Limitless Love: A Polyamorous Charity Anthology

8. Val

Val pulled into the driveway after Sage’s SUV. He didn’t expect Sage to wait, but the other man lingered until Val plugged the charging cable into his car, then claimed his hand and led the way into the house. Sage didn’t relinquish his hold as they toed off their shoes inside the door. He paused long enough to shove the bag of food into the fridge before dragging Val into the den.

Val had last been here while Sage fucked Weston over the back of the couch. He damned his fair complexion as the heated memory reddened his cheeks. This time, Weston wore clothing—and a genuinely nervous expression as he clocked their approach over his shoulder before returning to his video game.

Sage didn’t stop until they rounded the other side of the couch. He released Val’s hand, but before Val mourned the loss, he nudged Val to one side of Weston and claimed the other. Delight surged through Val at the obvious instruction, and he dropped next to Weston and cuddled close.

“’Sup, guys.” Weston paused his game and let the controller fall to his lap. “Didn’t expect to see you so soon.” He put on a good show, but Val knew him—knew both of them—too well to miss the undercurrent of Weston’s nerves. At least Weston had relaxed into their touch. Val loved the giant sectional, but this reminded him more of the way they’d often crammed together on the couch in the first tiny apartment they shared.

Though it would be easier to let Sage take the lead, Val couldn’t put all of this at his feet. He’d been the one to run, which meant he had to break the ice with Weston first. “I’m a little mad at you, buddy,” he said. Flowery apologies and showy guilt weren’t his style, so it was a good thing Weston wouldn’t appreciate either.

“I’m sorry,” Weston said, almost crestfallen. “I read a bunch of stuff online, and I thought I was helping you both set a good foundation for an emotional connection.”

Pretty words, but never in a million years did they originate from Weston. This sounded verbatim from what he’d read online, reciting facts he didn’t quite understand. Which, based on everything Val knew about Weston even before his declaration of being aromantic, made perfect sense.

Sage came to the same conclusion on Val’s other side, going by the mingled amusement and affection that crossed his handsome face. “Val and I aren’t missing an emotional connection. We’ve had that from the very beginning.” The smile during his pause was for Val alone, warming him more than his previous embarrassment. “You set up the perfect date, hon. The only thing we were missing was you.”

Weston fiddled with his controller, exiting the game and shutting down the system. Before he could flee the couch, Val and Sage both captured his hands in theirs and after a beat of tension, Weston melted between them. “You won’t miss me. I’m not going anywhere. But I figured you two’d get your happily ever after, and I’d still be here if…” He shot them each a glance in turn. “You know.”

This might be the first time in decades that Weston Kelley exhibited the slightest reticence when it came to sex. Val appreciated the delicacy of the situation but figured he should come to the rescue before his friend imploded. “I love that you visited me at work to beat some sense into me,” he said. “But I was too embarrassed to be straightforward, so you misinterpreted what I shared with you. I’m not asexual. I’m still, um, figuring out what works for me, but I hope you don’t think you’d be relegated to some sort of physical stand-in. I’d happily have as much sex as Sage wanted.”

Sage’s grin could have powered a city, but Weston snuck a glance at their tangled hands. “Then you don’t need me at all.”

Not what Val meant Weston to take from the declaration. “No.” His and Sage’s admonitions overlapped, but the way Weston barely flinched meant he was spiraling. Val wouldn’t allow it. He dropped Weston’s hand, but before Weston curled in on himself, Val twisted enough to clasp his face.

Val leaned in far enough to make his intentions clear, then paused. Shock flared on Weston’s face for the briefest moment, replaced immediately by desire. Val didn’t make him wait longer, and he kissed Weston with the same intention as he had earlier with Sage. The kiss was different than with Sage, of course, but kissing both his best friends was light-years better than the perfunctory make out sessions he’d experienced in California.

If anything, the kiss proved Sage right. Weston was too entrenched in their hearts, and this didn’t work without him. He might not connect with either of them on the same emotional level, but that didn’t mean he’d ever let them doubt his love.

And Val and Sage contained more than enough love of the romantic sort to make up for it. Seemed Val, at least, had only missed the correct label for the feelings he’d carried for most of his life.

The public location had kept Val’s first kiss with Sage at a mere flicker, but Weston devoured Val like wildfire. Val wanted nothing more than to be consumed. Luckily, Weston broke away before he starved Val of all his air.

Sage gave Weston no time to recover, dragging Weston into a kiss of their own. The exchange was hotter than any porn Val had ever watched, no matter the type of sex involved. If Val could have this, have them, it wouldn’t be as if Weston and Val made up for each other’s shortfalls. This was just the way the three of them fit together. The way they always had.

