U-N-I - 26. Chapter 26 - The new guy

"Are you gonna be able to not let anything on?" Rach asked me as soon as I ended my call to Rob's mother.

I let out an anxious huff. "I have to stop thinking about it for now. I think I need some time to realize this is actually happening."

She wiggled her eyebrows happily.

"Why did I have to talk to you about it?" I complained jokingly.

She let out a giggle. "Cause you knew that if you did – you'd have to go through with it. Now it's on!" she beamed.

"Crap!"

“Come on, don't start panicking yet!" she joked.

We hugged briefly,

“I know I've told you this a million times but I’m so glad you forgave me, I hated myself for hurting you,” I whispered.

“I know," she confirmed, "didn’t then, do now. It was easy to forgive you in the end, it’s just so damned obvious that you and Rob belong together. But at least I’ll always be able to say you loved me first,” she giggled.

"Still do," I said.

She smiled. "I love you too."

She rubbed my back for a short moment, then said,

"Go on. Go and turn yourself into my pal the rock-god mega-star!”

“What am I the rest of the time?” I asked as we let go of each other and began walking back toward the stage.

“Just my pal, obviously.”

---

The guys were already getting ready for the stage-checks we were about to do. Rob rapidly came over to me. He placed both his hands on my shoulders and made me take a few steps backwards.

"Gotta talk to you," he said, then looked at Rachel who was standing next to me.

“Enjoyed your girl-time?” he asked us.

Rachel and I looked at each other, unsure of what to say, she nodded and made a funny face as she tried to find something to say,

"Yes – yes – definitely – definitely one of our best!" she stammered playfully.

Rob looked at her with suspicious eyes.

"What’ve you been doing?” I asked to change the subject.

He glanced around briefly and then he looked at me again,

“Checking out the new guy," he said in a whisper. "his name’s Nick by the way.”

"Oh… And?” I asked with obvious curiosity.

Rachel shook her head,

"You guys are incorrigible!" she exclaimed laughingly.

Rob and I watched her as she walked away from us and then Rob said,

“So I was talking to Tom when his phone rang and quite coincidentally we weren’t far from where Nick was setting up your guitar racks and getting your guitars ready," he began explaining, sort of whispering, "when Tom ended the call, he obviously wasn’t happy so I asked what the problem was, turns out the guy who drove us here’s come down with a stomach bug and he’s had to go back to their hotel."

"Oh, that sucks."

"Yeah. But wait," he interrupted me with a smile. "Straightaway Nick pipes up and says he'd be happy to dep in. Apparently, he studied In Japan so he’s not afraid of getting behind the wheel here. Tom went off to check all the insurance stuff so I got a chance to have a quick chat with Nick before Steve came over."

Steve was our head sound and light engineer he’d worked on all our big tours, if he was good with this Nick guy taking over from Calvin so was I.

“So what did you talk about, the weather?" I asked eagerly, "And what happened about the driving?”

“Tom said all’s good for Nick taking over as our chauffeur,” he said with mischief.

I let out a laugh,

“Well, at least we'll have the opportunity to get to know him on the run back to the hotel."

Rob turned around again to look at what the new guy was doing. Obviously he was waiting for us to start the sound-check so Rob grabbed my hand and we began walking closer to him. He smiled, holding out a hand to me as soon as I got within arm's reach.

“Hello, I'm so happy to meet you. I’m Nick, Calvin’s replacement but you probably know that already,” he said, casting a swift small smile toward Rob. Up close he was even better-looking than I’d first thought.

“Yeah, Rob told me.”

“I don’t mean to worry you, but it looks like I’m really being thrown in at the deep end tonight."

"Are you?"

"The original plan was for Jamie to dep in for Calvin as your guitar-tech for the next couple of gigs to give me a chance to observe the guitar change-overs and I’d be working side-stage monitoring with Shelley but she’s come down with the same thing that your driver’s got. Jamie told Steve he’d rather stick with the monitoring given the circumstances and Steve knows my speciality’s the guitar work anyway so as of now I’m your go-to guy!

"Alright, works for me," I smiled.

"I’ve been studying the set list, Calvin left me his notes for the changeovers and I think I’ve got the tunings noted but if you could find time to go through it with me later it’d be a big help.”

“We could do it before we start the checks,” I offered.

“No, I don’t want to interrupt your usual routine, I’ll watch and listen and hopefully afterwards I’ll get a chance to reassure you that I know what I’m doing.”

The devil on my shoulder was giggling and asking what else he might know how to do, fortunately the angel on the other one was reminding me that he was married. At the same time, I noticed Rob’s lips twitch and I just knew that his own devil was doing the same thing as mine.

At that precise moment Steve called for everybody’s attention and told us that it was time to go to work. Nick grinned at us and a dimple popped in his right cheek – this guy was getting hotter by the minute!

He was as good as his word and as the sound-check progressed he never moved from the bank of back-line speakers closest to me; I saw him making notes on his tablet each time I swapped guitars.

