No way was Van opening up the can of worms that was his own personal health issues. “You only get one body, so you might as well take care of it,” he quipped.
Joshua wiggled his eyebrows. “I’d rather have as much fun with mine as possible.”
“So does that mean last night’s impromptu strip poker isn’t unusual?”
“Not for him,” Benji said.
“Hey,” Joshua said. “You get feisty when you’re drunk too, mister. I’ve woken up with the scratch marks to prove it.”
Van bit down hard on his tongue. That was the only thing that kept his dick from perking up over the mention of scratches. And quite possibly unmentioned love bites.
“I can admit that alcohol lowers my inhibitions quite a lot, versus when I’m sober,” Benji said, looking contrite. “And since I don’t remember much after coming back to the room last night, I apologize if I got gropey or anything, Van.”
Van had enjoyed seeing the uninhibited side of Benji, but he wasn’t admitting that out loud. Or that Benji had tried to grab his dick more than once. “You were fine. Mostly you groped your boyfriend.”
Benji chuckled. “He is quite grope-able.”
“Yes, he is.”Shit, fuck and hell. Stop it, stupid mouth.“Um, not that I’ve ever groped him myself.”
“But you want to.”
Van glanced from Benji to Joshua and back again, surprised at the directness. Even Joshua seemed a bit uncertain where this was going.
“Considering Joshua and I had planned to hook up a few nights ago,” Van replied slowly, “I don’t think I need to answer that.” He did need to shut temptation down fast. “I don’t do guys with boyfriends.”
Benji frowned. “You told us you’d had a threesome with a couple.”
“A married couple. A trans man and his bisexual wife.”
“So a married couple is different from an unmarried one?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Because I don’t want to be having this conversation anymore.
“Lay off him, Ben,” Joshua said. He seemed agitated at the line of questioning. “We already agreed.”
“Agreed to what?” Van asked.
The pair exchanged guilty looks that both terrified and intrigued him. They seemed to do that silent communicating thing that long-term couples somehow perfected, because Benji flushed tomato red.
“Ben and I were having a hypothetical conversation while you were out,” Joshua said, his face also kind of pink. “About threesomes.”
Van nearly dropped his fruit container. “You did?”
“Can we not?” Benji asked. “I’m sorry I brought it up.”
All of the pieces began falling into place for Van, painting a very clear picture of where this conversation was going. And if one of them asked, Van would say yes, and he couldn’t say yes, becausecomplicated.
“Then how about we drop it?” Van said. “In fact, I really should be heading home.”
As embarrassed as he’d been a moment ago, Benji now looked all kinds of disappointed. That made Van feel awful, but he needed to get out of that room.
“Are you staying?” Van asked Joshua. “Or do you need a lift back?”
“I’ll stay.” Joshua glanced at Benji with concern. “I can figure out my way home. Thanks.”
