Chapter 14
CHAPTER
FOURTEEN
Their day of freedom was over and Carl was back. That smooth, fake voice grated up Ray’s spine to his skull as he stood by the tour buses. They were nearly packed—just the final check to make sure they had everything and no equipment had wandered away.
There was a nasal quality to Carl’s voice Ray’d heard when they’d found videos of Tenacious Dreams, and now he couldn’t unhear it.
Wasn’t horrible, a gray dagger across Ray’s vision, but it also wasn’t surprising that Carl ended up in management.
Maybe vocal training could have fixed it, but who knew?
When Carl strode up to him, Ray almost didn’t flinch. “You’re on time,” Carl said.
Ray rolled his eyes. The early-morning summer sun was heating up the humid Texas air. “It’s a fucking Christmas miracle.” He stared back as Carl’s face darkened.
“Well, I guess you didn’t get any action last night, huh?” Carl gestured at Mish and Zavier, who were laughing at something on Zavier’s tablet. Dom was already on the bus reading.
Those two, together? No way. Zavier wasn’t Mish’s type. And if Mish was Zavier’s, Ray had seen no signs of that.
He had felt exactly how much Zavier had wanted him, though. And the memory burned through him with both shame and desire. He shouldn’t get on Carl’s nerves, but at least that man knew he was a fuckup. Ray turned around and looked Carl up and down. “You offering?”
From the murderous look on Carl’s face and the way his right hand curled into a fist, Ray guessed he’d said the wrong thing. Fuck. He stepped back out of instinct and held up his hands.
An instant later, Zavier was next to them both. “There a problem?” His sudden presence and deep voice was like that of a hulking bodyguard.
Must have had the same effect, because Carl shook his head. “Just complimenting Ray on his punctuality.” He broke away and headed toward the crew bus. “Where’s the equipment manager?”
Ray let out a breath. Wow. Okay. No joking like that around Carl, especially not in anger. Zavier had teased along the same lines earlier, but Carl hadn’t reacted like that.
Zavier raised an eyebrow.
“Um—he was insinuating you and Mish had fucked and made fun of me for not getting any. So I asked him if he was offering.”
Mish must have heard the tail end of that when he came over, since she snorted. “Nice.”
Except it hadn’t been. They hadn’t seen the fury in Carl’s eyes. “He’s either really homophobic or—”
“—really in the closet,” Zavier finished. “Or his dislike for you is deeper than we thought.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.” Ray checked himself when Zavier frowned and blew out a breath. “Sorry. The snark comes out too fast when I haven’t had any coffee.”
Zavier pointed at the bus. “Then by all means, let’s get you caffeinated.”
Those words should have bothered Ray, except Zavier said them without any malice or judgment, like he actually wanted to get Ray coffee.
He watched Zavier board the bus. “I don’t understand him,” he said to Mish.
“Honey, you don’t have to. All you have to do is trust him.” A wink and a smile, then she was following Zavier’s path into the bus.
Well, guess coffee it was. Ray boarded and got himself settled. Everything was stowed where he wanted it, including his notebook. Memories of the day before trickled through and he took out his phone.
Yup. The lyrics—such as they were—were still there. “Hey, Dom?”
“Yeah?”
“You got your acoustic guitar handy?”
Dom dropped his book and shuffled off the couch. “No. I’ll pull it from the hold.” In a flash, he was gone.
Zavier had another one of his questioning looks as he put together the coffee, but Mish answered, “Songwriting. Ray fiddles with the melody on the guitar.”
“Saves your voice?” Zavier said. He set the pot and pressed a button. A couple moments later, it glugged to life.
“Yeah, basically. And lets me see—hear the notes. I don’t nearly as well when I’m singing.”
“I didn’t know you could play.” A hint of surprise in his words. It was echoed in his face—but it wasn’t an unpleasant expression. Read as happy, even.
“Not anything like Dom can.”
Speaking of which—Dom bounded back onto the bus with a guitar case in hand. “Here you go.”
Ray took the case and nodded to Dom. “He taught me to play.”
He rolled his eyes and flopped back down onto the couch. “Don’t let him fool you. He’s not bad, and he mostly taught himself. I just helped out here and there.” He picked up his book. “Plays piano, too. But he’ll never tell you that.”
Zavier chuckled. “You have to keep some secrets, Dominic.”
Dom...blushed. A lot, and glanced up at Zavier. Ray thought the bus might have started moving for the lurching in his stomach. He had no right to feel jealous, but Dom and Zav?
He turned away. “Guess someone did get lucky last night.” He ground the words out.
Zavier caught him by the shoulder. His grip wasn’t hard, but it was utterly firm and commanding. Ray found himself looking straight into his eyes. “Not with me.” He let go of Ray, then stepped away, heading for his berth. “Coffee’s almost done.”
