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

Deciding to put the drummer out of my mind, I continued on my quest to restock my food supply. At the self-checkout area, I dug out my coupons and discount card.


“Fancy meeting you here,” Laramie drawled as he pulled up at the pay station across from mine.


I ignored him in favor of ringing up my purchases and getting the hell out of the store. His behavior toward me was unsettling, and I didn’t want to think about why that was. I pushed the cart to my pickup truck, the air crisp and cold on my face.


As I stashed my groceries in the cab, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Laramie push his cart two spots down to a brand new Audi Q7, a sleek black SUV that cost more than the music store earned in a year.


I finished my task, took the cart back to the return area, and prepared to leave.


“Hey, Dorian, how about dinner? My treat?” Laramie called out, that ‘fuck me’ grin on his face.


Chapter 4