Jest has been on his own since his mid-teens and still blesses the chance that let him realize his dream of playing percussion in a band that has become his substitute family. Although he misses the close sharing, he doesn't expect to find a partner and certainly not one as clearly out of his element as the man who one night wanders into the club where Jest's band plays, looking totally lost and friendless.<br><br>Greene has struggled to build himself a life far from the undisciplined communal community in which he grew up. He's lonely though, and not sure how to remedy that, so he works as a game programmer in Silicon Valley until he makes a faux pas at a party. Traveling aimlessly, he meets Jest and the other members of Taken By Storm, and is intrigued but terrified of slipping back into a disorderly world like the one of his childhood.<br><br>They say opposites attract, but can a rebel drummer and an uptight programmer find enough common ground for a relationship?

A Different Drummer

Greene snapped Jest’s suspenders, not hard enough to hurt, although with enough force to get his attention. “All this stuff is in the way,” he said. “I need to really feel you. Don’t you agree?”


With a nod, Jest stepped back just far enough they could both move freely to undress. He shrugged the suspenders off his shoulders and loosened the waist and fly of his jeans, letting them drop around his ankles. Today he wore an old western-cut shirt of denim, faded almost white. He grabbed the front tails and gave a yank, popping the snaps free up the length of the placket.


Greene first pulled his polo shirt over his head and then undid his slacks and let them slide to the floor. He toed off one of his athletic shoes and then the other and stepped free of them and the trousers all at once. Now all he wore was his shorts. The front of the fabric tented over his erection.


Chapter 19