Prince of the Playhouse (22 page)

Ru could feel the lights slowly fading.

Silence.

Someone started clapping. Others joined. A whistle cut through the applause, and the place exploded in shouts of “Bravo” and wild applause.

Ru stepped around the flat and watched them lower Gray to the floor in the wings. He stood there, head hanging, glassy-eyed, as actors sped past him for their curtain calls. Finally he looked up. When he saw Ru, a huge, uncensored smile spread across his face. He stepped forward, picked Ru up, and spun him around. “You did it. You. I never could have made it through this without you.”

Ru had to smile back. “You would have done it on your own. I just showed you what you already know. You’re a great actor, Gray. Really talented.” He laughed. “And if you don’t put me down, you’ll have to carry me onstage for your curtain call.”

“Oh!” He laughed and set Ru on his feet. “You’re the very best.” With that, he spun and ran onto the stage to screams of appreciation.

They took three curtain calls, the max allowed by the Playhouse. Finally the lights went down, and all the actors piled off the stage.

Benson stood to the side and grabbed Gray’s arm as he came off, pulling him toward a couple of people who stared in the door from the hall that led to the dressing rooms.
So much for seeing him again.

Merle came up beside Ru. “Did you like it?”

“Amazing. Truly. Your last speech had me crying like a baby.”

“Want to come back to my dressing room while I change?”

“No. I have to get over to the studio and be ready for the guests. Come there when you’re ready, okay?”

“Okay.” He kissed Ru on the cheek. “Thanks for making this show so damned special. Those costumes will be talked about for—generations, probably.” He wrote an imaginary headline in the sky. “The famous Ru Maitland version of
Hamlet
.”

“Wow. What a kind thing to say.” He’d almost forgotten his part in the play. He smacked a kiss on Merle’s cheek. “See you there.”

He opened the door to the backstage and stopped. Solid humans. Some woman looked up. “Oh my God, it’s Ru Maitland.” Other heads turned. Someone started clapping, and more people joined in. “Bravo, Ru.”

“Brilliant!”

Tears sprang to his eyes. No holding them back. Well, hell, if he couldn’t cry now, when could he? He let them fall as he smiled. Cameras flashed.

As he descended the stairs, people asked him to sign their programs. Two men invited him for dinner. He got patted and touched by people he couldn’t even see.

At the end of the hall, Artie stood holding court with a dozen admirers. He reached out and grabbed Ru’s arm. “Here’s the man of the hour. Ladies and gentlemen, our costume designer, Rupert Maitland.” More applause, autographs, compliments.

Ru laughed. “Better stop. This could go to a girl’s head.”

Artie one-arm hugged him. “Which means I’ll never be able to afford you again.” He grinned. “See you at the party.”

Ru managed to slip out into the auditorium, which was emptying fast, and cut through the side door. Fresh evening air hit him like a drug.
Wow. Just wow.
He took off running and didn’t stop until he burst through the front door of Shazam.

Guests with champagne glasses turned as he stopped short inside the door. Of course, people were already there. More applause. He smiled and ran a hand through his hair.

Shaz hurried from the back of the room. “Hello, darling. Need a minute?”

“Yes, please.”

“Come with me.” He raised his voice and waved to the small crowd already gathered. “I’ll bring him right back, I promise.”

Shaz pulled him through the doors into the studio and to the very back room that was usually their break room and now served as the caterer’s staging area. In the corner, Shaz hugged him. “Congratulations, darling. People are raving. They’re manic with praise.”

Ru giggled. “I know. I had to fight my way out of the theater.”

“So, let’s look at you.” Shaz held him at arm’s length. He grabbed a hairbrush he seemed to have stashed for the occasion and ran it through Ru’s floppy bangs. Then, with a tissue, he blotted his shiny nose. “My God, darling. Would that all of us had those lashes like wood nymphs that make their own eyeliner. You never need touching up. Envy, envy.” He stepped back farther. “Gorgeous suit. What do you say to a touch of pink?”

“Pink forever, darling.”

Shaz pulled off the scarf he had tied around his waist and doubled it, then knotted it around Ru’s neck. “Perfection.” He leaned in. “I’ll give you a few more hours until you share all the details of your hot date.”

Ru’s stomach turned.

“Oops, I’m gathering a slip twixt the proverbial cup and cock?”

He shrugged. “It just turned out to be very hard to watch him get blown up and set on fire. Plus the press is all over both of us—I won’t mind when that’s over—so we didn’t get together last night.”