As if Sage read his mind, he pulled away from the kiss but kept his forehead pressed to Weston’s. “We’ve always needed you. We always will.”

* * *

Sage kissingWeston could have easily turned into Val kissing either of them again. He wanted nothing more, now that he’d tasted both men. Morka had other plans. After all, she had little regard for the shifting relationships among her humans. She probably just found it convenient to have them all in one place when it came time to jump onto the couch and loudly demand her dinner.

Val might be her nominal owner, but the tabby had Weston wrapped around her paw. He and Sage exchanged indulgent smiles when Weston promptly abandoned them to scoop Morka in his arms and carry her into the kitchen. Sage teased Val with another brain-melting kiss before also abruptly rising to follow Weston.

He stared unseeing at the blank television, scrambling for equilibrium with Sage’s taste lingering on his tongue. Was this it? Kisses and confessions were all well and good, but where did they go from here? How did the others so easily drop back into the mundanity of daily life when Val found himself so untethered?

“Val!”

The call jolted him back to reality, and he found himself halfway to the kitchen to answer Sage’s summons before conscious thought kicked in. While Morka happily inhaled dinner from her bowl in the corner, Weston and Sage unpacked the picnic bag atop the kitchen table.

Sage jerked his chin at the bottle of cider on the counter. “Grab glasses and pour for us?”

Weston already dug into the hummus, and Val moved quickly to fetch a trio of champagne flutes, mismatched and scavenged from yard sales like the rest of the dishware they’d acquired as nineteen-year-old airmen with no money. He popped the bottle and served the drinks before the remaining delicious dip vanished. Maybe Sage had the right notion, bridging their old and new realities in this manner. Val loved this reminder of the familiar, laughing around the battered table with these men and teasing Weston about the black hole in his stomach.

But Sage’s focused heat was new, as was the way he tangled his feet with Val’s under the table. Once they devoured the vegetables and fruit, Val opened the lid on the last container and picked out a single MM. Before, he might have tossed it Sage’s way for the man to catch in his open mouth. As if sensing Val meant to do something much different this time, Sage parted his lips and waited. Val accepted the silent invitation and stretched across the table to place the candy on Sage’s waiting tongue. He shivered as Sage’s mouth closed around his fingers before dragging away.

The act may have been between him and Sage, but the heavy weight of Weston’s attention swathed him. “Fuck, you two are hot,” Weston said, voice rough. “Are we done eating? I mean, I can sit here all night and enjoy the candy-related foreplay, but I might also have other ideas for dessert.”

Val flushed. He was familiar with moving right to the physical portion of an evening, but those encounters had involved strangers. Nor did this feel like wooing any of his ex-girlfriends into an evening of lovemaking. The floaty sensation returned, leaving him unsure of his next move. Weston’s mention of dessert probably referred to something pretty specific. Val had watched his share of threesome porn. Sage fucking Weston had lived rent-free in his brain for the past week, but how much did they expect him to participate?

“Sweetheart, look at me.” Sage knelt next to Val’s seat and his warm hands clasped the sides of his face, forcing Val from his mental loop. “Ignore him. Tonight is about all of us, but that means you have to be comfortable, too. What would you like? Do you want to come upstairs? Or should we all go snuggle on the couch for now?”

Snuggling sounded like heaven, especially if it meant more of the kisses from earlier. But that might be the easy way out, leaving Val in the limbo of wondering whether Sage truly meant what he’d said about understanding Val’s limits. He chanced a glance at Weston and found only affection in his gaze, with no sign of impatience. Val had to put all his cards on the table for anything between them to truly work. Sage rose but didn’t sever their connection, instead moving behind to rest his hands atop Val’s shoulders. Val took heart from the strength Sage offered him. “Dessert upstairs sounds amazing,” he said, answering Weston directly. “But where our disconnect happened before is that I didn’t tell you I don’t like anal sex. From either direction.”

He could practically see the cogs turn in Weston’s brain, and Val braced himself for the same reactions he’d encountered before. He wasn’t relaxed enough, or not doing it right in some other way. But Weston wasn’t some guy from an app. Weston was his sweet, caring friend, who loved sex…and loved Val more, he realized with startling clarity, even before Weston finally responded.

In the same blasé manner Weston might also have accepted the news that Val didn’t like chocolate, he said, “Good to know. Plenty of other ways we can get off together.” He paused. “We can also snuggle on the couch.” He didn’t suggest the last part begrudgingly, but Val snickered at the reminder that, yeah, Weston might be sweet, but he also still really loved sex.

