Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 3

him.
    Taylor sighed and set his mug down too. "My father doesn't want me to be a musician. He wanted me to be a lawyer, if you can believe it. My parents are very Bohemian and I was raised in an environment where creativity thrived, yet my father wanted me to take the bar." He shook his head as if he could still hardly believe it. "I'm a product of my upbringing. Sure, I went to the best private schools in the world and I have a degree in economics from Stanford, but I also play a dozen instruments. I first picked up a guitar at age four according to my mother."
    "And you're hugely talented. I don't understand why your father would be unhappy with that." Daren knew first hand that parents often weren't rational when it came to what they wanted in life for their children. His own parents accepted his sexual orientation but they wished he wasn't gay because they knew life held additional challenges for those who weren't straight.
    "My father thinks the music industry is turning to shit. He'd rather I have a career in a stable industry." Taylor shrugged and pushed back his long curly brown hair, still damp from the rain and his shower. He launched into a monologue about not wanting to go to Stanford and his father overruling him.
    While Taylor talked about his spats with his father over school and his major, Daren's mind drifted. He listened with half an ear to Taylor's descriptions of his first solo gigs playing coffee houses around Palo Alto and San Francisco while in college, but his mind drifted to what he'd like to do to the muscular body that peeped out from beneath the soft beige blanket. Taylor waxed poetic about how music had finally taken hold of him in a serious way and Daren imagined bending Taylor over the green chair.
    Visions of a taut ass and long muscular legs teased Daren unmercifully. He cursed himself for not lacing the tea with booze so he could loosen Taylor's inhibitions. As Taylor went on to describe telling his mother about wanting to be a musician, Daren plotted how he could possibly get his best friend drunk enough to fuck. He knew he wasn't being a very good friend by only paying cursory attention to Taylor's story, but he'd been in love with the man so long that his defenses could only take so much. Having Taylor sitting two feet away, almost naked and fresh from a shower, on a night when he'd already been feeling vulnerable was far more than his weak control could handle.
    "But my career choices aren't the only reason my father and I don't exactly get along."
    Daren snapped out of his dreams of licking the crease between Taylor's gorgeous ass cheeks. He stared at his friend questioningly. "There's more to this bedtime story than the fact that you probably have a multi-million dollar trust fund, a mother who was a famous model and a father who is a famous bass player?" Daren couldn't imagine what secret Taylor hid that made his face darken like one of the storm clouds that currently blanketed the sky outside.
    Dropping his head so that his damp curls fell forward, obscuring his face, Taylor twisted his long fingers together. His pose was one of nervousness tinged with fear. The tension radiating from his body made Daren's heart pound. Was this where Taylor told him one of the things he'd thought of earlier, the bad things, any one of which would break Daren's heart?
    "When I said I was tired of casual sex, I wasn't one hundred percent honest with you, Dare."
    The soft words confused Daren. He couldn't get a grip on Taylor's confessions in part because the guy now had his face hidden. Whatever the hell he was trying to say about sex had Daren frowning in confusion.
    "I don't understand."
    A heavy sigh escaped Taylor and he raised his head. Daren could see a faint flush coloring the man's sculpted cheekbones and his amber eyes glittered feverishly, over bright with emotion.
    "Dare, I don't do casual sex at all anymore. I tried for years to be what my father said I needed to be if I wanted to be a successful musician. I had a different gorgeous woman on my arm every night, at every gig." Taylor shook his head sadly. "I hated it. It wasn't me. I need something else."
    Daren braced himself. This was where Taylor told him he was getting married. He just knew it. He held his breath and wished his chest would stop aching.
    "I need a steady relationship and…and I need it with someone other than all the women who constantly chase after me." Taylor sucked in a deep, audible breath and his next words