his personal and professional lives are ‘in flux’.” His brow pinched as he met my gaze. “That sounds an awful lot like someone who just lost a job and a partner. If he’s one of those sadists who uses it to work out some frustration, that might be a bit much even for me.”
“Agreed. And if we get that vibe off him…” I shook my head. “No way.”
Aaron gazed at the phone again for a moment. “I am curious about him, though.”
“Do you want to reach out to him?”
He seemed to think about it, then nodded. “We’d just be meeting him and talking, so that’s safe enough. I won’t dive into bed with him or get on my knees the instant I meet him, but he’s interesting enough that I’m game to give him a chance to sell us the whole package.”
“All right.” I studied him. “Are you sure about this?”
“About him? Or about bringing in a third?”
“Yes.”
He chewed his lip. We’d had that conversation a million times over the past few months, checking in over and over to be sure we were both really onboard with this. We’d even paused the ad a couple of times while we’d regrouped. Now that someone had replied, though… Now that the rubber might be meeting the road—or the leather might be meeting the skin—it was a bit more real than the hypotheticals we’d discussed.
“We’re not committing to anything just by meeting him,” Aaron said finally. “We’ll talk to him, see how we feel about him, and see if we’re still into this whole idea. It isn’t like we’ve committed to anything.” He put his hand over my knee. “We’ll still be fine even if it doesn’t work out with him. Or anyone else.” He was obviously trying to sound reassuring, but the uncertainty in his eyes told me he was the one who needed reassurance.
I cupped his face and kissed him gently. “We’ll be fine.”
He studied me, then smiled. “Yeah. We will.”
“In the meantime…” I picked up my phone again and checked the GrubHub tracker. “Food should be here soon. We should get dressed.”
“Good idea. I’m starving.”
We got up and each pulled on a pair of sweats. Neither of us bothered with shirts. Fine by me—Aaron worked hard to maintain that glorious physique, and I was never going to complain about having an unobstructed view.
The thought of his beautiful, naked body alongside the gorgeous man who’d contacted us had my heart racing, even if I did still had some nagging doubts. It frustrated me that I couldn’t give Aaron what he craved, and I didn’t like that we’d had to resort to bringing in someone from outside. It made me feel like a failure as a Dom and a husband.
But my ego wasn’t as important as Aaron’s happiness, and I had to admit it was a relief that we might have found our elusive third.
And if there really was chemistry between the three of us?
Watching those two was going to be hot.
Four
Aaron
“Busy?”
“Pfft. I’m always busy.” Tom sat back in his chair and rubbed his neck with both hands. “Because I swear more people in this town want to get divorces and get into civil snits than commit crimes.”
“Most people would consider that a good thing.” I dropped unceremoniously into one of his guest chairs. “I mean, not necessarily all the divorces and whatnot, but the lack of crime.”
“Uh-huh. So is that what you came in to chat with me about? All the divorcees who aren’t robbing banks?”
I laughed, but it came out a little halfhearted. “Something like that. Though if you raise your hourly rate, I might get more clients.”
“Right. Okay, don’t change the subject.” Tom studied me, putting on the same face he used when he was listening intently to a client. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Nothing’s—I mean, I don’t think…” I sighed and smacked my hand against the armrest. “Someone responded to the ad.”
Tom sat up a little, his expression curious but cautious. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.” I didn’t have to spell out the details. Tom knew about the ad, and there was nothing about my marriage that shocked him. After all, we’d run into each other at a kink party way back when, so that part of our lives wasn’t exactly a big secret. We talked candidly about everything, so he knew we were kinky and that we’d had the odd threesome over the years, and he knew about the experimentation that had slammed my newly-discovered needs against Will’s newly-discovered limits.
“So, what’s the