Dancing to A Little Night Music

Dayle A. Dermatis

A few years ago, in a conversation that no doubt involved wine, I turned to my best friend of 25 years and said, “Hey, wouldn’t it be fun to write a novel together?”

The question of what to write about quickly came clear. Let’s take that fanfic we used to write about our favorite rock stars and make some money off of it.

Well, only a few tiny bits were culled from that fan fiction. But we’d been Styx fans for almost as long as we’d known each other, and the resulting novel was riddled with in jokes. Even the hero of A Little Night Music looks suspiciously like the current keyboardist (only taller). (And in the original version of the book, our hero was a keyboardist. Our editor made us change him to a guitarist. I believe the directive was “Less Billy Joel, more Billy Idol.” Hrmph. He’s never seen our keyboardist move…)

But enough about the writing process. Let’s talk about rock star crushes. In A Little Night Music, Hannah Montgomery, at the tender age of 17, manages to fall down the stairs and into the arms of her personal rock star crush, Nate Fox. Emboldened by her good fortune, she kisses him, and for an all-too-brief moment he kisses her back… She makes a vow some of us might admit to after being plied with copious amounts of alcohol: that someday, she’d have her night of passion with Nate.

Nine years later, she gets her chance. She’s a successful publicist, and Nate’s desperately in need of good publicity to get him back on top after drug addiction and a car accident that killed his then-girlfriend…and a secret nobody but his manager knows until Nate lets down his guard and confides in Hannah.

Hannah fully intends to keep things professional until he’s back on top, but lust does crazy things to one’s plans, doesn’t it? He flirts with her, she gives back as good as she gets, and the next thing she knows, he’s leading her upstairs…

Hannah was so aroused that she was breathless by the time they reached the second floor. Part of her kept insisting that it was too soon, she needed to keep her professional life in focus. The other part of her, the part that was panting with hunger, could only think of Nate, and the teenage vow she’d made so many years ago. They were just at the doorway to the bedroom, she had a glimpse of a wide four-poster bed, when he pushed her against the doorjamb and kissed her.

Hard.

Hannah knew, vaguely, that it was the final test. Her last chance to protest, to back out. Say the word, push him away, and that would be the end of it.

The wooden edge of the door pushed into her back, sharp and unyielding. Nate’s body was just as solid, his heat warming her, causing flames to lap at her self control. He wanted her.

Nate Fox wanted her.

Anyone else, and she could have maintained her professional decorum, but the heady realization of his desire for her had shut down her thought processes.

The shaggy hair at the sides of his head was soft, and she wove her fingers through it to pull him deeper into the kiss, just as she’d done as a teenager. This time, however, he kissed her much harder, until he was bruising her lips. She matched him, kiss for kiss, curling one leg around his calf. She could feel his arousal pressing into her stomach, and she rocked her hips to pleasure them both. The low growl he made was gratifying, the hands that tightened on her hips even more so.

They broke apart, gasping. “Breathe,” Nate crooned. His mouth was temptingly close, and she leaned forward to run the tip of her tongue across his bottom lip.

“Why?” Hannah asked, his taste lingering in her mouth. Spices and desire. Sin and satisfaction. “Aren’t you trying to make me pass out?”

He laughed huskily. He nuzzled her throat, teeth scraping gently just above her pulse. “Not just yet,” he said. “There’s a lot more I intend to do to you before I let you rest.”


A Little Night Music by Sarah Dale will be available in the US on August 7, although you can pre-order it now. For those of you in the UK, it’s already in the shops just waiting for you…

(Pictures in this column are all of Lawrence Gowan, keyboardist and singer of Styx and inspiration for Nate Fox. Picture #1 taken by Ken Meese (yes, my husband loves me very much), Casino Rama, May 2007. Picture #2 taken by Steve Bernzweig, Casino Rama, May 2007. Picture #3 taken by Brigitte Boulais, from the Crystal Ball website, Casino Rama, 2003.)