When Dylan, Jord and Damon left the stage Rob came to stand beside me and waved Nick over,

“So now you know how disorganised we are when left to our own devices,” Rob chuckled.

“Yeah, I had been warned,” Nick grinned, the dimple putting in another appearance, “seriously, though, would you mind if I swapped a couple of things around? Let me show you.”

He explained the changes, he wanted to make. Rob and I watched transfixed as Nick picked up my Telecaster, the guitar I always opened with, and perfectly played the final chords of “Adventure Of A Lifetime” before setting the instrument on its stand and reaching for my Les Paul; he shook his head slightly and his brows furrowed after he’d gone through the last notes of “Every Tear Is A Waterfall” then put the Gibson aside to swap to my Stratocaster. He went through all the changes in order and then did the same with Rob’s smaller array of guitars, including continuing to play the last few bars of music that came before each change.

“I’d bet,” he mused as he returned Rob’s acoustic to its rack, “that as you’ve added more axes, you’ve just extended the line, yes?”

“Well, yeah, I suppose so,” I replied, nor sure where he was going with this question.

“Hmm, well, if I were to swap the racks for the Tele and the Strat, then move the acoustic over and put the Les Paul between the Fenders they’d be in some semblance of a logical order. Oh, and your tuning’s off, I’ll double-check the Tele against Jordan’s bass and Rob’s Strat, but I think you’re putting out 438 not 440 on the Tele.”

My jaw dropped, the man had no auto-tuner to hand yet he’s been so precise in his pronouncement,

“How the freaking hell can you tell? Did you check before we came out and not re-tune?”

“No, I picked up the change in it about halfway through the sound check, I’ll take a look at your machine-heads and pickups and I’ll re-string it. I’ve got perfect pitch, so it sort of stands out to me,” he laughed, “I’ll check them again before you go on, word is the humidity’s going to change quite a bit tonight so it’ll probably affect the strings.”

My eyebrows rose as I looked at Rob, this guy really did know his stuff and apparently was also able to help run the side-stage mixing for our in-ear fold-back.

“Cheers, um, well, look, as long as I get the right guitar, for the right song, in the right tuning I’ll leave the rest to you,” I laughed.

“Trust me, it’s my job to keep you guys happy,” he smiled.

Gaydar! Was he flirting with us?

“I’m sure you will,” Rob smiled, and I knew that he was thinking the same thing - again.

“Come on, leave the man to do his thing, we need to get ready to do ours,” Rob said to me.

I was sure I’d heard Nick mutter,

“If you need any help,”

but he was crouching down to look at the Tele’s pick-ups, so I couldn’t be certain.

As soon as we got off the stage we all but ran to our dressing-room, I quickly closed and locked the door having virtually thrown Rob into the room.

“Hundred and fifty per cent straight my ass!” I laughed.

“Or rather his,” Rob guffawed.

”Dibs on first go,” I blurted.

“Best of three, rock, paper, scissors,” he retorted.

"You know I always lose at this game!" I complained.

“I know," he grinned. "Here’s the deal! If I win I get to take your ass before we go on stage, just so you don’t feel neglected when I’m fucking Nick later while he sucks you off,” he laughed.

"Okay, I'm in," I laughed too and we began playing the game.

"You really suck at this!" he said after I'd lost. "Are you still gonna be able to walk on stage tonight?" he joked.

“Yeah, yeah, don't worry so much about me. You get the water running, I'll get my butt ready for you!"

---

“You do realise,” I said later as we dressed to go on stage, “that we were deciding who would to be doing what to whom when we don’t even know if Nick’s into guys,” I sniggered, pulling on a black tee with the colourful artwork of our last album on the right shoulder and left side.

“Aw, come on!” Rob exclaimed, “I know he got your gaydar going as soon as you laid eyes on him – and then the stuff he did and said…," he said looking at me with raised eyebrows.

“Well yeah, but the guy’s married Rob, maybe he just flirts a bit.”

He smirked playfully,

“Well how about we try to give him something to remember us by?”

I chuckled,

“Look Rob, lusting after him, thinking about the three of us getting together is a bit of fun but realistically this is somebody we’ll be working with to the end of the year or beyond, so maybe we’d best give this some thought before we do anything about it.”

“You can be such a buzz killer,” Rob complained.

“And besides, didn’t we say no more threesomes?” I shot back.

He thought about it,

“We said that if the opportunity presented itself then we should really discuss it and set clear boundaries.”

I looked intently into his eyes,

“That’s true. We did say that.”

“We also said that perhaps we should have just one more threesome, before we turn thirty that is."

“Sort of,” I put in, I knew he was misquoting himself but I wasn’t going to interrupt him as I wanted to know where he was going with this.

Indeed, he had been the one to say we should leave threesomes behind with our twenties. I’d thought then that each of us cheating – however briefly – had had a lot to do with his suggestion. And him getting me to put the word ‘husband’ rather than ‘boyfriend’ into the idea of watching him with another guy had also made me re-think the whole concept.

