Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 77249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
“I think I can speak for both of us when I say the romantic day-to-day stuff. We’re good in the bedroom and in scenes. We’re working on clear communication and spelling out what we need, but I think we fall back on the friends dynamic too often.” I was hoping that was enough of a start to make him back down a bit, but his quiet stare didn’t give me much to go on.
When he finally looked around like he was searching for someone, it just left me wondering what the fuck he was doing. “I’m going to ask someone what might seem like a random question, but I promise I’m not going to share anything.”
Nodding, I gestured for him to keep going as I watched Weston’s head ping-pong back and forth. Since he didn’t have any hesitation, I wasn’t worried. Even if Conner had started to overshare, it wouldn’t be anything I was ashamed about.
“Anders.” Conner grabbed the attention of a guy dressed in business casual clothes who I’d seen around the club. I was pretty sure he was a switch of some variety, but we hadn’t interacted too often because we seemed to be interested in very different things. “I have a random question for you.”
He knew that was dangerous and smiled as he shook his head but still came over anyway, which said how curious he was. “You always start conversations like I need to be worried.”
Yep, smart man.
Conner played dumb and frowned. “Me? Never. This is going to be easy.”
That was doubtful.
“How long have these two been a couple and what do you know about their relationship?” While Anders thought, Conner pointed to both of us. “Weston. Cyrus. They’re fine with this and won’t get offended.”
Hopefully.
As we nodded, Anders frowned but answered without overthinking it. “About a year? I remember hearing that the open relationship thing wasn’t making them happy but that seems to have resolved itself.”
Before I could take in the answer, he frowned in my direction. “There’s nothing wrong with hanging out separately and doing your own thing here at the club. We all need space and downtime with buddies. No one thinks that’s odd.”
Great.
They thought we were odd.
He shifted back to Conner before I had to do more than nod. “I think most people at the club are closed poly types rather than traditionally open, so that probably has something to do with everyone noticing it.”
“I think it’s in the water. I can’t decide if we need a filter or not.” Conner answered that so seriously it was hard to tell if he was nuts or joking. “Thanks. That was what I needed to know.”
Giving us a wave, Anders charged back through the lounge to whatever he’d been going to do before Conner dragged him into our ridiculousness. When he was out of earshot, I turned to Conner. “A year?”
He shrugged. “That’s the general consensus. Everyone basically says something similar. That they think you guys were in a slightly unhappy open relationship but they weren’t going to ask because it wasn’t their business.”
Well, that explained why getting serious partners had been so hard.
“You guys are the only ones who think you’re struggling with the whole romantic relationship versus friend relationship thing.” Conner gave us a moment to think but didn’t seem to expect a lot at the moment. “If what you had before was making you happy minus the whole missing the BDSM dynamics, then I think you were in a good relationship and just didn’t realize it.”
He loved making everyone nuts.
“However you think romantic relationships look just might not be what works best for you two.” Shrugging, Conner gestured between us. “What is one thing that would make you feel more confident in your romantic relationship?”
He was a fucking pain in the ass.
“I’d like Weston to walk closer to me when we’re out in public.” It sounded stupid but I tried not to think about that. “Sometimes it feels like we’re just buddies walking together.”
Weston finally blinked and sat straighter like he’d tuned back into reality. “The coffee twink. The whiny one. Sorry. That’s rude. The one with the troubling pitch to his voice that he couldn’t control. He hung on you and you said you hated that.”
What?
Coffee twink?
“The guy with the…okay…there’s no nice way to describe his voice.” It’d been unpleasant at first but I got used to it. “That was so long ago I don’t remember saying that but I probably did. He was clingy.”
And it’d all been an act too because he’d been this normal butch dude when he’d come into the gym one time…not having realized yet that I owned the damned thing.
“He was playing me. That was why I stopped seeing him. Not the voice or being clingy.” Now that I thought about it, he had hung on me a lot, so I could see myself complaining about it.