and went back to enjoying the show. Halsey was just taking the stage, and a huge cheer went up from the audience.

  After a few songs, Lucas left again. When Brandon felt a tap on his shoulder, he turned, expecting to see Lucas.

  “Brandon?”

  “Michael? Wow!” Flabbergasted, Brandon leaned in for a warm hug with Michael Henry—his ex. He and Michael had dated during Brandon’s junior year at college. Michael was a year older, and they broke up a month before he graduated, neither of them invested enough in the relationship to continue things long-distance. They’d had great sex. Lots and lots of great sex, Brandon remembered. But once that and college interests were stripped away, they really hadn’t had much to connect over. So the breakup had been mutual and amicable.

  “I thought that was you. You’re looking good, as always.” Michael said with a smile after their embrace.

  Brandon felt his face heat. “Um, well, thank you, you too. It’s great to see you. What are you doing in Columbus?”

  “I’m in grad school at OSU, remember?” Michael gave him a curious look.

  “Ri-i-ght.” Brandon nodded as if he did. He remembered the sexy noises Michael made when he came, but he had drawn a blank on that little detail.

  “I’m bartending here at the Newport. So what are you doing here? Aren’t you still in Cleveland?”

  Brandon nodded again. “Yep, just on my way back home for the weekend. Decided to stop in Columbus and catch the show.” He motioned with his beer toward the stage. He didn’t feel the need to fully explain the strange route that had really brought him to this moment.

  “I tried to get your attention earlier. I served your drinks to your boy at the bar, but you didn’t see me.”

  Brandon frowned for a minute until he realized what Michael meant.

  “Oh! No… he’s not… my boy. Um, we’re just friends.”

  Michael’s eyes danced. “Oh really? Well…” He paused to glance at Lucas across the room. “Is he single?”

  Brandon had to laugh. “Yes, but very straight.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “One hundred percent.”

  “Hmmm….” Michael finally pulled his gaze away from Lucas and raised his eyebrow at Brandon. “Well, for being one hundred percent straight… and not your boy, he’s sure giving me the evil eye.”

  Brandon scoffed. “No, seriously, it’s not like that at all.”

  “Yeah, I don’t think… oh shit, I have to get back to the bar, Jake’s been covering for me! I’ll catch you later.” Michael left in a blur, and Brandon was glad to end that conversation.

  TWO SONGS later Lucas was back.

  “Another beer?” he asked tersely.

  Brandon shook his head. He watched Lucas stalk off toward the bar to get another for himself, and he frowned. They had several glasses of wine at dinner, and now how many beers had Lucas had? He hoped this was not going to be another repeat of last night, having to drag a drunk Lucas back to the hotel again.

  The crowd parted and suddenly Michael was there again, this time squeezing between people until he was squished up tightly against Brandon. His mouth twisted into what Brandon knew all too well as his sexy come-on smile. He pressed his cheek to Brandon’s as he spoke directly into his ear.

  “Are you staying the night in Columbus?”

  “Yes—” He was about to say they were at the Hilton, then thought better of it.

  Michael placed a piece of paper into his palm. “Here’s my address, if you want to… hang out… later. I usually get home around one.”

  The feel of Michael’s body next to his was… nice, he had to admit. Comfortable, familiar. It would be an easy, no-strings hookup and so easy to say yes to. Brandon reflexively scanned the room, searching for Lucas. He met his eyes across the crowd, for only a split second before Lucas jerked his gaze away, as if he didn’t want to be caught watching. Something odd was going on with him, but Brandon didn’t know what.

  “Brandon?” Michael was waving his hand in Brandon’s face to get his attention. He snapped his eyes back to Michael.

  “Um thanks, but… I don’t think I can.”

  “Well, if you change your mind, my door is open.” He winked at Brandon before finally leaving.

  Brandon shook his head and stuck the piece of paper in his jeans pocket. He looked over to find Lucas again, but he was gone.

  Exactly two minutes later, the crowd parted again and he found Lucas charging toward him.

  “Who is that arsehole and why does he keep bugging you?”

  Shock caused Brandon to pause before he realized who Lucas was talking about.

  “You mean Michael?”

  “So you do know him?” Lucas shouted.

  The movement of the crowd bumped them both, so Lucas grabbed Brandon’s arm and walked him backward until they were in the shadows, against the wall.

  “Yes,” Brandon responded. “He… we both went to the same college in Cincinnati. We were together for a while. But we haven’t seen each other in about a year. Apparently he’s going to grad school up here.”

  Brandon re
alized he had just outed himself, and he didn’t know how Lucas was going to take that information.