“Well I didn’t necessarily mean not having any after, just that maybe we could wave goodbye to our twenties with one,” he grinned.

“Does this mean you might be up for it?” I asked with a grin of my own.

“Let’s wait and see. But hey we’ve got the drive back to the hotel to test the water,” Rob giggled.

“Yeah, god he’s so attractive. Have you seen that dimple?”

“Hey, careful what you say in front of me, I might get jealous.”

I tilted my head and pouted at him.

“And you know what happens when I get jealous,” he laughed as he walked towards the door. " Very cute dimple though.”

. . . .

“Any time you’re ready,” Nick said quietly, just after we’d said goodbye to the last of the Japanese music journalists who’d joined the band in the Green Room after the gig.

He stood by the door, waiting patiently as we all checked that we’d left nothing behind, ‘idiot checks’ Rachel called them.

“So how was it, losing your U-N-I virginity?” Jordan laughed, wrapping his arm around Nick's shoulder as we all walked to the stage door.

Rach was leading our party, with Dylan and Damon immediately behind her. They laughed loudly at his words, allowing Rob and me to do the same.

“It was even more astounding than I’d been expecting," Nick replied.

“Thanks for sorting the problem with the Tele,” I said.

“Like I said earlier, it’s my job to keep you guys happy,” he answered.

Had he winked? I thought about it for a couple of seconds and decided that it had been a combination of the bad lighting in the corridor and the alcohol I’d consumed, but I wasn’t fully convinced that was the case.

“Well you made a damned good start,” Rob told him.

“Hey wait a minute, where’s the guy who drove you here?” Jordan asked suspiciously when he noticed Nick getting into the driver’s seat.

“He’s come down with the same thing Shelley’s got,” Rob told him. "Wanna continue the game?"

"I've got at least five guesses ready for you!" Jordan answered.

"Hit me!" Rob said as we climbed into the back of the black Chrysler Aspen.

Nick pulled out of the car-park behind the vehicle the rest of our crowd were in,

“When were you studying here?” I asked Nick while Rob began playing a game with Jordan on his phone.

“I was doing my Master’s degree so about seven or eight years ago, but I’ve been back since mostly for work and a couple of holidays.”

“What did you study?”

“Metallurgy, I wrote a riveting dissertation on the audio properties of alloys and their changes under stress,” he laughed.

“And now you work for a bunch of ding-bats who walked away from education the first chance we got!” Rob laughed.

“Yeah, well, what I didn’t tell my parents was that while I was at university, I’d also signed up for extra studies, part-time, the course was run at a recording studio in Loughborough.”

“Frigging hell, stop it you’ll fry my brain just thinking about it,” I laughed along with Rob.

“I’d bet that if you wanted to, you’d walk the sound engineering and recording course I did, you’ve been living it for over a decade,” Nick told us, “in fact I reckon you could teach it!”

“Too busy having fun dude!” Rob exclaimed.

“Who says I’m not?” Nick gave us a glance in the rear-view mirror and smiled.

Yep. Definitely flirting!

"Any ideas? I can't find which one this is!" Rob asked me.

"Lemme see," I said.

They had spent a good hour before stepping on stage playing the 'guess the emoji movies' on their phones, sending each other a sequence of emojis from the messaging icons and guessing the movie title from them. I used the opportunity to pull Rob close to me and draped my left arm round his shoulders. I stroked my right hand slowly up his thigh as I looked down at the emojis on his screen and saw a woman and a man dancing and a non-entry sign.

"Not 'Sexy Dance', not 'La La Land', not 'Billy Elliot'…," he put in.

"Dirty Dancing?" I suggested.

"Too easy."

For a minute, I struggled to find another movie title and as I thought about it, I couldn't resist flicking a fingertip over the head of his cock that was forming a small bulge in his trousers.

“Stop it!” he hissed in my ear, “or I’m going to have to molest you right here in front of him.”

“Wonder where that would take us,” I giggled quietly and then gasped, "Oh, what about Footloose?"

He nodded and then grinned,

"Of course."

I smiled and began kissing his cheek as he typed the answer. Then I forced him to drop his head back to let me tease his neck and throat.

“Oh fuck babe, don’t,” he moaned.

“What the hell,” I thought, it could be one way of testing the waters as far as Nick was concerned, so I began kissing and licking Rob’s neck then nibbled on his ear-lobe.

“Mmmm, love that,” he whispered.

“I know.”

“Your hotel’s about two minutes away but if you want to carry on I could take you for a drive around the city,” Nick told us.

“Sorry," I said, "much as a tour of the city sounds tempting, we wouldn’t want to put you off working with us when you’ve only just joined the crew.”

“Man of the world over here guys, don’t worry about it.”

“Yeah, comfortable as this car is, I want to take this gorgeous boy to bed,” Rob put in.

“You and millions of others,” Nick chuckled and Rob looked at me with a smirk that said 'you were right'.

