Used, Rare and Limited Editions III: Wine and Dine

By Chris Owen

Dave Allen hadn't given a lot of thought to what it would feel like when four men sat down to discuss sharing romantic partners, but if he had it was unlikely he would've come up with the current scenario.

It was a Sunday afternoon, the air warm and the p class="stdp"eeze light. The sound of laughing children floated across the park to where Dave and Wyatt Cole were sitting on a blanket under a big oak tree. Dave's lover, Archie McBain, was about thirty feet away, standing with his back to them as he talked quietly to Desmond Chase, Wyatt's partner and Dominant.

"What are they doing?" Dave finally asked, giving up on trying to hear the words. "Some lifestyle thing I won't understand?"

"No." Wyatt shook his head and leaned back against the tree trunk, his long legs stretched out in front of him. Wyatt and Dave were built the same way -- p class="stdp"oad and long, big all over -- and his feet overshot the edge of the blanket by several inches. "I think they're probably talking about you."

Dave whipped his head around just in time to see Wyatt's teasing grin. "Oh, you bastard," he said, laughing. "Shut up."

"No, I'm serious." Wyatt reached into the nearby cooler and rummaged around. "Wine or beer?"

"God, not wine." Dave wasn't sure, but he might have actually paled at the word. "Des and I finished two bottles last night. I don't think my stomach can take it right now."

"Beer it is." Which probably wasn't any better, really, but Wyatt was already opening the can and pouring it into a big plastic cup. At that stage, it would be rude not to accept it. "Here. Also, I'm pretty sure that they are, in fact, talking about you. I mean, what else would they talk about? Maybe they're comparing notes." Wyatt's grin became something more knowing than teasing, a sly look that declared he was well aware of the state of the sheets in the guest room at his place.

Dave flushed, completely unable to stop himself. "This is the most bizarre thing I've ever experienced." Even the taste of the beer, the comfortable and familiar flavor washing through his mouth, couldn't add more than a hint of normalcy to the conversation.

"You're unused to talking about your sex life?"

"I'm unused to talking about my sex life with the partner of the guy who fucked me last night." He winced and shook his head. "You know, that's really the wrong word."

Wyatt laughed and dove back into the cooler. "Sometimes it's the right one. He's very commanding. Did he get too domineering for you?"

"No, not at all." Dave found that if he looked away from Wyatt and over toward the parking lot he could talk about it without it feeling so surreal. "He wasn't too controlling, either. I mean, he topped, but that doesn't mean anything about a power dynamic; I switch enough that I know that. I just meant it wasn't fucking. It was sex, and it was hot, but it was more connected than fucking. You know?"

"I know." Wyatt drank from his own plastic cup and from the color of the liquid Dave could tell he was drinking beer over wine, too. "Which is probably why they're talking so long. Desmond likes to make sure he answers all questions completely. If Archie asked 'how did your date go?' then he'll be getting a complete answer." Wyatt smiled as he watched the two men, apparently content and easy with anything that had happened between Dave and Des the night before.

Dave's look was slightly more curious as he watched his lover -- his two lovers, he supposed -- talking. They weren't exactly standing with their heads close together, whispering, but they were definitely having a serious discussion. "You don't think they might just be discussing the state of Archie's face and what to do about it?"

"Absolutely not."

He said it so vehemently that Dave blinked. "No?"