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“It still sucks,” I muttered. “You and Master Greer belong together.”
He smiled softly and faced me better, pulling up one knee on the mattress. “I think it worked out the way it was supposed to, though. As much as it hurt to have Greer tell me to fuck off for cheating on Angelo, my life was an absolute mess. I needed to get as far away as I could from relationships and attachments. I needed to screw my head on right.”
I supposed that made sense.
“And you know what?” he asked. “I had an amazing support system. My sisters were there for me as I recovered. They took care of me, they listened to me, they knocked sense into me, and…they were simply there.”
Like he was being here for me right now.
“I guess that’s why Sloan is so adamant about no attachments,” I said pensively. “He said we’re not going to get physical because it’s risky and stuff. And maybe I’m stupid for even being interested when my life is so complicated.”
Archie smiled a little and rested his chin in his hand. Elbow on his knee. “Are you interested in Sloan, love?”
I widened my eyes at him. “I’m interested in all of you. It’s so fucked up. Like, I hear it in my head—it’s crazy. I’m balls deep in my epic failure of a relationship with Marcus, and all I can think about is kink and having fun and playing and flirting.”
He chuckled. “I don’t think that’s weird at all. Remember, I went after Greer the exact same way. If you’ve spent years drowning, you’re going to latch on to the first piece of dry land.”
That didn’t sound healthy either, though. “Okay, so maybe natural but not good.”
He offered a one-shouldered shrug. “Life is never that black-and-white. Should you be careful with your feelings? Absolutely. I think it’s important to acknowledge how impressionable you can be after you’ve been hurt. It is easy to get swept away when your heart’s been through the wringer. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“Totally, which sucks.”
He grinned. “There has to be some middle ground, though. One of the things I obsessed about after meeting Greer was dominance. It was in the bloody air around him—the way he carried himself, and I couldn’t move past it. So I started exploring kink pretty quickly after. I just couldn’t get him out of my head, and nobody could fill his shoes.” He paused. “And the thing is…yeah, he was the first piece of dry land, and I latched on. But he’s also the love of my life, and if it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be here today falling in love with Sloan too. Sometimes, that patch of dry land is also a wonderful place. A wonderful person. It doesn’t have to go straight to hell.”
Well, great! Another thing to consider.
“I wish things were more black-and-white,” I groaned and fell back against my pillow. “I wish I could make Sloan want me. I wish he could be my Daddy instead. I wish you all wanted to play with me.”
“Oh, Corey, who says we don’t?”
I pouted and eyed him dubiously.
I knew I was being obstinate.
“From sub to sub, you know what we want isn’t always what we need.” He was trying to reason with me? Really? “We’ve talked extensively about you, you know. Hell, we talk about you as soon as you leave the room.”
“What!” I squawked.
He chuckled and lay down beside me, supporting himself on his elbow. “I’ll have you know that I’m the one pushing for us to play together. I’m trying to make them see that it’s only a matter of time before you reach out to another Daddy Dom about some arrangement, and I don’t want that.”
I was stuck. I couldn’t stop staring at his beautiful face. Was he even human? Those eyes, man. Those lashes and those dimples.
Nerves knotted in my stomach. “You don’t?”
He shook his head. “I’ve been called a dreamer and a hopeless romantic all my life, and nobody seems to take me seriously when I have a hunch about something. And I have a hunch about you. I think you’d be an amazing Little to Sloan down the road, and God knows he misses the lifestyle. He’s just…a bit beaten down.”
That made me sad. Like when Sloan said he hadn’t been living.
“I also know how people work,” Archie said quietly. “After we break up with someone, we want to roll around in that freedom and have fun. Whether that comes with responsibility or not, or attachment or not, we want to feel good and inhale all the things we missed out on before.”
That resonated so hard inside me.
I wanted all that. I wanted to dance and go out and eat fried chicken and have movie nights and great sex, and I felt I could be honest with Archie. I’d already been blunt enough about my interest—so I told him. Every word. About sex, dancing, fried chicken—which made him laugh—movie nights, and more sex.
