Page 87 of Third Wheel

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Kincaid muttered, but he pushed himself up from the couch. He’d finally turned on the television but then immediately turned it back off again when it offered the next Marvel movie. Just thinking about watching a movie without Zach and Amy made his stomach turn over.

He’d only been sitting here for… okay, half an hour.

Sighing, he answered the door. “Or what, you’ll huff and puff and blow me?”

Mitch grinned broadly and winked at him.

“If that’s what gets you off… no, wait, I know that’s what gets you off.” Mitch chuckled and shoved past Kincaid, not waiting to be invited inside. Pushy blond bastard.

“Who called you?” Kincaid asked dryly. He wondered where Zach had gone that it had gotten this kind of response. Actually, wait, that answered his question. “It was Brian, wasn’t it?”

“You know Daddy gets worried when we’re fighting.” Mitch sauntered over to the armchair and flopped down. Looking at him, stupid grin on his face, totally relaxed with one leg hanging over the arm of the chair while he lolled against the back of it at an angle—the ultimate manspread—it would be hard to believe he was a sadist who enjoyed making his fiancé scream on a regular basis. He was like a sadistic golden retriever. Proof that appearances could be deceiving.

“Well, I’m glad Zach has someone with him.” The words came out with more bitterness than he’d meant, and Mitch raised his eyebrow. To give himself time to collect himself, Kincaid moved over to the couch and sat back down. This time, he deliberately sat down on a cushion that was not the one he’d been sitting on.

“What happened?” Mitch asked once Kincaid was settled in.

Kincaid snorted. “What didn’t happen?”

Closing his eyes, because it was somehow easier to talk about it that way, he leaned back against the couch and went through the events. Granted, he had to make some suppositions about how things had gone down with Zach’s parents from things Amy and Zach had said, but everything from the moment he’d returned from his run was pretty much indelibly imprinted in his mind.

When he finished, he let out a huge sigh and opened his eyes to see how Mitch was taking it. His friend had a thoughtful frown on his usually smiling face. Then he hopped up from where he was sitting.

Kincaid blinked as Mitch went past him, heading into the kitchen.

“What are you doing?” he asked, surprised out of the melancholy that had settled back over him while he’d been talking. He sat up, turning to watch Mitch.

“Daddy texted and said Zach hadn’t eaten lunch, so I’m assuming you haven’t either.”

“I… No. I’m not really hungry.”

“Mm, well, I am. I haven’t eaten either. I was… busy this morning.” Mitch smiled the blissful smile of a happy Dom who’d had a happy morning.

Why can’t that be me?

It almost had been. This was the part he hadn’t told Mitch. While he was on his run, he’d been thinking about how to broach the idea of trying to be a real threesome to Zach and Amy. He wasn’t sure if they’d be interested, too, but he was pretty sure. And after seeing Jessica, Justin, and Chris at Marquis… he’d realized he wanted that.

The three of them fit together. They worked well together. But he wasn’t willing to pretend to be the housemate while Zach and Amy were the couple. He wasn’t a damn third wheel.

“What’s that face for?” Mitch asked, pausing as he looked at Kincaid over the refrigerator door.

“I…” He sighed. He might as well tell Mitch all of it. Why not, at this point? “I’ve been thinking about me and Zach… and Amy.”

“Huh.” Mitch’s blue gaze unfocused for a moment, then he nodded his head, his lips forming a little half smile. “Yeah, I could see that.”

“Sure, if I’m okay with Zach shoving me in the closet every time his parents come over so he can pretend Amy is his only partner.” This time, Kincaid knew exactly how bitter he sounded. “He can’t even handle telling his parents he’s bisexual. Can you imagine him telling them that he’s both bisexualandpolyamorous?”

Mitch closed the refrigerator door, his hands full of sandwich meat and cheese. He’d been over often enough that he didn’tneed anyone to tell him where to go. He turned to the pantry to get out the bread.

“You know what your problem is? You’re too sure of yourself.”

“How is that a problem?” Kincaid asked, amused. Sometimes, Mitch’s mind worked in interesting ways. “Especially for a Dom.”

“Most of the time, it’s not,” Mitch admitted. “But sometimes, it is. Like right now. In a conceptual way, you understand what Zach’s afraid of, but it’s not something you really fear, so you can’t really understand where he’s coming from. You sort of get it, but it pisses you off at the same time.”

“This sounds a lot like the talk we had the last time Zach and I broke up.” Kincaid tapped his fingers on the back of the couch. “I’m not saying you’re wrong, which is why we ended up getting back together in the first place. I needed to be more understanding of the fact that he’s a very different person from me and isn’t going to act the same way that I would. But exactly how long am I supposed to be willing to wait?”

“See, that’s the thing. You’re going to have your timetable. He’s going to have his. They might not match up.” Mitch opened up the bread bag and started pulling slices out. Then he paused and turned, leaning over to open the cabinet where the cutting board was before Kincaid could even say something to him. “Yeah, I know. Food on the cutting board, not the counter.”

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