Page 23 of Darien
TEN
Noah stayed to watch their rehearsal, and Darien found himself achingly aware, through every muscle, every sinew, every bone in his body that those beautiful, brilliant eyes were on him. Every dance move that they practiced, every note that they sang, Noah was watching.
No big deal, right? Except that it was. Darien had been watched by people before. He had even been watched during the vulnerable rehearsal times. Not by fans, but then, Noah wasn’t exactly a fan, was he?
Lester watched, too, which wasn’t nearly as welcome. He didn’t always. In fact, he rarely did, and it had all of them on edge as those pitiless dark eyes examined every movement, just looking for a flaw.
Finally, Lester pushed himself away from the wall where he’d been lounging and clapped his hands to get their attention. Not that he even needed to do that, they were all paying attention to him. Instantly, they quieted, the last note fading away on the air, and Darien’s eyes, as well as the rest of the Lost Boys, turned to face their boss.
“Okay. You guys know that there’s a tour coming up in a few months.”
Darien winced and didn’t quite dare to look over at Noah. He hadn’t quite gotten around to telling him about the whole tour thing, so he kept his eyes on Lester, a slight flush in his cheeks. This isn’t how he would have chosen to let Noah find out, especially when he hadn’t made any choices himself.
“This is Justin. He’s going to make sure that there’s an album to bring on tour,” Lester introduced, and the man with the intense gray eyes stepped forward, nodding quietly to all of them.
“Hey, guys,” he said, and Darien tilted his head a little bit as he looked at him. It was a mark of just how distracted he’d been by Noah that he hadn’t paid much attention to this guy before, because normally, he knew that he wouldn’t have been able to keep from staring.
He was stunning. He looked like he might be about thirty-five or so, and besides those intense, stormy gray eyes, he had lips so full and soft looking that they could make an angel cry. Beautiful, high cheekbones, hair so dark it was almost black, the man was a study in contradictions.
Even as he was looking, and appreciating, though, Darien realized something strange. He didn’t care that much. There was no thought of him maybe getting in on some of that action, and not just because the man had to be more than ten years older than him.
It was because he only wanted Noah. For the first time in his life, there was only one person that could get him going, that made him crazy for them. So when he looked at this Justin, there was aesthetic appreciation, but nothing else. It was a strange, but good, place to be.
Now if only Noah could feel the same way.
“Justin Bruce?” Lance exclaimed, and Darien tilted his head curiously as he glanced over at his bandmate and friend. He saw that Lance had an expression of pure, incredulous surprise stamped on his face, and watched as it slowly faded away to pleasure.
“Who is Justin Bruce?” Darien asked, and Lance turned to him, and his expression now was one of pity.
“You don’t know who Justin Bruce is?” he asked, and Darien shook his head, even as he bristled a little at Lance’s tone. So what if he was younger than the rest of the men in this band? He wasn’t a little kid, and too often they treated him like he was. Lance especially.
“He’s only the most famous songwriter in North America,” Lance continued, and Darien listened, focusing just on the words and not on the slightly amused contempt he could hear in Lance’s voice. “Is he really going to be writing our album?”
“Sort of,” Justin said, and his face could have been carved out of marble for all of the expression that he showed. “I’m here to write a song for each of you, one which focuses on your unique personalities. And if that works out, we’ll see about the rest of the album.”
Darien frowned thoughtfully and then nodded. That could make the album more personal, he imagined, though it was a little bit intimidating for him. What would he even get Justin to write about?
His eyes fell on Noah, and he gave him a tentative little smile. To his surprise and pleasure, Noah smiled back. Darien would have been willing to bet that Noah would be upset about the whole tour thing, but it seemed like he was taking it pretty well.
Which meant that he didn’t have to have a whole awkward conversation, or did he? As the rehearsal broke up, as everyone drifted away, Darien kept his eyes locked with Noah’s.
He should tell him what was going on with him. He’d been putting it off. He’d figured that he’d talk to him when he knew for sure what he was going to say, but something told him that it was time. It made him nervous, but that seemed like more of a good reason to do it than anything.
Slowly, he walked over to his friend, to his … lover? Or whatever Noah was. There was sex there, and there was friendship, but what did it all mean? For the first time, Darien found himself capable of looking at that question and not shying away.
“Are you ready to go?” Darien asked, and he offered his hand to Noah, not caring that Justin, or more importantly, Lester, might see. Whatever this thing was, it wasn’t something that he was ashamed of.
“Yeah,” Noah smiled at him, and Darien smiled back, and it was the first step toward something that Darien knew that he, at least, had been running from far too much. The first steps onto a path that was scary, filled with unknown dangers, but one which could lead them both somewhere good.
* * *
“Noah …” Darien hesitated, stopped at a red light, and then he remembered that shy, sweet little smile that Noah had given him and it gave him the courage to continue on. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to find out about the tour that way.”
He searched Noah’s face, trying to read him. Maybe it was the first time in his life that he’d really, truly been focused on another human being, because it felt like literally all that mattered to him in the world was finding out what was going on in Noah’s head.
“It’s okay,” Noah spoke slowly, and to Darien’s surprise, it seemed like he meant the words. “If you want to go on tour, I won’t try to stop you. It’s your life. It’s your career. I’ll be here.”
It sounded like a promise and the sort of thing that would have normally had Darien running as fast as he could away from it. Now, he just found it a relief. He could go on tour if he wanted, and Noah wasn’t going to try to talk him out of it.
