“We’ve got a surprise for you tonight,” Derek said to the overzealous crowd. Max brushed past us, carrying a stool, placing it at center stage. “A special guest is joining us tonight, to play a song he wrote. It’s never been played before and we hope you’ll enjoy it.” The VIP area cleared out at Derek’s words. Every Rockstar in sight flanked both sides of the stage area to see what was going on.
As Ryder emerged from behind the curtains, they went fucking wild, fans and peers alike. It was off the fucking charts insanity. Security doubled up right before our eyes along the fence line in front of the platform. The fans tried their best to rush past the shoulder to shoulder wall of muscle but were unable to even after some of the dumbasses scaled the chain link fencing that had been put in place. Those were promptly escorted out. Dipshits, now they wouldn’t be able to witness firsthand what Maiden had in store for them. All of us behind the scenes were giving Ryder a standing ovation, clapping and whistling as loud as we could.
“Ryder Hampton everyone!” Derek announced, hugging his best friend. Fucking hell, I didn’t think they could get any louder and here they were proving me wrong. Stoli gave Ryder a hug before handing him his acoustic and walked backstage where Joey was waiting for him with a towel and bottle of water in hand.
Someone tugged on my shirt, when I turned, I met Ely’s curious face staring up at me. “What’s going on?”
“Ryder’s playing a song with them. He hasn’t played since his accident this past summer while we were on break in Switzerland.” I pulled Ely in front of me, so he had a better view. Resting my chin atop his head. With my arms around his waist, I released a contented sigh. Heaven. Having him here with me, watching this monumental moment everyone would be talking about for days to come, knowing we experienced it together had me getting even sappier over this man.
Derek lowered the mic, moving the stand in front of Ryder. Ryder addressed the crowd. “There’s someone special in my life, someone I’ve agreed to spend the rest of my life with and this is a song I wrote for him. I love you Max,” Ryder said, staring directly at the man who held his heart. “Everyone, this is my first time playing since the accident so please be gentle.” Ryder told the fans, flashing them his thousand-megawatt smile. “I hope you enjoy, “Sins of the Flesh.””
How can this be wrong
When it feels so right
How can I be strong
Whenever you’re in sight
You walked into my life
Nothing more than a fantasy
You only wanted me for a night
But the dream didn’t end for me
Chorus:
Don’t worry if you don’t feel the same
That’s my burden to bear
Sins of the flesh brought us together
For me it’s way more than that
My heart loves one-hundred percent
Is it too much to ask that you don’t break it
I tried to reel my feelings in
But that’s a battle long since lost
Why’s it so hard for you to love me
When I could be all you need
All that we need
Everything for each other
Chorus:
Don’t worry if you don’t feel the same
That’s my burden to bear
Sins of the flesh brought us together
For me it’s way more than that
You say you never needed another
The same’s always been true for me
But then you came along
And now I can’t breathe without you
Please say you love me
That you’d die without me
Don’t let what we have end
Say you’ll always be there for me
Now that you feel the same
I know we’ll never part
Sins of the flesh made us one
It’s you and me forever, without a doubt
As soon as Ryder finished playing the song, just as he released the final lyric, Max walked out on stage, laying some hot and heavy love on Ryder. The crowd hooted and whistled. We were pretty much doing the same from the sidelines. Those two had a love the rest of us could only dream of having. Max would do anything for Ryder and vice versa. Max more than proved his loyalty by putting his life on the line for Ryder, twice. They complimented each other perfectly and the song was a big hit with the fans.
“That’s one tree I wouldn’t mind climbing.”
“Benny!” Mickey and River yelled in unison. Ely had walked ahead me, just stepping off the bottom rung of the stairs when Benny’s words hit him. His mouth was hanging open, again. I damn near pissed my pants laughing as hard as I was. Having spent so much time on the road with the throuple I was familiar with their antics, but poor Ely was left picking his jaw up off the floor for the second time tonight. Benny had zero filter which to me was one his best qualities. That and his magical hands. It was easy to see how he became the Masterson Masseuse the first time he worked out the kinks in my back after a show. He may be tiny, but he was wicked fierce with his golden mitts.
“Baby Koala!” Benny yelled, launching himself into Diamond’s arms like a mini hurricane. Luckily, Diamond was prepared to catch him. Mickey and River rolled their eyes at Benny, clearly used to how he was. Easton shook his head and continued tapping away on his phone screen, completely unphased.
“Dare I ask?” Ely asked me.
“You wouldn’t believe the explanation if I did and before you ask, no they don’t swing. Benny just took to Diamond, adopting him as his BFF and well, Diamond didn’t stand a chance fighting it. But trust me when I say they are nothing more than friends with zero sexual benefits.” I did my best to explain without going into too much detail. I know those guys rolled like we did and we protected our own, spouses and significant others included.
“Gotcha,” Ely replied. I think he was finally getting the hang of our zany group of friends.
“You all done for the night?” I asked.
“Yeah, we start loading the trucks at four in the morning to head back to Vegas,” Ely said, staring down at his feet. The sad tone in his voice had me wanting to hide him in my bunk and take him to Seattle with us. We both had so much on our plates right now that would hinder us from being able to hang out over the next couple of weeks even if we were in the same city.
“Hey,” I said, tilting his head up. “It’s just for a couple of weeks. We’ll text and talk as often as we can. Think about where you want to go for our first date, okay?” I did my best to sound confident, but I was dreading the inevitable goodbye too. Would he find someone else? Someone who wouldn’t be on the road all the time? The conflicting emotions were tearing me apart. I couldn’t wait to lay down the tracks for our first album, something I’ve dreamed about since I was a kid, but still wished Ely could be by my side, sharing it with me. This was all so new; we barely knew each other, and the instant attraction caught me off guard. Maybe some time apart would be good. It would either solidify things or we’d find out that we weren’t meant to be. My vote was for solidify.
“It’s late and I have to be up early,” Ely began. “Walk me to my trailer?”