“Making nice with my kids will get you nowhere.”

Aiden turned to face me, standing on the edge of the Anacostia Youth Center basketball court. He was sweaty, winded from playing a vigorous game with teenagers and looking sexy as hell. His strong jaw was covered in stubble but I could see a love bite I’d left on his neck and my face heated, a blush creeping over my skin. I wasn’t embarrassed by what we’d done but the evidence of it here in this place was disconcerting. Usually my two worlds didn’t collide and it threw me a little bit.

“I called you and texted and you didn’t answer me, so I decided to come stalk you at the one place I knew you’d be at today.” His grin was cocky, confident and it made me irritable. Fuck him and his sexy smile and his gorgeous ex-wife. Fuck them all.

We’d had an amazing night together, three rounds of vigorous sex and enough orgasms to make me limp with satisfaction. Aiden was a great lover and he knew his way around my body. Sexual compatibility wasn’t going to be our problem. I’d thought it would be my lifestyle but it turned out to be petite brunette with flashing blue eyes.

And my own conflicted feelings. I’d thought Aiden might be the guy who could accept all of me. He didn’t get me, by his own admission, but he was trying and that was completely new and different. I’d gotten my hopes up and now I was more mad at myself than at him.

“I have no interest in getting in between you and your ex-wife, Detective,” I tried to inject steel into my tone but even I heard the jealousy there. “It looks like you have some unfinished business.”

I spun on my heel and headed across the empty adjacent court, planning to head back to my cubby and organize the rowing schedule for the next two weeks. Aiden caught up with me, his hand slipping around my bicep and stopping me short. I let my anger flare and jerked my arm away, drawing the attention of several of the nearby kids.

I schooled my features into and expression of calm and friendliness, , taking a deep breath. “I don’t suppose that my asking you to drop it and go away would work?”

“Nope,” he answered, shaking his head slowly. “The only unfinished business I have on my agenda right now, Doc, is between you and me.”

His voice was low, so I was the only one who heard the sexy growl that rumbled deep in his chest. His fingertip grazed my arm and I bit back a shiver of pleasure but I couldn’t stop the tell-tale fluttering of my eyelids in response to his touch. He raised an eyebrow, silently daring me to deny what was simmering between us.

I wasn’t a liar and I wasn’t a coward. We could hash this out like adults.

“Fine. We can talk inside.”

A few minutes found us is in the short administrative hallway and I poked my head into the now vacant employee break room. It didn’t have a door but in this place, this was as private as we were going to get. The center purposefully didn’t have lots of doors, closed off rooms or shadowy corners where kids could get up to no good.

I hopped up on the table, watching as he strode towards me, throwing a hand out to stop him from getting too close.

“Kids everywhere. They don’t need a first-hand lesson in sex education,” I warned, letting my hand drop when he nodded in understanding. Aiden wasted no time in getting to the point.

“I’m not getting back together with my ex-wife and I don’t know why she came to my place.”

I snorted out a laugh. I knew. “She wanted to fuck you and get you back, Aiden. I got that message loud and clear from my spot in the bathroom.”

“Fine. That’s what she wants,” he stepped forward, placing his hands on my thighs. I should have pushed him away but I didn’t trust myself to actually touch him. At least this way my jeans served as a very poor barrier between me and his seductive heat. “It’s not what I want.”

“Don’t tell me that I’m what you want? You’ve known me for what? A week?” I injected every word with as much derision as I could muster. I needed all of the barriers I could get between me and this man. I’d let him in just a little bit and he scared me.

“I do want you, I think you know that,” he said, his tone even and calm. He wasn’t rising to my bait. I wouldn’t push him into a fight. He was determined to hash this out like adults. Damn it. “Forever? Hell, I don’t know. For the next date? Yeah. I want that.”

I shoved his hands off my body and lowered my feet to the ground. I moved by him, needing to walk.

“Aiden, I fuck other people. You’ve said time and time again that you don’t share. We don’t make sense.”

He huffed out frustration, running his fingers through his sweaty hair before landing them on his hips. He focused his gaze on me and I felt like I was back in the interrogation room. I shifted on my feet and waited for whatever was coming.

“You’re right. I don’t get what you do.”

“Yeah, you don’t.”

