Off Broadway (5 page)

If only the thought of her didn’t enflame his lust and
fill him with a desire for something he couldn’t have. He pounded his fist against the side of the building.

“Fuck,” he snarled and hit the building again. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.”

-6-

Avery needed to regroup in the worst kind of way. She needed to get her head straight and the best person to help her was her brother.
She pulled her hair into a low ponytail, snatched her clothes on and made a beeline for the back door of Hugo’s. A cloud of smoke greeted her along with a few patrons who had stuck around after the show.

They leered at her as s
he hopped into a cab and directed the driver to the strip club where Rich and Brandon worked. Sex and entertainment. She sold herself with every note she sang. She knew they wouldn’t look at her that way if she weren’t on stage making them undress her with their eyes. It was all a game. One Avery had gotten really good at. But most guys only wanted the shy girl on stage, the innocent seductress. And when it turned out she had more facets to her than just that, they bailed or treated her like a whore.

When she arrived
at Scarlet’s, she bypassed a long line of desperate looking guys and went up to the bouncer at the door.

“Hey Kent.”

His face cracked open when he saw her, revealing a gold toothy grin. “Well, if isn’t my favorite songbird. I thought you had a gig tonight.”

“Yeah. I did.”

“So how did it go?”

She smiled. “Reall
y good. I wish you guys could’ve been there.”

He nodded. “Yeah, Rich and Brandon were pretty bummed too. You gotta start singing on Sunday afternoons when the club’s closed.”

She laughed. “Not likely. Where is Rich?”

Kent pointed behind him. “He just got off his shift. He’s
in the back. You can go on in.”

Avery ignored the guys grumbling in line behind her and strode past Kent with a gentle pat to his arm. She waved at the scantily clad cocktail waitress by the bar and blew a kiss to Xtina who was writhing upside down
on stage with her legs hooked on the stripper pole. As a former gymnast, Xtina had a stronger core than Avery’s pilates teacher. Her skill on the pole was legendary.

Xtina grabbed one of her giant fake boobs and licked it, winking at Avery. Avery rolled her eyes and walked to the employee break room in the back. She threw the door open.

“Rich—,” she said. “Aaagh.” She slapped her hand over her eyes at the sight in front of her, Brandon hammering his huge dick into the crack of Rich’s ass.

“Avery,” Rich screamed. “What the fuck are you doing here? Get out.”

Brandon laughed.

“Oh my God,” she said, still holding her hands over her eyes. “I’m leaving. Come get me when you’re done.”

She stumbled out of the room, flailing her hands in front of her. She shuddered at the image burned into her brain. She loved watching gay sex, but her brother? Eww. It was worse than imagining her parents getting it on. Plus, from the flash that she got, Rich wasn’t lying about Brandon’s giant cock. She shuddered again.

“Doesn’t that thing impale you?” she blurted out to Rich when he and Brandon joined her a few minutes later.

Brandon laughed and kissed her on the cheek. “It’s good to see you too, Avery.”

“My poor brother,” she said. “That thing’s a weapon of mass destruction. I’m never going to be able to have Thanksgiving with you again without thinking about it.”

Brandon adjusted himself. “I prefer to call it my weapon of masturbation.”

Rich shook his head and
signaled the waitress to bring them drinks. “Avery. Can we just pretend that little moment didn’t happen and you can tell us why you’re here? Didn’t the show go well?”

“It went really well. I think we’ll be able to pull of the
Carmichael.”

The
waitress returned with three club sodas. Avery took a sip, the cool liquid sliding down her throat and steadying her nerves.

“So?” Rich asked.

“Well, something happened afterwards,” she started.

Brandon smirked. “You mean over than you coming in on me rimming your brother?”

“Ick. And um, it was a bit more than rimming. Jesus, I’m going to need to acid bathe my eyes.”

“Christ,” Rich said. “I said let’s forget about it. Now what happened after?”

“You did the piano player, didn’t you?” Rich asked with a giant grin.

Avery looked between
the two of them. “Not exactly. It was the bass player, but the piano player watched.”

Brandon barked out a laugh. Every patron in the room looked their way.

“Shh,” Avery said. “It wasn’t that big a deal.”

Brandon continued to chuckle. “Rich,” he said, turning to his boyfriend, “why did you not get this gene in your family?”

Rich swatted him. “Give me a break. Like you would ever watch some other guy fuck me.”

