When Justin Met Max...

By Heather Mar-Gerrison

As the oldest member of the band, Justin sometimes gets a little worried about being left on the shelf. Hell, he's pushing twenty-seven and has never had someone he could hand on heart say he's fallen in love with. Every relationship he's ever got involved in somehow always manages to end in disaster and his latest relationship, with Saul, is, sadly, no different. It's a bit of a relief to escape to Vegas for a few days even if the band aren't destined to hit the big time... At least it gives him a little time away to lick his wounds and re-evaluate his own worth.
He never expects to meet someone else, but buoyed up by his band mates, he's happy to go along with the old adage 'what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas...’ when a really good-looking guy, Max approaches him at the bar and they start chatting. They get along really well. They have drinks together, then more drinks - and then, against their better judgement, even more....
Justin wakes up the next morning, naked as the day he was born, a wedding ring on his finger in exchange for his grandfather's heavyweight gold ring that's worth a fortune and completely alone... Just what happened last night? Surely he didn't get married?
Max is a highly successful landscape gardener and millionaire. He doesn't get drunk and do stupid things. Well, not usually anyway but there's something about Justin. It's almost as if he's weaved a magic spell around him and made him fall head over heels in love...
Well, there was nothing else for it. They were going to have to get an annulment, only they've most definitely consummated the marriage... That means Justin is entitled to half of everything he owns... He can't possibly stay married to some guy he met in a bar one night and knows virtually nothing about...
Only it’s not going to be that easy. Justin has tracked him down and demanded his grandfather's ring back. As soon as he looks into his eyes again he knows he isn't going to be able to let him go. As it turns out, what happens in Vegas is definitely not gonna stay in Vegas... they're both headed back to England, on the same plane - and in seats right next to each other...
This is number three of The Band series; it has the usual helping of adorable guys , no cliff-hanger and a HEA

• Language: English
• Publisher: Heather Mar-Gerrison
• Release date: Jul 27, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463072356

Heather Mar-Gerrison

I love to write M/M romance and as a sucker for a HEA, you're guaranteed one in my books. #happyheatherafters

Book preview

When Justin Met Max…

(The Band #3)

Heather Mar-Gerrison

Smashwords Edition

Heather Mar-Gerrison copyright 2018

Revised Edition 2022

Beautiful front cover courtesy of

Shutterstock designs

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or mechanically, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except where permitted by law. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. The Author holds exclusive rights to this work.

A holiday romance that

ends with a wedding band...

Prologue

Justin

I looked at the board and then desperately looked all around the departure lounge again for about the thousandth time, standing on tiptoes to try to see over the heads of the crowded lounge area. What can I say? I was hardly dwarf-like but you’d never describe me as lofty. Fuck. I muttered, "Where the fucking hell are they?" ‘They’ were Horatio and Danny and they were supposed to be here, like, now.

Karl, who would have been a much better person to be looking over the heads of everyone else, since he was about ten feet tall, grinned up at me from where he was lounging in one of the chairs, with his legs out in front of him that went on forever, They’ll be here. He said, "You know what they’re like. They probably meant to take separate showers...." He snorted and I had to smile.

Horatio was our bass guitarist. He was a great guy and he’d met and fallen head-over-heels in love with a guy he played five-a-side football with.

They’d had a bit of a rocky start. Danny, his very beautiful husband, was married to someone else when they’d met – but his relationship had been built on fear and mistrust and he’d been deeply unhappy.

They were now blissfully happy with each other, which was undoubtedly the reason they were so late. They had gotten married earlier on in the year, a couple of months before Noah, our drummer and his fiancé Tobias also tied the knot.

Seconds later, my heart was able to revert to normal as they came dashing through to us, big smiles on their faces and full of apologies for their tardiness.

Danny threw his arms around me, Sorry, mate. He said, just about hugging the life out of me, We didn’t mean to almost give you heart failure. We got a flat...

The explanations between the two of them were enough to have me running for the exit. They really were a force to be reckoned with when they united – both were big, beautiful and very, very loud...

I, on the other hand, was kind of short, kind of skinny and had been described on more than one occasion as a twink, which I found deeply offensive. I was not, in any way shape or form, effeminate. I was a total guy who just happened to be attracted to other guys – and generally guys that too, were very masculine. I was all about the cock but I was also all about the tight buns, the big guns and the pecs to die for.

Something that Karl found really quite funny. He really didn’t get it that I didn’t like girly guys – but I guess that was because he’d only ever really loved one guy and that was the one that got away... The one we were only allowed to talk about freely when we’d all had one too many and he was having one of his (very rare) meltdowns about what Devon was doing these days in Canada and lamenting the fact that he was probably married with children now to a fabulous husband that had talked him into have the op to become a girl. Yeah. He kind of had issues over the whole thing but we loved him anyway.