“So, explain it to me.” He moved towards me, reaching out and snagging the belt loop on my jeans to pull me closer and hold me in place. The stubborn set of his jaw told me that he wasn’t letting me go until I offered up something to help him understand. “You say you want a relationship someday but you sleep with all these other people. I admit it, I don’t fucking get it. Did you get hurt? Are you one of the people who think monogamy is impossible?”

I eyeballed him, gauging just how much he really wanted to know. Most people talked a good game of being open-minded and free but did a lot of judging you when you told them how you lived your life. I took a deep breath and dove in. Aiden would either be here when I was done or he wouldn’t.

“I’m not broken and I’m not damaged. I wasn’t hurt by anyone. My parents have been happily married for almost forty years. I’ve loved two men and one woman in my life and I got over having my heart broken with ice cream, girlfriends and time.” His lips twitched in a smile and it encouraged me to keep going. “I was in an open relationship with someone and it worked for us for a while. Sharing wasn’t the problem, we just didn’t love each other. We broke up and I still hung out with some of our old friends. Couples in the lifestyle who invited me to join them from time to time. I saw how it made them stronger, it fed something they needed individually and as a couple and it did the same for me. I could be in the moment with them and then walk away. It worked. It still makes feel good so I keep doing it. I need it.”

“You need it? But you come when its just the two of us. Unless you’re a really great actress, you get off on it. You love it.”

“I do. You make me hot and wet and insane. I love sleeping with you, Aiden and I leave completely satisfied.” I struggled to really explain this part. It was hard for me to really understand. “But I need the satisfaction I get when I’m with other couples. I don’t know why but I know that it latches onto something in my gut and brings me contentment. It’s visceral, in my bones. I can’t explain it except that for now its part of who I am. I want you to understand but I’m not going to apologize or be ashamed of something I need for myself.”

He shifted from foot to foot and I watched him process what I’d just said. I didn’t have much more to add so I’d wait for him to ask the questions that bugged him the most.

“So, these couples, how do they know how to find you?”

“At first it was private groups on the internet but for the past four years, I’ve been a member of Club D. My couples are all members and they keep me busy and fulfilled.” I shrugged my shoulders not sure what else I could add. “It’s my kink. I’d like to have a relationship with one person one day, a man or woman of my own but they’d have to accept all of me.”

I didn’t have to tell him just how much I longed for that. My voice gave me away, the hitch that I tried to hide but failed. I was happy. I was content with my life. But I was alone and it wasn’t by choice.

“And that includes your kink,” he said, his gaze level and expression blank. I couldn’t read his mind. I could only tell him what was on mine.

“Yes. That includes my kink.” I let a couple of moments passed before I asked the question on my mind. “So, are you in or out?”

He tugged on my belt loop, moving me the three steps necessary to close the distance between us. He opened his mouth to say something, closed it and then shook his head with a laugh.

“I think I’m crazy.”

“I don’t know what that means,” I needed him to say it out loud.

“It means I’m in,” he said, leaning down to press a soft kiss to my mouth. “I feel like I’ve lost my mind but I’m in. I just can’t walk away right now.”

His words made my stomach clench and not in the best way but I understood. And I appreciated his honesty, more than I could say. I rolled an idea around in my mind, debating whether to offer. He was a big boy. He’d had no trouble telling me exactly where he stood on every other issue, I trusted that he’d do the same now.

“Why don’t you come to the Club with me?”

“Huh, What?”

“On some nights you can bring a guest. They’ll do a simple background check on you but that shouldn’t be a problem. It’s usually slower because some people only want to play with members.”

He took a step back, not a big one but enough to make his hesitance evident. “I don’t think I’m into playing with other people, Carla. That’s not my thing.”

“No. I didn’t mean that we would go to do that.” I closed the distance between us again, laying my hand on chest. His heart was pounding. I just didn’t know if it was because he was turned on or scared. “We could play together. You like to be watched, yeah?” When he nodded, I continued. “We could go, see if you’re feeling it and if you are . . .”

“People could watch?” His voice was breathy and he swallowed hard. His heart rate picked up and I knew it wasn’t from fear this time. He was getting hard and I could feel it, pressed against my belly where my own muscles clenched in anticipation.

“It would be hot.” I leaned up to press a soft kiss against his lips, making sure my eyes told him that this was completely up to him. “The two of us. Under the stars again. Exploring our kinks together.”

He grinned and my breath caught at the feral twist to his lips. “I’m in.”