Brandon’s face turned possessive. “You’re damn right, I wouldn’t. But I’d let some guy watch me fuck you.”

Rich grinned. “Pass. Avery already covered that and she’s apparently scarred for life.”

Avery laughed. “Seriously. I’m going to have to start seeing my shrink again after witnessing that.”

Brandon slipped his hand over Rich’s and turned back to Avery. “So how’d you end up with the bass player?”

Avery told the two the
entire sordid story. Brandon chuckled a few times, but Rich didn’t say a thing until she got to the part where Dan walked out.

“So wait, he wanted you to get yourself off in front of him?” Rich asked.

Avery nodded. “And of course, I couldn’t. By that point, the whole thing seemed like sort of a bad idea.”

Rich cleared his throat. “By that point? It took
that long
for it to seem like a bad idea? What the hell were you thinking Avery? I thought you liked this guy.”

Avery blinked at the harshness of his words. “I do.”

“Well, no offense, but fucking around with another guy is not exactly the best way to say you’re into someone.”

“
I’m not into him. I respect him creatively. Plus, it was a
really
intense show,” she said and shrugged.

“Evidently. Still. It probably would have been easier if you just fucked him. Then the relationship would be over and you wouldn’t have to stew about it for the next few weeks and watch it die a slow death.”

Avery’s nostrils flared. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

Rich ran his hand through his hair and sighed. “Avery, I think you’re amazing. You know it. I think whoever gets you will be the luckiest guy in the world. But just last week, you told me that your pussy was like the Vagina Dentata and you swore off men for the next year.”

“So I’m a nympho,” Avery said. She dropped her head into her hands. “I can’t even last a week.”

Rich squeezed her shoulder. “You’re not. You’re spectacular. But even you know that mixing business and sex never ends well. I know how much cabaret means to you. And this guy seems like he’s good for you. A good partner. You
said he brought out the best in your show, right?”

A tear slid down Avery’s cheek. Rich brushed it away and wrapped her in a hug.

“Yes. He’s really talented him and I like him. I like him too much. I feel like I’ve found a creative life partner, you know? I mean, even when we disagree, we resolve it in such a good way. We talk about it and it’s this really healthy communication. I’ve never had that before. I just wish I could have it in my personal life too.” Avery pressed her face into Rich’s chest and released a sob. All the emotions from the night pooled out of her onto Rich’s T-shirt.

The tears finally subsided and she pulled away from Rich. “I’m sorry. I got snot on your shirt.”

Rich laughed. “Aww, honey. I hate to see you like this.”

“Maybe it could work.” Brandon had been quiet for so long, Avery almost forgot he was there.

“What?”

“Maybe it cou
ld work with the two of you,” Brandon said again. “Maybe he could be that guy in your personal life too.”

Avery shook her head. “I don’t have a very good track record for that kind of stuff.”

Brandon shrugged. “No one does really until they meet the right person. Isn’t that what we all do? We keep failing until the right one comes along?”

Avery offered a shaky smile. “Did you fail before you met Rich?”

Brandon laughed. “Fuck yeah, didn’t he tell you? For the two years before I met him, my life was a series of hook-ups with whatever nearby guy I found on Grindr. I probably would still be in that place if he hadn’t made a move on me his first night on the job.”

Rich raised an eyebrow. “I made a move on you? I made the first move? Really? Because if I’m not mistaken,
during break you asked if I wanted to see your huge cock.”

Brandon’s smile split his face. “Yeah, that was pretty slick. But I never would have offered if you hadn’t been checking me out all night with those baby blues.”

Rich opened his mouth, but snapped it closed when Brandon looked at him pointedly. “It’s because I could see your nipple ring through your shirt. It was really distracting.”

Brandon leaned over and gave Rich a long, open-mouthed kiss. “I know,” he whispered when he pulled away.

Avery cleared her throat. “This is starting to get awkward. I’m gonna go.”

Rich turned to her. “Are you going to be all right?”

She nodded. “Of course. I have the new glass dildo at home I’ve haven’t tried yet.”

Brandon shook
his head. “This collection of yours is starting to reach epic proportion.”

Avery raised a shoulder. “Yeah, I guess. But you can’t really blame me. None of my toys have ever asked ‘whose pussy is this?’”

