Page 17 of Simply Perfection
Trevor crooked his finger at Matt. Matt scooted his chair close to the bench, and Trevor pulled Matt in for a kiss.
“I’ll eventually learn not to get so defensive.” He looked at Niall. “I’m not used to anybody trying to take care of me. For most of my life, it’s been me against the world; now all of a sudden I have two older, very accomplished soon-to-be lovers.” His head felt as though he were watching a tennis match, but this was important, so he looked back at Matt. “If this is going to work, I need both of you to treat me as an equal. Not some little brother you have to take care of.”
“I can’t speak for Niall, but I hardly look upon you as a little brother figure. Your safety and health will always be on my mind, but that goes for Niall as much as you. And I wouldn’t dream of stripping my little brother and licking him from head to toe, as I did last night after leaving you.”
“Matt is correct. As we grow closer, it’s only natural we’ll worry about each other, sometimes unnecessarily but always with the right intentions. I don’t like the thought of you being cold anymore than Matt does, and we only met an hour ago.”
“You’re right, guys. I’m sorry. I realize I made it sound as though you’d be babying me, and I’d be a coldhearted bitch, when in fact I’ll probably be the biggest worrywart of the three of us. As for me being cold? Sorry to tell you this, but it’s a foregone conclusion. I’m always cold, coat or no coat. If we ever end upin bed together, I’ll be the one in the extremely unsexy flannel sleepwear.”
“No.Whenwe end up in bed together, you’ll be sandwiched between two living furnaces. Frumpy flannel is a thing of your past. From now on, I want access to every inch of your skin so when Niall and I wake up in the middle of the night, we can ravish you ‘til your mind is so satiated, you’ll forget the meaning of the word ‘cold’.”
Trevor’s mouth dropped and his brain flooded with images of him, Matt and Niall twisting around in a myriad of configurations atop a wide mattress. He couldn’t wait to see, touch, and taste the skin that he had only glimpsed that evening. “Now? Please?” he begged.
Matt looked at Niall. “Shall we?”
“Oh, yes. My place?”
Trevor watched Matt nod. It was obvious Matt was at least familiar with Niall’s place, wherever that was. Trevor couldn’t help but be a little jealous. He shook off the feeling as ludicrous. Matt and Niall had known each other for a week, not months or years. They were all starting out on an even footing—relationship-wise anyway—and Trevor was interested to see how the balance between them would play out.
Trevor tried valiantly to keep from tripping over his jaw as Niall gave him the tour. Apartments like this only existed in dreams or on TV. Trevor stared at the red brick wall where the original print of his favorite black-and-white photograph hung. In it, the dunes of a grassy beach surrounded the decimated hull of a ship. Planks rose into the sky as if they were asking “why”. The textures and details in the wood were excessively sharp, but the background was only a haze of images from the surrounding landscape. A beam of sunlight landed directly on the wooden carcass, and every time Trevor saw this photograph he wondered what had happened. What story lay behind the powerful image?
Warm arms came around him, and Trevor leaned back against a solid chest. He knew instantly it was Niall. The scent of cedar wove around Trevor, and he closed his eyes, inhaling a deep breath.
“Do you like it?”
Trevor nodded. “It’s one of my favorites. In a way, it reminds me of myself.”
Niall turned Trevor in his arms. “How’s that?”
“Isolated, yet surrounded. The highlights show all the imperfections, but within the shadows you can see the beauty of what the ship once was.”
A wall of warmth braced Trevor as Matt came to stand behind him. Matt’s arms came around Trevor and rested on Niall’s hips.
“You’re not alone anymore. We all have imperfections, and our beauty will be in how we support each other,” Matt said.
Trevor rested his head on Niall’s shoulder. “Why does this feel so right? I barely know either of you, but at this moment have nowhere else I’d rather be. I have no experience with this kind of situation, and frankly I’m a little overwhelmed. I want to be with both of you, and yet I’m not sure how this all works. In my past relationships, there have always been clear expectations regarding sex and boundaries.” Trevor closed his eyes and whispered, “I feel a little lost.”
Niall stepped back and led Trevor over to his platform bed. Matt followed, and the three of them sat on the edge.
“I understand, Trevor, that you don’t have the same faith as I do about why we were brought together, but that’s okay. Unlike Matt, I’ve never experienced a physical three-way. So in how the sex will play out, you and I are on the same page. My question to you is, why should there be boundaries for our relationship? If we hold ourselves to certain expectations, then we not only create a false situation, but we may miss out on some elemental part of who we become.”
Matt placed his hand on Trevor’s knee. “I may have experienced plenty of threesomes in my life, but I never had a connection to those men. It was an enjoyable way of getting off, pure and simple. I’m as nervous as you are about the complexities of what we’re attempting. Each of us will have insecurities we must face, both individually and as a group, butas long as we don’t hide what’s troubling us, then we can move forward.”
“Okay, so in the spirit of honesty, I need to tell you, Matt, that you being a psychiatrist kinda freaks me out. You have the background knowledge and training to understand the human condition that neither Niall nor I have to draw from. That puts you one step ahead of the game, so to speak.”
“Believe me when I say that having the knowledge and implementing the skills are two very different aspects. I’ve seen marriages and partnerships of my colleagues fall apart just as often as I’ve seen it with people who come to me off the street. I’ll have to work just as hard as both of you.”
“Perhaps Matt will have to work harder, because he’ll have to remember that neither of us will recognize the undercurrents of a particular situation,” Niall added.
Trevor heaved out a deep breath. “As much as my body really wants to get it on with the two of you tonight, my brain is awfully wrung out. I’m not trying to be a tease, but do either of you think we could put off the sexcapades until tomorrow or something?”
Niall leaned down and placed a soft kiss on Trevor’s lips then tilted up to do the same for Matt. “Will the two of you stay with me tonight?” He looked back at the expanse of the mattress. “It would be nice to have you here, in my bed.Ourbed, if we let it be so.”
“I’m not sure that I’m ready to think of this as our bed yet, but it is very nice and the two of you did promise to keep me warm.”
Niall lifted the edge of Trevor’s sweater, revealing his smooth stomach. Ever since his and Trevor’s kiss in the club, Niall had been dreaming of how it would feel to hold Trevor in his arms for real. The younger man was an exact match to the vision in his dream. As much as he’d trusted Matt’s intuition, Niall couldn’t help but feel both relief and exhilaration when his eyes met Trevor’s sky blue ones across the interior of the bar.
Tonight, Niall would finally experience the intended use of this bed. Not simply as an empty plane where he marked the passage of time until he found his soul mates, but as a haven where the individual strands of their essence could weave the tapestry that would tell their story for all the ages.
