In a Chord (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

by Beth D. Carter

  * * * *

  Keaton held her hand as they entered the diner. He spotted Ash in the back booth and headed toward him. He saw Ash acknowledge him as his gaze dropped to the hand holding Momo’s before sliding over to the girl behind him. He could tell something was bothering him, because all Ash did was turn his face away as he took another sip of coffee, refusing to meet his eyes.

  Keaton slid into the booth, and Momo sat next to him. She was so excited she was fidgeting slightly, her leg bouncing a little next to his.

  “Ash, this is Momo Willows. And this is Ashland Lance, guitar player extraordinaire and my best friend.”

  “It’s so nice to meet you!” Momo gushed, holding out her hand. “Forgive me for sounding like a crushing schoolgirl, but the rift in ‘Space’ is amazing!”

  Ash’s blond eyebrows shot up. “You’re a fan of Endymion?”

  “I hang out a lot at The Black Tiger,” she said. “Usually I just go for the atmosphere, but about six months ago, I heard this band that just blew me away. The lyrics were killer and the rifts clever, so I went back the next Tuesday and the next and the next, and, well, you get the idea.”

  She smiled, and her beautiful face lit up.

  “You play the guitar?” Ash asked.

  She shrugged. “Some. I’m better with the violin. My parents had this idea of me being a classical violinist, but I was a rebel.” She laughed.

  The waitress walked over, and they quickly ordered breakfast. When she had collected the menus and left, Keaton leaned forward on the table. “She changed some of the notes in ‘Space’ and, man, wait till you hear it!”

  Ash glanced from him to Momo and back. “Where did you meet her?”

  Keaton settled back in his seat and slid his arm along the back of the bench. He saw Ash flip a quick look at it before looking away. Again, Keaton wondered why he was acting so weird.

  “So last night I was walking, listening to our playback, and it’s cold as shit,” he explained. “I see a coffee house lit up, you know the one on Forty-first and Decker? Anyway, I decided to warm up a bit before heading back to the repository, but then in the back of the coffee house was a little stage. Momo was playing, and her voice is really fucking amazing. Wait till you hear her sing.”

  “She sang ‘Space’?”

  Keaton shook his head. “Not till after the little concert. We were sitting and talking about how I kept feeling that Endymion was lacking something, so she played the song but made some changes that I feel should be incorporated.”

  “What’s the repository?”

  “Oh, it’s what we jokingly call our place.”

  “You two live together?”

  “Yeah, down by the docks. We converted an old warehouse into a great apartment. The band practices there.”

  “Cool.”

  He dropped his hand on her shoulder and rubbed it a little, and he noticed Ash watching them, his eyes carefully blank. Usually he could read the other man easily, but this introduction wasn’t turning out how he’d anticipated.

  He shot a glance at Momo, who was biting her lip. So, she feels it, too. He was generally perplexed at Ash’s cool attitude.

  The food arrived, interrupting the suddenly tense atmosphere, and the next few minutes were all about eating. But the silence stretched, almost uncomfortably, and Keaton was damned if he knew what it was all about.

  “So,” he murmured as they pushed plates away, “I thought I’d invite Momo to come to our practice session tomorrow. I thought she could give us a new perspective.”

  He saw Ash’s jaw tighten. “Is that so? Well, no harm in that, is there?” He scooted out of the booth and dropped a twenty on the table. “Listen, gotta get to work. I’ll see you later.”

  Ash left without a backward glance.

  “I don’t think he likes me,” Momo said, a bit sadly.

  “Nah, he’s just on his period. Don’t worry about him,” Keaton replied and drank the rest of his coffee. He scooped up Ash’s money and pulled out his wallet.

  “Here, let me pay for mine,” Momo said.

  He held up a hand. “I got it. Actually, Ash got most of it, but he should, being such a moody fuck today.”

  Momo laughed and stood. She leaned down to kiss him, a lingering caress on his mouth. As she pulled back, she swiped her tongue over his lips. “When’s practice?”

  “Tomorrow night, seven, at The Sound Booth. We rent a studio once a week for the acoustics and playback. Taylor and Mike think I’m nuts, but I just want our sound to be unique. So, I’ll see you there?”

