Pool Boy - 2. Chapter 2

Marcus stood on the springboard and closed his eyes. There was nothing – nothing but the smell of the water, the chill of the air against his skin, the cool plastic beneath his feet, the distance in front of him – nothing else mattered. Not the memory of his teammate’s hands on his body, or their kisses on his mouth – and other places – not the long shower the four of them had taken, crammed into Harper’s tiny dormitory bathroom, having spent the night together in his not-big-enough bed. None of that mattered, he just had to swim, turn, and swim back into the waiting arms of the men he was very quickly beginning to fall in love with. Six weeks of training, kisses, and deeply hot make out sessions had transported them into winter, and Marcus couldn’t have been happier. The mornings were the best part of everyday, and he had come to resent Sundays when there wasn’t any training. But still, he hadn’t really gotten round to actually talking to Harper, Tiago, and Eric about what they were really doing together, other than the obvious. He was slowly coming to the realisation his three lovers probably didn’t have any words to express quite what was going on either. As he executed his dive he resolved to get the team together to talk to them, ideally without anybody getting distracted.

“You’re faster since the meet.” Harper smiled as Eric and Tiago pulled Marcus from the water. “You shaved another quarter second off that lap.”

“Really? Awesome!” Marcus grinned from ear to ear, and leant automatically into Tiago’s warm hands at his waist. “You want me to try again?”

“That’s enough for today, lads!” the coach started speaking when he was still halfway down the pool. “You did great, all of you. We’re gonna give ‘em hell at the next Division meet. We’re hosting.”

“We are?” Marcus had stepped away from Tiago, because another of the things they hadn’t talked about was how much Coach knew. “Do we have to do anything?”

Eric rolled his eyes with a scowl.

“We have to share the sauna. It’s the worst.”

“Eric...” Harper frowned at his friend. “It’s hardly the end of the world.”

Eric waited until the coach had retreated, waving them off for the rest of the weekend, before he responded.

“Captain, sharing the sauna is the worst. We won’t get to oogle our boy naked in the steam.”

Marcus blushed.

“It’s only two days Eric, you’ll live. C’mon, let’s go.”

“I’m starving.” Tiago complained. His stomach rumbled in canon with his words.

“Hey,” Marcus slipped his hand into the Latino’s, and took Harper’s hand with the other. “Why don’t we go out for breakfast somewhere? It’s a Saturday after all.”

“You wanna eat while dressed?” Harper responded with a smug grin.

Marcus slipped his shoulder ineffectually.

“Yes. Can I take you guys out for breakfast or not?”

“Of course, pretty boy.” Eric cuddled him from behind and lifted him from off his feet. “But you’re not payin’!”

It had taken an hour to convince his teammates he needed to get home and get changed, and he didn’t want to have breakfast with three guys who appeared not to own any clothes other than team branded sweats. But by the time normal students were getting up and dealing with the idea of Saturday morning brunch, the swim team sat around a table in the sunshine on the patio of the waffle house Marcus had chosen. Every single one of them were dressed in a version of jeans, polo shirt, and jumper.

“People are never going to believe we didn’t coordinate our outfits.” Harper scanned down the menu with a frown. “I can’t choose. I want everything.”

“Oh that’s so like you Cap, you can never have just one of anything….” Eric grinned. “Sausage, bacon and french toast, Tiago?”

“About six helpings,” the other man replied with a grin.

Marcus waited until they’d ordered, an obscene list between the four them that had made their server look shocked. He leant forward on his elbows.

“I have a question.”

“That sounds ominous,” Eric quipped, but Tiago slapped him.

“Did you guys used to go out with each other, before I came along?” He saw the blank looks on their faces. “Hook up, have sex, have a relationship?”

Eric, Tiago, and Harper exchanged a series of glances, frowns, and half-started questions before turning back to their team mate.

“Yes?”

“Sort of?”

“Uh-huh?”

Marcus rolled his eyes. He hadn’t expected them to be this ineloquent.

“Did the three of you have sex?”

“Oh yeah.” Harper nodded. “We just, you know, helped each other out.”

“Did you have sex with anyone else?” Marcus pried.

“A couple of times, but not together. Not ever like anything we do with you.” Eric said, laying a hand on Marcus’s arm. “What’s the matter, pretty one? Are you not happy with us?”

