All Chapters of BACKSTAGE ROMANCE.: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

* Daniel *As I finished dressing after my shower, I noticed that I had a message waiting on my phone. I activated the voice mail system to hear a familiar stentorian voice. I had to pull my ear away from the receiver to hear the message clearly."Jeffrey, it's Larry Ryan. I'm bringing some of my students to your performance tonight. I hope you won't think it too much of an imposition to sign a few autographs afterward. Look forward to seeing you. I promise not to be too critical. Call me back if you can."I grinned at my phone and called back. Naturally, it went to voice mail. Does anyone ever talk person to person any more?"Professor, I can't wait to see you tonight, and please be as critical as you like. I'll let the house manager know you and your students are welcome to come back to the green room when the show's over."* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The preview that night was well attended. I had to modes

* Jeff *The next three weeks were some of the happiest of my life. Now that we were into our performance schedule, my mornings and early afternoons were free. Free to sleep in after getting home at midnight. Free to run errands, go Christmas shopping, go to the gym, and take care of housework during the day. Free to spend lazy morning hours making love to Daniel. Especially the lazy mornings making love to Daniel. I never tired of waking up to find his naked body lying next to me, mine and mine only to worship.Ever since he had opened up to me about his experience at Brian's hands, Daniel had started to become much more demonstrative with his affection. To my delight, he began initiating touch, with gestures that ranged from resting a gentle hand on my ass or the small of my back, to fierce, demanding kisses that often led to even more. One highly memorable morning, somewhere between "Good morning" and "What would you like for breakfast?" he started a chain of ev

* Daniel * Jeff had rushed into the theater with barely enough time left to get into his costume and makeup, muttering something about lunch with the Professor and speed traps. But once he was out on stage, he threw himself into the performance. The rest of the cast responded to his energy, and the audience followed along willingly, giving the cast the loudest, most enthusiastic applause we had heard the entire run. Listening to the whistling and cheering, Mark and I looked at each other with what were probably identical looks of pleased surprise. "They'll all be full of themselves tonight," was his only comment. But there was a smile on his face. Everyone shares the high of a response like that, onstage or off. We finally brought the curtain down and started resetting the stage for the next evening's performance while the cast dispersed to their dressing rooms. It felt like it took ages, when all I wanted was to join Jeff and share the e

* Daniel *Monday. Dark day at the theater. The weather had turned cold again, with snow in the forecast for later in the day. I had hoped we could spend one of our long lazy mornings in bed together, but it turned out Jeff had a doctor's appointment. So I was hanging out alone in his living room sipping my coffee and thumbing through back issues of Vanity Fair when the doorbell rang. I cracked the front door open and peeked out. A blast of chilly winter air numbed my cheeks and hands. A young man in a heavy jacket was standing there with a large manila envelope in his mittened hands."Jeffrey Williams?" he asked."He's not here right now. Can I help you?" I asked."I have a delivery from Professor Ryan at the university. Some plays he asked me to bring over.""I can take that for him. Do you need me to sign anything?""No, sir. Have a nice day."Sir? There were, what, maybe six years between us?"Thank you, you

* Jeff *The cast party was a time of great hilarity. Strong word of mouth had brought in large, appreciative audiences during the last week of the run, so the theater managers, board and donors were in an expansive mood. Our little family of performers and crew members swung back and forth between exhilaration and sorrow that our adventure together had come to an end. Scott, taking a break from his latest directing project, was there celebrating with us, the life of the party as always.Our parents-to-be, Heather and Justin, once again stole the spotlight when Heather showed up sporting a brand new sparkling engagement ring. We fell all over each other trying to outdo one another with our congratulations. She proclaimed, "I know, it's a huge cliché, a shotgun wedding, but we were really just postponing the inevitable, so why wait?" She snuggled up to her fiancé's side.Julie and her family had driven into town for Christmas, and Joe and Mom