Van tilted his head. “For what? I don’t poach other people’s boyfriends, and I don’t take advantage of people too drunk to consent.”
“I mean, thank you for being a good friend to both of us. You didn’t have to babysit our drunk asses.”
“No worries. Besides, it’s not like this was my first threesome.”
Joshua laughed, though the comment did funny things to his insides. Insides that were still sloshy and dehydrated, and dear God, he needed a shower. And an Advil the size of a house cat.
“You’ve done a threesome?” Benji asked. His curiosity surprised Joshua a bit, especially with the two of them sitting there without a stitch on. He expected Benji to dive for his clothes any second, not sit around making small talk.
“Twice, actually,” Van replied. “Once as a third with an established couple, and once as a one-off with two strangers.”
“Which one did you like more?”
Joshua stared at his boyfriend, who was watching Van with innocent curiosity. The same look he got when engaging a new person who offered him a different perspective on life, work, music, or anything else. It was both incredibly endearing, and a little bit confusing.
“I enjoyed both experiences for different reasons,” Van said. “With the strangers there were no expectations, no specific roles or histories. Just three people having a good time in bed.”
“And the couple?”
“It was more intense. They’d been married for years, but occasionally brought a third in to play, so there were rules about certain things. Their limits, my limits. Who could do what to who. Playing with people who are very much in love, knowing they’re sharing their partner with you? It’s intense. And in some ways, kind of an honor, so you have to respect it.”
All of this sex talk with Benji naked less than a foot away was not doing Joshua any favors. He tried to casually move the sheet on his lap to better cover his erection, but both men in the bed noticed.
“Anyway,” Van said, “you two clearly need to get dressed, so I’m going downstairs to rustle up some water, food, and ibuprofen for your hangovers. Be back in half an hour?” He vaulted off the bed and was out the door before Joshua or Benji could respond.
Joshua fell onto the soft mattress, stupidly relieved that Van was out of the room for a while. A lot of tension had left with him, but goddamn, this side of the bed smelled like him. The mattress moved, and then Benji was curled up against him, his head resting on Joshua’s shoulder.
“Well, I guess there’s good news to all of this,” Benji said.
“Oh yeah?”
“Yup. We got drunk and acted like fools, but at least we did it as a couple.”
Joshua snickered, then kissed Benji’s messy hair. “True story. And thank Christ Van is a genuinely decent human being, considering he’s attracted to both of us.”
Benji lifted his head, eyebrows furrowed. “He’s attracted to me?”
“Duh. Did you see the way he looked at you last night?”
“I only saw the way he looked at you. And the way he deliberately tried not looking at both of us this morning.”
Joshua had noticed that too. “I didn’t know you were so fascinated by threesomes.”
“I didn’t either.” Benji traced circles on Joshua’s abs with his fingertips. “I’ve never known anyone who’s admitted to having one. I was curious.”
The gentle inflection on the final word snagged Joshua’s attention, and he looked at Benji. Really looked at him and saw a raw curiosity there. It gave him the courage to ask something he’d never thought to ask Benji in his life. “Would you ever want to have a threesome?”
The fact that Benji didn’t say no right away stirred something inside of Joshua. A deep down longing he’d never acknowledged before. Benji held his gaze with an intensity that only amplified that longing before asking, “Doyouwant to have a threesome?”
“With Van?”hung off the end of that question as surely as the sky was blue and water was wet.
We promised to be honest, always.
“Maybe,” Joshua replied. “But doesn’t that kind of defeat the point of closing the relationship?”
“Not necessarily. Closing it was about declaring us an exclusive couple, no hooking up allowed. A threesome isn’t oneof us hooking up. It’s inviting a third person into our bed. Sharing equally.”
“But would you really want that?” Joshua nudged him until they were both sitting up and facing each other. The intensity of the conversation had his dick in a confused state. He was aroused by the sex talk, but losing focus with all of the emotions involved. “For three years you had the ability to fuck around and you never did. Why would you want to start now?”