If they were in this together, Val couldn’t let the guys allow him to keep them from what they enjoyed. “Since I interrupted you two the other day, it seems fair I should insist you finish what you started.” After all, he’d never minded watching anal sex, and he imagined nothing sexier than more of the short glimpse from the other day. From a closer vantage point.

The way Weston beamed, and how Sage’s hands clamped harder on his shoulders, meant Val chose the perfect suggestion. “Hell, yeah,” Weston said, barely getting the second word out before he surged forward. The kiss he shared with Val was just like Weston—enthusiastic and filthy, sex-personified.

Not breaking the kiss, Weston urged Val from his seat. With Sage’s steady hands guiding from behind, Val was happy to follow them anywhere. He barely opened his eyes between leaving the kitchen and finding himself in Sage’s bedroom, where Sage’s fingers slipped underneath his shirt and trailed lines of heat across his skin.

Weston broke the kiss long enough to grab the neck of his T-shirt and pull it off in one smooth motion. Gasping for much-needed air, Val echoed his actions and turned around. Sage had also lost his shirt somewhere along the way. Val pressed skin-to-skin against him for the first time as he gathered Sage in his arms. He might not enjoy anal sex, but he adored kissing. Having two people to kiss as much as he wanted felt like finding some sort of universal cheat code. Once again, Sage’s kisses were different from Weston’s, but no less passionate, leaving Val’s mind spinning in much the same way as they separated.

He also wanted to stay pressed against Sage’s firm muscles for as long as possible. He tried to cling when Sage stepped aside, but Sage pushed him gently toward the bed. “I think Weston wants you to join him.”

Val checked over his shoulder. The king-sized mattress left the bedroom little floorspace, but they’d appreciate the size once it held all three men. None of them could ever be mistaken for a twink. Weston had shoved Sage’s summer-weight quilt away and sprawled naked across an expanse of dark blue sheet, one arm tucked behind his head and the other playing with his balls. Val’s dick, hard since the kitchen, throbbed in response. With less than a moment’s hesitation, his hands gripped the waistband of his running shorts and he shucked them off and kicked them away. Even if Weston and Sage were the ones fucking, Val had no intention of being a separate bystander. He crawled onto the bed, eager to get his hands all over the sexy fucker waiting there. He dove for another kiss once Weston was in reach, enjoying the way Weston gasped into his mouth when Val dragged his fingertip along Weston’s dick and down to his balls.

The mental pressure of topping had stressed Val out too much for anything about it to be pleasurable. And no matter how much prep occurred beforehand, bottoming never became pleasurable at all. Take all that away, and add the men Val trusted more than anyone in the world? The love they shared? This might be the first time he truly had fun during sex. He couldn’t wait.

He already trusted Weston and Sage not to lose themselves in each other and forget about him. Not with the way Weston grasped at Val’s shoulders and tried to thrust against his hand. Not when Sage climbed naked into the bed on the other side of Weston, already slicking his fingers with lube but unable to take his appreciative attention from Val.

Val was ready to slot himself wherever comfortable once Sage arranged Weston where he wanted him. He’d be free to put his hands and mouth wherever he wanted, to explore at his leisure, making his idea even more brilliant than he originally assumed. His mouth already watered for a taste of Weston’s dick. Shorter but thicker, much like Weston himself, and promising to be the perfect mouthful.

Weston’s stroking turned to nudging, and he broke from Val’s kiss. “Move up the bed. Lean against the headboard for me.”

He allowed Weston to bodily arrange Val how he wanted. Once Weston propped him against two of Sage’s pillows, legs stretched straight in front of him, Weston straddled Val’s thighs. “Oh, fuck, you’re a genius,” Val forced around a groan, his head falling against the pillows as Weston slotted their dicks together. They’d want lube soon, but even the pressure and heat alone curled Val’s toes.

A second set of thighs joined Weston’s as Sage climbed atop Val behind him. Sage must have read Val’s mind because he leaned around Weston long enough to drizzle a stream of lube onto their nestled lengths. Weston slicked it along both of them, sending sparks of pleasure all the way to Val’s balls. His teasing grip provided not quite enough pressure. Val kept himself from taking matters into his own hands and finishing this before Weston and Sage even got to the good bit by slamming his palms to Weston’s hips. Neither of them rested their full weight on Val’s legs, but he wasn’t going anywhere. He couldn’t think of anywhere he’d rather be.

From this angle, he missed how Sage opened Weston with his fingers, barely hearing the squelch of lube under his own pounding heart. The expressions that crossed Weston’s face told a more than compelling story, however.

