Keys to Love (3 page)

“Earth to Morgan! You really aren’t going to last being that much of a space cadet.”

Morgan glared at Kurt. “I was listening to Julian play.”

Kurt’s face flushed as rage claimed his visage, yet his voice came out oddly even. “Did you miss the whole conversation we had about not calling the band members by their first names? I was talking to you, wasn’t I? Not a wall?”

Morgan stood up, straightening his posture to his full height, which put him half a head taller than Kurt. “No, I got it. But now let me ask you for something. You think you can give me just a little respect? Not much. Just talk to me like I’m a human being.”

“You’ll get respect when you earn it. I could go out on the street and find twenty people in less than two minutes who would take your job. So deal with it or walk. Which is it going to be?”

Morgan balled both hands into white-knuckled fists. Would it be that bad if he decked him? Sure he needed the money, but waiting tables and cleaning up dog shit wasn’t that awful. It’d be worth it just to leave the guy sprawled on the floor with a broken nose.

14 S.J. Frost

Julian’s gentle playing penetrated his thoughts. No, he couldn’t punch Kurt. Worse than losing his job, it’d ruin his chance at meeting Julian. If down the road the opportunity came to punch Kurt after he’d at least said hi to Julian, then he’d take it.

Morgan forced a smile. “You were going to show me the stage setup, weren’t you?”

Kurt let out a snort. “Yeah, that’s the decision I thought you’d make. Come on.”

Morgan took another deep breath and followed him toward the stage, each step he took bringing him closer to Julian.

Julian brought Fur Elise to a soft conclusion. He exhaled a sigh, his mind, his body, more at peace. The song always did that for him, and for all the pieces he played, it was still one of his favorites. At least now he could stand up from the piano and not unintentionally point at everyone.

He moved to close the fallboard over the keys and halted his movements at the sight of two men approaching him. He recognized the stockier built of the two as Kurt, one of the tour managers, with his shortly cropped blond hair and slightly darker goatee. They had a few managers to handle different aspects of the massive tour, but Kurt was in charge of the staff. It was true the man was excellent at his job—the staff was always in place, setups were quick and efficient—but the man grated on his nerves. He knew it wasn’t intentional on Kurt’s part. If Kurt had any flaw it was he obsessed about doing an exceptional job for the band. The man beside Kurt, though, nearly made his jaw drop.

Dressed in dark khakis and a forest green button down shirt, the other man stood taller than Kurt by several inches, putting him well over six feet. The man’s height was complimented by a powerful build. Julian could make out hints of thick musculature beneath his shirt. His dark brown hair was brushed back in medium-length waves, a few strands falling to the sides of his face, and shone with deep auburn highlights.

Julian moved his gaze over the other’s face, his features masculine and painfully attractive in how his jaw was dusted with trimmed stubble. He couldn’t help but admire the man’s beautifully formed cheekbones, the fullness and perfect shape of his lips, his skin of a lightly bronzed hue that looked a natural shade rather than tanned. As Julian met his gaze, he tightened his jaw to make certain it wouldn’t drop at seeing the loveliest shade of earthy brown in the man’s eyes.

16 S.J. Frost

“Beautifully played, Mr. Forrester, beautifully played!” Kurt said. “But what else is to be expected from you?”

Julian summoned a smile. “You’re too kind, Kurt. I was simply dabbling.”

Kurt stopped beside the piano. “Well dabbling for you is what other people wish they could sound like.”

Julian strained to keep his smile. “Yes, well…” he left the sentence hanging, deciding not to accept the compliment because if he did, others were certain to follow and he’d already had enough of them. He turned his gaze to the other man and found it far easier to hold his smile. “And who is your friend?”

Morgan took a step closer and offered his hand to him.

“Mor—”

“Morgan,” Kurt intervened. “His name is Morgan.”

Julian glanced at Kurt, then back to Morgan, noticing the barely concealed annoyance on his face. He suppressed a chuckle.

It seemed he wasn’t the only one forced to practice patience with Kurt. He placed his hand in Morgan’s larger one, the roughness of his skin and calluses on his palm telling him Morgan must work with his hands a lot. Morgan’s grip was strong, but not crushing, and just the touch was enough to make heat roll through his groin.