“Babe...” Marcus got up to kiss him, knowing Harper and Tiago were watching intently. “I love being with you guys. I only want to make sure we’re all after the same thing. After all, it’s not like we’re just teammates anymore, is it?”

Tiago glanced at Harper, then Eric, asking a question with his dark eyes that Marcus couldn’t read. When Harper nodded, smiling, Tiago rose from his chair, moved round the table, and took Marcus’s hand in his own.

“I’ve wanted to tell you since...well definitely since the hotel, but even before… I love you.”

“You love me?” Marcus could hardly believe his ears.

Tiago nodded enthusiastically.

“They do too, but they’re ‘being guys’ about it and refusing to admit it. Please Marc, will you be our boyfriend?”

Marcus kissed him in a manner bordering on the edge of indecent before throwing his arms around the Latino man’s neck and hugging him as hard as he could. Eric grinned over his shoulder and licked his lips in a salacious manner.

“Eric, stop undressing the man with your eyes.” Harper sighed.

“I don’t mind.” Marcus pulled Tiago up, then positioned himself so he was sitting in his boyfriend’s lap, near enough to lean across and touch Harper’s thigh gently. “You’re such a voyeur, Eric.”

“A what now?”

Marcus was still staring at his lover’s in shock when the food arrived. They were all way too hungry to flirt more until they’d finished a first plate each, and Harper had scooted Tiago’s chair around because trying to manipulate a knife and fork with Marcus in his lap was just a touch impractical.

“None of you know what a voyeur is? An exhibitionist?” Marcus rolled his eyes. “How have the three of you learnt nothing from porn?”

“Hey!”

“We learned three tops do not make for successful sexual encounters.” Harper grumbled.

“OK, back up.” Marcus laid down his fork meaningfully. “Start at the beginning. How long have you guys been dating?”

Eric laughed softly.

“OK, but you’ve gotta understand – the swim team was not always this much fun.”

“So, for a year, it was just me on the swim team with three straight as you like jocks, feeling like a sore thumb for being the only freshman and being gay,” Harper began. “And then sophomore year we got new recruits.”

“You are not blaming me for this...” Tiago muttered.

“Ha! So it was the last practice before the holidays,” Eric declared, “and I walk into the sauna to find these two making out. And I just… couldn’t leave. And then somehow, because we are clearly the luckiest men in the world-” His smile made Marcus blush, “-they didn’t want me to leave. So for a little while it was just like that. Really fucking good kisses-”

“-And insanely good massages-” Harper interjected.

“-And some pretty hot buddies-helping-each-other-get-off type stuff. We still dated other people, nothing serious, and that saw us through the year.”

“And then last fall, my roommate quit, the dorm next to me was empty, and I got the guys to move across campus,” Harper explained. “It was easy to all be in the same place. It was logical.”

Eric coughed something derogatory under his breath.

“And then Eric bought home this real awful guy from some club, cute and everything, but you could just tell he was… full of judgement, and after that, none of us dated anyone else.”

“So… what happened?”

It was Eric’s turn to take up the story.

“So one night Harper comes home with a big box of condoms and a fifth of Southern Comfort and declares we all ought to try having sex. That’s what happened.”

“And how’d it go?”

“No repeat performances.” Eric dead panned. “I mean, fuck, Harper has a gorgeous ass, and I love to watch him flex his gluts while he fucks you, but… so it felt good, but Tiago and I could tell he wasn’t into it, so it sucked. And it went like that for each of us. We’re good sports, we each gave it a proper go, but it just doesn’t do it for us.”

Marcus stared at them. He didn’t know why, but he’d expected them to be less open, or at least, not as brutally honest about what they’d done and how they felt. Then he frowned.

“So for the past year you guys have been surviving off what? Hand jobs?”

“Blow jobs too sometimes.” Eric smiled. “The captain gives great head.”

“We’re so lucky to have found you, Marc.”

“So how did you guys work it out? I didn’t think I was that transparent.”

“Tiago.” Harper and Eric replied in unison. “He just knew.”

“Really?” Marcus kissed the hand which had gone back to holding his. “Pretty big risk though, the way we did it. What if I hadn’t gone for it?”