  She nodded. “You betcha!”

  He watched her leave, and just before she ducked out of the door, she blew him a kiss.

  Keaton paid the bill and left a tip for the waitress before heading outside. The air was cold, so he buried deeper into his leather jacket and headed home. Ash worked days at the local newspaper, working on the press machines. Every night he came home filthy dirty from the ink, but it was a normal daytime job that gave him the evenings free and enough money to live on.

  Keaton, however, worked at a very unsatisfying kitchen as a line cook. It was horrible, but it gave him flexible hours and leftover food, so he couldn’t really complain. He didn’t go to work until the lunch shift so he ambled back to the place he shared with Ash. They had gutted he repository, making it larger, and Endymion practiced there whenever they weren’t in the studio, a perfect place to be as loud as they wanted since they had no neighbors.

  His phone rang, and he pulled it out of his jeans, glancing to see it was Taylor calling him. “Hey, man.”

  “Hey. You found the sound you were missing last night?”

  “Huh?”

  “From the playback. You left and, man, I gotta tell you that you missed out on some lovely girls!”

  “That’s okay. I found one of my own.”

  “Aha! So you got a little lucky last night as well! Way to go, bro!”

  “Yeah. Wait till you meet her. She’s got some great ideas for some of our songs.”

  There was a momentary pause. “Wait,” Taylor finally said, “what?”

  “The girl I met, Momo. She’s gonna come to our practice tomorrow night.”

  “Are you saying you didn’t bang her and ditch her?”

  Keaton sighed. “She’s cool, Taylor. You’ll like her. So, gotta run but I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Oh. ’Kay.”

  Keaton flipped his phone shut. Taylor was cool, but his attitude toward their female fans was grating. He hoped that didn’t come back and bite them in the ass one day.

  * * * *

  That night Keaton walked in from his shift smelling like fried shrimp. The restaurant he worked at had a nightly special, and he was afraid he’d smell like fried food for days.

  Ash was home, sitting on the couch and strumming on his acoustic guitar. He had a pencil in his mouth and some sheet music in front of him, but he took it out and put it on the coffee table in front of him.

  “Whew, you’re ripe,” he greeted.

  “Wanna lick me? I’m sure I have enough oil on me to harden any of your arteries.”

  Ash wiggled his eyebrows. “Now that’s an offer I almost can’t refuse.”

  Keaton pulled his white T-shirt over his head and threw it to the ground. He walked to the couch and leaned over to plant a hard kiss on Ash’s lips. Ash set the guitar down and reached for him.

  “I was afraid you wouldn’t want me after spending time with Momo,” Ash murmured in between kisses.

  Keaton pulled back, confused. “What are you talking about?”

  “You’ve never spent the night with someone,” Ash said with a sigh.

  Keaton pulled back. “Are you jealous?”

  He saw Ash’s jaw harden as he pulled away. Ash stood, pacing. “Should I be? I mean, you spend the night with her and then you bring her around to show me? How fucking tacky is that, Keaton?”

  Keaton walked up to him, grabbed his face and kissed him, full on the lips. The
heat that had always been between them flared up, and Ash moaned. He grabbed Keaton’s hips and pulled him as close as possible, their bodies fitting together like a glove. He moaned deep in his throat as he felt Ash’s hard cock pressing against his through the rough, heavy denim, and it made him salivate even more.

  “You’re crazy,” he said harshly as they broke for air. Keaton held onto Ash’s head. They were roughly the same height so he stared into Ash’s dazed eyes. “You’re my lover, Ash. I couldn’t survive without you.”

  Ash gave a little groan in his throat before capturing Keaton’s lips again. He backpedaled through the open room to the bed. Together they tumbled onto the unmade bed, the sheets in wild disarray.

  Keaton was lost in the hot mouth dominating his. Ash slid his hand up Keaton’s thigh to find and squeeze his cock though his jeans. He gasped as Ash began to massage the hardness before moving to the zipper. In a few seconds, his hand was sliding in. There wasn’t much room in the jeans, so Ash couldn’t do much. Keaton shifted, trying to get closer to Ash, groaning in frustration when the denim didn’t give way. So Ash withdrew his hand to push the jeans down Keaton’s hips.

