“I know, and I will. Thanks, Bea.”
“Whatever. Go make drinks.”
With a grin and a laugh, he did exactly that, returning to his station and two smiling faces.
Monday and Tuesday passed in a similar way, with the trio spending the day at Van’s apartment and the evenings at Off Beat. Wednesday was Van’s night off from tending bar, so instead of staying indoors, he planned a road trip across haunted Delmarva. Using one of his books as a guide, he drove Joshua and Benji out to Reliance, Maryland, where the Patty Cannon house had once stood. Benji took a selfie with the historical marker and uploaded it to the Fading Daze site.
They went to Burnt Swamp, where Van read the legend straight from the book. After a late lunch in a small town diner somewhere in Delaware, they headed south again to check outthe supposedly haunted Snow Hill Inn. The trip took them past Whitehaven Ferry, a six-car river crossing that Benji begged to try, so they detoured again. By the time dinner rolled around, everyone was tired; Joshua complained of a headache, so Van aimed them toward home. Joshua was stretched out on the backseat to nap, with Benji riding shotgun.
“Thank you for today,” Benji said. “I had so much fun.”
“You’re welcome.” Van wanted to lean over and smother him with kisses for the adorable look on his face, but that was bad for safe driving. “I really do love spending time with you guys. You’re both so funny and easy to talk to. Plus sexy.” Naturally, his brain whipped back to the last four straight days of sex, which was always a fun, explosive repeat of Van fucking Joshua, while Benji jerked off at a distance, then helped Joshua come.
“What’s that look on your face?” Benji asked.
He ought to brush it off and change the subject, but Van never used to be afraid to speak his mind. No sense in starting now. “I guess I’m wondering if you’ll ever feel comfortable enough with me to join in when Joshua and I have sex? Or let me watch you and Joshua have sex? Or you and me do more than kiss?”
Not that watching Joshua faux-fuck Benji to reach his own orgasm wasn’t fucking hot to watch, but it also wasn’t quite the same as the intimate groping that eventually led to said faux-fucking.
“I will,” Benji replied after a moment’s thought. “I do want to share some of those things with you, Van.”
“You need trust and intimacy first.”
“I do. And I have those with you. They’re there, and they’re getting stronger every day.”
Van’s heart lurched. “But it’ll never be as strong as with Joshua.”
Benji angled toward him in the seat. “I don’t think that’s a fair statement. I’ve known Joshua for three years and change. It took a long time to let my guards down around him, and him with me. The fact that we’ve both created such a strong attachment to you in a relatively short amount of time is kind of amazing. And it should tell you something about how we both feel about you.”
“Right now, I’m asking howyoufeel. I want to touch you so badly sometimes, but I’m scared of pushing you away by overstepping your boundaries.”
“Maybe I need my boundaries pushed.”
Van jerked the wheel. Traffic was light on this stretch of road, though, so he was in no imminent danger of an accident. “What do you mean?”
“I mean with Joshua, with every step of our relationship from our first date to finally trying anal sex, he was the one who initiated things. He never forced me to do anything I wasn’t totally into. He was the one who played the first few notes, and I followed along and eased into the song as I went.”
Mouth dry, Van glanced at him briefly. “So the next time we’re in private and I get the urge to drop to my knees and blow you, I should do it?”
“I’d suggest starting with, ‘Hey, Ben, I want to blow you.’ Jumping me might get you a black eye.” He said it all with a bright smile that lessened the weight of his words.
“I want to blow you.”
“And what? Have me steer from the passenger seat? We’ll end up in a ditch.”
Van laughed. “I don’t mean right this second, but maybe when we get home?”
“I think I’d like that.” Benji squirmed. “Are we going back to your place again?”
“Is that okay?” He’d texted Melody earlier in the day and confirmed she had a date with Adrian, so she wouldn’t be home until close to midnight—if she came home at all. Either way, she’d promised to text him her whereabouts so he didn’t worry.
“Your place is great. It’s funny, so far none of our friends have really commented on the fact that Joshua and I are off together without them all the time. I mean, yeah, we tend to spend a lot of time alone when we’re in the same place for a few days, but we usually include them in some of our plans.”
“Maybe because you guys came so close to breaking up for good, they’re giving you all the space they can?”
“Makes sense. Emmett and Linc are the only ones who suspect anything, and that’s just because of Off Beat. Seeing us hanging out there with you. Plus seeing you at the house on Saturday.”
Van squeezed the wheel. “Have they asked you about me?”
