room, and Luca turned his head to peer one eye open at his husband. Sebastion was wearing his silk pajama pants and no shirt, and that was probably Luca’s favorite look on him. His body was softer with age now, and he always found it unbearably charming that most of Sebastion’s grey hair had appeared in his coarse chest hair instead of on his head.
Luca shifted Ivy over a little and waited for Sebastion to ease down next to him, which he did with a quiet grunt. Luca knew their nights of hunkering down on the living room floor cuddling with Ivy and eating ice cream and talking until their throats hurt were coming to a close. Sebastion’s knees and hips were hurting more now, and even Luca had started to feel twinges on his back when they were lounging for too long.
But he wanted to hoard these moments as long as he could.
“It’s not really a big deal,” he finally said after Ivy settled half her body into Sebastion’s lap.
His husband looked over at him. “It’s our conqueror.”
Luca closed his eyes. “I knew I shouldn’t have offered to go over to the library today.”
Sebastion reached for him, dragging a thumb over his chin. “You know I don’t mind that you have feelings for him. Even if we’ve never done the boyfriend thing, it’s never been off the table.” He gave him a crooked smile Luca wanted to kiss.
Luca huffed. “So why haven’t we before?”
Sebastion lifted a brow at him and offered a passive smile. “Because you’re too picky.”
Luca rolled his eyes, but he leaned his head back against the edge of the sofa and felt the seam of it dig into the back of his skull. “He made me feel…” He searched for the right words because this moment deserved them. “It wasn’t the same when I first met you, but there was that knowing. The feeling that he was important.”
“I understand,” Sebastion said quietly.
“It feels like a disaster waiting to happen.” Luca closed his eyes again and tried not to picture the broken heart so plain in Xan’s eyes or the way he hugged like he was starving to be touched. “He’s not in a good place for us. And he’s so young.”
“And all of that is assuming he’s interested in us,” Sebastion pointed out, and Luca couldn’t help his snort.
“Trust me, babe, he is. I just have a bad feeling he also might be interested in literally anyone who was nice to him right now.” And that was the part that hurt most. Luca had always been so fucking sure whenever he wanted someone that they wanted him back just as much. When he’d marched into Sebastion’s office, he told himself he was prepared to take no for an answer only because he knew the word would never cross the man’s lips.
And it hadn’t.
Alexander was the first person who challenged Luca’s confidence, and they hadn’t even openly discussed anything but an offer of friendship.
“He’s in a difficult position right now,” Sebastion said knowingly, and Luca’s stomach twisted a little.
Rolling his head to the side, he stared at his husband. “He also doesn’t know we’re in an open marriage, so he probably has no idea what’s on the table. He seemed envious of our love—and well, who wouldn’t be.”
Sebastion snorted a laugh, then leaned in to steal a quick kiss. “Fair.”
“Anyway, I think his focus needs to be getting the fuck away from that asshole he’s living with. If only to save me from jail,” Luca added. “I mean I don’t think a judge would blame me, once they got the details, but…”
“But,” Sebastion said, cupping Luca’s chin gently and forcing their gazes to meet, “I would miss you for the short time you were locked up.”
Luca let out a small, breathy laugh, but there wasn’t much humor in it. He pulled away from Sebastion’s touch, then cleared his throat. “Do you feel anything for him? I know it’s crazy, but the idea of us being with him makes sense. I just don’t know where you’re at.”
Sebastion cocked his head to the side, and Luca appreciated that his husband took the time to think about his answer. “Luca, I have been blindsided by the strength of your love from the moment I met you. By the time you were done flirting with me in my office that first appointment, I think I was head over heels.”
“Nerd,” Luca whispered, only because he struggled to contain the way Sebastion always