Finally, Sage shifted forward on his knees, easing inside Weston until his chest pressed to Weston’s back. Weston’s head rolled onto Sage’s shoulder, his eyelids fluttering closed in pleasure. Wanting his hands on both of them, Val stretched one to Sage’s thigh, enjoying how the muscles shifted under his fingers with each of Sage’s thrusts.

A minor tactical error meant Val couldn’t see where the two men joined. He’d remedy that the next time, because he already counted on a next time. And plenty of times after that. Sage had the better vantage point, and his dark eyes burned where they locked onto Val and Weston’s dicks.

Val realized with a shock that Sage hadn’t paused for a condom. They’d raced past a few of the discussion points Val insisted on with every previous hookup. But this was no casual hookup, and the fragile trust necessary for those encounters already existed as a firm foundation in his soul for these two men.

All thoughts of practical conversation fled from Val’s brain under the power of Sage’s firm thrusts. Weston’s grip loosened in his distraction, but each of Sage’s movements forced Weston’s dick along Val’s. They both groaned.

Sage’s expression turned a bit feral, and he nipped Weston’s shoulder. “You gonna let me do all the work, or did you want to show off your party trick?”

Weston’s eyes shot open, and he responded with a jerky nod. “On it.”

Party trick? Val didn’t have enough brain cells left to question what the hell Sage meant.

Unlike Val, Weston was uncut, which he’d noted but thought nothing more of once Weston’s hands landed on him. With Sage stilled, Weston readjusted his grip around them with one hand. Using his other thumb, he eased his foreskin over his engorged glans—and pushed it further, closing it also over the head of Val’s dick.

The tight warmth was like nothing he’d ever experienced before. He had no chance to adjust to the sensation beyond good-yes-more before Sage took his cue to roll his hips once again. His movement shifted Weston against Val the same way, but this time, pleasure coalesced at his tip and coursed through his body. He didn’t fight the way it tightened his muscles, too afraid to move and ruin the experience.

“I think he likes it,” Weston said, grinning down at him.

Val barely managed a nod, having already lost the ability to respond coherently. Party trick, indeed. He fucking loved it.

Sage bit at Weston’s shoulder again. “And you can still talk.” When he shifted his weight and thrust again, Weston responded with a full-body shudder. But Val was the one who whimpered in pleasure at how Weston’s hands spasmed around them. “There we go,” Sage said, well deserving his smug tone.

He warranted every ounce of his satisfaction. Sage fucked Weston, rocking his hips into him at an angle that appeared to have stolen Weston’s sanity. Each movement, however, worked Weston’s dick against Val’s in such a manner Sage may as well have been fucking him, too. Like Weston, all Val could do was enjoy the ride as the pleasure rose, pooling in his belly and at the base of his spine until he jerked his hips enough to add tiny thrusts of his own toward the crescendo building between them.

Sage enjoyed the show like a benevolent king, keeping them at an unhurried pace. His obvious control revealed an entirely new facet to his personality, in contrast to Weston’s long-familiar openness and enthusiasm about sex. Val looked forward to discovering where he might fit into their seemingly effortless dynamic. Right now, though, he could only hang on through the new and all-consuming pleasure, desperate to stave off his orgasm as a reward after his lovers hit their peaks. The onslaught of unfamiliar sensations frayed his control faster than he expected, threatening to ruin his plan.

Sage licked a trail along Weston’s neck and whispered, “You two should come for me.”

Weston erupted on Sage’s command, his whimpers transforming to a keening cry. As much as Val wanted to experience how the same bliss wreaked Sage’s composure, the heat that bloomed in the tight hold of Weston’s foreskin around the tip of Val’s dick shoved him off the edge immediately after. His back arched, thrusting him farther into Weston’s tight grip, and his vision whited out.

Waves of intense pleasure crashed over him, again and again, until he finally regained his sight. Weston formed a dead weight atop of him. He breathed heavily into the crook of Val’s neck, coming down as if finishing a marathon. Moving gingerly, proving he wasn’t as unaffected as he’d appeared in the midst of things, Sage drew out of Weston into a controlled, slow-motion collapse to the side.

He’d always found his friend a stunning man, but now Val’s heart lurched. Even upside down and in the fading evening light through the bedroom window, Val couldn’t remember the last time Sage smiled so brightly, his face so relaxed. Not since he’d returned to Maryland, and maybe not even for years before he left for California.

Sage rolled enough to press a kiss to the side of Val’s thigh. “You good?”

Val had thought he’d needed his body to catch up to his brain when he started fooling around in California. Turned out his heart needed his body and brain to figure their shit out instead. He ran his free hand through Sage’s sweat-damp hair. “I love you.”

If possible, Sage’s grin widened more. “I love you, too.”