They’d reached a place Todd liked to think was that of friends, and he appreciated her connection to her family.

“Can you guys stay for dinner? Brody and Raven are going to swing by when he’s done with his last client.” Adrian led them back upstairs. “I’ve got salmon and steaks for the grill.”

“Yeah, that sounds good. Can you guys swing it?” She turned to Ben and Todd, who both nodded.

Todd took another step into her life, one more in a series that brought them closer each day. And Ben was there too, which meant something to him and Erin both, he knew.

26

They left Adrian’s well after midnight. Ben had enjoyed watching Erin with her brothers and her friend Raven. She was softer with them, less guarded. He liked that side of her. Raven freaked him out a little and he could tell Todd wasn’t a big fan either. She was free-spirited like Erin, but far more so. Brody was totally in love with her, that much was obvious, but Erin had explained that Raven just didn’t commit to people that way. She loved many men and women, but Brody would never have what he wanted from Raven, so they were close friends who had sex and left it at that.

Personally Ben found it sad and he was grateful for the depth of connection he shared with Erin. And Todd. Even as he had no real idea what to call all they had, he just accepted it.

Hell, he liked all sides of Erin as he continued to get to know her, which led him into some really interesting places he wasn’t sure he wanted to poke at too closely but knew he couldn’t avoid forever.

“Where to, Erin? Back to your place? To mine?” Todd was driving Erin’s car and she was snuggled into the backseat, making Ben take the front so he’d have more room.

“The café is closed until Monday. I can sleep in as long as I want, so I don’t care,” she said sleepily.

“Ben, you staying over?”

“If I’m invited. I don’t want to intrude.”

“We’ll talk about this when we get wherever we’re going,” Erin said from the back. “I can’t hear very well back here. I suggest my place because we can’t be casually interrupted by fifteen friends, cops and assorted family members like we are at your place.”

Ben had to laugh at that. She was right, and he liked the privacy of her condo.

Todd took them to her building and once inside her condo she motioned them back toward her bedroom. “Go on. I need a shower and then I want to snuggle in my bed.”

She tossed her clothes as she went, until she was totally naked and the sight of her back and the high, muscled cheeks of her ass shot straight to Ben’s cock.

“You two talk this over. I’ll be back.” She didn’t even look over her shoulder as she closed the door to the bathroom.

Todd snorted a laugh. “I guess we have our orders. Ben, you’re suddenly so, I don’t know, hesitant? Uncomfortable? Not your usual self. I don’t know what to say here. What’s wrong? Do we make you feel unwanted or uninvited?”

The shower went on and moments later the scent of the grapefruit soap she favored carried into the room on a waft of steam.

Ben toed off his shoes and socks and put them in the corner. What was wrong? “I don’t know where I fit now. Yesterday I knew. Today I don’t. I’ve been second-guessing myself all day.”

“Where do you want to fit?”

Ben looked at his best friend and thought about how to answer that question. They’d had a deep connection for as long as he could remember. And now it was more. Ben’s mind shot back to the night before, when they’d kissed, when they’d slid together with Erin in between them. When he and Erin had shared Todd’s cock. He’d always felt some level of attraction toward Todd, but they’d been so close he hadn’t ever wanted to ruin it. Plus he knew Todd was basically straight, although Ben had had no idea all that kink lay beneath the surface. What started as a few fun experiences had intensified. His feelings, for both of them, had deepened.

“You invited me into your bed with Erin and I came into it knowing you two had a relationship. I accept that. But”—he licked his lips—“after last night, and after the last several times I’ve been with both of you and with her alone, I’m feeling some pretty intense things for you both. I want to fit into that. If I’m being totally honest, I want to be with the two of you.”

Todd listened and nodded his head. The water in the bathroom shut off and Ben thought of how she’d look, the water glistening on her skin, of how she’d looked sleek and playful in the lake on the Fourth.

“So be here. Stop overthinking.”

“What do you think? You. We’ve been friends for a long time. I don’t want to ruin things and I need to know.”

Todd stalked to him, stopping just a breath away. “It makes me hot all over and I don’t know how to feel about it. I love Erin. You need to understand that. I love her and if it was anyone else in the universe I’d have told them to go. But it’s not anyone else. It’s you. I know you in ways I’ve never known another soul. At the same time I’m sort of bowled over by being intrigued and happy.”

Carefully, slow enough to give Todd the chance to move away, Ben reached out to touch Todd’s chest. “Bowled over because you think liking men is bad?”

Todd laughed, his pupils huge. “No. Bowled over because you’re ours. You fit with us in some sense even if I can’t define it. Your being in our relationship seems natural to me. I might be kinky, but I suppose I’m pretty traditional in a lot of ways. Possession and jealousy may seem old-school to some, but I guess I’m old-school, because Erin is my woman and I wanted to punch Jeremy’s f**king face for looking at her today like he loved her.”