Rich stood up and grabbed her hand. He pulled her into a tight hug. “Don’t worry about the piano player,” he whispered. “It’ll blow over. You’ll figure it out.”

She nodded, gave Brandon a kiss on the cheek and headed for the door. She hoped Rich was right. Otherwise, she’d just ruined the best working relationship she’d ever had.

-7-

The minute Avery walked into the rehearsal space on Monday, she knew it had not blown over.

“You didn’t return my calls,”
Dan snapped at her before she’d even put her bag down. “I wanted to talk about the show, and you didn’t return my calls.”

Avery’s shoulders slumped. She’d messed everything up.

“I was trying not to work yesterday. I thought we could use a break.”

His eyes narrowed. “What were you doing? Or should I say
who
were you doing?”

She drew in a steadying breath. “That’s not your concern. We didn’t have rehearsal plans. I needed a day off.”

“I think we should cut
Material Girl
,” he said, flipping tactics.

She moved closer to the piano and ignored the angry heat swirling around him. “Really? Your arrangement’s really good. Why would you want to cut it?”

“It’s not right for that crowd. The audience at the Carmichael will be a lot older. They’ve probably never even heard the original song.”

Avery frowned. “Why does that matter?”

“It’s not funny if you don’t know the original song.”

“Yes, it is,” Avery argued.

“It’s not.”

“Well, it’s my show and I want to keep it.”

Dan raised his eyebrows. “That’s how it’s going to be now? Your show? I’m just the zany sidekick playing background music to the diva.”

Avery’s breath caught. “Don’t call me a diva. I’ve never acted like that.”

Dan stood up and placed his hands on the top of the piano. “You’re the definition of diva, Avery. You get everything your way. Everyone kneels before you and gives you just what you want.”

Avery jerked back as if she’d been slapped. “Is that what you think?”

Dan must have seen the hurt and anger in her eyes because he pulled himself back. “No. Sorry. Christ, that was out of line.”

Avery brushed tears from her eyes. She inhaled, squared her shoulders and looked at
Dan. “Let’s just get through this week. We’ll rehearse the Carmichael as the play list currently stands. I’ll consider if we should drop
Material Girl
later.”

Dan
stepped forward and squeezed Avery’s hand. “I’m sorry. I don’t think you’re a diva.”

Avery blinked away tears. She nodded. “Let’s start from the top of the show.”

***

Avery was relentless with rehearsals.
Dan had never been so tired. He played six hours a day and went home to a pissed off dog and sleepless nights. Every time he closed his eyes, the image of Avery riding Nick’s hand assaulted him. Her moans and whimpers echoed in his head at night and her beautiful voice haunted his waking hours.

She’d pulled away from him. She was professional, but the show wasn’t the
same. The energy between the two of them was off. He’d messed things up by calling her a diva. Or maybe by ignoring the giant pink elephant in the room. He’d opened his mouth several times to talk to Avery about that night, but the guarded look on her face kept him from going through with it.

He played the show over and over,
and with every hour, he died a little, knowing that at the end of their Carmichael gig, she’d send him back to South Carolina.

“I think we should have Nick play with us at the
Carmichael,” she said on the Wednesday before the opening.

“No.”

“That’s it?” She arched a brow. “No discussion. Just no.”

“That’s right. No.”

She pursed her lips. “I think we should consider it. Hugo’s worked really well with the three of us. And everyone loves a bass player.”

Dan
groaned. “You’re killing me, Avery.”

She looked at him and blinked. “What?”

“Jesus Christ, how do you expect me to react to this? Yes, by all means, let’s have the guy whose fingers were in your pussy a week ago join us on stage. That won’t be a weird dynamic at all.”

“Oh.” The air in the room stilled.

Dan released a breath and looked into her wide blue eyes. “Everything’s off with us right now, and I don’t think bringing Nick into will make it any better.” A thought hit him like a punch to the gut. “Unless you just want to play with him?”

Avery inhaled sharply. “What? Of course not. You’re my creative life partner. Why would I only want to play with him?”

Dan’s heart squeezed. “Your creative life partner?”

Avery’s cheeks reddened. “Yes,” she whispered.

“You’re not sending me back to South Carolina?”

She blinked at him. “Why would I?”

His shoulders dropped. “Because of this. Us. We’re off. You must see that.”

Avery crossed to him and slid onto the piano bench. “
Danny Piano,” she said and placed her hand on his thigh. “I fucked things up last week. But I’m not losing you over this. We’ll work it out.”

