Kai nodded his understanding.“Would you have preferred things to have been different?”
I chuckled.“You assume there would be someone else who’d want to be...”
“Hey,” he interrupted, “positivity, remember.”
I bowed my head in apology.“Okay, sure,” I picked up the thread again.“Something other than monogamy didn’t really occur to me.And like I said, it was one of the things on the long list of stuff that didn’t get talked about.I suspect...”I paused, swallowed some wine as I thought through the way I wanted to word the next part.“I suspect that, even had we been sleeping with other people, it would only have delayed us breaking up.Not prevented it.And while that was a shitty situation all round, I guess I would rather have had it happen sooner, instead of later.”
Kai chewed, looking thoughtful.“Yeah, I can understand that.I’ve never been in anything other than a monogamous relationship, myself.It seems like the potential for something to go wrong could increase with each personality added.”
I smiled at him.“Well, I have friends who are in perfectly happy, successful thruples, and friends who are coupled but have negotiated playtime with other people.So I don’t think it’s impossible.It just requires an open mind and a little extra discussion, maybe.”
He giggled.“I guess it would be fun to get spit-roasted,” he suggested.
I spluttered on my wine; glanced around us to see if anybody had heard him.It seemed like we’d escaped again.
“I don’t think you need to be in a relationship for that,” I pointed out.“I imagine there would be plenty of people who would be happy to make such an ambition come true.”
“Would you help?”
A sudden, stark mental image of Kai on all fours, the narrow taper of his waist between my hands as I slammed my hips into his ass.Looking up, seeing his face being pounded with equal enthusiasm, as his body twisted and shuddered in the middle.I could feel myself starting to blush.
“I mean...”I paused.“Look, it’s difficult to answer that truthfully but in a way that doesn’t sound like I’m being negative about myself.”
Kai sighed.“Okay, one exception for the evening - but just the one, mind.”
“Well,” I explained, “I mean the idea is hot, obviously.”
“Obviously,” he echoed, smirking at me knowingly.
I rolled my eyes.“But I’m self-conscious, and so I think that in practice I’d get freaked out by the idea of being naked and intimate with two people.I mean, you saw how I was with just you.”
He nodded.“I can understand that.I mean, I don’t agree with it, because I think you’re hot, but I get that you don’t necessarily feel the same way about yourself.”
Now I was definitely blushing.“Can we stop talking about me for a while, please?”
“But you’re so cute when you’re all flushed and nervous,” he teased.
I glared at him.“I’m going to get them to poison your meal.”
Kai’s smile was positively filthy.“I can think of better ways for you to take it out on my mouth.”
Sighing, I decided there was really little way to sustain any sort of anger at him.At least, not if you also wanted to have sex with him, which I absolutely did.That urge, it seemed, made maintaining exasperation almost impossible.
Still, I made sure to hold his eye pointedly when I stabbed into my steak.
“Kai?”
“Charlie?What the hell...”
The guy - Charlie, I figured - gave Kai an unimpressed look.“Don’t get all possessive.It was your parents who recommended this place, remember?”
Kai laughed, pointedly brushing Charlie’s hand off his shoulder.“And I bet you’ve told a dozen people about it since.”
Charlie mimed zipping his mouth across.
The sweep of his stare across me felt like a tangible thing, a physical one.Enough to make my skin prickle.
“And what am I interrupting?”The question was for Kai, clearly, though Charlie’s eyes remained on me.