  Finally free, he arched his body back as Ash bent his head to take the hard cock into his mouth. He lavished the mushroom head with attention, his lips moving up and down slowly, wringing out every ounce of pleasure as Keaton’s hips started to undulate.

  When Ash’s mouth freed him, Keaton lay down and took off his pants the rest of the way. He watched as Ash stood to strip, revealing his heavily muscled body inch by inch. Defined pecs, with puckered nipples hard like marbles, tapered down to washboard abs and narrow hips. His cock was long, straight, and thick, hard enough to crack walnuts, and jutting out between thighs.

  “Beautiful,” Keaton whispered.

  Ash lay on top of him, their bodies meshing together as if they were two halves coming together in perfect unison. Ash rubbed against him, their cocks sliding together.

  “Yes,” Keaton moaned. “Grind into me.”

  The sharp scent of sex rose in the air as juice leaked from each of their tips, making their slide slippery.

  “I want you,” Ash murmured into his ear. “I always want to be inside you, possessing your beautiful ass.”

  “Then take me,” Keaton answered.

  With a growl deep in this throat, Ash flipped him over and pulled his hips up. Ash slid one finger inside, opening him up. Keaton felt a sharp sting but breathed through it, and then another finger was pressed in. When the pain subsided, he felt full, incredibly, unbelievably full.

  Ash withdrew, and Keaton groaned his displeasure. He wiggled his ass but stopped when Ash came back, pressing himself against his entrance. Ash slid in slowly, inch by inch, taking his time. Keaton felt the burning pain as the big cock went deeper. But in the pain there was also pleasure. He pushed back to take Ash even deeper, moaning as he spread his thighs a little wider.

  When he was finally seated, Ash paused a moment. Breathing deeply, he laid his forehead against Keaton’s back. He could feel Ash’s heart hammering, and it excited him that he was able to bring his lover this much excitement.

  And then Ash started moving and thrusting. Pulling out, pushing in, lightly at first, to make sure Keaton was fully relaxed, then gaining in speed and intensity. Ash placed his palms on either side of him and brought Keaton’s knees up, giving him better leverage as he started to thrust heavily.

  “Oh!” Keaton moaned. “Fuck me, Ash. Harder. God, go harder!”

  Ash obliged, working his cock deeper, harder. He found that sweet spot inside, each push hitting Keaton’s prostrate and making him writhe. Ash’s balls slapped against Keaton’s ass like a paddle. Keaton slid his hand down to grasp his own cock, knowing there was no way he was going to last much longer.

  He felt Ash swell inside him, planting himself as deep as he could get before spasms raked him. It was too much, too sexy. Keaton exploded, warm fluid coating his hand.

  They both collapsed. Ash withdrew and shifted his body to curl and cuddle around Keaton’s. They stayed like that until their breathing settled, their heartbeats returned to normal, and their bodies cooled.

  Keaton picked up one of Ash’s hands and kissed the knuckles. “How can you think I would ever give you up?”

  He felt Ash sigh. “I’d understand. A girl is different. She can offer different things—”

  “A girl can’t ever give me what you just gave me which is a magnificent cock up my ass.”

  Ash chuckled.

  “Listen,” Keaton continued, “it’s you and me forever. Give Momo a chance. She’s got the biggest crush on you. And she’s an amazing singer.”

  “All right,” Ash murmured as he ran a hand through Keaton’s dark hair. “For you, I’ll listen.”

  Chapter Five

  After his shift, Ash headed to Forty-first and Decker Street to the coffeehouse where Momo worked. It was a little hole in the wall shop that was half bookstore, narrow in width but extending all the way back. Small chairs littered every available space.

  When he walked in, a bell over the door chimed, and Momo looked up, a smile on her face in greeting. When she saw him, it faltered for a quick moment.

  “Hi!”

  She turned and poured a cup of coffee and then held it out to him. He looked at the black, piping hot coffee. Just the way he liked it.

  “How’d you know?”