“You can make up for that tonight.”

Ru sighed. “No, he has other commitments and—”

The noise level in the room rose. “Hey, there’s my date.”

Ru looked up at Merle peeking in the door of the room as caterers pushed past him with platters and trays of glasses. “Hey.” He waved and smiled.

Shaz’s eyes widened. “Oh, dear me. Apparently you have other commitments as well.”

Ru sighed. “Merle, come meet my best friend.”

Merle walked up beside Ru and slipped a hand around his waist. He extended the other toward Shaz. “I’m so glad to meet you finally. I’m Merle—”

Shaz took that hand in both of his. “Please, darling. I know who you are. I watch TV and drool with the best of them.”

“I thank you for every drop of saliva.” He grinned. “And also for being such a great stylist that I aspire to engage one day, and for your friendship to Ru. He talks about you a lot.”

“Ah, darling, we’re mutual admirers.”

“I’m looking forward to meeting your husband.”

“He’ll be here soon. He has to extricate himself from an adoring client.”

Ru shifted a little. Merle got the hint and dropped his hand. Ru gestured toward the door. “What’s going on out there? I heard a bunch of noise.”

“The cast members are arriving.”

“Gray?” Half hope and half fear.

“No, not when I came in here. Last I saw him, he was huddled backstage with his manager and some producer types.”

“He did brilliantly. You all did.”

“Yeah. He surprised the hell out of me. Who’d ever guess something that pretty could act too? Seems like an unfair balance in the universe, don’tcha think?” He laughed.

Shaz smiled. “My dear, you’re equally beautiful, and while I only saw the first four acts, you did Horatio proud.”

Merle looked at Ru. “Hey, I get why you like him so much.”

“Yes. My prince.” Ru grabbed Merle’s arm. “Come on. Make me go talk to people before I run screaming down the street and hide in my bathroom.”

Shaz said, “Let’s give people a little more time to settle in and then start the fashion show. I don’t want drunks spilling champagne on the clothes.”

Merle raised an eyebrow. “May be too late for that.”

“God, I’ll tell the caterers to drag their feet a little.”

He rushed off, and Merle gave Ru a sweet smile. “Ready to go kill ’em?”

“That or myself, darling.”

Merle stepped back. “Hey, you okay?”

“Absolutely. Come on.”

They threw open the door into the studio and then to the first of the two big rooms where the party was happening. Wow. The crowd had been sparse when he arrived but not now. Beautifully dressed bodies jammed the space, and the aroma of so much perfume made breathing a challenge.

Merle snagged a couple of glasses of champagne from a passing waiter as people reached out to shake Ru’s hand and give him hugs and kisses.

Ru whispered, “Let’s go into the lobby. More air there.”

They stepped through the open door between the two rooms and—
attack of the cosmic joker!
Like Ru’s opposite bookend, Gray walked into the open front door of Shazam. They even each had their own tall, beautiful blonde on their arm. People between them turned in one direction or the other, as if a giant magnet were pulling iron filings into a mysterious pattern.

People applauded, and members of the press moved toward both Gray and Ru. Gray stared and started to smile. Then his eyes shifted to Merle, and a crease the size of the Mariana Trench appeared between his eyebrows. One reporter followed Gray’s line of sight—direct to Ru.
Damn.
Ru waved and, hauling Merle with him, made a direct line to Gray.

Ru stopped right in front of him, beamed, stood on tiptoe to kiss his cheek, then stepped back. “You were astonishing. I can’t imagine a finer Hamlet anywhere.”

Merle stuck out a hand. “I second that. You were great. And I don’t mean ‘great for an action star.’ I mean plain great.”

Gray kind of shook himself and seemed to wake up to what was going on. He took Merle’s hand. “Thanks, man, that means a lot coming from such a good Horatio.”

Cameras flashed.

Gray’s eyes rested a moment too long on Ru before he gave the crowd what it waited for—teeth to the max. “Ursula, I’d like you to meet my business partner and friend, Ru Maitland, and Merle Justice, who you saw as Horatio. This is Ursula Romanovsky.”

Merle flashed a smile. “I’m a big fan, Ms. Romanovsky.”

Thank God he spoke. Ru couldn’t manage much more than a smile and a head nod.

The expression she wore on the high fashion runways seemed to be innate—a bored and slightly inscrutable mask. “Oh, that is good. You have seen me on magazines?”

