Dorian Seacrest owns a music store and performance venue with his friend and business partner, Evan Harper. When Evan rushes into the stockroom a week or so before Christmas to tell him Caesar's Flame is booked for New Year's Day, he goes into shock. Many years have passed since Dorian has seen Laramie Treble, the drummer and leader of the now globally successful alternative rock band. Their erstwhile relationship -- mostly about sex -- deteriorated once Laramie became famous, mainly because he wanted to sleep with everything that moved. So Dorian left him to it. He wanted monogamy and forever, or nothing at all. Now Laramie is back and in hot pursuit of Dorian once again. But Dorian is not making it easy. He can't, because his heart won't survive another round, especially if all Laramie wants is something casual like before. He's just not built that way. It seems, though, that Laramie is determined to prove Dorian wrong, and there might be a little drummer boy in his future, after all. Dorian just has to decide whether to let his heart beat to Laramie's drum.

The Beat of His Drum

Hopefully Laramie wouldn’t come sniffing around back here, since it would bring back memories of hot and heavy sessions behind the Fender Strats in the stockroom. I bent my head again to the task before me and did my best to ignore the light music coming through the walls.


Three hours later—so sue me, I was a coward—I thought it would be safe enough to leave. I locked my office and went into the Music Room. I walked behind the few remaining fans toward the door. Thankfully, Laramie was nowhere in sight as I found my way outside and slowly wandered up the street to my place.


“Dorian Seacrest. Been a long time.”


The voice I’d know anywhere stopped me cold. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before pivoting around to face Laramie Treble, the too-handsome-for-his-own-good drummer for Caesar’s Flame.


Chapter 3