  “So you’re going to hook up with him later?”

  Brandon’s eyes widened. “What? Of course not!”

  “I saw him give you that paper with his number or what, his address?”

  Brandon was getting a little irritated. “Yes, it was his address, and yes, he wanted to hook up, but I’m not planning to meet him.”

  Lucas’s facial muscles slacked. “Oh.”

  “Why do you care anyway?”

  They stared at each other without a word as one song ended and everyone cheered. The next song started and it was slower, the beat darker and sexier, and Brandon felt hypnotized by Lucas’s eyes and the music washing over him. He couldn’t look away.

  They were already standing so close their bodies were practically touching. Lucas, as if moving through a slow fog, placed one hand on Brandon’s hip. Then a beat later he placed his other hand on the opposite hip. Brandon’s heart started racing. Slowly, Lucas slid his hands up the sides of Brandon’s torso… to the front, letting his fingertips graze Brandon’s nipples through his silky soft shirt. Brandon swallowed hard, his whole body blazing.

  When Lucas got to the unbuttoned collar of the shirt, his fingers finally met skin. Brandon’s knees wanted to buckle, and he strained to stay upright. Lucas cupped Brandon’s face and rubbed his thumb lightly over Brandon’s lips with maddening slowness.

  Their eyes remained locked the whole time Lucas explored Brandon’s body, and it became a staring contest to see who would blink first. Brandon was afraid to, sure that if he did blink he’d find this was all a dream.

  And then, with lightning speed, Lucas crushed Brandon into the wall and devoured Brandon’s lips hungrily. Brandon was on autopilot, his body only able to respond as asked. The kiss sent off sparking fireworks through every pulse point, and his body screamed “more, more, more.”

  Then Lucas moaned and ground his hips against Brandon’s. When Brandon felt Lucas’s hard cock against his own hard dick, Brandon’s brain got involved, and suddenly, like ice water thrown on the fire, “more, more, more” became “wait, wait, wait.”

  He fought to pull away from their kiss. Both of them were breathing hard. He realized as he came to his senses that he could smell the alcohol on Lucas’s breath. And hell, he had had a little too much to drink himself.

  “Stop… just stop.”

  “What’s wrong?” Lucas yelled.

  Another song ended and the crowd cheered again. It was too loud, and Brandon needed air.

  He pushed Lucas off him and wobbled unsteadily away, through the bar and toward the front entrance. He briefly wondered if he’d be able to get back in if he went outside, but he really didn’t care anymore.

  Once outside, he breathed in deep lungfuls of the cool night air, trying to sober himself up.

  Lucas, of course, followed immediately behind him.

  “Harris, what’s wrong?”

  Brandon turned on him. “What’s up with you? We’ve had a good time the whole trip, and now, you find out I’m gay and you think you can… you think it’s okay to manhandle me? What about all those women you’re always out with? What about Taylor Swift and the ‘two weeks of your life you’ll never get back’?”

  Lucas glanced around. The sidewalk was relatively empty, thankfully. He guided Brandon around to the side of the building.

  “I told my dad I was gay when I was fifteen, right after he had set me up with my first red-carpet date with a girl. All the women I ‘date’ are all beards, although they don’t know it. My dad and the record company won’t let me be gay; they won’t let me be me.” He sighed in frustration and pulled on his hair as he paced a few steps back and forth. But the cork was out of the bottle and he wasn’t done speaking.

  “You could have told me you were gay. I all but asked you when we were at the museum, but you wouldn’t admit to having a girlfriend or a boyfriend. You’ve been driving me out of my fucking mind since I set eyes on you. Okay, so I did take advantage of you by hijacking you away on this trip, and I know that was selfish, but, Christ, I needed to get away from everything so goddamned bad. I couldn’t take it anymore.

  “And then, I tried everything I could to see if you were interested in men, if you might be interested in me. The winks, the flirting, I was half-naked in the hotel nearly all the time for bloody Christ! I know I probably don’t know how to flirt well since I’m ‘in the closet’ so to speak, but damn, a naked body is pretty fucking obvious!

  “I thought you’d finally come around when I woke up to find you taking my pants off, but then you never did anything. I was so hard and my balls were so blue I had to jerk off in the shower the next day.”

  Brandon’s eyes widened in horror, and then the giggles started as his brain caught up to Lucas’s words. He blamed the alcohol, but he couldn’t hold them in, and they just got louder and louder.

  “Great, now you’re laughing at me.” Lucas collapsed against the wall in frustration.

  Brandon, once he’d stopped laughing, slid over to Lucas and stepped in front of him, pressing his body to Lucas’s. He leaned closer to whisper in Lucas’s ear.