"Here we are. I’ll see you tomorrow, as I’m now also your designated driver, I’ll be ready to take you out and about whenever you call me," he said, smiling, "Here, take this,” he added after he had stopped the car outside the hotel, he passed us a business card,

“Nick Bradshaw B.Sc. M.Sc.
Sound & Light Engineer
Guitar support specialist – stage & studio.”

it read along with his contact info.

“Cheers, we may treat ourselves to a lazy morning but Rob’s keen to try out his Japanese, personally I hope he doesn’t. He almost started an international incident last time!”

“It’s all in the intonation, putting emphasis on a word or even just part of one at the wrong time can change what you’re saying from a compliment to a really bad insult.”

“Right, that does it, I am hereby promoting you to our official interpreter,” I sniggered.

“Post accepted,” Nick smiled.

As he was about to get out of the car to open the door for us, he stopped,

"Um, guys, what are we supposed to do about this?" he asked as he noticed a large number of fans waiting for us outside the hotel. "Do you need me to get the hotel security?"

"No, it's fine," Rob said nonchalantly, "as long as they're nice and there aren't too many of them, we always stop to chat and sign autographs. They're here because they know that."

"Want me to stay? I mean, I am your official interpreter, aren't I?"

"Yeah. Let's see one more of your many talents!" I smiled at him, making it obvious that I was flirting with him.

Rob cleared his throat and pushed me closer to the door. Nick obviously caught on and he smiled back at us before getting out and coming round to open the door for us.

----

“Tell me you really don’t want to take his ass!” Rob exclaimed as he pushed me up against the wall as soon as we were safely in our hotel suite.

He had his body pressed hard against mine and I could feel his erection straining the denim of his jeans in its eagerness to escape.

“I didn’t say I didn’t want to,” I gasped as he copied what I’d done to his neck in the back of the car on mine, “but with him being on the crew, banging him may not be the wisest of moves.”

“You heard him, he’s a man of the world,” he said, licking my earlobe.

“Yeah, a married one,” I said before my lips returned to his, "he was so good at speaking Japanese with the fans," I said.

“Tell you what, you can pretend I’m him while you do me,” Rob chuckled.

I took his face gently between my hands and looked deep into those fabulous green eyes of his,

“Babe, I could never imagine you being anybody but you, no matter what we’re doing.”

“Aw, really?”

“Oh yeah, you’re perfect just exactly as you are.”

“Nooo, that’s you, I’ve always told you that.”

"Alright, so maybe we can imagine he's here… tell me, what would you like to do to him?" I asked with horniness in my voice.

Rob knew very well I had a fetish for watching him have sex with another guy and satisfying each other’s fantasy so he played along.

"More like what I'd like to watch him do to me!"

"Oh yeah?" I smiled.

"Yeah. We've never done it with a supposedly straight dude, have we?"

"Well, you've done it with a supposedly straight dude," I laughed.

"I have! And you know what the best part was?" he asked in a low and sexy voice, staring into my eyes, "Watching you suck my cock for the first time and enjoying it!"

"Oh, I enjoyed it alright, who wouldn't love sucking your spectacular dick, it's delicious." I murmured before kissing him for a few seconds, "Can you imagine Nick sucking you off?" I asked with a wicked smirk, "I wonder if he's ever sucked a cock before."

His lips formed a small devilish smile,

"Well, he's a man of the world," he said with a chuckle, "whatever he means by that…"

"D'you think that means he's bi or just accepting?" I asked with a soft chuckle.

"I think it means he's possibly bi-curious," Rob murmured, "anyway I hope it does."

I was hard as fuck so I took Rob's hand and guided him toward my erection. He immediately opened my fly, pulled down my underwear and watched as my package popped out.

"Mmm," he moaned as he started stroking me firmly with one hand, the other holding the back of my neck. "And I bet that if we gave him a blowjob, he’d have a hard time forgetting us whenever his wife gives him head.”

I chuckled,

"You really wanna give him something to remember us by, huh?"

"I really do," he grinned.

I couldn't help pushing my tongue inside his mouth while my hands made their way under his tee and caressed his skin as we made out.

"Then he should really get a chance to fuck your fabulous ass baby, that'd turn any bi-curious guy gay!" I said to turn him on more even though he was obviously ready for action, "And then he'll crave dick for the rest of his life!"

Rob raised his brows, smiling.

"That may be true, but no one but you's allowed to do that!"

We took a few steps toward the bed and then I looked down at his crotch and undid his trousers. I slid them down along with his underwear and let his throbbing boner bounce out. I immediately wrapped my hands around his shaft and stroked him.

"Well, if he's anything like me, then he'll want to fuck your ass so bad. It's so good, you could take any dick in the world and give it the best ride!"

We kissed deeply and when he pulled his mouth off of mine, we both pulled our shirts over our heads. I marvelled at his pecs and abs and Rob did exactly the same. It only took a few more seconds before we were both completely naked and making out on top of the covers, Rob on top of me.

"And would you like watching that?" he whispered sexily as our cocks ground together and I felt precum on my skin as Rob's thick member pressed against my abs.

