Three Part Harmony (The Road to Rocktoberfest 2024)

3. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Griffin

Meeting Mike Emory for the first time would remain in my memory bank for a lifetime. There was something about him that was so different from other people I’d met. At first glance, he was a stunning man, tall with lean muscles that filled him out beautifully. He had a head of thick hair that was mostly dark brown but the top layer on his crown was more of a wheat color that I wasn’t sure was bleached-out from the sun or professionally done by a hairdresser. It gave him kind of a surfer vibe but I doubted he had much time to surf, considering the career he’d chosen for himself.

Even though our conversation was brief, he’d managed to leave quite an impression with me. He was laughably nervous but also magnetic and charming and I knew he wasn’t even trying. He was adorably scattered and his fumbling was endearing, too. But I think the detail I was most mesmerized by were his eyes. They were a shade of honey-colored hazel with flecks of emerald green and gold I’d never seen before but it took my breath away. The few times he actually met my gaze, I could feel the air get caught in my constricting throat. He seemed young—way younger than me, by maybe as much as a good decade or more, but wise beyond his years with an old soul. As if he’d managed to cram two lifetimes into this one. His eyes gave that away, and I got the sense that he had lots of stories to tell, if I coaxed them out of him. Which was absolutely frowned upon by my bosses and could never happen.

And what the hell was up with going to get his drumsticks in the middle of our introduction? Was that a thing with drummers—they had to have sticks with them at all times just in case they had a mad urge to work on some rhythms at any given moment? I knew musicians were a special breed all their own and they sure as hell had enough idiosyncrasies to fill a large stadium, so I’m guessing the drumsticks must be one of Mike’s. After I got to know more of his quirks, I may decide he’s not that endearing after all. I could only hope that happened, so I’d stop trying to picture him naked. Nonetheless, I could easily work with him because I didn’t get the sense he was high maintenance. I guess time would tell about that. In the meantime, I would continue to build a cheat-sheet on him to know exactly the best way to keep his ass protected.

Speaking of his ass…nope, I couldn’t go there. Okay, just this once. His ass was near perfect. There I said it. I definitely noticed the firm, roundness to it and I did take a moment to contemplate the jiggle factor it might have if I were thrusting into him. But I didn’t drool over his ass because I couldn’t. And it’s not something I’d ever see, touch, or fuck, so I needed to squirrel those thoughts away in the dumpster for useless and inappropriate thoughts I kept at the back of my brain. Mike was my principal and he could never be more, so it was best I kept our interactions strictly professional.

That didn’t stop me from jacking off that night while visualizing him bending over for me—twice. I almost did it a third time but I forced myself to roll over and go to sleep. I woke early the next morning exhausted from the whole ordeal the previous night and went through my gym workout sluggish and not dialed in as I typically am. I even ordered a double espresso on my way to the rehearsal warehouse instead of my usual black coffee. Getting through today was going to require a lot of caffeine.

That proved to be the case after only five minutes at the warehouse when I was almost at the top of the staircase to the third floor and Mike barreled into me in his haste to run down the stairs. By hitting me, his steps were thrown off and he would have fallen down the stairs if I hadn’t caught him in time. Unfortunately for me, the hold I had on him put his chest right against mine and his lips just a scant few inches from touching mine. His breathing changed immediately into quick puffs of warmth aimed at my face. I could smell the sweetness of mint from his toothpaste along with a hint of coffee with every exhale, and damn, I wanted to taste his mouth so fucking bad.

The entire event couldn’t have lasted more than a few seconds, while I held him tightly on the top step to give him time to get his feet back under him. But fuck, the heat of him seeping into my bones while he was against me damn near made my knees weak. It was… electrifying .

“Damn it!” Mike said. He grabbed hold of the banister and I balanced him while he hopped back up on the landing. “Sorry about that. I haven’t had nearly enough coffee to face this day.”

“Rough night?” I asked after I had him righted.

“You have no idea,” he said, shaking his head.

If he only knew what I’d been up to last night and why I couldn’t sleep . I felt my face heat and looked away to hide the evidence.

“Since I bumped into you, it saves me from having to text later,” I said. “Would you have time today to sit down with me? Or we can do it any other day this week. Next week you’ll be recording.”

Mike ran his fingers through his thick hair. I watched his long fingers sweep through the loose strands and wished it were my fingers messing up his hair. Then he pulled a hair-tie off his wrist and quickly pulled the top part back into a short ponytail.