The weight that had been resting on his shoulders all week dropped. “No. I fucked up. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have…”

Avery shook her head. “That one was all on me. I wanted you and I took him, and…”

She smiled at him and a giant lump formed in his chest. He loved her smile. It had been too many days since he’d seen it.

“Should we try
Material Girl
again?”

She shook her head and stood up. “No. I have to go to this cabaret shmooze fest at Hudson’s.
”

“Oh.” He looked away and clenched his jaw.

She hesitated then asked, “Did you want to come?”

He did
more than anything, but things had just started to get patched up between them and he didn’t want to press his luck.

“No. You go.”

She gave him a saucy grin. “Are you sure? There’ll be lots of singers there. I know how fond you are of them.”

He shook his head and laughed. No. Just one of them.

***

Hudson’s was a predator’s playground. Avery hadn’t gotten ten feet into the door when a
musician accosted her and asked if she was looking for extra talent. The way he said
extra talent
made Avery choke on her drink.

An hour into the night, Avery had gotten three possible gigs and over a dozen ridiculous propositions. She wished
Dan had come with her. At least she could have pretended that she was involved with him. Although that probably would have blown up in her face after the tenuous peace agreement they’d come to before she left.

Still, she couldn’t he
lp texting him after hearing her fourth innuendo about piano players’ fingers. 

These piano players are shameless. I’ve never gotten so many offers to “partner”

Less than a minute later,
Dan texted back.

You can flirt all you want, as long as you come home to me.

Avery’s breath caught. Her body lit up like a pinball machine.

Come home to me.

All her carefully constructed efforts to keep their relationship professional fell out the window with one simple text. Who was she kidding? Her feelings had been there all week, she’d just pushed them back behind a thick wall, hoping they’d go away.

Home.

Her body pulsed with longing. Not just sexual longing but an ache to have something more. To have something real. Something that felt like her relationship with Dan.

She retreated into the bathroom and called Rich.

“I like him,” she said as soon as he picked up.

“Hold on,” he answered. “Let me put you on speaker.”

The phone clicked.

“Hey Avery.”

“Hi, Brandon. Was I interrupting something?”

Brandon chuckled. “Not anything you want to know about.”

“Ick. Stop saying that stuff. I’ve already had to have a phone session with my therapist after walking in on you and Rich.”

“Really?”

Avery laughed. “No, but still. Stop reminding me of your gay sexploits.”

Rich interrupted, “Enough. Tell us about the piano player.”

Avery exhaled. “I’ve fallen in like with him. You know?
Like
like.”

“We know. But did something happen?”

Avery sputtered. “What do you mean, you know? Rich, I don’t say this kind of stuff lightly.
Like
like is a
big
deal to me.”

“Of course, it is
,” Rich answered. “But I still knew you felt that way. We both did.”

“Yeah,” Brandon added. “You had heartsick written all over your face last week. I saw that same expression on Rich when he fell for me.”

“Ahem.”

Brandon laughed. “Just saying. So what are you going to do about it?”

“I don’t know,” Avery whispered. “Nothing, probably.”

“Sweetie,” Rich said, “that’s just not going to do you any good. There’s no protecting yourself now and honestly, it’s not your way.”

“Excuse me?”

“Avery, you’re balls to the wall. It’s why you’re so successful. It’s also why you end up with so many fuck-ups, but that’s a diff
erent story. You’ve admitted you like him. Seems like the only solution is to go all in.”

“But what if that doesn’t work?”

Avery’s heart beat too fast. Her body tingled in the same way it did when she was about to perform a big show.

“Avery, my love, the only way out of this is to risk failure. You’re dug in so there’s no changing your course.
Risk failure, sweetie. See what happens.”

“You told me last week not to ruin a good thing in my professional career by getting involved with him.”

“Yeah,” Rich answered. “And then I came home and Brandon told me I was a practical asshat with no sense of romance.”

Brandon laughed. “Yeah, and then I fucked him into submission until he admitted I was right.”

“Ack, Brandon,
enough
.”

“Good luck, sweetie,” Rich said. “You’ll win him. If he’s worth anything, he’ll see what a great thing he has with you and he’ll risk it all too.”

“I love you, guys.”

“Us too.”

Still. She had no idea how to move forward with so much still between them.