“Tara’s our other roommate.”
Zach sat for several minutes, beginning to talk and then stopping. Finally he threw up his hands in surrender. “I give up. I got no more smart remarks. Tell me about it.”
Dalton braced himself, not sure if even Zach would approve. “Well the short version is we are all in a relationship. All three of us.”
Zach looked thoughtful. “All three of you? Like always all three, or sometimes two, or—”
Zach inhaled deeply and then met Dalton’s gaze. “Sorry, I was doing what I hate for straight people to do, go right to the sex and want details of what tab goes in what slot. Sorry.”
“It’s okay. I’m a little overwhelmed, too. Like I said, I hurt Cole today, and I didn’t mean to, but I’m not sure I’m ready to talk about our relationship with everyone. Then there’s the fact that there’s three of us, hell I don’t even know if there’s a term for us.”
“Poly.”
“Excuse me?”
Zach laughed. “Your relationship with Cole and Tara, it’s called Polyamorous, poly for short. Technically, your specific arrangement is a triad.”
“Great, I’m in a relationship named after a parrot or Chinese organized crime.”
Zach looked confused for a moment, then started laughing. “Well, not exactly, but that was pretty good.”
Dalton began to chuckle. “We might as well see some humor in the whole thing. But what do I do—I don’t want to hurt either of them. But I’m not even sure how I feel about being with both of them.”
“Take a deep breath, and calm down. Let’s think about this for a minute. Poly covers a lot of relationships. Most of them don’t consist of sex between all the people involved.”
“Why not? That’s the fun part.”
Zach chuckled and shook his head. “Well, some people wouldn’t agree with you. Some people who are in a poly relationship are straight. For them the thought of making it with your hot muscular roommate wouldn’t be appealing at all.”
“Okay, well let’s bring this conversation back to me.”
Zach nodded. “Yeah, I don’t need to share everything I learned in my one human sexuality course. So let’s see, what do we know about this relationship?”
Dalton waited for the first question.
“So if any of these get too personal, just pass. Let’s start easy…have the three of you been intimate, or are you just at the talking stage.”
“No, past talking.”
“Okay, is it an exclusive relationship, or open? Can you be with someone other than the two of them?”
Dalton thought for a moment. “I think it’s exclusive, like a monogamous couple, but with the three of us. But Tara said it didn’t have to be all three of us every time. We don’t have to get clearance or anything, either.”
“Okay, good information. So it’s an exclusive committed relationship, it sounds like to me. But the way you pair up can be whatever. Anything else.”
“Well…”
Zach grinned at Dalton. “At this point I wouldn’t worry about something being too personal.”
Dalton returned the smile and nodded in agreement. “Well, Tara told Cole that he could show me his morning wood instead of her.”
Zach started chuckling and soon fell onto the couch and buried his face in a pillow as he laughed hysterically. Dalton waited patiently—at this point happy to have a friend who he could talk to about their relationship. After a few minutes, Zach lifted his head and wiped his eyes. “Sorry, sounds like your partner has a healthy sex drive. But it doesn’t mean much. One thing though, some guys are exclusive tops, just so you know.”
“Oh, Cole’s not.” Dalton slapped his hand over his mouth and heat rolled across his face when he realized what he’d said.
Zach lifted an eyebrow. “Oh, really?”
“Forget I said that, okay? I’m already in enough trouble with Cole.”
A serious expression settled on Zach’s face. “Yeah, you’re right. You said there were some problems. What happened?”
“Well, we went to the farmer’s market this morning. But you knew that. It’s the last one of the year so Cole wanted to stock up. Anyway, one of guys working the booth for the student farm knew Cole and he introduced me as his boyfriend.”
“Okay, I can see where that might not make you happy, but I don’t see why he’d be pissed off at you.”
“Well it upset me that he outed me and we hadn’t even talked about it. But we’d started to relax a little when we ran into you and your friends.”
“And you introduced him as your friend. Now the picture is starting to come together.”
Dalton sighed in frustration. “I don’t know what to do. I’m not ready to announce our relationship to the world. I haven’t even figured it out for myself.”
“Does Tara know?”
“Yeah, she said to let Cole think about what happened and he’ll calm down. She didn’t seem too upset, but then I think the relationship is different for her.”
