“What about Griffin?” She swallowed hard. Really should move away from him so she could think. But he was so damn warm. “He knows.”
His arms tightened around her. “I can live with that if you can. You guys are running just as big a risk as I am. I get that now. Can’t believe I didn’t, on the ship. And I know you two never treated me like an outsider–”
“Until tonight.”
“Thanks for that, by the way.” He shuddered again. “Totally deserved, but pretty rough.”
And he’d taken it like a man. Or had he? What had gone on between him and Britt when she left for the shower?
“Look. I’m…kinda low on the learning curve where relationships are concerned.” He let go of her, and moved around to face her, taking her hands in his. “I’ve barely had a steady girlfriend long enough to figure out how things work with a couple, let alone a…”
“Triad?” she supplied.
“Yeah. It seems wrong to have these feelings going off in more than one direction. It’s not normal.”
She took a deep breath. Might as well let him know up front. “If normal’s what you want, you’re in the wrong place.”
“I thought I did. But that doesn’t matter, not as much as…fuck. Will you let me kiss you?” He did, grasping her, his lips trembling at first and then possessive, his tongue slow and deliberate. When he broke away, he rested his forehead against hers. “What if I never find anybody else I care about, like you two? I love you, baby. God, please, forgive me and let me back in.”
In a complete reversal of how she’d felt an hour ago, she wanted to. She really did. But this wasn’t just about her. “Britt. What do you think about all this?”
She looked in the mirror and saw Britt step around the corner, wearing his blank Lawyer Face. “It’s entirely up to you, love. But I’d like to see him dispense with all the buggered running away.” He puffed up and pulled off a very macho stance, looking straight at David, who didn’t pull away from her, but rested his chin in her hair. “I told you before, I’ll not see her hurt again.”
Poor Britt. Leave it to him to blame himself for that. He really thought he was responsible for their well-being.
David shuddered against her, and she looked up to find his eyes glossy. He shook his head and gulped. “I won’t. Run again, I mean.”
“Perhaps we should set up some sort of agreement?” Britt suggested.
“Oh, shit.” She giggled. “Here we go, Barrister Britt always has to draw up a contract.”
Britt stepped into the bathroom, up against her back. “I think a verbal one will suffice. Something along the lines of, if any one of us, at any time, feels dissatisfied with the arrangement–the arrangement of course, being our mutual, yet exclusive, er…polygamous? relationship–then that person need only voice their concerns to the other two, and they’ll be addressed in a respectful manner.”
David wrinkled his brow and half closed his eyes.
“He means there’s no right or wrong,” she explained. “Just be honest about your feelings.”
“Oh.” David snuffled. “Yeah. I second the motion.”
She wiped a tear from the corner of his eye. “All right then. Let’s do this thing.” She stretched up to kiss him, finally with no reservations. Britt pressed warm and oh, so hard, against her back, nuzzling under her hair, David’s hand sliding down her back between her and Britt, fire searing her veins at the thought of him touching Britt again. Oh, they had so many new things ahead of them. And for now, so much heat and love surrounding her… David, smooth and taut at her front, one hand now moving to her hip, and then up to her shoulder, Britt, fuzzy with hair but just as firm, caressing with his hands, one up along her arm to twine fingers with her behind David’s head, and the other, making her breath catch when he tangled fingers with David at her shoulder.
They’d figure it out.