Limitless Love: A Polyamorous Charity Anthology

5. Zeke

Connor looked like he wanted to throttle me. Not for making a move on Micah and not for doing it in front of him, but for not discussing it to death first. It was the lawyer in him. He couldn’t help but want to make a list of pros and cons of every possible scenario. All the things that could go wrong and the potential consequences. But I much preferred to think of all the things that could go right.

I wanted this. Connor wanted this. I was pretty fucking sure Micah wanted this. If he wasn’t attracted to us, then looking at us wouldn’t be an issue. But he could barely meet our gazes. Micah seemed to find everything else interesting. But I was determined to have him look at me. At us. I wanted to make him see us and all the things we could offer him.

So yeah, I slid my foot up the inside of his leg. The way he’d jumped at the first touch was adorable, but it was down-right sexy the way he’d looked at us when I did it a second time. He bit his lower lip like he was stopping himself from saying a million different things as if he was afraid I’d stop. The only way I’d stop is if he told me to.

When my toes were almost to his crotch, he scooted back. I stopped pursuing, but I didn’t move my foot.

“What are you doing?”

That was the second time he asked, and clearly, he wasn’t going to let anything happen without a discussion first. “I should think it was rather obvious.”

Micah cut his gaze to Connor, who looked invested in the outcome of this conversation.

“He’s aware of my intentions, Micah. Don’t worry.”

“And what are your intentions?” Micah glanced down at the water, then back up again. I couldn’t tell if the redness in his face was from the heat of the water, the chill of the air, or embarrassment.

“We should tell him the whole story,” Connor said. He took a drink of wine in my peripheral vision.

I sighed and moved my foot away from Micah, though I didn’t want to. “I suppose we should.”

“What story?” Micah furrowed his brow.

“It’s a long one, but we have time. We’re not going anywhere.”

“It’s not that long of a story,” Connor challenged. “It’s only long when you tell it because you go off on tangents.”

I moved over next to Connor and snuggled against his side the best I could. I wanted Micah to be able to pay attention to both of us when Connor told the story.

“Then you tell it, mister lawyer.”

Connor took another sip of his wine and set the glass aside. He dropped his arm and held me close to him, his fingers gliding over my upper arm in delicate circles beneath the bubbles.

“Micah and I have often thought that we’d benefit from bringing a third into our relationship. We’ve dated around, but no one has ever been a good fit.”

Micah stared at us with wide eyes. He looked startled and hopeful. And then his eyebrows creased, and he looked skeptical, too. I preferred to see him full of hope.

“We’ve always liked you, Micah,” I blurted. Connor held me tighter, whether as a warning or as support, I didn’t know. I wasn’t focused on him as much as I was on Micah. It was Micah I had to convince. “We fought about you, a few years ago. That’s what you need to know. That we wanted you, but you were too young, we thought. Well, one of us thought you were too young, the other one thought you were old enough to make up your own mind. But in the end, we held off for Hudson’s sake.”

For a second it looked like I’d been making good headway, then I had to go and mention his brother.

“We didn’t want to upset Hudson right before his first tour,” Connor explained for me.

“It was right before he was set to go overseas for the first time. He was nervous, and we didn’t want to give him any extra stress. So, we decided to wait. But then you were with that guy. What’s his face?” I waved my hand in the air, trying to force myself to stay on track. The name of the guy didn’t matter. What mattered was that this felt like a do-or-die situation. My heart pounded like it was one. There was no way I could fuck this up.

“I don’t understand.” Micah shook his head but didn’t move otherwise or try to leave the hot tub. It felt like kismet that we’d all ended up stranded here.

“We like you, Micah. We’re attracted to you. We’ve talked about bringing another person into our relationship because we think we have a lot to offer someone.”

“Most couples get a dog.”

“You can totally be a puppy if you want.” I grinned at him and dug deep into my reserves for extra bravery and moved across the water. The distance was small, but it felt like it took forever for me to traverse that scant few feet. I sat next to him, wanting to give him space while he heard us out, but not too much. He needed to know how much we wanted him.

Micah looked at Connor then back at me, and finally at the sky. He closed his eyes, and I watched snowflakes land on his eyelashes and melt on his skin. The world was muffled and mute, not a sound besides the rumbling of the jets, and even those were stifled by the snow.

“What happens when you’re done with me?” Micah looked at us. His question jarred me out of my stupor, but it was Connor who answered.

“We’re not looking to bring someone into our bed. Well, not only into our bed. We’re talking about something more permanent than that. Something deeper. We want to share our life with someone. All of our life. Not only what happens in the bedroom. And let me make this clear, even if you don’t want to do anything sexual with us, we still want you in our life, Micah.”

Micah snorted. “I’m so hard I could cry. Me wanting you sexually isn’t going to be an issue.”

“Then what’s the issue, darlin’?” Connor asked him, and fuck, it was so sexy even I melted at the sound of it.

Micah raked a hand down his face, and I moved closer. Dragging my fingers down his arm until I found his hand, I twined our fingers together. “Come on, sit over here with us.” I urged him to move over next to Connor. It didn’t take much encouragement, just a gentle tug and an imploring look and Micah was moving across the water, letting me direct him.

“What is the issue?” I asked Micah. I hadn’t let go of his hand yet, and I squeezed it tighter. “Talk to us.”

“The two of you have been together forever.”

“So?”

“So? So, you’re like, relationship goals. You’re so good together. The perfect couple. I don’t understand any of this.”

“We’re not perfect, Micah. We’re two dudes who love each other and do their best not to murder each other when the other one gets fucking annoying. But we could be better. We could be three men instead of two.”

“You’re serious?” Micah asked, though it was more of a statement. It was taking him long enough to realize we weren’t joking, but I hoped when he did, he’d see that we’d make him so fucking happy.

“What about Hudson?” Micah asked.

“What about him?”

“He might be mad.” Micah bit his lip. He was worried, but I couldn’t help but think of it as sexy when he did it.

“It’s an acceptable risk,” Connor said in his typical lawyer tone. The more nervous he got the more he fell into his lawyerly habits.

“What he means to say is fuck what Hudson thinks.”

“He’s your best friend,” Micah argued, looking shocked at my statement.

“He is. But so is Connor. We’re allowed to have more than one person who is special to us, Micah. We’re allowed to have more than one best friend and more than one partner. We’re allowed to not limit ourselves. There’re so many different ways to be happy, and we’d like it if you’d give us a shot.”

“Let him breathe, love.” Connor brushed his hand down my back, and I trembled under his touch. “He knows what we want, now the ball is in his court.”

I rolled my eyes and shot Micah the best smile I could muster. “You can take the lawyer out of court, but you can’t take the court out of the lawyer.”

“I’m not that bad. I’ve practically relaxed the whole time we’ve been here. I haven’t mentioned one case or anything.”

Connor pulled me into his arms and kissed the curve of my neck. I tilted my head and allowed him more access, keeping my gaze on Micah. I wanted to show him what he was missing, what he could have if he would reach out and take it.

The longer it took Micah to say something, the heavier my heart grew. After a few minutes, I closed my eyes and let myself melt into Connor’s arms. I tried not to let disappointment get to me. After all, Micah just found out about this when we’d had plenty of time to think and dream and want.

Hell, I didn’t even know if he was interested in us. We thought he might be. We hoped. But hoping didn’t make it true. I rested my head on Connor’s shoulder and looked up at the sky. Everything was dark and cloud-covered, and there wasn’t a single star visible to wish on.

Even though I was shit at waiting, I promised myself that I’d stop pushing. Micah knew where we stood. All we had to do now was wait for him to come around.

If he ever did.