"Well, no, I mean – maybe," I replied. "I'd be lying if I said I've never thought about it, you know that. But it's just a fantasy. And right now, it's making me rock fucking hard. I'm allowed to fantasize about it, aren't I?"

"Oh yeah, you're more than allowed to fantasize about it if it turns you on so much. But you know if I’m honest, for me, it could never be as good as it is with you because with you it’s emotional, with someone else it’d just be physical.”

"I know, which is why I've never actually wanted you to do it."

"Then this fantasy might remain just that, a fantasy. But maybe someday…," he moaned, keeping it going for a bit longer.

"Yeah, maybe." I teased, "Fuck," I panted. "And now, I'm picturing it!"

"Tell me what you see," he smiled as he brought his hand between us and gave my throbbing penis a few tugs, forcing pre-cum out of it.

I put my own hand on his butt and my finger traced his crack to tease him and let him know that I was dying to fuck his ass.

"You know…"

"I don't, tell me," he insisted with a moan, placing his lips on mine.

I hesitated for a brief second,

""Mmm, you on all fours…," I began saying.

"Um um… and what would Nick be doing?" he asked, wanting to hear more.

"What I always do… He'd rub the head of his cock around your hole and I'd watch his face as he opens a guy's ass for the first time, I bet he'd love it."

I could feel his hand around my cock jerking me a littler harder.

"Mmm," he said and we made out, he was breathing heavily, clearly as into it as I was, "Damn, there's something so fucking hot about hearing you say that."

"I wanna do you so much," I moaned, my finger circling his hole.

"You know what you could do first, you could eat me out while he sucks me off, get me ready and show him how it's done, cause I fucking love your tongue!"

"Mmm," I groaned in his mouth, "I'd love that."

"Fuck, eat me out right now, babe." he begged with so much horniness in his sexy voice, it made my cock twitch. "Please."

"My pleasure," I answered, moving on top of him and giving his back a few hard kisses. My lips descended further down until they were kissing his butt.
I stared at his well-formed muscular butt cheeks. I couldn't wait to dive in but first I began by grabbing and rubbing them nicely.

"I love your ass, everything about you is fucking delicious," I said sexily.

"Mmm, c'mon, do it!" he begged.

"Move your ass up baby," I said.

He willingly obeyed and pulled his knees closer to his stomach to give me better access to his butt.

I grabbed his thighs and made him move closer to me, I made sure his head was down and his ass up in the air so that his hole was staring right at me and I just went for it. I began by sucking his balls into my mouth one at a time while gently moving his dick so it was pointing toward me and then I licked my way up to his hole and gave it a long lick, my tongue circling his pucker. Then I went back down to sucking on his balls and dick, taking the tip in my mouth for a brief moment.

“Fuck yeah,” Rob gasped and I took him inside my mouth for a short moment and let my tongue massage his shaft. I sucked on the head and savoured his precum and then I put my hands on his butt cheeks and opened them up before pushing my tongue against his hole. I licked his skin for a few seconds and sucked on his flesh. Then my tongue drew small circles around his pucker and pressed against it.

"Oh yeah, give me your tongue," he sighed, obviously enjoying the feeling.

I made my tongue as hard as I could and began to push it inside. His sphincter tightened and when it relaxed again, I pierced his hole with the tip and moved it in and out, pushing it a little deeper each time.

"Oh baby, that feels so good," he moaned.

His moans were driving me crazy and I reached for my throbbing cock as I continued to rim him. Then I covered an index finger in my saliva and slowly worked it into his ass.

"Oh yes, give me more," he growled.

Not wanting to disappoint him, I licked my middle finger and pressed both of them beyond his sphincter and fingered him for a moment.

"Ohhh, yeah, oh come on fuck me now, just fuck me!" he said.

I pulled back my fingers and moved to lie flat on my back,

“I wanna watch you ride me,” I told him, holding my cock up to show him exactly what I wanted as I reached for the lube we’d left ready on the nightstand before we’d set off for the arena.

Rob held out his hand for the small bottle as he knelt between my legs, he took his time to spread the cool gel along my length concentrating on the tip.

“Watching you do that’s so fucking hot,” I told him as he set the bottle aside.

Rob straddled my hips and reached round to pull his ass cheeks apart to make it easier for me to penetrate him, I held my cock so I could rub some of the lube over his hole.

“Oh yeah, so good,” he moaned.

“Gets better,” I replied as I thrust all the way into him in one swift move.

“Fuck!” he yelled, he tried to move his body but I’d grabbed hold of his hips to keep him still.

It didn’t stop him trembling though and I watched as his toned abs rippled; his eyes were closed and his breathing was slow and heavy as he tried to absorb the feeling of being full of my cock. He rested his weight on my pubes and just stayed like that for a few seconds. I watched his toned body and the look of pleasure on his face as I waited for him to start moving. When he did, it was slow at first.

"I love getting fucked by your dick," he moaned.

"And I love fucking your ass…," I said.