Ray sank down onto the couch, because it was more graceful an option than teetering over. He hazarded a glance at Dom, who shook his head and smiled. “Not my type.”
Mish rolled her eyes. “Oh, lord. Zav, honey, I’m going to need a cup of that, too.”
Zavier laughed.
Ray stared at Dom. “But—” He’d known the way Dom had looked at Zavier back in high school.
A mug of coffee descended into Ray’s view. “Drink this before you hurt yourself,” Zavier said. He passed between Ray and Dom and handed Mish a mug as well, then returned to get his own cup. “Dom?”
“Please. Ray’s gonna be the death of me.”
Ray wrapped his hands tighter around the mug, despite the heat. “But—”
Zavier handed Dom a mug, then sat down next to Ray on the couch. “I’m not everyone’s type, Ray.”
No one was. Ray knew that. But Zavier was as close to perfection as they came. “Still.”
Mish snorted and Zavier toed his shoes off before stretching out his legs in that annoying way he had before, back when Ray wasn’t so pissed. Back before Ray’d flipped him off, and before he had kissed Ray’s neck and made him come.
The memory brought the heat of desire and the flush of shame. He sipped his coffee. It was, like Zavier, perfect—dark, strong, and hot.
The bus rumbled to life under them and shuddered forward, temporarily pausing everything as they all found their balance. On the road again.
Zavier’s foot brushed against Ray’s thigh when he shifted. “Dom likes tall antiquarian book dealers with broad shoulders and interesting accents,” he said. “I’m commonplace next to that.”
“I—uh—” Dom coughed. “Well.”
“Wait, you fucked a book dealer last night?”
Dom shrugged and smiled. “He was cute.”
So was Zavier. Ray shook his head.
“Dom’s the smart one,” Mish said. “He can slip off and get laid, and no one knows he’s Domino.”
His grin got a little wider and he shrugged again before sipping his coffee.
Ray couldn’t do that, though. Not in a million years.
He was himself pretty much all the time.
Unfortunately, sometimes he was an asshole and he couldn’t strip that off and shove it into a drawer.
“Hey, look.” Ray glanced around at all of them.
“I’m sorry I’ve been such a jerk lately.
” He focused on Zavier. “Especially to you.”
“I wasn’t entirely fair to you, either.” Zavier poked Ray’s thigh with his toes. “All is forgiven.”
The tightness in Ray’s chest lessened. Forgiven. That was good, because wow, he’d fucked up. Yeah, maybe Zavier could have been less of an ass, but he still had to stop flying off the handle at everything, stop being out of control.
He leaned back and pulled his legs up until he sat cross-legged.
More of Zavier’s foot now touched him. That soothed as much as the coffee.
“I gotta figure out how not to get strung out when reporters dig for shit.” Hell, he had no idea how bad the news about the band was.
“I’m guessing my outburst the other day went over so well. ”
Mish blew out a breath. “You know, maybe we should look at those rags, see what they’re saying so we can be ready for the questions they ask.”
Wasn’t a bad idea at all, except for one problem. “You know I’ll blow up if I look.”
Zavier sipped his coffee, but it didn’t hide the smirk.
Ray glared at him. “Look, I will. I’m not saying anything that isn’t true.”
“I know.” Zavier’s voice was gentle. “I’m not making fun of you at all. You’re sometimes so self-aware, that’s all.”
Sometimes, but not always. Ray gulped down more coffee. Zavier’s toes were still pressed against his thigh. “It took Mish and Dom a long time to get me to stop searching for our name on the web.”
Dom nodded. “I mean, the good stuff’s uplifting, but the bad stuff—”
“It’s demoralizing.” Mish stretched out her legs. “So we swore a pact to not look. Carl was supposed to let us know about good press and all that, and he does, sometimes.”
“Sometimes,” Zavier repeated. He huffed out a breath. “That man...”
She shrugged. “Yeah. Pretty much.”
“I’ll look,” Zavier said. “I don’t mind, and I’ve seen some of it already.”
“Vanity-searching yourself?” Ray couldn’t help it, even if it was snark.
Zavier’s smile was wide and lovely, and not what Ray expected at all. “God, no. I try very hard not to, because that shit kills.” His expression melted into seriousness. “The mentor I mentioned? Sent some articles.”
“Good or bad?” Ray had to know.
“The ones I read? Generally very positive. Praising the sound, the tightness, the energy...”
“The drumming?” Mish said.
Zavier blushed. Ray had seen that before, but this time he looked downright uncomfortable. “Yeah.”
“Hon, you do make us sound better.”
Dom nodded, and Ray had to agree, too. “Look, none of us are mad about that.”