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

I must have fallen asleep before he left because I had no memory of his departure when I awoke an hour later. I remained wide-eyed for the rest of the night.


The store was closed on Christmas Day each year if it fell on a business day. Evan told me he had plans to spend time with Chuck. I performed my usual ritual of watching It’s a Wonderful Lifewhile eating the ginger cookies I’d baked and drinking milk. As I sat there, I remembered that, once upon a time, I’d shared this with Laramie, too. Interesting. It was one of the rare moments of communion we’d had, apart from joining of our bodies.


He’d stopped by the store a few more times before Christmas, but beyond a cursory greeting, Laramie had left me alone as he’d promised he would. As the week had drawn to a close, I’d only managed to sleep a total of eight hours, which meant that a crash was imminent.


Chapter 9