“It’s such a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Forrester,” Morgan said.

“Please call me Julian, most people do.” Julian’s gaze flicked to Kurt. When it returned to Morgan, he saw the slight curve of a smirk and he knew Morgan caught how it annoyed him the way Kurt always referred to him as mister. “And the pleasure is mine, Morgan…”

“Chandler,” Morgan quickly filled in.

Julian nodded once. “Morgan is such a lovely name. Classic and sophisticated, strong, yet soft.”

A bright smile shone over Morgan’s countenance. “Thank you. I’ve always liked the name Julian, too. It has such a fluid, musical sound.”

Keys to Love
17

“Ah, well, I’ll admit I used to get teased quite a bit with it when I was young. Other boys would call me Julie Ann.”

Morgan’s expression turned sympathetic. “I can relate. The other kids used to tell me I had a girl’s name.”

Before Julian could reply, Kurt broke in. “Yeah, I never had any problems like that. So Mr. Forrester, Morgan is going to be in charge of your instruments.”

Julian looked to Morgan. “Great!”

“Yeah, I’m—”

“That’s right,” Kurt said. “So if anything is ever wrong with them, you know who to blame. And if anything like that does happen, you come to me and I’ll put him in line for you.”

Julian’s smile faded. He saw the flush on Morgan’s cheeks, showing he was both angered and embarrassed. Julian turned to Kurt. “Somehow I doubt that will happen.” He focused on Morgan, presenting another smile to him. “So I take it you have experience handling pianos and keyboards?”

Morgan nodded. “Yeah, my father—”

“His dad owns a music shop, or something, so he knows what he’s doing.” Kurt said.

Julian brought his gaze to Kurt. All semblance of patience vanished from him and his voice left him with a sharp edge.

“Kurt, as much as I appreciate you having knowledge about our staff, at this moment, I would prefer to hear Morgan answer for himself.”

“Of course, of course,” Kurt said hastily. “You want to make sure he’s not all talk. I get it. You’d be able to see someone talking a big game about music better than anyone, Mr. Forrester.”

“That’s not my intent at all. I’m sure Morgan can back up any game he talks if you would give him a moment to speak at all.

And with that said, I would appreciate no further interruptions.”

Julian returned his attention to Morgan. “So your father owns a music store?”

“He did, but it’s mine now. He passed away last year.”

18 S.J. Frost

Julian’s expression filled with sympathy. “Oh, I’m so sorry.”

Morgan shook his head. “It’s alright. He passed away in the shop he loved, surrounded by instruments. It’s how he would’ve wanted to go, and it’s how I grew up. I was tuning pianos when I was still too small to even lift the lid on a grand.”

“That’s sweet. Then you play?”

“I pretend to.” Morgan held up his hands. “I took lessons for years, but these clunky fingers of mine just don’t have the agility.

There’s no instrument I love more, though.”

Kurt interceded again. “Which is why he’ll be perfect for handling your instruments, Mr. Forrester. That’s what I was thinking the whole time I’ve talked with him.”

Julian slowly brought his gaze to Kurt in a glare.

Kurt lifted both hands high as if Julian had a gun pointed at him. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt, and I hate to break this up, but I really do need to finish showing Morgan around and introduce him to a few more people.”

“Fine.” Julian aimed a kinder gaze at Morgan. “I’m sure we’ll have plenty of opportunities to chat later. We’ll only be traveling to the same places and working together day after day for the next several months, after all.”

Morgan extended his hand to him again. “Absolutely. I look forward to it.”

As Julian took Morgan’s hand, he noticed his grip was gentler than before. His heart pounded a little quicker, his cock stirred.

Morgan released his hand and turned to leave. Julian watched him depart, his gaze on Morgan’s ass. He closed the fallboard over the keys and rested his elbows on it while rubbing his eyes.

He couldn’t craft a man to fit his type any more perfectly than Morgan was naturally; tall, rugged, athletic. Sadly, he hadn’t picked up the slightest bit of flirtatiousness from him. Kindness, yes. Professionalism, certainly. Julian sighed. Now how was he going to be able to focus on music when day in and day out he would have to look at that godlike ass? There was only one Keys to Love
19

answer. Sex. Lots of it. With any hot boy groupie who verified he was at least eighteen.