  “While you were in the shower, I was jerking off in bed, thinking of you wet and naked behind the closed door… and then I heard you in the shower, and it was so hot. Both of us coming at the same time.”

  Brandon looked down at Lucas, whose expression had gone slack and his eyes glazed over.

  “You’re fucking kidding me.”

  Brandon shook his head. He pressed his groin to Lucas’s, rubbing their erections together and causing Lucas to moan and curse. They both looked at their joined hips and then at each other.

  Suddenly Lucas put his hands on Brandon’s hips and pushed him away. “Wait… I’m not doing this here….”

  Brandon deflated as Lucas walked away, until he realized Lucas was just hailing a cab. When one stopped, he pushed Brandon against the door. “Back to the hotel, now!”

  Chapter Eight

  LUCAS CLIMBED into the back seat and on top of Brandon. Brandon snickered and bit back a squeal as Lucas’s elbow dug into his rib.

  “You are laughing entirely too much at me tonight,” Lucas huffed.

  He silenced Brandon with a scorching kiss that brought out a muffled moan. Brandon pushed at Lucas’s shoulders until he broke free.

  “Wait, wait… not here. Not in the cab!” He whispered the last four words.

  “Bloody hell,” Lucas said. “We’re only kissing—”

  “Your destination, sirs” came the clipped voice of the cab driver, as the car rolled to a stop.

  Lucas sighed heavily and climbed off Brandon. He paid the cab driver and gave him a hefty tip while Brandon stumbled out.

  They both hurried into the hotel and to the elevators. Once the doors closed, Lucas was all over Brandon again, kissing and rubbing and touching. Brandon could just imagine what was being recorded on the elevator cameras, but his brain was too frazzled to care.

  When they got to their floor, Lucas sprinted to their room, pushing Brandon along in front of him. Brandon’s hand was shaking so much, he had trouble with the key card. It didn’t help that Lucas was pressing him into the door and trailing kisses and little nips along the nape of his neck.

  “Oh thank fuck,” Lucas muttered when the door finally opened. As it closed behind them, Lucas flattened Brandon up against the door. He reached up and made sure the locks were in place, and then he was mauling Brandon, kissing and sucking on his lips.

  He quickly unzipped his pants and sighed with relief as he freed his cock. Next he undid Brandon’s jeans, pulling the zipper down and reaching eagerly into Brandon’s briefs.

  Brandon had been floating along on bliss until he felt the tug on his cock, and his brain once again put the brakes on.

  “Stop… wait….”

  “Oh Jesus Christ.” Lucas rested his head on Brandon’s shoulder, chest heaving. He immedia
tely pulled his hand away from Brandon’s cock and braced himself against the door with both arms, trapping Brandon in between so he couldn’t get away.

  “What in the bloody hell is with all the stopping and waiting?”

  “Are you sure about this? Should we be—I mean we’re both a little tipsy and….”

  Lucas exhaled. “So what if we are? We both know and understand what we’re doing. It was probably the liquid courage that finally got us here.”

  He looked Brandon dead in the eye. “Christ, Harris. We already admitted we’ve wanted this for two bloody days. We have one night left,” he whined quietly.

  Brandon looked into Lucas’s beautiful green eyes. There was tortured desire and desperation… and sadness. One night. Of course it would be one night, because tomorrow he had to go back to being Lucas Black, rock star. Brandon would still be Brandon though…. Would he regret this tomorrow? And next week? And next month? He’d only known Lucas for two and a half days. Why was he so hesitant? He’d had other one-night stands before. This just felt different. His heart was going to regret this one; he knew it. But as he looked into those eyes, he didn’t care. It was just one night, and if that’s all they were going to have, then that’s what it would have to be.

  He reached up and pulled Lucas’s hand from the door and guided it down to his cock.

  Lucas mashed their lips together as he resumed action. He pulled Brandon’s cock out of his briefs and stroked it a couple of times before he stopped. Brandon let out a whine and broke free of their kiss.

  “Now who’s stopping,” he panted.

  “Just hold on,” Lucas breathed. “Gotta. Get. This. Shirt. Off.” Lucas was tugging at Brandon’s shirt, but the buttons were taking too long. “Damn buttons.” He growled as he finally tugged hard enough that they all popped off the shirt, scattering on the floor and revealing Brandon’s bare chest. “Oh yes,” he sighed. “That’s better.”

  Brandon pulled off the stupid beanie that was still on Lucas’s head. “Your hair, your gorgeous hair,” he breathed. “And I can touch it now.”