“Yeah, maybe so.” Zach sat back and took a drink while he thought. “You know this isn’t that unusual with gay couples—sometimes one is out more than the other.”
“And how do they work it out?”
Zach paused and looked at Dalton while he chewed on the inside of his cheek. After a few moments he continued. “It’s different for each couple. Some of them work out an arrangement that’s okay with them both. Others don’t last if they aren’t out, at least some. It’s hard to have a partner who can’t be there for you through thick and thin.”
Dalton’s chest contracted and he filled with a hollow sense of loss. “I guess I can see that. So what do I do?”
“You need to talk to Cole, tell him how you feel, and see what he says.”
“What if he isn’t willing to wait?”
Zach’s face twisted into a sad smile. “You can crash here for awhile if you need to.”
Dalton lay alone on the twin bed in his room. The room he’d stopped thinking of as his, even though he’d only been sleeping with Cole and Tara for a few days. Sleep didn’t come easily, but it must have at some point because he awoke when someone sat on the edge of the bed. It took only a split-second to realize the intruder was Cole. Dalton was wide awake.
He wasn’t sure what to say, but Dalton knew he didn’t want to make the situation worse. “Hey.”
“Hey.” Cole rested his hand on Dalton’s hip. “I’m sorry. Tara and I talked about what happened. I guess I overreacted. She reminded me that I spent most of a year coming out as bi.”
“I didn’t mean to hurt you. I’m just still trying to figure the details out myself,” Dalton said.
Cole rubbed his hand up and down Dalton’s thigh. “Come to bed, please. It seems empty without you.”
Dalton rested his hand on top of Cole’s. “I’d really like that. I’ve kinda got use to sleeping with the two of you.”
He followed Cole to their bed and crawled in beside him. Cole’s muscular arms wrapped around him and pulled him with tight possessiveness against his body. Dalton relaxed in the security. Then a smaller hand patted him on the shoulder and Tara’s soft voice floated through the night air.
“Glad you’re back.”
* * * *
Cole woke the next morning to a room flooded with light. He started to bolt for the closet and his clothes to get ready, when several things popped into his mind at once. First, Dalton was curled in his arms, and the musky scent of his slender body was ambrosia to Cole. The other normal morning issues, class and work, weren’t a problem this morning. Work was slow since they were between mowing and snow season, so he was only working a few days a week. And he didn’t have any classes until noon. Tara had a morning class, and he could hear her in the shower. He pulled Dalton tight against him, and relaxed.
His next conscious thought was being awakened by Tara’s typical cheerful morning humming. Dalton stirred in his arms as Tara slipped on her jacket. Dalton raised his head from the pillow and watched her for a few seconds before turning to Cole.
“Is she always this fucking cheerful?”
Cole chuckled and pulled him tighter. “Yeah, pretty much every morning.“ Cole laughed harder when Tara stuck out her tongue at them. “And even worse, she likes early classes and enrolls in them…on purpose.”
Dalton’s head buried back into the pillow. “Ah, damn.”
Tara whirled to them and kissed them both. “You two are so adorable snuggled together.” She grabbed her bookbag and headed for the bedroom door. She paused half way through and looked at them again. “Talk about yesterday. We can all discuss about where to go from here at dinner.”
Cole motioned her out. “Yes, Mother. Now, go to this god-awful early class that you insisted on signing up for.”
Soft laughter filtered back to them as Tara headed for the front door and class. Once the door shut, Cole pulled Dalton tight, then leaned in and kissed the back of his neck. A few minutes passed and he turned to Cole.
“We need to talk. But can we do it like this? I really like snuggling with you.”
Cole smiled. “I’d love that. I think snuggling will make the conversation easier.”
“You’re thinking if you keep me all worked up, then I will agree to anything.”
“And are you worked up?” Cole asked.
Dalton pressed against Cole, his hard shaft straining against his underwear. Cole smiled and pushed his own pelvis forward until his stiff member collided with Dalton’s.
Cole moved back slightly so they were no longer against each other. “Okay, now we know we’re both awake. I don’t know about you, but I can’t think of anything other than sex when we’re all pressed together.” Cole grinned and ran his hand down Dalton’s exposed thigh.
“About yesterday…” Dalton began.
