The hallway acted as an amplified projector for my band bros’ animated voices.

“Enough about my blistered fingers—I should ask you about your love life,” Ashley teased Cade.

Immediately my entire being went into eavesdropping mode. My ears perked up stiffer than a dachshund’s; my mouth went sandbox dry, the tendons in my neck creaking as I spun my head toward the ajar door like Regan from The Exorcist.

“So how are things with you and Groupie Lisa?” Lash grilled.

A sigh, and then: “I broke up with her.”

Inwardly I rejoiced. Hell, yeah! The android has been terminated!

“Really? When?”

Ashley sounded shocked, cautious, and...scared? I edged my ear closer to the door crack.

“Last night,” Cade said.

Let’s go! I pumped my first. This unexpected news had me beaming in preemptive triumph. The possibility that Cade had been so disturbed by finding me in Lash’s bed that he ditched his reliable booty call the very same night, was fucking inspirational. There’s a chance, I thought, dumbstruck, I could plunder him yet.

“Why’d you dump her?” Lash asked. “I thought you wanted to get laid.”

“Yeah, but she wanted to be my girlfriend. I didn’t feel right stringing her along.” Cade cleared his throat. “So, are you, like, happy with Edan? Looks like you guys wasted no time sealing the deal.”

I opened the door the teensiest bit wider, wishing for a tub of popcorn to accompany my foray into figurative wiretapping via convenient acoustics and prime location.

“Is that what’s bothering you?” Ashley countered. “Seeing my dick in Edan’s mouth?”

My nether region throbs at the visual. Oh, the scandalous thrill of vicarious schadenfreude…

“Lash, I’m glad you finally got what—who—you wanted. Let’s leave it at that.”

“You didn’t seem very glad last night,” Ashley snipped.

“It was bad timing, bro.”

“But you could barely keep your anger in check.”

Nodding my head in silent agreement, I thought, Rage Cade is so hot.

“I was startled,” Cade justified. “I mean, I had no idea you two were, um...”

“Fucking?” Ashley mock whispered.

“Jesus,” Cade muttered. “Nobody else in the band knows, right?”

“Not that I’m aware of. I do wish I could have told you beforehand.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Because I didn’t want to jinx things between Edan and me by blabbing about our relationship.”

Aw, how cute…except for the fact that our “relationship” consisted entirely of making each other come until we passed out.

“But I’m your best friend. You told me you had a crush on him a long time ago.” I heard the edginess in Cade’s tone.

Ashley also must have heard it, because he snapped, “Maybe that was a mistake.”

“What do you mean?”

“I wouldn’t have said jack shit if I’d known you'd be so bothered by it.”

“I never said—”

“You didn’t need to. Actions speaker louder, bro. You broke up with Lisa practically the second after you saw us together. That means something.”

“It means I was tired of using her.”

“It means,” Ashley countered, voice steady, “something you can't admit to yourself.”

Despite their rising voices, my heart was thudding so hard I could barely hear them. I had a sinking feeling their BFF-ship had hit a hidden rock: me (and not my rock-hard cock, though let’s give him a nod for participation). But the show must go on. I ponied up and dared to poke my head out the door.

Cade was saying, “Think what you want, but—”

“Just be real with me.”

“I am!”

“Bullshit.”

I couldn’t stop fidgeting; I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. This little slice of ear-pie was like listening to my worst nightmare and my dearest fantasy hatefuck each other. So wrong it’s right, but mostly wrong.

Cade huffed. “I love Edan like a…a cousin. Plus, I’m not into dick.”

“Maybe you don’t need to be ‘into dick’ to be attracted to him. He’s an appealing package, blue hair and all,” Ashley mused.

I puffed up at that. As if my ego needed stroking, but hey! I wasn’t about to stop that from happening. I was self-aware, and I had sex appeal to spare. (“To thine own self be true,” said some famous dead playwright.)

Cade groaned. “I don’t want to think about Edan’s package.”

Miffed, I almost threw caution to the wind to shout, “It’s all you ever think about, you fucking hypocrite!”