“I’m pretty free anytime, today or whenever you want,” he answered.

I nodded in approval. “My team is leaving to go do drills,” I explained. “I’ll have down time after that.”

“Drills?” he questioned .

“We are constantly training.”

“Oh, I get it,” Mike said. “It’s like how we’re always practicing our music.”

“Exactly,” I smiled. “Once we finish our version of practice , I’ll come find you.”

“Cool, that works,” he agreed and turned around to walk back into the rehearsal studio.

“Weren’t you headed downstairs when you ran into me?” I asked.

Mike chuckled under his breath and his cheeks turned pink. “Yeah, I was, but now I don’t remember why. Like I said, I need more caffeine.”

“Go do your thing and I’ll get you a coffee,” I offered. “I’ll leave it by your drum kit for you.”

“Jesus, thank you!” he exclaimed. “You’re a lifesaver.”

I watched him hurry back into the practice room and grinned. There was something about him that no one else had and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Once he was out of sight, I decided to leave the building and go get him a real coffee, instead of pouring him a cup of the stale sludge they tried to pass off as coffee here. I walked down the sidewalk to the cafe on the corner. They had the best coffee this side of the city, as far as I was concerned. I bought Mike a large black and another espresso for myself.

When I returned to the warehouse I used the side door to enter the rehearsal room. That way I wouldn’t disrupt their practice. I stepped to the side of the room and watched for a minute, taking it all in. They had a really tight sound, heavy on the guitars, but Mike banging on the skins was also a highlight. Watching the way he moved was even more incredible. He didn’t just play the drums. It was almost a performance all his own. He had such a flare about him, twirling his sticks in the air between beats, and the tiny bounces he did on his stool were hot as fuck. Seeing him in action gave me a whole new appreciation for what he did as a performer. It was mesmerizing and I could have stood there and watched them all day, but I couldn’t. I also didn’t want his coffee to turn cold, so I approached his drum platform and gently set the cup on top of a table he had behind him.

His eyes popped when he saw me there and a huge smile spread over his face when he noticed what I’d left for him. What I hadn’t planned on was for him to stop playing. As soon as the others noticed they had no rhythm to follow, their hands stilled, too.

“That is the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen,” Mike said as he reached with grabby hands for the white cardboard cup. He took a sip and actually moaned while he swallowed and I felt my cock flex.

“It’s black,” I offered.

“Just the way I like it,” he sighed after taking another drink.

The sound he was making was like a low hum but it quickly turned sexual and I knew I had to leave. If I stayed there another minute I’d be hard as steel while I listened to him to make love to his coffee. I wouldn’t survive that without a very obvious tent in my pants.

“Enjoy, and I’ll catch up to you later,” I said and abruptly turned to leave by the same side door. But just before the door closed behind me I heard one of the guys say, “He brought you coffee?” I made a mental note right then to find out how the others took their morning brew and to always be sure to bring each of them a cup, not just Mike. After all, what would that look like or suggest to the others?

I met up with the rest of the security team at the facility where we did our drills. Fizzbo was in the process of setting up what looked like a shopping mall scene with props to reflect stores and basically everything else you’d see there. Once the scene was ready for us, each guard took turns getting their principal safely out of a situational threat inside the mall and outside to a waiting SUV. Fizzbo used a stopwatch to time us while we ran the course and we were also filmed.

A few hours later we were asked to sit in the film room to watch the recorded video of each guard running through the course with their fake principal. After that, we critiqued everyone’s performance and how they could improve or what they excelled at. And of course, there was always a large amount of razzing while we did this.

“My grandma runs faster than you, Pax,” Reynolds hollered.

“And you run like a scared teenage girl,” Paxton fired back.

“Fuck you!” Reynolds yelled.

“Fuck you twice!”

“Boys, even as much as you’d like to, no one is fucking anyone,” Fizzbo barked and redirected us back to the subject at hand. “But Reynolds was right. Paxton was slow coming out of the food court. How could he have expedited his exit? ”

We continued with the critique for another two hours and by the time I’d made it back to the warehouse, the guys had already taken off for the day. I sent Mike a quick text to see where he was and if he could still meet with me. When I didn’t get an immediate response, I decided to drive over to the band house.

Dixon answered the front door and I quickly had to explain to him why that wasn’t a good idea. Then I took the time to educate him on why they needed to know who was at the door before they opened it. I pointed out the small monitor mounted on the wall beside the door that had a live camera feed to show who was on the other side.