Merle nodded. “Yes,
Vogue
,
Glamour
,
W
.”

Her brows moved a tiny fraction toward center. “This is not good reading material for man.”

Merle’s smile moved from appreciative to ironic. “Well, you see, I’m a gay man, so I have more varied tastes than many men.”

She actually frowned until she seemed to realize she could create wrinkles. “Is unnatural.”

“Only to Vladimir Putin, dear.”

Gray leaped into the breach. “When do we get to see your designs, Ru?”

Ru’s glance touched Gray’s face, then skittered away. “Soon. Actually, I better go coordinate that.”

A reporter stepped in. “Not before we get some shots of you and Gray together.”

Sigh.
He stepped beside Gray, tried to keep his cock from going bonkers when he felt the warm arm around him, smiled, and waited for all the cameras to quit snapping.

Shaz hurried up. “I have to steal Ru from all of you. Get ready for a preview of his collection.” He grabbed Ru by the arm and hustled him back into the Ru Maitland Design offices, where the models were getting their last-minute touches. He looked back over his shoulder. “What’s
she
doing here?”

“Ursula?” He lowered his voice. “She’s his smokescreen.”

“More like airhead. Nasty homophobic bitch. I think her father must be Russian mafia, or she’d never have made it in this business with her stupid attitudes.”

“She’s gorgeous.”

“Not inside.” He stalked toward the door, arms crossed. “I can’t believe that the nicest, most beautiful man in the world is pretending to be Gray Anson’s pal while that she-wolf acts like his girlfriend.”

“It’s okay, darling.”

“It’s not okay.”

“I mean, I’ve pretty much decided to give up the enterprise.”

He frowned. “Are we talking about large interplanetary spaceships or surrendering your dreams?”

Ru stared at the floor through the haze of tears. “Not really a dream. Just a fantasy. Isn’t that what movies are for?”

Shaz bounded to his side and scooped him up in an embrace. “Oh, darling. I can’t bear to see you so unhappy.”

“Why is our guy unhappy?” The deep, sweet voice came from just outside the door.

Shaz’s face lit up like someone had turned on the lights in his eyes. “Hello, my knight.”

At six and a half feet of gentle giant, Billy Ballew dominated any room he walked into. Shaz hurled himself at his husband and hissed, “That witch, Ursula, showed up as Gray Anson’s date tonight.”

“Now, now. Homophobes need love too.” He smiled. “I’m really sorry, Ru. But he can’t care about her. She’s too mean.”

Ru shook his head. “No. I don’t think he cares at all, but she’s just one of a string like her stretching into the future. Plus I almost died when I watched him get blown up yesterday. I honestly thought I could do anything to be with Gray. Now I don’t know if I’ve got the balls.”

Hauling Shaz with him, Billy walked over and wrapped a powerful arm around Ru. “You can’t give up yet.”

Shaz looked up at him with a crease between his eyebrows. “You don’t think Ru should get out before he really gets hurt?”

“Well, getting hurt bad’s a huge risk. But I know that miracles can happen. Hell, look at us. Sometimes you have to wait for the miracle juice to take effect.”

Ru gave Billy a nuzzle. “Thank you, dear. But I’m not expecting miracles.”

James stuck his head in the door. “Sorry to break up this beautiful threesome, but the models are dressed and gorgeous. Shall we get them out there before the press is too drunk to take piccys? Hmmmm?”

Ru mustered up a grin. He liked James, even if the guy was slipping into Ru’s spot as Shaz’s right hand since Ru had his own business to run. “Be right there.” He group-hugged Billy and Shaz, which required a big spread of arms. “Thank you, darlings. You’re the best friends a girl ever had.”

He sucked in breath, plastered on a smile, and walked into the hall. Molly and Clarisse stood fully dressed in garments from Ru’s collection. Two other models, Liz and Rhonda, whom Shaz loved, had also been called in for the occasion. Ru stopped and stared. “Wow, ladies. I’m overwhelmed.”

Molly wore the gown this time, a mauve dress in silk chiffon that swept the floor with a hemline of ruffled silk charmeuse. Clarisse rocked a mannish leather pantsuit drawn from Ru’s design for
Hamlet
that contrasted with her delicate femininity but merged with the gown in its lacy blouse. Liz wore the outfit that fully mirrored the gangbanger look Gray had worn onstage, but made in embroidered denim, while Rhonda did the hippyish Ophelia style.