For only a brief second, Nick popped into my head and I realized that even though we had used him to turn each other on, now it was just me and Rob making love and I didn't want it any other way.

His hole squeezed my cock and I moved beneath him. He fisted his own hard-on moving his hand in time to my thrusts. Then he rocked back and forth, working my cock with his sphincter and I watched him riding me, loving the spectacle.

“Cum for me babe,” I whispered a few minutes later.

“Oh yeah,” he gasped.

I couldn't stop looking at his beautiful package, bouncing up and down and I wanted to see him shoot all over my chest. I almost reached down to stroke him but I also wanted to let him control his orgasm.

“Come on, ride me, baby, make yourself cum,” I ordered him.

He didn’t need any more encouragement to do just that, his hips moving as fast as he could and his hand reaching for his cock and moving quicker and quicker on his prick.

“Mark, I’m going to," he started saying, his face as always, showing me his total sexual pleasure. He kept his eyes closed and his mouth opened and I watched as the first spurt of his hot spunk showered over my body.

Before his orgasm could finish I flipped us over so he was below me, immediately putting my hands under his knees and hauling them up for him to wrap his legs around my body so I could really pummel his ass as I chased my own orgasm.

“Jesus!” he cried as I took him to another hard climax in time with my own, my balls slapping against him, our movements making the bed shake.

"Oh my god, yeah, cum in me!" he begged, as usual wanting every drop of my juices inside him.

I thrust faster and faster and I listened to his moans of pleasure. My dick hit his prostate over and over and he clearly enjoyed another wave of pleasure. I revelled in the way he clutched my body tight and a strong orgasm rippled through my body. I felt my milk shoot through my cock and I filled him up, giving him what he wanted.

As the pleasure calmed I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his,

“God I love you so much,” I told him when our lips parted. "Was that good for you?"

“Oh yeah, you know how much I love it.”

We rolled onto our sides, wrapped in each other’s arms – and legs – and just stayed like that for a moment before going to the bathroom.

--------

That early part of the tour was full of fun and anxiety; Nick had quickly become friends with all of us and had proved himself time and again both as the best guitar-tech I’d ever worked with – sorry Calvin! – and as a buffer whenever he knew I was busy making long-distance wedding plans with Jane or sending emails to the ceremony and reception venues and he saw Rob heading my way.

More than once I’d thought that Rob had cottoned on to my plans but between my bandmates, Rachel and Nick we’d kept him in the dark right up to the moment I began playing Dylan’s piano and singing the song I’d written only for Rob at the Dublin gig.

As the weeks and months of the tour had passed our thoughts about Nick hadn’t changed, he was without a doubt the best-looking guy on the crew and he was always immaculately turned out – unlike many of the others. More than once he’d acted as our driver after the Tokyo gig and I must admit I had started flirting with him more, usually when we were alone with just my guitars.

“Fuck that guy’s hot!” I told Rob as I joined him in our dressing-room after I’d just been going through some new ideas with Nick, “I came so close to stroking his ass when he walked past me it was fucking scary,” I looked at Rob, “you’ve got to be there the next time, I don’t want to make an idiot of myself – we sure don't need another fucking Damien in our lives.”

Rob laughed. He found it fun to hear me talk about Nick and my fear of making a fool of myself. He kept encouraging me to flirt ever-more obviously with him and knew how Nick had never shut me down and how, in fact, as he’d gained confidence in working with me he’d begun to give as good as he got.

I’d recently bought another guitar and we were slowly working it into the concert array but it wasn’t easy because I’d obviously not used it in the studio when we were recording the tracks I now wanted to use it on.

"You don't really want me there, do you? Wouldn't it cramp your style?"

"Not sure I've got one," I laughed.

"That's what makes it better, I bet you look cute as fuck giving him those adorable smiles of yours."

I gave him one of those smiles and leaned in to kiss him.

“How’s your new baby coming along?” Rob asked when we finally ended the kiss.

It was a Dobro Resophonic and it would sound great in the acoustic section of our performances – even though it was electric - but I still wasn’t confident enough to include it and Nick was helping me find exactly the right tuning before I took my ideas to the band.

“I’m hoping to give Dolly her first outing at the Rose Bowl,” I said.

“Really? It’s another ‘she’?!” he laughed, “You have got to be the only gay man on the planet to give his prized possessions girl’s names.”

It was true, my Gibson, despite being a Les Paul was affectionately known as ‘Lulu’, my Telecaster was ‘Trisha’ and my Strat was ‘Suzi’ and then there was “Abby” the acoustic.

“Wouldn’t you get a little jealous if you knew my fingers were sliding up and down a hard part of ‘Terry’ or ‘Lloyd’ or,”

“Stop, just stop, I get it,” he cut in laughing loudly, “and I guess I might. Wouldn’t get jealous if I was watching you do that to Nick though.”

---

The virus which had struck Shelley and our then designated driver in Tokyo had steadily made its way through most of the crew. Fortunately, our talented team were pretty much able to dep in for each other, unfortunately it meant that the medic brought in by the tour insurer advised that we five in the band had, as far as possible, to avoid any close contact with the crew.

