“And some pasta,” Ty corrected. “I’m making cheesy chicken pasta casserole next week. I mean, my mom’s making it.”
“She figured out you make the casseroles.” He should have told him last night.
Ty stopped. “She figured it out or you told her?”
“She figured it out.” But he should probably be honest. “Though I might have led her along a little.”
“Hah. I call a violation,” Noah said, holding a hand up.
“Yeah, that’s pretty shitty,” James agreed.
“A violation?” Michael moved to the table, wondering how fast he could eat. It was a lot of food, but he could still maybe manage it in five minutes, six tops if he let them talk and didn’t defend himself.
“We got a code, man,” Max replied. He took the chair across from Michael while Ty settled in beside him. “You have to protect your brother.”
“He’s not my brother,” Michael pointed out between bites.
“You should treat him like he’s your brother and you have to protect him,” James said. “Unless he’s doing something dangerous. You gotta stick together.”
“Against your wife?” There were a couple of problems he saw with this whole code thing.
“Not against her,” Rye replied. “That’s not what we’re saying. We are saying you need to present a united front from time to time.”
“Against your wife.” Maybe he wouldn’t storm out. This could be fun because they were under the mistaken impression that he was going to toe some line the other threesomes in town did.
“It isn’t like that,” James insisted. “All we’re saying is you two can’t be at each other’s throats if you’re going to go after the same woman. A threesome can’t function if you don’t work together. You have to take her down together. That’s the mistake you made last night.”
He felt the growl in the back of his throat before he heard it. He really wished people would keep their noses out of his business. He wasn’t even sure where they were going with this, but he felt the need to defend himself and their privacy. “The mistake was Jax getting in the middle of everything. Stay out of it. Stef, you might be the dude with the most money here, but don’t think you can buy me out like you did those assholes. If I want to stay, I’ll stay. If I want Lucy and Ty, I’ll take Lucy and Ty.”
“We’re only trying to give you tips on how to make this work,” Rye explained.
Stef had taken a place at the head of the table. “I believe what Michael is trying to say is that he’s not like the rest of you. He and Ty aren’t brothers and likely won’t have a brotherly relationship.”
“What does that mean?” Noah asked.
It was good to know one person seemed to understand. “It means you four are brothers and have a long history. Your relationship with each other was solidly in place before you met the woman you wanted. In our case, the relationship that was already in place was between Lucy and Ty.”
Ty held a hand up. “I have never once thought of Lucy as a sister, so don’t make that comparison. I pretty much started to want that girl once I understood what my dick was for.”
“All I’m saying is that Lucy, Ty, and I have options,” Michael explained. “It means that this whole boys against the girl thing isn’t going to work for me. Your wives run your households. Good for you. I’m very likely going to need to run mine, so if you’re going to have this conversation, you should have it with Lucy and Ty about how to handle me.”
“Are you sure you’re not a Dom?” Stef asked.
He sat back. “All I know is I need to be somewhat in control, and Lucy and Ty need me to be.”
Ty held up a hand. “Wait. Does this make me the sub?”
He barely managed to not roll his eyes. “I’m not spanking you, Ty. But we are going to talk about how you deal with Lucy because you’re fucking up. Of course she is, too.”
“Okay, because for a second there it sounded like you were opening the door to…” Ty nodded like everyone knew what he was saying.
“To sex. Between you and him.” Max smiled like he was the smartest thing in the world.
Michael shrugged. “If it happens it happens. I’m interested in having sex with Lucy, but if this went anywhere, I don’t see why we would shut the door on experimenting if we all three wanted to. That’s what I was talking about. The brotherly thing isn’t going to work for me. And fuck all of you for forcing us to have this conversation in public. Though you should understand if it happened, I wouldn’t give a shit who knew.”
“Good for you.” Stef picked up his fork. “Ty, I was worried he was going to steamroll over you. Now I know he will, but I approve because I don’t believe he’s doing it to cut you off from Lucy.”
“No, he’s doing it because he likes me, too.” Ty’s lips kicked up.
Again, he’d thought that was all part of the deal. “I don’t hate you so much I would give up the chance to be with her, and I’m honest about what could happen and not worried about it.”
“So you’re saying something could happen, and if it did you wouldn’t like freak out and worry about your sexuality and go into some weird shame spiral that would ruin all our lives,” Ty prompted.
Michael grunted his assent because that summed up the situation. Max and Rye seemed to have some freaky twin thing going on where they would practically read each other’s minds. It probably served them well when in bed with their wife, but he and Ty weren’t ever going to have that. It would be awkward and weird, and their dicks would probably brush up against each other at some point because they didn’t have a million years of practice. Michael had plugged that scenario into his decision making and decided it wouldn’t be the end of the world.
Ty gave him a thumbs-up. “Cool. I wouldn’t be worried about it either if it did happen. But if Lucy thinks I’m the one cooking for her, she won’t eat it. She’ll be real stubborn.”
“Then we’ll spank her together,” he replied. “You’re going to learn how to take charge sometimes, and she’s going to learn that there are some things she shouldn’t be stubborn about. And some things she should. She’s going to learn it’s okay to lean on you and that you can lean right back. She’s also going to let us help out with her siblings.”
“Why are we here?” James asked. “Because it sounds like Michael knows what he’s doing.”
Stef sighed. “Well, he’s such a secretive bastard I wouldn’t have imagined he was so open with his sexuality and smart about how a relationship like this should work. He seems to understand Ty and Lucy. So I approve.”
Michael sent Stef his happy middle finger.
Ty winced. “Sorry about that. He speaks a language of grunts and curse words. The rude hand gestures are new. I’m sorry. I get that you’re looking out for Lucy.”
Ty needed to stop apologizing. He grunted Ty’s way.
Ty huffed and shook his head, but there was a gleam in his eyes when he turned to Stef again. “And now you know our intentions are pure and you can stay out of our relationship with Lucy.”