Page 13 of Naughty Dreams
One problem at a time.
“Lolly, go ahead and fill in the drums.”
She gave DJ a thumbs up as Moss stepped in to join her. His grim expression suggested he’d seen Tal taking off.
DJ’s gaze moved to Roy, once again holding up the back wall of the control room. The man stood impossibly still for long periods of time, with the exception of his gray eyes, which were always moving, taking in everything. It was fascinating, and a little distracting.
But right now, DJ needed to address something with his personal security detail that didn’t involve his hotness. Since it would take Lolly time to get set up, he’d do it now.
It wasn’t about Roy stepping in. He’d handled Tal’s challenge to the security decision well. Firm, assertive, not aggressive. Kind of provocative to watch, which eased the stomach acid Tal had stirred up.
He gave Moss a nod as he joined them in the control room. “We need to talk about the Mr. James thing,” DJ told Roy. “Tal has a point. It’s not working for us.”
“I can call the others by their surnames,” Roy said.
“Mr. Lewandowski?” Steve and Pete had followed DJ to the threshold, and Steve spoke. “Jesus, I’d be shot dead before you get that out.”
“During a show, a thousand people might be screaming your name,” Roy told DJ. “I need something that will catch your attention.”
“We call him Dickhead fairly often,” Pete said. “But since he ignores us, that won’t work.”
“Dorian,” Roy said.
“No,” Steve and Pete said immediately.
“First foster home,” Pete told Roy, with a glance at DJ. “Not a good memory.”
“Yeah.” DJ cut it off there. He and his bandmates indulged in dark humor about their early years, but he wasn’t going there right now. If Roy had dug into his life, he could put it together. And the only foster home that mattered was the one that he, Steve and Pete had shared with Marjorie Timmons.
“Okay,” Roy said. “How about Dory?”
"Like hunky-dory, or the forgetful fish? I like the hunky part.” As he struck a manly pose, and Steve and Pete hooted, he pointed out, “Skinny but tough is the new sexy. Thomas Brodie Sangster inQueen's Gambit. Or Andrew Garfield’s Spiderman."
“I prefer him inHacksaw Ridge,” Roy noted. His comment was backed by faint amusement and serious patience.
No one had ever called him Dory. DJ kind of liked the idea of Roy having an exclusive name for him.
“Dory it is.” He gave Roy the doe-eyed expression one uncensored influencer had called hisplease fuck me nowlook. DJ thought thepleasepart gave it an intriguing twist.
The gray eyes became steel. Getting a little lost in the stern look, DJ realized he’d set a trap and then stepped into it himself.Dial it back, man. Don’t screw with the guy in charge of your life.
Yeah, like he’d be smart enough to heed his own advice.
DJ was correct. On his deep dive into DJ’s background, Roy had reviewed the repulsive, too-familiar story. His foster home from age eight to ten hadn’t been a good one. He’d been removed from it only after he broke a chair over his foster father’s arm to make him drop the bat he’d been about to use on DJ. It hadn’t been the first time, but it was the last. The bruises had healed, and eventually he’d ended up in the home where he’d met Pete and Steve. They started a garage band when they were in high school.
In the police reports, the piece-of-shit foster father had said “Dorian” was violent, uncontrollable, and needed to be in a juvenile detention center. Fortunately, a judge had disagreed, and the man and his wife were no longer approved for foster placement.
Steve and Pete were talking to Moss, so DJ moved to join Roy at the wall. “What’s Roy short for?”
“Royal. Royal Montague Bloodwell.”
He usually inserted the middle name when asked, so it wasn’t so obvious, but he should have known the man who wrote songs for a living would catch it.
“Your name is RoyalBloodwell.” DJ smirked.
“My mother said it was an ambitious name,” Roy said with dignity. “One that would inspire me to live up to it.”
“Is she a good mom?”
