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 returned my gaze to Laramie, who was now sweaty, the hair stuck to his face and neck as he pounded out song after song, all with his eyes focused on me. Whew, the heat from those peepers could fry an egg. Did I dare let him back in? Perhaps Evan was right. What did I have to lose?


A knock on my door a couple of hours later jolted me back to the present. “Come in!”


Laramie entered. He’d cleaned up a bit and changed his shirt.


“Yeah. So,” he said, moving to sit on the edge of my desk. “You done working?”


“Soon. Satisfied with the setup? You sounded great.”


“Yeah, we did. We’ll rock the house tomorrow night, no doubt about it. Hey.” He reached over and closed the lid on my laptop.


“Getting your attention,” he replied. “Are you coming to the New Year’s Eve party at Chuck’s?”


“I didn’t know he was having one.”


“He is.” Laramie’s eyes were intent on mine. “So you’re coming, right?”


Chapter 12