Cole waved him into silence. “I shouldn’t have pressured you. I put you in a no-win situation. That wasn’t fair.”
“Well, I feel terrible that I hurt you like I did. I’m still trying to work out what’s going on, and I freaked.”
“I understand, or I should, anyway. Tara reminded me last night that it took me a long time to accept it. But then, my family didn’t help.”
Dalton reached up and ran his hand along Cole’s bicep, loving the heat of bare skin in the cool room. Realizing his focus was shifting toward lovemaking, he dropped his hand back to the bed and gave Cole a lopsided smile.
“I talked to Zach last night, asked him for advice.”
“The guy from yesterday?”
“Yeah, he’s one of my best friends. And he’s gay. I thought if anyone would understand, he would.”
“And what did he say?”
Dalton grinned at Cole and kissed his cheek. “He said we needed to talk and I needed to tell you what was going on in my head.”
“And how’re you feelin’?”
“A little overwhelmed. A lot thinking I’m a lucky bastard. And a shit load of unsure how I feel about the whole thing.”
“And embarrassed?”
Confusion covered Dalton’s face. “Why would I be embarrassed?”
Cole smirked and was surprised at the happy flutter that washed over him. He turned to Dalton and raised an eyebrow. “Because you had sex with another dude, maybe?”
Dalton grinned. “My family’s so liberal I think they were always a little disappointed that one of us wasn’t LGBT. No, embarrassed isn’t on the list.”
“Not to rag on you, but you sure seemed embarrassed when you said I was a friend.”
Dalton started to speak, but then slowly closed his mouth and considered Cole’s question. After several minutes, he reached back and pulled Cole’s arm over him like a blanket. “I could have been a little embarrassed, I can’t say there wasn’t any. Also Zach is gay, so it would be stupid to be embarrassed telling him. Mostly I didn’t want to have to try and explain something I barely understand.”
Cole nodded and kissed the back of Dalton’s neck. “Ok, I get that. A poly relationship isn’t that easy to understand, and Tara told me I didn’t give you a lot of time.”
“Oh? What did she say?”
Cole chuckled. “She said I was a dumbshit fuckwad. Tara likes to make up for lost time when she gets pissed off and get in as many cuss words as possible.”
Cole took a deep breath and met Dalton’s gaze. “I spewed out stuff to Nate because I’m so excited. I didn’t even think about the fact that everyone didn’t feel the same.”
Dalton kissed Cole on the cheek. “It isn’t that I’m not excited. This is so new, I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“I think you’re incredibly cute, by the way,” Cole said.
Dalton chuckled and curled up against Cole’s broad chest. “I think you’re trying to change the subject.”
“Maybe.” Cole moved his hands over Dalton’s chest and stomach. “Is it working?”
“Maybe.”
The two of them lay quietly, the warmth of their bodies soaking into each other. Their musk drifted through the air. Neither of them had lost their morning erection. The tension grew until Cole nuzzled against Dalton’s neck and kissed down it. Dalton moaned louder with each kiss. Cole rubbed the scruff of his jaw against the base of Dalton’s neck. His sounds of pleasure traveled straight to Cole’s dick.
Chest heaving and face flushed, Dalton waited for Cole’s lips to touch his. A second later it happened, and Cole felt like he’d frenched a wall socket. The power of their kiss sent jolts through him and his cock jerked against his briefs. Cole tapped his tongue along the edge of Dalton’s lips, begging for entrance.
* * * *
Dalton lost himself in the ardor of the moment, ready to give himself to Cole. His attraction to the big man built with each caress, each kiss loosening his control. Something he didn’t want to happen, not right now. His rational side fought its way out of the fog of lust and Dalton realized he wasn’t being fair to himself, or to Cole. He gently cupped Cole’s face in his hands, his resolve weakening when the prickles of Cole’s morning scruff caressed his palms.
“Cole.”
“Hmmm.” Contentment filled Cole’s face.
“Cole, I love making out with you. But we’re not having sex, not this morning.”
It took a moment for Cole to process the statement, and his expression saddened, but only slightly. “Something wrong?”
“Absolutely not. But I don’t think it’s fair to keep having sex with you until I can make a commitment. And I’ll think with the wrong head if it’s constantly buried in your butt.”
“Oh, don’t worry. We’ll be flip-flopping sometime soon.”