“Sweet boy.” Tiago touched his lips softly, “All the best things are risky. And you are worth it all.”

*

Marcus doodled meaningless spirals in the margins of his Introduction to Shakespeare notes, his mind wandering well away from the misunderstandings of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He’d had a great weekend with the men he was incredibly happy to call his boyfriends, but after super-hot kisses on Sunday night, Marcus had chosen to go home and sleep in his own bed, and mull things over. In the end he hadn’t got a great deal of sleeping done, and had performed poorly at training that morning. And now he was failing to concentrate in class, because he was busy thinking about Eric naked, and Harper naked, and Tiago naked. It was very different from fantasising in class about other boys he’d been with back in high school, and it took a lot longer. Marcus had stayed up late online, checking everything he’d read about polyamorous relationships. Back then his research hadn’t mattered. It had been curiosity, boredom, and fantasy which had leaked into watching amateur threesomes in porn. Never had Marcus actually thought such a relationship might fall, ready formed, into his lap.

Or at least, nearly ready-formed. Marcus had been surprised to learn that, between the four of them, there were in fact seven functional relationships, only four of which Marcus was involved in. He had to draw a diagram to work it out, but he couldn’t help but wonder about the health of the other three relationships. All of them had told him they loved him at some point on Saturday: Harper had whispered it into his ear as they stood on the bus from the waffle house back to his room, making him blush; Eric had declared it passionately in between kisses as Tiago fucked him. But he’d never heard any of them say it to each other.

His phone vibrated against his hip, and he was glad of the distraction. Listening to Shakespearean prose was making him sleepy.

Eric: what’s the difference between voyeurism and watching porn?

Marcus chuckled silently.

Marcus: the thrill. I’ll have to show you.

Eric: I’ll look forward to that!

Marcus smirked to himself as he sent texts to his other boyfriends. Explaining things to Eric was going to be so much fun.

*

They had left a note taped to Eric and Tiago’s door which said ‘at Harper’s’ and the young man was still holding it when he walked in. He promptly dropped his class folder on the floor with a loud clatter, and gaped.

“So when you said ‘show me’….”

“I really meant it,” Marcus purred with a sly smile - the only thing he was wearing. “Sit.”

Eric slid into the chair which had been placed before the bed in a very deliberate manner. Tiago, wearing nothing but boxers, kissed his friend’s neck, and looped a knotted pair of miss-matched ties around his chest and biceps.

“Boys?”

“Marcus’s instructions.” Harper explained from the bed. He was already naked apart from a white button down shirt with an open collar. “He says you’re not allowed to get up, or interfere, or touch anything.”

“But-!”

“Do you trust me?” Marcus asked, kneeling by Eric’s feet.

“Well, yeah. Of course I do beautiful.”

“Good.” Marcus used a pair of long length gym socks to tie each of Eric’s wrists to the arms of the wooden chair, then reached out and slid down his zipper. When Marcus sat back, Eric’s cock and balls were on display over his clothes, his dick already half-hard in anticipation. “Stay.”

“Pornography is passive,” Marcus explained as he crossed to the bed, “no matter how good the filming angle, or what quality the audio is, you’re not there. And you can’t control what happens. You just have to hope that the guys in the shot, and the one doing the filming, do what you like.”

“Ugh, I hate it when something switches part way through and what you thought was going to be a good clip goes all dark and shitty.” Tiago complained.

Marcus stroked his cheek and pressed his forehead against the Latino’s dark olive skin.

“It sucks, doesn’t it?” Marcus breathed his words against Tiago’s skin. “But voyeurism is different, especially this kind. You’re here, with us, and you get to be in control. So Eric, tell us what you’d like to see?”

Harper glanced over at their restrained teammate, who looked very slightly like a deer in headlights, and smiled.

“I think we’d better give him something to work with. C’mere, pretty boy.”

“Yes Captain.”

Marcus stood next to the bed, and Harper ran a hand up his leg and wrapped his long fingers around his inner thigh to pull him close. Harper nuzzled his boyfriend’s smoothly shaved crotch, kissing his groin, rolling Marcus’s balls in his fingers. Marcus moaned in pleased frustration, his cock bobbing in time with his pulse while Harper did everything except begin to suck him off. Marcus reached out for Tiago and brought him in to their little scene. Tiago instantly moulded against his lover’s back and began to kiss the nape of his neck.

