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“Where are you?” he muttered, scrubbing a hand down his face. “What time is it?”
“Too late to call, but I was missing you.”
“Are you and Owen at a bar?” Something in the background of my bedroom crashed, and then Travis slid his glasses onto his nose. He squinted at me, giving his eyes time to adjust to the light from the club.
The way he looked in the morning when he just woke up and couldn’t see was one of my favorite things about him. I mean, I loved all sorts of things about Trav, but the way he squinted and scrunched his face trying to get his eyes to focus on a new day…that was something exceedingly special. I also liked when he had the glasses off, though, willing his pupils to focus on things in front of him, even though they never would.
“It’s a kink club,” I said. “In a church. Owen is here, somewhere with Archie.”
“Going to hell instead of coming home to me?” he asked with a low, scratchy laugh.
“Maybe a detour.” I raised the gin and tonic to my mouth, taking a drink through the straw.
“Did Owen get settled okay?” he asked.
I loved how understanding Travis had always been about my friendship with Owen. The fact that Travis and I had a somewhat unconventional setup for our relationship didn’t hurt, either.
“He’s fine. He’ll be good.”
I was sad Owen was moving away. Sad for myself while also being happy, because if he and I didn’t work out, I wanted him to find happiness somewhere else. But I was a little bit jealous to be losing my best friend to a man like Archie Davidson.
“You look miserable,” Travis said with a yawn, pulling me out of my sadness spiral.
“I kissed someone tonight.”
He chuckled and flipped on the bedside lamp, bringing his face into my field of vision for the first time. I smiled, letting out a soft breath.
“What’s the sigh over? Me or them?”
“I miss you is all,” I said.
“Go kiss someone else again then.”
I shook my head. “He’s the worst, and he’s already left with someone.”
“Is there only one person worth kissing in the whole church?”
“Besides me?”
Travis shifted around and curled onto his side. He propped his phone up against my empty pillow and studied me with a soft smile.
“Besides you,” he agreed.
I tilted my head back and looked up again toward the loft. If I squinted, I could make out the shapes of bodies pressed together. Some sitting, some standing. All but one of the private playroom doors were cracked open, colored light streaming out into the exposed hallway.
“I don’t know.” My stare flickered back toward his expectant face on the screen. “I’m sure I could find somebody.”
Travis raised the phone over his face, bringing his bare chest into view. The fingers of his free hand danced from one nipple to the other and he groaned, such a deep rumble I could hear it over the music and chatter of the dance floor.
“I’d like that, Frankie. I think you should.”
CHAPTER THREE
FRANKIE
Travis and I had a set of rules about what our relationship looked like. Most people would have considered them insane, but we weren’t most people. Stepping into an open relationship with Travis had been scary at first. It wasn’t like I was reeling from my breakup with Owen or anything, he and I had settled into a comfortable friendship by the time Travis and I met, but it was new for me and not for him. It was challenging to come into a relationship with less experience than your partner, especially when you were the more dominant one, but Travis had never once judged me for it or made me feel uncomfortable.
There were some things he’d done with past partners that didn’t work for me. For example, with his ex, they could sleep with anyone they wanted and they didn’t have to tell each other about it. I loved how that was something that worked for him, but a lifetime of ingrained monogamy screamed my ear off at the idea. Travis had taken my discomfort in stride and quickly made that into something that wasn’t for us.