“Wow, that’s pretty cool,” Dixon said, as if he were seeing this for the first time.

“No one showed you how the security system worked?” I questioned.

Fletcher appeared at the top of the stairs. “Yeah, one of the guards explained it all to us when we moved in but that was…a while ago. It’s hard to remember yesterday, never mind something that happened weeks back.”

I made another note in my head to regularly go over the security systems with them. It was important they knew how this shit worked. It was installed to help keep them safe but if they weren’t using it properly—or didn’t bother to use it at all—then it was useless technology.

Dixon and Fletcher continued to stare at me and I realized I hadn’t stated why I was there. “I’m looking for Mike,” I explained. “We were planning to go over his schedule after I finished drills but you guys were already gone by the time I returned to the warehouse.”

“That’s fine. Come on in,” Fletcher suggested.

I followed them up the stairs and paused, waiting for further instruction.

“Mike’s in his bedroom,” Fletcher said and pointed down the hall. “It’s the door on the left.”

I headed that way and knocked softly on the closed door.

“I’m jerking off! Leave me alone,” Mike yelled from the other side of the door.

I pushed his door open and stepped inside. He was sprawled on his bed, partially under sheets, but the parts I could see of him were naked. Shit. Was he really in here rubbing one out?

“What. The. Fuck?” Mike bellowed. “Dude, I said I was jerking off! Every guy knows that’s code for get lost !”

“Were you really…” I began to ask, and then mimed a stroking action in the air with my fist. His sheepish look and the flushed expression on his face told me he probably was doing exactly what he said, and I suddenly felt like a giant shit for interrupting him. Instead, I was now standing inside his bedroom without having a proper invitation. “Shit, I’m really sorry about that, but take your time and then get dressed. I’ll meet you out in the living room.”

“Take my time?” Mike asked incredulously. “The mood has passed. I’ll be out in a minute.”

“Again, I apologize for the interruption,” I said before I slipped into the hall and quietly shut his door behind me. That was awkward as fuck but I only had myself to blame. I honestly thought he was joking when he said what he was doing. I absolutely should have known better.

Less than five minutes later, Mike sauntered out into the living room wearing jeans and a t-shirt but nothing on his feet. Why I even noticed a detail like that was beyond me. Never mind the fact I gawked at him long enough to register that his bare feet were sexy. I simply couldn’t understand why this guy affected me the way he did, but I was beginning to realize that working with Mike may not be the easy gig I thought it would be.

Dixon and Potts were playing a video game and occupying both couches. The only other place to sit was in the dining room or go back in Mike’s bedroom. But for obvious reasons, his bedroom was not an option. I pulled a chair out at the dining room table and sat, then opened the notebook app on my phone.

“Okay, so tell me what a typical day is like for you,” I started. “For instance, what time do you wake up?”

“That’s it? You’re just jumping right into it?” he asked.

“This is why I’m here,” I explained.

“You’re not going to discuss the big phallic-shaped elephant you saw in my bedroom?”

“First of all, I didn’t see… anything, phallic-shaped or otherwise,” I laid out. “Secondly, I already apologized for barging in without you inviting me. What else is there to discuss?”

“I don’t know,” Mike grumbled, while he pulled a chair out for himself to sit in. “It’s just fucking awkward as fuck. That’s all.”

“Fucking awkward as fuck,” I chuckled. His vernacular was going to take some getting used to but it was pretty funny. “You can say that again. But listen, we all do it. It’s no big deal—and I really didn’t see anything, so let’s just forget it happened. Okay?”

Mike seemed to ponder my words for a moment. “When was the last time you waxed your dolphin?”

Waxed my dolphin?

Like I said, it was going to take time for his word choices not to make me want to burst out laughing. But I knew he wasn’t joking right now. For whatever reason, Mike was being very serious, so I gave him a real answer—one I hoped wouldn’t come back to bite me in the ass.

“Last night,” I admitted, hoping my answer would finally move us on from this strange conversation.

His eyebrows shot halfway up his forehead. “That long ago?”

“And again this morning,” I added.

Mike smiled broadly and it lit up his whole face. “Now that sounds more believable.”

“I’m glad to hear I’m normal , now can we get back to the reason I’m here?” I asked.

“It’s too bad you didn’t see my elephant trunk,” he said with a straight face. He shifted in his seat to get comfortable. “You would have seen for yourself that it really is as big as they say.”

And, just like that, we had managed to circle back around to talk about his dick again.

It had me wondering if this was how it would always be between us, and that made me laugh.