I bit down on my lip to stop from laughing out loud and saw that Frankie was doing the same. Suddenly, my chest ached with tenderness for Asher.
I always did fall for clumsy guys.
There was just something so endearing about it.
I pulled myself back to the scene we were playing out. From the way Asher was perching his ass in the air while he cleaned, his hips jutting from side to side, it was clear he hadn’t given up on the fun yet.
He turned back our way, his hands and knees pressed to the floor. “Sorry,” he grumbled.
I nodded and kept my eyes on him. “You’d almost earned back the right to stand again,” I said, clicking my tongue against the roof of my mouth. “Too bad.”
Asher swallowed. “I’ll do whatever you need to make it up,” he whispered. “Whatever it takes.”
I grinned, then held him in my eyes. “Oh, I know you will,” I said. “Now come on. Make my husband happy.”
Asher lowered his jaw and licked his lips. His sandy hair fell over his face, almost long enough to curl. He crawled forward slowly, dragging himself to Frankie. Desire pooled in my balls as I watched, and a growl escaped my chest.
He was ours, and the night had just begun.
Asher had a post-orgasmic daze across his face. His lips were red from sucking us off, an activity that had taken up a good portion of the evening, and sweat dappled his chest and forehead. As I stood beside the bed and smiled down on the men, Asher trailed his fingers through the patches of sandy, gray hair that grew on Frankie’s chest, and Frankie hummed happily to himself, his cock still heavy in his boxers.
“Thanks,” Asher said, taking a bottle from me. He stuck it in his mouth, then turned it up to take a big drink. “Something else to suck on.”
I chuckled as I joined them at the bed, my towel hanging open over my thigh. “Give us a little time, boy,” I said. “And we can give those lips another workout.”
Asher’s cheeks got pink every time I called him boy like that, and I couldn’t deny, it gave me a thrill, too.
I reasoned it had at least something to do with how indulgent, almost forbidden, sex with him felt. I was a serious scholar, with a reputation in my field. Men like me did not have threesomes with their married partners, and we almost certainly did not sleep with students so young they could be our students.
Yet, here we are…
Asher sighed, then flattened his palm against Frankie’s chest, right above his heart. I became aware of my own heartbeat behind my ribs, steady and loud. I set my beer down, then reached out, laying a hand on each man—Frankie’s thigh and Asher’s calf.
Asher blinked a few times suddenly, then turned away. He withdrew his hand from Frankie’s chest and cast his eyes out the window. Still, I could see that his breath was catching, his shoulders rising and falling unevenly.
“Asher?” Frankie said sweetly. “Are you okay?”
Asher kept his eyes out the window, and the jilted rise and fall of his shoulders quickened. I could sense his pain, which tore through me, ripping apart whatever glee I was still feeling from the orgasm.
On these nights together, he was ours to take care of, and that extended beyond what we did in bed.
“Asher,” I said, scooting forward on the bed and then resting my hand on his back. “What’s going on? Talk to us.”
His skin was warm beneath my hand, and as I rubbed my palm in a slow circle on his back, his breathing returned a little closer to normal.
“I’m sorry,” he said, turning and wiping his eyes. He pulled the sheet up to his chest, covering his naked body. “Just having a moment.”
Frankie and I exchanged a look. He had worry in his eyes. For the past year, I’d known this cloud of concern. It followed him through his sister’s illness and death. I would still see it most days, often when he was having a quiet moment to himself. But as Ava adjusted to her new life and as we started to spend time with Asher, the cloud had darkened less and less the past weeks.
“What’s this moment about?” Frankie asked sweetly. He placed his hand on Asher’s back, beside my own, and Asher sucked in a fast breath.
His lip trembled, and tears gathered in the corner of his eyes again. Just as quickly, though, he shook his head, chasing it away. “Nothing,” he said. “Anyway, we’re not here for me to dump my shitty feelings.” He licked his lips, then took a gulp of his beer. “We’re here for fun, right?”
Suddenly, my mind flashed back to my first dates with Frankie. He’d been so flustered anytime things had gotten sweet between us, he’d practically jump through the window to change the subject. I had thought for a while that he just wasn’t interested in being romantic, before I figured out better what made him tick.
It struck me that, for Asher, shooting his mouth and acting like a playboy might serve the same purpose.
And if he needed to talk about something, I wanted to provide that for him. Frankie and I might have had limits on how far the play with Asher could go, but I also knew that we had a lot we could offer him, and my protective instincts roared to life like a bear emerging from a cave.
One more try… I thought to myself. Just give it one more try…
I set my fingers lightly on Asher’s chin, then turned his eyes up to meet mine. I held him in my gaze, letting him know that I was there, present and with him.
I extended him my strength, and Frankie, with both hands on Asher’s shoulders, did the same.
“I’m scared,” Asher said, the words a whisper.
“Why are you scared?” I asked. When I gently released his face, he kept his head up and held my eye contact.
Good boy.
“I’m not worth it,” Asher said softly. “And once you both realize it, you’ll be done with this.”
“Not worth it?” Frankie said. “Asher, what are you talking about? You’re so valuable—”
“You have your marriage,” Asher said quickly. “And your work and Ava. I’m just some kid. I don’t have a future.” He shook his head again, like he kept trying to convince us the answer was no. “It’s fine. Just this Seattle weather getting me down.”
I looked over the water, visible in the distance, and the scattered lights of the city.
“Hey,” I said firmly, pulling his attention back to me. “You don’t need to apologize. And you are worth it.”
Asher let out a puff of air, close to a laugh, then drank from his beer again. “Thanks, but you don’t need to reassure me. You’ve already done enough.”
“I’ll say what I want to say,” I told him firmly.
Frankie took my hand. “Asher, you’re the only reason I’m starting to take this new work on. If you weren’t around, I’d still be sitting around Northstar all day with nothing to do.”
“And the work you do is very impressive,” I added. “You’re a talented handyman.”
Asher scoffed. “Whatever. It’s just hammering shit and cutting shit. My dumbass father could do it, and I can do it, too. Doesn’t mean a thing.”
It pained me that he wasn’t willing to let himself take a compliment. It was one of the tragedies of being young, I knew—acting cocky but never seeing your own worth.