“I know. And I know you got mad because you care.”
“I do. And I hate that they’re lying by omission. Benji deserves to know the whole truth.” And Van couldn’t help but wonder if Joshua knew. He hoped not. The band lying to Benji was one thing, but Joshua? Whole other story and sharper betrayal.
“They’re coming back tomorrow morning, right?”
“Yeah. I hate that he’s leaving again, but performing is in Benji’s blood. He comes alive on stage, and he deserves all the success.”
Beatrice tilted her head. “Doesn’t mean you won’t miss him like crazy.”
“True story. Thanks, Bea. I really am sorry for causing a scene.”
“You’re forgiven. Go home and get some rest. You deserve it.”
Sharp knocking on his bedroom door roused Van from a deep sleep. He pulled his covers over his head to block out the morning sunshine and the noise, but it didn’t stop so he moved the sheet long enough to shout, “It’s too fucking early!” then burrowed deeper.
The door swung open, and he prepared to cuss at Melody a bit more for waking him up—except two bodies bounced onto the bed and started trying to tickle him. With two layers of bedclothes between them, it wasn’t terribly effective, but it did wake Van up to the new arrivals. Arrivals that were laughing, poking, and beginning to wrestle on top of him.
Sneaky bastards.
Van launched off the bed, overjoyed to find Benji and Joshua in the room with him, both of them grinning, giggling, and flat-out happy. “You’re back!”
“We left at the ass crack of dawn,” Joshua sad. “We missed you.”
“Missed you too.” Any thought of bringing up last night’s bar conversation fled beneath the desperate need to kiss them both. So he did, Joshua first because he was closer to Van’s mouth. Joshua tasted like coffee and sugar.
Benji pushed Joshua away with a terse, “Gimme,” then attacked Van’s mouth with a hello kiss that sent Van’s cock straight to half-mast.
“How much time do we have?” Van asked.
“Leaving. At. Three. Thirty.” Benji got the words out between kisses.
“Time now?”
“A little after nine,” Joshua said.
Oh hell yes.
Great use was made of the next three hours, resulting in quite a few orgasms, and enough noise that the neighbors were probably wondering what was going on. Van never thought he’d be so turned on by having sex with one guy while another watched, but now he was hooked. They were all hooked, and their smug, happy smiles never dimmed as they sat over a lunch of sandwiches from a local Jewish deli.
Van didn’t often indulge in meat, especially deli meat, but this was all smoked in-house, and he got the turkey and brisket wrapped in lettuce, instead of on bread. Benji surprised him by ordering liverwurst on rye with coleslaw and Russian dressing. Joshua settled for basic roast beef on whole wheat. Van watched them eat, memorizing details, making every moment they still had with Benji into a special treat.
“How did you guys do it for three years?” Van said suddenly. “Long distance?”
“It wasn’t easy.” Joshua smiled fondly at Benji. “But with our jobs, we didn’t have much choice. We made use of texting and calling as often as possible. Communicating was key, and we tried to get together as frequently as possible.”
“But being open helped?”
“For me it did. I know now that Benji didn’t indulge, but at the time I had no reason to think he wasn’t sleeping with other people.”
Benji blushed.
“Dude, stop being embarrassed about that,” Joshua said. “But yeah, it helped when I really needed to scratch that itch, you know?”
Van regarded Joshua over the last of his sandwich. “So does that mean I’m the new scratching post?”
Joshua narrowed his eyes. “Scratching, huh? Sound kinky.”
“And speaking of kinky, we still haven’t established rules for while Benji is away. I think we all agreed kissing is okay.”