That was relatively easy with the front of house sound and light techs but not so much with the on-stage guys. As Nick had also taken over as Rob’s guitar tech we worked out a way for Rob to not need help on stage - as he used fewer instruments - although that meant the rest of us had to quickly put together extended in and outros to give Rob time between songs to do put down or pick up his guitars.

Finally, some weeks after it began, the doctor declared the outbreak to be over, although Damon had succumbed to it his timing had been immaculate - but what else should we have expected from a drummer?! - the few days he'd been ill had coincided with some rest days we'd had.

Even though Rob and I kept teasing each other about what we'd like to do to and with Nick, by the time our semi-quarantine was over, the wedding preparations were in full swing so whatever time I could snatch away from Rob, rehearsals, stage-checks, promo interviews and such was always spent, mostly with Rachel by my side, making calls or sending emails to Jane and the two locations for our celebrations . There'd been precious little time for any kind of flirting in amongst all of that and even when there had, I'd mostly backed away from it.

But now, after eleven years of being together, Rob and I were married at last! The ceremony had been perfect, the wedding reception weekend full of fun and our few days in Madeira - our wedding gift from our four closest friends - the perfect anti-dote to all of it. Unfortunately, since most of the tour dates had already been scheduled for 2019 and even 2020 way back in 2018, we weren't able to go on a lengthier honeymoon.

It was August 14th and we had just played the first two shows of the third leg of our tour in the city of East Rutherford in the States. Next, we were to play in ten different cities before playing two gigs in Pasadena where Rob and I were slated to be interviewed by Ellen Degeneres – and then onto Glendale, Tulsa and many more cities in September and October.

And only then would we be able to take a real break from all the touring stress. We had decided to go to Thailand for a month before we had to embark on the fourth leg of the tour in Australia and New Zealand where Dylan was going to marry Alicia on a beautiful Australian beach as she was dreaming of. They were flying there before the rest of us to get everything ready. We'd have another break from touring after Christmas and we wanted to go back to our island home in the Turks and Caicos before we had to start touring again from April to November 2020.

---

“So what did you want me for?” I smirked at Nick when everybody else had left the stage, Rob was joining the others in the Green Room to mentally prepare himself for the show.

“There’s two answers to that,” he shot back albeit quietly.

He was sitting on an amp playing with one of my guitars and I smiled as I watched him stand up to face me, thinking that he had only said one thing to me and he was already flirting.

"The one I’m currently working on is this. We’ve got your guitar racks in the positions that work best but the swaps still feel kind of lumpy, jerky, and it was something Jordan’s tech said after the last gig that made me realise why. So I put the theory to the test just now and he’s right.”

“About what?”

“There’s a couple of guitar changes when, because the light-rig’s been changed, your follow-spot hits me right in the eyes so I have to do this double-shuffle to get out of the light just so I can see exactly where you’re coming from, how far away you are, all that stuff but still be where you need me to be,” he smiled at his own words and that oh-so-cute dimple showed itself.

“Now can you imagine the level of teddy-chucking if we were to suggest to the lighting crew they drop your spot by a few degrees just so I don’t have to move a half-step this way or that, prima donnas all as they are, and while you guys were playing just now I think I worked out a better way of doing things. I’m only talking about a couple of the changes for now but if it works as well as I hope it will, then maybe we can use it for all of them.”

“Show me.”

“Ok, so normally you’d take off the one you’ve been using and hold the neck in your right hand just because the racks are to your right. I hold your next guitar by the body and neck like this.”

He picked up my acoustic – affectionately known as Abby - making sure the strap was to the back so I could lift it over my head with my left hand once I’d put down my previous instrument, it was obvious he wanted me to take Abby from him – so I did. I hadn’t noticed until I stepped forward just how close to his own body Nick was holding the guitar, by the time I’d passed the strap onto my shoulder I was close enough to be able to tell what after-shave he used – CK1. He didn’t immediately let go of my guitar,

“Sorry, shouldn’t have stayed so close,” he murmured, taking a half-step back.

As I had told Rob before, the level of flirting between me and Nick was growing exponentially and Rob kept encouraging me to test the waters to judge whether or not Nick really could be interested in getting together with the pair of us. The thing was, we still didn’t know if Nick had ever indulged in threesomes, and if not would he want to try it with us. Seemed like I was about to find out.

“Don’t be,” I replied, “too bad Abby's in the way," I managed to utter, not with enough confidence I thought.

He looked at me straight in the eyes and smiled,

"Yeah. Too bad it's Abby sandwiched between us. I can think of a far better sandwich-filling," he said.

He paused but didn't look away and I stared back at him. I finally had the answer I had been waiting for. He was interested – and the implication was that he had tried troilism in some way and quite possibly with guys.

“Company,” he said quickly turning round to look at my back-line amps.

