I hazard a smile.
“The past twenty-four hours have been eventful,” Luca continues dryly, his eyes skipping between his friends. “What if monogamy for you was the choice of three men?” Luca asks succinctly. “An exclusive choice of three that you were committed to. Could you do it? Would you feel restricted with three?”
I close the gap between us, leaning on the island too. I know what he’s asking, and while it feels premature, we might as well be clear on what we want. If these guys were the three in his scenario, I wouldn’t need anyone else. Ever. “With you three, yeah, I could do it easily.”
Reuben grins. Luca nods slowly. Brecken takes in a deep breath, looking down at the floor.
“Will you try with us?” Luca asks.
“In Aspen?”
“Yeah.”
“You don’t all want to have your own special someone?” Low laughter has me turning towards Reuben. “What’s so funny?”
Sighing, he tells me, “Like you, we’ve tried steady relationships, but they’re hard work. Girls can be demanding and high maintenance.”
Right. We’re not always easy, I accept that. Deciding not to insult his one-sided perspective on the drama and pitfalls of a relationship between two people, I wait for him to clarify.
“We’ve tried this before. Sharing a girlfriend over a period of time,” Reuben explains. “It works better for us.”
They’ve done this before? Nowthatmakes my insides boil with jealousy. I knew they’d shared, but I thought it was for the night, not because she was a serious girlfriend. “How does it work better?”
“We’re busy men,” Luca interjects, taking on his role as alpha. “Some nights we’re not home, and that’s when having other options could be useful. Let me be clear,” he stresses. “We love to fuck, and we’re down to fuck, hard, when we’re home. But we don’t want to live with a woman who’s going to get upset at us for not giving her enough attention when we’re building an empire that she gets to enjoy the fruits of. Between us, we’ll more than satisfy her, and she’ll always have company when some of us are away.”
Hmm. Is this the Hotel Balthazar empire? It sounds like they’ve given this a lot of thought and consideration, but it appears this is more of a longer-term situation than I originally considered. “And you want to try this with me?”
Luca nods. “And of course, there’ll be times when we fuck you off,” he clarifies. “We carry an equal share of the blame if our girlfriend needs to complain. When that happens, you’ll want some attention from the others to compensate.”
“We’re rarely all dicks at the same time,” Roo adds dryly.
Remembering how they ganged up on me last night, I raise a brow in challenge which they find amusing.
I ask Luca, “How did you know I’d consider this?”
Brecken answers, “We didn’t. It was a big assumption.”
Casting a worried look at Brecken, I say gently, “You seem less interested in trying this.”
Inhaling deeply, he runs a hand through his shower-damp hair. “I’m not disinterested. I’m into this, into you. I just have other concerns, personal things, that I need to consider.”
Okay. I understand why he’s been more detached, though I’d love to know what those personal things are…
I look at Luca, needing more. He immediately understands. “I’m deeply attracted to you, which I think you know. I might’ve purposefully said a few things to see how you reacted, to try and get a sense if you’d go for a different type of relationship. When you met these two,” he nods his head towards his friends, “the sexual tension was off the charts. The past two nights as well. You’ve had fun, right?”
“Yeah,” I answer, swallowing a smile as a hundred good memories rise to the surface.
“Us too.” Reuben.
“We want to explore this, and if you need more of a poly relationship,” Luca offers, “we’ll consider it.”
Last night was closer to that kind of dynamic. But Luca told me we wouldn’t often be together in the same room like that, and to be honest, I don’t care. I’ll take them however I can.
“And on behalf of Brecken and I,” Reuben reveals, “we wanted you as soon as we saw you. It’s not often we feel the same about someone, so we want this to work.”
Oh wow. His declaration has me close to fainting. Future Winter would be telling Present Winter that this is a no-brainer, that I’m having a blast. So why am I being so responsible? So protective of my career? It’s because Present Winter is looking out for Future Winter this time. So, I ask, “What happens if we break up? Do I keep my job?”
“Of course. Our relationship is not a condition of the job.”