“Maybe you just like Edan, regardless of his package.”

“You know I’m straight.”

“One hundred percent no homo?” Ashley lisped, and I had to stifle my giggles. The dude could troll with the best of ’em.

“I—”

“Okay, now that I’ve taken care of business, where were we, Edan?” Rem’s voice boomed down the hallway. “I’m not done with you, mister.

Fuck. I had forgotten all about Rem. Quickly I shut the door, feigning innocence as he entered the storage room a few seconds later. The stars must have aligned to help conceal my naughtiness, because Rem didn’t seem to notice my suspicious behavior; he resumed his lecturing and then concluded it without mentioning anything about catching me peek-a-booing outside the door, though I wondered if he'd overheard Lash and Cade's conversation, too. To appease his dwindled wrath at my tardiness, I said all the right things, apologized, and even kissed his cheek, which managed to disarm him. Most times, Rem was easy-peasy to appease; beneath his stern surface, he was stuffed with the fluffiest fluff, just like his cutesy face suggested.

Once again, my wily ways had saved me from certain doom.

A couple hours pre-show, I was chilling in Epicenter’s pathetic excuse for a dressing room, greedily mulling over Ashley and Cade's contentious exchange of words. What exactly had Lash meant by saying he didn’t want to “jinx” things with me? Jinx what? Did he really think for a single instant that I wouldn’t fuck him anymore if I knew he'd blabbed about our encounters to Cade? I mean, really. A man has his needs, it’s nothing shameworthy, and loose lips are certainly not dealbreakers (unless they're slipping off my dick during a BJ—that sloppiness is inexcusable!).

I recalled Cade’s voice, and that note of doubt in his tone when he proclaimed himself to be Straighty McStraighterson.

“Liar, liar, pants on fucking fire, burning with the flame sired by the flamer’s pyre!” I snorted.

Cade had been lusting after my bum for a while, that much I’d inferred, but why wouldn’t he tell Ashley the truth? It’s not like the two of us were together or, band brotherhood aside, were anything more than casual sex partners. Why would Ashley give a flying fuck about who Cade wanted to screw, even it was me? None of us had rings on our fingers. All the same, I should probably cool things down with Ashley for a while. Then maybe Cade would come around and drop trow.

“There you are,” Ashley cooed from the doorway. “I thought you’d gone back to the hotel to grab a catnap.”

Slightly irritated by his interruption of my impure thoughts, I scowled. “Where’s everyone?”

“Eating dinner.”

“Where’s my dinner?”

“Not sure, but I know what I’m having tonight.” He slid into the room, locking the door behind him. “Coq au vin.”

It took me a second to get the gist, but when I did, I must admit his proposal sounded better than me jerking off solo in a bathroom that smelled like janitors.

I spread my legs. “Make that two.”

Let me just say...the minute his nimble fingers unbuttoned my pants, my bad mood instantly went zip-a-dee-doo-dah. His thirsty kisses burned, whiskey sweet; there was nothing so virginal as that white leather sofa before we defiled it. I almost mourned the loss of its purity…then we both came, and I forgot to grieve.

Ashley’s nectar dribbled out my mouth, bitter honey beading on my lips. He watched me lick it off. We slumped on the cushions, spent. Gingerly I maneuvered out of my upside-down position (sixty-nine is better in theory than in execution, but we made it work) and crawled off him, hunting for my clothes. I was never one to bask in the sticky afterglow with anyone. No doubt Ashley was a quality piece; nevertheless, he was a diversion from the one I really wanted.

Still, I couldn’t deny he was stunning. Talk about beauty! This guy had it in spades. Restlessly, he stroked the leather cushions with his feet, toes flexing and releasing. I watched his lazy, sensual fidgeting with vague arousal. Had I not been so satiated from our minutes-old fuck, I would’ve dropped between his thighs and taken him again. After all, he was practically begging for it.

“Ede?”

I tipped him a swaggering wink as I pulled up my pants.

“Yeah, gorgeous?”

“I love you.”

Aw, fuck.