“Oh, hi fellas,” it was Jamie, “glad someone’s still around, I’ve mislaid my mobile, I can’t see it back here can one of you ring it see if we can hear it please?”

Nick took out his own phone, hit a couple of buttons and we were soon rewarded with the sound of “The Ride of the Valkyries” which sent Jamie to his knees as he shoved his arm between the monitor desks; Nick and I chuckled when Jamie cursed – his phone was just beyond his reach.

“Hang on,” Nick called, “I’ve an idea.”

He trotted over to Rob’s spare mic stand, took the upright from its base then strode over to where he could slide it between the desks form our side and so propel the now silent device towards its owner.

“Cheers Nick, I’ve searched high and low for the damned thing, I want to call home before I get some scram and a power nap back at the hotel. You coming?” he looked at Nick.

"Not yet," I whispered only loud enough for Nick to hear.

“I wish,” Nick replied, “too much to re-do here, I’ll get some later.”

I crouched down looking as if I was doing a final check of my effects pedals, hoping desperately that by leaning forward I could hide my shoulders which were shaking with silent laughter, intentionally or not Nick’s words held a double meaning for me.

“Oh right, ‘course, you mentioned something earlier. Anyway thanks, for the help, see you later guys.”

“See ya,” I replied holding up a hand but not moving from my place.

“Laters,” Nick said.

I may have been laughing but I was also hacked off, I’d got so close to finally finding out if Nick could be interested in joining us and now the moment was gone. How the hell was I going to get it back? Well I wouldn’t know until I at least stood up and faced him.

“What’s your favourite song from the acoustic set?”

“Um, er,” I muttered, his question taking me by surprise.

I didn't need to think for more than a couple seconds though and I answered,

“Actually I really like playing 'Sparks', it's quite a meaningful song for me and Rob.”

Nick smiled and picked up Rob’s Seagull, tucked the strap over his head and played the opening chords of “Sparks” as he wandered across the stage towards me and before I knew it I’d begun to both play and sing along to the melody.

“It really is a pity you don’t sing on stage you know, your voice is just as good as Rob’s,” Nick told me when we finished the song.

“I could say the same about your playing, I mean how come you’re not on stage with a band?” I asked as he set Rob’s guitar back on its rack.

“I can play but I’m no songwriter and I’m certainly no performer.”

“That’s why I don’t sing, in the studio or on stage, I don’t have the confidence or charisma Rob has.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” he smiled as he strode back to where I stood.

“So from Abby I go back to Suzi,” I put in, starting to lift the acoustic from my shoulder.

“Wait that’s where I think we can make the swap go better, if you come back to here,” he pointed to a spot about half a side-step further away from the front of the racks, for the first time I noticed an X on the floor he’d laid down with silver gaffer tape, “at the end of the acoustic set then pass Abby to me with your left hand and I’ll be holding Suzi up ready for you like this,” my guitars having girl’s nicknames amused Nick as much as it did Rob, he now had a hand pulling the strap taught and the other supporting the neck.

“Let’s try it. You come back from the C-stage, Rob usually spends some time using his charisma on the crowd to give the rest of you time to get back to your marks so if you hold Abby to your left you can already be getting your arm and head into Suzi’s strap then I’ll take Abby from you.”

"You're right. it's a much smoother transition."

"Yeah. I’m glad you agree."

We both stopped talking for a moment.

"Alright, well," he announced. "I guess you're free to go. I'll let you go back to the Green Room and get ready for tonight. Thanks for spending some time with me, I really needed to fix this issue."

I wasn't sure what to say at this point so I agreed.

"Sure, it's gonna make things easier for the both of us. Thanks for suggesting it."

"You're welcome."

"Well, I'll see you later then," I said and I began walking back to the dressing room.

--

"Fuck, he's so interested!" I said to Rob as soon as I walked in.

"Is he?"

"Totally!" I exclaimed and told him about everything that had happened on stage.

"Fuck, you serious? He actually said that to you?" Rob said half-laughingly after I'd told him about Nick saying that he could think of a far better sandwich filling than Abby the guitar.

"I think he's starting to notice that the guitars are just an excuse for me to flirt with him," I smiled.

"Damn, I'm getting hard just thinking about him between us," Rob laughed.

"We gotta stop talking about it! I mean come on, he 's married… We're married…!" I exclaimed, moving my hand back and forth between us.

"Well, yeah! That's obviously why he's been giving us such subtle flirting signs since we've met him. I mean, we just got married," Rob said. "he must have thought we wouldn't be interested."

"Well, trust me, now he knows we are," I giggled.

"You have to keep flirting with him, this is fun. Who knows, we might be enjoying some three-way fun again sometime soon!"

"Yeah, maybe. You sure about this?"

"Well, yeah. We know what our rules are and there's no reason to change them. We just need to know what his boundaries are."

"You're gonna help me, aren't you?"

"No way, you flirt with him! It's more fun that way!"

"Then, this is never going to happen," I complained laughingly, knowing very well that it was probably best to not let anything happen with Nick as long as he was working for us.