Karl chuckled, Still wishing they’d made it? He murmured as I sat down in a bit of a daze.

I laughed, Hell, yeah. I agreed, I couldn’t imagine doing Vegas without them, could you?

He shook his head, No way. He said with a deep chuckle.

Noah and his husband came sauntering back from the duty free at that moment, hand-in-hand and looking totally loved-up. Noah didn’t need to be in the band. He was the only near-millionaire in the band – having met and fallen deeply in love with Tobias Duvall. Tobias was the son of Darren Duvall, a famous TV chef, and was therefore absolutely loaded.

They both worked for the Duvall empire, but they had their own business within the company, looking after the homeless and using the food that wasn’t out-of-date, but wasn’t going to be used from all of their restaurants to not only feed them, but also to teach them how to make meals. It was really successful and had won them a load of awards – and a whole lot of love and respect within the communities they reached.

Noah, being Noah, couldn’t only have one business to run, though – so he still helped out his dad with the family-run motor business and he still bought and sold VW Vans and the odd vintage motor, here and there, too.

Tobias was insistent that Noah stay in the band too, since he absolutely loved being our drummer, and they managed their time between their ventures really well. The band could probably go places but we all had our lives outside of it – and as much as I longed for the day that it was our only job and we were world-famous – my day job was perfectly okay, since I was a part-time pianist in a very nice restaurant, and if I was going to be really honest with myself, we were all pretty happy that it was more our downtime than our full-time careers.

Karl was still single. After breaking up with his high school boyfriend (who looked just like a girl in their prom photo) following some drama or other involving his dad, who he no longer spoke to, he’d never met anyone who matched up to his lost love and none of us had any real idea about whom he would ever end up with. As far as any of us were aware, he’d never dated anyone since.

I hadn’t known Karl for as long as Noah and Rayshe, and I really had no idea what his type was. Male or female? Was he gay or straight or bi? I really had no clue and I didn’t really care, either. It wasn’t any of my business, anyway.

In his more philosophical moments he said he didn’t like to identify as anything other than being a human being with feelings. Whatever...

And then there was me… I was in a relationship – of sorts – with a guy called Saul. Saul was okay. He was a bit of dick if I’m honest and I wasn’t all that sure that I still wanted to be with him, if I’d ever really thought it was a good idea. We’d kind of just fallen into seeing each other on a more or less regular basis.

As the eldest member of the band, at twenty-six, I was aware that I was closer to thirty than twenty these days and I was nowhere near close to finding the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Karl still had time. He was only just twenty-four but I was closer to twenty-seven and I was beginning to get a little antsy about the whole thing on the quiet. Saul really wasn’t the one. I knew it as well as he did.

And he was definitely seeing other guys behind my back – and that didn’t sit well with me. I got it that we’d never really discussed exclusivity but it was just good manners, wasn’t it?

Well, that was the way I saw it anyway. I didn’t see other guys when I had a boyfriend. I didn’t like cheating. Maybe it was because Dad had cheated on Mum early on in their relationship and they’d broken up when I was small, before getting back together when I was in my teens. I agreed with Mum – it was not a cool move on his part. Still, that was all in the past and they were really happy together these days. He’d been young and foolish and she’d kicked him into touch over it. They’d gotten divorced when I was four – but by the time I was fourteen, they’d got married again and they’d never looked back. I guess true love won out…

So anyway. I’d told Mum about Saul and his other guys and she’d told me not to even think about it – to finish with him and to go on tour with the guys to Vegas and to find another nice young man – and to have a wild time; to do whatever I liked with whomever I liked. She actually hinted at me getting it on with Karl but we just didn’t have any sort of attraction between us. He was a great guy – don’t get me wrong – I just didn’t fancy him and I was quite sure he didn’t have any sort of feelings towards me, other than friendship, either.

I hadn’t actually gotten around to finishing things permanently with Saul before we were leaving for Vegas and he hadn’t taken it very well that I was going without him. He’d whined about it when I’d said we needed a break from each other, calling me a pussy and insisting that he hadn’t meant to sleep with the latest guy he’d cheated on me with…

"What do you mean, you didn’t mean to cheat?" I asked him. Hell, how did you not mean to have sex with someone?

He frowned, I’d had a couple of drinks. It didn’t mean anything.

I shrugged, "I had a couple of drinks with the lads last night. I retorted, It didn’t make me want to shag any of them. Grow up, Saul."

He actually had the audacity to look offended at me telling him to grow