“Oops.” Jeremy looked up with a silly grin. His warm, brown eyes turned gooey as they settled on Alan, and they looked like they could melt a glacier. Derek had never seen Jeremy look at anyone like that before. Hell, Derek had never seen anyone look at another person like that – ever. Not even Brandon and Cam sharedthe longing, puppy-dog, I-can’t-live-without-you gaze that Jeremy often bestowed upon Alan. It was heartwarming and mushy, and kind of sickening, but Derek couldn’t look away. He was captivated by his best friends’ exchange of love and affection for one another.
Jeremy leaned in for a kiss, missed Alan’s mouth completely and fell into the drummer’s chest.
Alan tenderlypushed the strands of long, dark hair out of Jeremy’s face, cupped his lover’s cheeks between his palms, and kissed him softly on the top of the head. “You’re done, Kagan. Since when are you such a lightweight?”
Jeremy snuggled into Alan’s left pec, and then looked up with a dreamy smile and half-closed eyes. “I want you to take me to bed and tuck me in.”
“Oh, I haveevery intention of taking you to bed,” Alan replied. “But tucking you in isn’t on the agenda.”
“I’m outta here.” Derek deposited his shot glass on the table and went for the door, without knowing where he was headed at 3:00 in the morning. He only knew that he wasn’t sticking around to listen to his friends fucking in the next room while he covered his head with a pillow and triednot to get a boner.
Two bodyguards stationed in the hallway stood on either side of the door, and one of them followed Derek without hesitation. “S’alright.” Derek’s words slurred from the alcohol. “S’late. There’s probably no one downstairs.”
The bodyguard never slowed his pace. “Mr. Osbourne has given us strict orders to accompany each of you whenever you leave theroom, no matter what time of day or night.”
An exasperated sigh left Derek’s lungs. Felix was the overbearing, overprotective mother he never had. When Derek got to the lobby, boisterous voices from the hotel bar filled the air. Intrigued by the lively banter, he headed straight for it, bodyguard in tow.
Holy hell. The place was jumping and Derek was immediately drawninside. He didn’t even make it three steps before the bodyguard’s massive physique blocked his path.
“Sir, I can’t let you go in there without proper security. You’ll be engulfed in that crowd, and I’m not going to let that happen. Not on my watch.”
Derek started to protest, but the bodyguard barking orders into his two-way radio and frantically waving over someone fromthe hotel staff cut him off. He decided to give the guy a break. After all, it was the bodyguard’s ass and job on the line, and Derek didn’t want that on his conscience.
In what felt like a matter of seconds, another bodyguard showed up, so now twin towers of muscle flanked Derek as he entered the bar. His adrenaline pumped up several notches at the loud music and camaraderie. Happyfaces, smiling and laughing, exchanged banter with each other, while drinks sloshed carelessly in hand. One after the other, like a row of dominos, heads turned in Derek’s direction. Gasps, salutations, and a few screams of excitement rose above the general chatter that had quieted at his entrance. He nodded, smiled, and waved. Those around him respected the intimidating presence of the securityteam and opened a v-shaped path for them to walk through, instead of rushing at Derek.
When he reached the bar, a frosty beer mug landed in front of him. “Courtesy of Travis Fontana.” The bartender pointed toward the left corner of the room, which was shrouded by a crowd of people, all now looking in Derek’s direction. A beer mug rose from behind the awestruck faces, then a head ofplatinum blond hair popped up and revealed the smiling lead singer of Reckless, a chick on each arm. A flutter danced around the center of Derek’s chest at the sight of Travis. Having missed each other between sets, they’d never officially met. The short interaction they had shared at the side of the stage earlier seemed to have already formed a bond between them, because Derek felt the connectionfrom across the room.
He held up his frosty beer mug in thanks, and instructed the bartender to pour two shots of Jack Daniels and deliver one to Travis. He took a swig of the ice-cold brew from its fancy receptacle, the cold momentarily freezing his lip to the glass. It was divine. He couldn’t remember the last time he got served a frozen mug in a bar, and decided frosty mugs inthe suite would be on his rider from now on.
A brazen couple approached, glancing warily at the bodyguards that formed a wall on either side of Derek. “Hi,” the girl said, with a shy grin. “I know it’s late and I don’t want to bother you, but can I get an autograph?” She presented a ticket stub and a pen with a shaking hand.
“Sure. What’s your name?”
“Carly.”Her blue eyes and ecstatic smile could have lit up the bar.
“Did you enjoy the show?” he asked, as he scribbled his name on the crumpled ticket that probably spent the night in the back pocket of her jeans.
“It was awesome!” She bounced on her feet, while her boyfriend stood nearby without saying anything and looking more star struck than she did.
Derek shookthe boyfriend’s hand. “Nice meeting you.”
“Can I get a quick photo?” Before Derek had a chance to answer, the guy quickly snapped a selfie with Derek, and he and his girlfriend briskly walked away.
Both bodyguards stepped closer to Derek. “I’m not comfortable with this,” one of them said. “There are too many people here,” said the other. “We need to rope off an area.”
As the large crowd closed in on Derek, he started to think the bodyguards were right. Claustrophobia gripped him as the block of fans cut off the exit. With his back against the bar, he had nowhere to go. The bodyguards spread their arms out to form a barrier and warned the fans to keep back, but people still pushed forward. Derek jumped up onto the bar, mainly to escape the suffocatingcrowd, but also because someone played Bulletproof’sZero to Sixtyon the vintage-looking juke box that Derek spotted on the way in. He listened to the song that he’d played on stage only a few hours earlier, and his hand followed along, fingering invisible strings on an imaginary fret board. He rocked his head and flipped his hair back and forth. Through the thick, dark strands, he spotted TravisFontana staring up at him from the floor in front of him and his breath left his lungs, just like it had the first time they’d made eye contact.
“Damn!” Travis exclaimed. “You’re turning this place crazy.”
“I only came in for a drink.” Derek flashed an innocent smile and gave a flirtatious shrug of his shoulder. It didn’t matter that Travis was into chicks, flirting witha hot guy was mandatory.
“You wanna get outta here?”
Derek chuckled.You have no idea. “Where to?”
“I know a great place.”
Derek’s foot slipped on the steep hill, sending a cloud of dirt particles into his face and up his nostrils. Instinctively, he reachedout to grab onto anything within reach, and his hand closed around a cactus. “Ow!” A thorn pierced the pad of his right thumb and he pulled his hand back sharply, almost tumbling down the broad incline. Regaining his balance, he continued following Travis. This time, instead of watching that tight little ass in front of him, he paid more attention to the ground beneath him. “I can’t believe I’m hikinga mountain in the middle of the night. Drunk. You’re fucking insane!”