  “Yesterday at the diner.”

  He looked around the small entranceway. “You have a moment to talk?”

  “Sure.” She nudged the man next to her. “Be back in five.”

  He grunted and shot Ash a look. Momo was wearing black jeans today that hugged her curves like a second skin. Her black T-shirt had a row of tiny skull and crossbones on the front and she wore red suspenders. The blue strip in her hair was now burgundy, and she was absolutely gorgeous.

  He frowned at the thought. Right now was so not the time to be finding her attractive.

  Momo led him to a small table just inside the bookstore, away from the traffic of the main walkway. There was only one chair so she disappeared behind a bookcase and returned a second later carrying another one.

  “Listen,” he started as they sat, “I was caught off guard yesterday. I’m not usually such a dickhead.”

  “I didn’t think you were being a dickhead. I was crushing so bad I almost peed my pants.”

  He blinked then gave a low chuckle. “I was just worried. Keaton never stayed out all night before, so when he didn’t come home, I was thrown off.”

  “I’m real sorry if I stepped on your toes.”

  Ash had just taken a sip of his coffee and choked a bit at her words. “Excuse me?”

  “You know, what Keaton said. About me changing some notes. It’s a habit of mine, playing around with tunes and melodies.”

  “Oh.” He gave a mental sigh of relief. “No, no toes stepped on.”

  “I was wondering if that’s why you were upset.”

  “Nah, like I said, Keaton has never spent the night with a girl before—”

  “You serious?” she interrupted with a squeak.

  He raised an eyebrow.

  She cleared her throat and dropped her gaze.

  Ash floundered for a moment, wondering what else to say. “So, he says you have a good voice.”

  “I guess. My parents thought I would become this musical prodigy but…” Her voice faded and she shrugged. “I had to go my own way, you know?”

  “Actually, I do. Keaton and I grew up together, and my parents were expecting me to outgrow the music fad and concentrate on becoming a doctor.” He snorted. “Yeah, like I could give someone a shot. I hate needles. That’s why no tattoos.”

  He shivered at the thought.

  She laughed, and her voice was as clear as crystal.

  “You’ve known him for a long time.”

  Ash nodded. For a second, his mind drifted back to childhood memories, and he smiled. “We lived two houses apart, so
we’ve known each other forever. He’s my best friend.”

  Momo’s gasp snapped him back to the present. “Are you and he…together?”

  Ash felt his heart stutter, and his wide gaze snapped to hers. “Ah, no,” he answered, but he could tell he hesitated a little long, and his denial lacked conviction. “Damn.”

  She grabbed his hand. “I’m so sorry I hurt you.”

  “What?”

  “No wonder you didn’t like me yesterday. Ash, I wouldn’t have done anything with him had I known.”

  “It’s okay, Momo. Really.”

  “How long have you been together?”

  He took a deep breath. “I can’t believe I’m saying this to a stranger.”

  “I’d never tell anyone, Ash.”

  He looked into her dark, almond-shaped eyes and saw complete honesty, combined with warmth and caring. There was something about her that drew him in, made him feel relaxed, as if all his stress had floated away. “Since we were seventeen,” he answered. “But we’ve both had girls, you know. Dated somewhat. We’re not gay…well, at least I’ve never wanted any other man. I don’t think Keaton has either.”

  “But you were jealous.”

  “Yeah,” he said on a sigh, and ran a hand through his hair. “He’s never acted toward another girl like he acted around you. But, he and I, we’re a team, Momo.”

  She raised her eyebrows as she studied his face. “Is there a meaning to that?”

  “You’re very direct.”

  “I don’t believe in subterfuge.”

  “Then, yes, there was a double meaning to that.”

  Their hands were still joined, and he rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb. Her skin was so smooth, soft. Dark against his fair complexion. He felt little butterflies swirl in his belly. His gaze dropped to her lips, and her little pink tongue came out to swipe them. His cock hardened instantly at the sight, and he shifted a little on the chair.

  “Momo, when do you get out of here?”

  She looked up to the big clock on the wall. “Half an hour.”

  “Would you like to come by the repository and go over those changes you made to ‘Space’?”