Page 24 of Edge

Damianswallowed and stood up, holding the cushions over his back andfront bits. Fuck me this isawkward. “Um, I’ll stay.” He nodded atRoger, whose face was paper-white, his jaw clenched. “Nice to meetyou, Roger.”

Roger’s lips curled andhe nodded briefly. He shot a venomous glance at Jory then walkedover to the cocktail cabinet on the other side of theroom.

Jory gestured to Damian,taking his hand and leading him out of the room, sashaying his hipsa little bit more as if knowing it would upset Roger. Damian, onthe other hand, marvelled at Jory’s tight, pert arse.

“Night, Rog,”Jory called out as they left the room. “I’m at the studio firstthing in the morning so I probably won’t see you. I know you like alie-in in the mornings.” There was no answer, only the tinkling ofice in a glass. Damian followed Jory until they arrived at a roomat the end of the marbled corridor.

Jory pushed open the doorand beckoned Damian inside. “Holy shit,” Damian said, dropping thecushion with a short laugh. “He seems a bit dour. You two don’t geton, do you? Why the hell do you stay together?”

Jory ignored him, andopened one side of the thick, fluffy duvet, motioning Damian intobed. “You can clean up in the bathroom first if you want to, orthere are wet wipes in the bedroom side table. Whatever works foryou.” He opened his drawer and drew out a packet of wipes, removedone then wiped the already drying evidence of their lovemaking offhis body. Damian did the same.

Jory got into bed with asatisfied sigh. Damian joined him and Jory drew him across hischest, his arm across his shoulders.

“Sleep now,”he murmured. “See you in the morning.”

Damiansnuggled against him, hand trailing over Jory’s belly.This is heaven. “Yeah, Icould do with some zzz’s. Night, Jory. It’s been one heck of anevening.”

Getting no response,Damian lay there for a while, threading his fingers slowly throughJory’s dark locks.

Soon Jory sank intosleep, and Damian smiled drowsily.

I could soget used to this.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Damian

Backstage at the aptlynamed nightclub called The Pound of Flesh was a disasterarea.

Damian blinked slowly,wondering whether to run away or hide under the table. He figuredit was what one would do when confronted with the unstoppable forcecalled Sooty Marcus. It was their first meeting, and wow, was she aperson to be reckoned with.

Her personality filledthe backstage room, where the band members were gearing up fortheir show. Sooty had an irrepressible voice while she strodearound the room, simultaneously barking out orders and leaning downto kiss the coiffed hair of Jory’s crew as they dressed into theirshow clothes.

“You lookfabulous, Hannah, honey, very rock chick chic. Love your outfit,looks wonderful on you.” Sooty winked at the young woman, whoblushed. Damian agreed though. The black chiffon shirt and thesparkly trousers framed Hannah’s curvy body well, and the blondehair tumbling around her shoulders was artfullycoiffured.

Hannah caught his eye androlled her blue eyes at him as if to say she thought Sooty wasexaggerating. But Damian noticed she looked more relaxed andconfident than a few minutes before. Jory had told him inconfidence Hannah had been dieting and lost a stone, which made hermore confident. Damian had thought she’d been gorgeous before theweight loss.

Damian was standing inthe stage wings, waiting as Jory and his band readied themselves toopen for a popular worldwide rock band called The Widowmakers. Joryhad been stoked to tell him Stone Edge had been requested by theirmanager to be part of their world tour for the gig in the vibrantcity of Leeds at the September “Out in the Square” music festival.The gigs took place at various larger pubs and nightclubs acrossthe cosmopolitan city.

To be honest, Damianwasn’t quite sure how he’d ended up here. After the night they’dspent together at Jory’s place, he and Jory had seen each other afew times since then. Damian told himself they weren’t serious.Just a couple of guys scratching an itch and enjoying each other’scompany. The fact he was dreaming about the sexy rock star, waitingfor every minute to pass until he could see Jory again, was of noconsequence.

He also felt a littleguilty at the fact he’d Googled Jory on his original name. Hehadn’t found much. Only a short article about a couple with thesame surname who’d died in tragic circumstances ten years ago. Hehadn’t found any references to Jory. He’d even Googled RogerGilchrist, using Jory as a factor, and what he’d found out abouthim hadn’t been enlightening, although some of it had been ratherdisturbing.

Roger was in his forties,single, having been married in his twenties and since divorced.Also, he was an ex-soldier. Damian had seen a picture of him with acouple of mates on an Army Reunion website. There were variousarticles about his and Jory’s relationship, some newspapers sayingthey were romantically involved, others saying not. Roger hadappeared in Jory’s life eight months ago, and from what thenewspapers said, it had been a tumultuous time, leading them tomove in together.

The disturbing thing wasthe number of references he’d found for “Edger,” a mashup betweenRoger and Edge, with erotic and pornographic undertones. Damianwished he’d never found it on Tumblr. It was a bit of a turn-on(some of the images were extremely sexy and hot) but had an “eww”factor to think the pair could be sexually involved.

He’d never asked Joryright out if there’d ever been anything between them because fromthe limited toxic relationship he’d seen, and Jory’s snarkycomments about the man, no way could Damian see them being athing.

Anyway, Jory wouldn’t betwo-timing his live-in lover with a younger, less polished, andless wealthy front-of-house manager. Would he? Damian chose tothink not.

The last time they’d beentogether watching a film at The Animus, Jory had pressed afirst-class train ticket with a VIP entrance pass to the concertinto Damian’s hand, winked at him, told him to get his arse toLeeds next weekend so he could see the performance.

Then he’d kissed Damianstupid, grinned, and disappeared for a week on tour.

And now here Damianstood, stage pass around his neck, courtesy of Sooty, whose eagleeyes had spotted him standing forlornly in the admittedly lesspopulated VIP entrance in the queue, watching the members of StoneEdge get their groove on. He still had no idea how she’d known whohe was. When he asked her, she tapped her nose and winked. “Mylittle secret, darling.”

He hadn’t spoken to Joryyet, who was with Dumont and Bernard checking out the sound systemto make sure everything would go off smoothly.