Page 14 of Uriah's Orbit
“Ah, right.” I looked around.
“Austin?” He was chuckling.
“Yes?”
“Just strip. You’ve done this before.”
“Not outside a dressing room.”
The bastard, the very hot bastard, laughed. “We don’t dochangingrooms here. When you have thirty or sixty seconds for a costume change? You stop, strip, and roll. There’s no privacy, there’s no time for privacy. So. Get used to it, and strip.”
Despite the fact that I had been in showers with the guys, tour buses in our underwear, on stage in nothing but leather pants, stripping in front of this incredibly hot costumer made me shy.
But I had to get in to costume. I’d absolutely lucked out that this production only needed someone for five months, until closing. I knew that a few of the other plays and musicals I’d auditioned for wanted me—but wanted me for six solid months. I couldn’t do that. Not this time.
We’d spent a month getting Frankel off our backs, out of our contracts, out of our music. Angela had been invaluable, and she’d found us one of the best producers in the industry. Better, she agreed to let us work and just be a guide more than a dictator.
The album came together in less than a month. Just about twenty days. I hadn’t felt so energized since our second album. We’d all had songs written, and with a ten song album, we all got two songs. It was just…damn near perfection and it was going to be released in about two months, and then four months later we’d start our tour.
And the day we wrapped, I started looking for auditions. I had that deadline. The new producer, Hailey Demorst, wanted us on a tour as soon as possible, but we all wanted just a little time to ourselves. So the four months was written into the contract.
I was up front about the time limit, but some of the directors in the theaters were pulling shit. They’d offered me the role, but only on the condition I could stay six months.
There was no way I was giving up my band. Not when we finally had a record that wasus. Really, honestly us.
The talent agent who had been sending me auditions dropped me. He said I was too demanding to work with. All I had was a time restraint. Angela had called me in rush at seven in the morning one week before with a hot tip that there was going to be a Broadway scandal and a decent role opening up.
I was the first in line at the door at noon.
Which was the wrong thing to do, according to Angela. The first audition was usually forgotten and it was better to be halfway down the pack.
They called me back at four, for costume at ten, and rehearsal at eleven.
That was how I wound up in the dressing room, stripping for a very hot, bearded man with a vest, a wristlet pincushion, and a measuring tape around his neck. His tweed vest was perfect and his pants were perfecter.
More perfect.
Hugged his ass.
The dark framed glasses he wore set off his bright blue eyes, and his dark brown hair was perfectly coiffed.
I was using perfectly too much. Also, where the fuck had my brain come up withcoiffed?
Uriah pulled the first costume off the hanger and handed it to me. “Here you go. Put it on and step up on the pedestal.”
I stared at the material and how it just kind of hung limp from my hand. “Uh…can you help? My costuming was always more pants and shirts.”
Already annoyed with me, Uriah arranged the material so I could duck and he could slip the whole thing over my head. It dropped down, and swirled into place.
“Can you manage the pants?” Uriah asked.
“I’m pretty good with those.” I grinned.
Once I slipped the pants up and hitched them on to my waist, they fell right back down.
Uriah lifted an eyebrow. “How is a dude who does cokethatoverweight?”
“Excuse me?”
