Page 31 of Counterpoint
A humorless grunt. “Of course we did. You were there.”
Their last tour, where Ray and Zavier had danced around their feelings for so freaking long they’d driven Mish and Dom nuts.
Then Ray had almost died when their hellish former manager had tried to drug him to start rumors. Turned out Ray’d been so allergic to the roofie, he’d gone into anaphylaxis. Two days later, Zavier had asked Ray to marry him—probably out of fear of losing someone he cared for more than anything else in the world.
There’d been no great declaration of love, no fairytale wedding, just the absolute certainty that Ray and Zavier needed to be together forever.
Zavier laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Ray worries about you, too, you know. You’ve been off-kilter since the accident.”
They all had been. The case and publicity had been brutal. “He hasn’t said anything.” Dom gazed back across the studio to his best friend and Zavier’s husband.
“He will, in his own time.”
And it would likely be not nearly as forthright or as gentle as Zavier. Ray built things up. Held them in until, like his songs, they came pouring forth in loud, awesome glory. But sometimes you really didn’t want to be in the way of Ray Van Zeller and that.
“I’ll keep that in mind.” His gaze snagged on Mish. “I’m actually kind of surprised Mish isn’t prying info out of me.”
Zavier laughed, and Ray glanced up, smiling. “Not yet.” He sauntered across the studio to join Ray. While they were never sappy, there was no doubting the connection between them, the love in Ray’s eyes or the fire in Zavier’s.
Dom joined the rest of the band, and Mish pointed her chin at Zavier. “He teasing you about your new man?”
His man. More the other way around. “Not really.”
“He should be. We want to meet him.”
“I’ve only gone out on one date!”
She laughed. “But that’s one more than any other guy you’ve fucked, honey. And I bet you already have another set, don’t you?”
He eyed his cell phone, which lay over on the table on the far side of the room. “Maybe.”
Mish ruffled his hair. “Tell me one thing that’s wonderful about this guy, and I’ll leave you alone.”
Fuck. There were so many things—and that realization left Dom blushing and hot. “He’s—he’s got this library in his attic that’s to die for.”
She clapped him on the back. “Sounds like your guy to me.”
He was. Adrian was every inch the kind of man Dominic Bradley could fall for. Just one problem...
His gaze landed on his guitar—on Domino Grinder’s guitar.
More and more, Dom wondered whose life he was really living, and whose life was the lie.
Ray cleared his throat. “I’m working on another song, but something’s not right. Wanna listen?”
Of course they all said yes, and that’s what they spent the rest of the afternoon and evening teasing apart.
Chapter Six
Adrian couldn’t help the trill of pleasure that ran down his spine when he spotted Dominic walking toward Glass Garden. He was wearing a suit that fit that taut, built body as if it had been tailored to it, and even from a distance, Dominic’s bowtie was brilliant, like the summer day around them. Adrian caught yellows and blues and maybe a hint of red.
He couldn’t wait to see it closer, watch Dominic feast, then strip everything off that body and claim the man as his own. And perhaps be claimed, as well.
Both prospects made him shiver.
Dominic must have spotted him, because his gaze became riveted and his smile one part happy, the other part lust-filled. When Dominic was close enough, Adrian took his elbow, then his chin, and gave him a not-so-chaste kiss right there on the street.
Dominic moaned and gripped Adrian’s arm. When he relented, there was surprise in his eyes and that lovely flush on those cheeks. “Hi,” he said, his voice breathless and hoarse.