Julian pushed away from the piano and stood, no longer caring if anyone noticed his hard-on. He was more than ready to head home and share his evening with a few glasses of wine.

Julian dragged through arena’s backstage. He hadn’t seen anyone on stage and assumed they must be in one of the dressing rooms. He felt utterly exhausted. After making himself a spaghetti dinner the evening before, he retired to bed early, but not to sleep. With a bear and a twink going at it on the TV

hanging across from his bed, he had given himself a thorough work over using his hand and favorite dildo.

Yet even with the lovelies playing on the screen, one man occupied his mind. He didn’t know why. Well actually, he did.

Morgan was gorgeous. Even though he’d only spoken with him for barely ten minutes, throughout his self pleasuring session it was Morgan he envisioned. He thought of him last before he fell asleep and first when waking. It all brought him to the conclusion he’d reached a whole new level of pathetic in obsessing about a man he didn’t know, and though he told himself he wouldn’t have any more one-night-stands until they hit the road again, maybe he needed to pop into a club and grab some company for an evening.

Julian swung into the dressing room to the sight of Jesse, Evan, Kenny, and Brad sitting around talking. He hardly stepped through the doorway when Jesse and Evan’s dogs charged him, both bouncing and spinning in happy greeting. Achilles, a Collie/

German Shepherd mix Jesse found as a stray two years before, was the larger of the two with a long coat colored white, tan, and black. The four-month old black and tan German Shepherd, Iris, still had a great deal of growing to fill out her large paws. Julian bent down, smiling and roughing up the thick fur of both dogs.

Jesse glanced at him. “Damn, Jules, you look like hell.” A smirk lifted his lips. “I hope he was worth it.”

“I’m afraid there was no
he
.” Julian made his way to the couch and sat heavily beside Brad.

“Now that’s just sad,” Jesse said. “If a man looks as exhausted
22 S.J. Frost

as you do, there should at least be a he involved. I really think you need a he, Jules.”

“As you’ve told me before.” Julian opted for a subject change as the current one brought Morgan to his mind again. “So, what’s on the agenda for today?”

“We’re going to do more jamming than we did yesterday,”

Jesse said. “I’ve already got the moves down that I’ll need for the dance routines, so I don’t want to spend a lot of time on those.

But before we get started, Ev’s got something he wants to talk to everyone about.”

Evan gave Jesse a warm smile, then looked to the others.

“You guys know I’m getting ready to retire from recording and performing, and I’ve given a lot of thought to what I’d like to do besides managing you guys. One thing kept coming into my head.

I want to do something good for the world. I know my music has done a lot, but I want to do something more solid, something that will really affect people, so I’m going to get involved with some charities.”

“That’s wonderful, Evan,” Julian said. “What better thing than to become a philanthropist.”

Evan nodded. “Yeah, I think so. But for the first thing I want to do, I need help from you guys. I want to hold an auction where all the proceeds go to a cancer research foundation.”

Julian saw Jesse take Evan’s hand. Since joining Conquest, he’d gotten to know Evan very well, and during that time he learned when Evan was eighteen years old, his father passed away from cancer. It made perfect sense the first cause Evan would seek to throw his support behind would be to aid in treating the disease.

His voice soft, Julian said, “Whatever help you need, you have my full support.”

Evan smiled at him. “Thank you. I was hoping I could get everyone to donate something, a personal item of high value, to be auctioned off. I’m going to put up my grand piano that I’ve written most of my music on and autograph it, then Jess and I are going to auction off a private dinner with the both of us.”

Keys to Love
23

“And I’m putting up my original sheet music from
Conquest
and
No Fear
,” Jesse added.

Kenny gasped. “You can’t auction your music for the albums!”

Jesse looked at him. “Why not?”

“They have all your original handwritten notes, your adjustments, everything!”

“Exactly. You can’t get more personal than that, and people will go nuts over them.”

Evan cleared his throat to call attention to himself. “I said the same thing, Kenny, which is why I made copies of the originals so he would always have his notes.”

“Still,” Kenny said, “to lose the originals—”

“Won’t matter if they go to something more important,”

Jesse interrupted.