“Unnghh! Will you just suck his cock already?”

They all turned to look at Eric, and Harper grinned.

“Well I was waiting for you to say something.”

Marcus didn’t have a chance to jibe his lover, because whatever he’d wanted to say was swallowed by his yelp of delight and surprise as Harper swallowed the whole of his length in one.

“Oh yeah….” Eric sighed happily. “That’s better. Tia, get the lube. We’re gonna make our show pony squirm. Uh-uh, hands behind your own head, Marc. Don’t hold onto the Captain. I know you can balance on a quarter – do it.”

“Ahhhhhh…. Yes Eric.”

Marcus bit his lip and Harper began to tongue the underside of his cock, but he wove his fingers together behind his head and tried to steady himself rather than collapse under his captain’s ministrations. Helpfully, Tiago arrived back to stroke a hand down his spine before cupping his ass.

“Mmmm… turn him a little bit for me Tia. Yesss, that’s a good view. Part his cheeks, just like that. Now get the lube and loosen up that perfect little hole. Oh, Beautiful… Moan for Tia, let him know how good he makes you feel.”

“Ngghhhhaaahh!” Marcus clenched his knuckles until they were white to keep from reaching out to steady himself as Tiago massaged his opening, then breached him with two slick fingers, aiming directly for his prostate.

“Such a perfect ass, and so hungry. Look how he sucks you in Tia. He wants more.”

“Nnnn!”

“Look at the captain, Marc. Look how much he likes your cock. Feel how good he is with his tongue. Cap, do that thing he likes with the slit-” Marcus interrupted Eric to practically scream, “-that’s the one. Do it again, Cap, make him squirm.”

Marcus wanted to have a spare moment to think about how right he had been, to look over at Eric with a smug smile and know he’d planned everything perfectly, because Eric was clearly enjoying himself very much. Even his commands were getting deeper and more breathless. But he couldn’t, because every fibre of his being was being kept on edge as two of the men he loved worked him right up to the edge of his orgasm without giving him release. When Harper licked his length and then let go, the shock of the cold air on his saliva-wet erection made him shiver, then Tiago withdrew his fingers and Marcus moaned wantonly.

“Please,” he begged of the three of them while his sphincter twitched with the sudden emptiness. “Please fuck me.”

“Tia, lie down, feet on the floor,” Eric instructed. “Marcus, straddle him like a good pony. That’s right. Tia, hold his legs.”

Marcus quivered in anticipation as he felt Harper’s hands spreading his ass and lining Tiago’s super-warm cock up with his entrance. The captain spread his lover’s length with lube, and then his own, and smiled at Marcus as he put a knee on the mattress between their carefully positioned thighs.

“You ready for this, Gorgeous?”

“Yes Captain.”

“Tia, after you,” the captain said graciously.

Tiago’s hands were occupied with holding the backs of Marcus’s knees, but he kissed the boy’s neck, and whispered against the shell of his ear.

“You are the greatest blessing I could ever wish for. Thank you for letting us adore you.”

His words speared Marcus right through the heart, but there was no time for a romantic response, because a breath later, Marcus was impaled on his cock. Harper smothered Marcus’s moan with a kiss, but released his mouth in time for him to practically scream as Harper plunged in alongside Tiago, stretching his hole to the breaking point. Marcus whimpered and clung to his captain’s shoulders, fingernails leaving visible indents in his skin as Harper began rock his hips. The feeling of Tiago and Harper both inside him was almost overwhelming, but Marcus hung on to the thread of pleasure being stoked inside him, listened to Eric’s happy groans at the sight of the three of them together, focused on Tiago panting in his ear, and Harper’s frown of concentration and lust.

“Give it to him, Cap. He can take every inch of that big cock. Oh yeahhhh….” Eric’s words drifted into a groan as Marcus gasped. “Put on a good show now, pony. You like that don’t you? Feeling so full with them inside you. Captain’s gonna come inside you and cover Tia’s cock with his load too.”

Tiago groaned in Marcus’s ear.

“Go on Tia, I know you want to touch him. Think how good it will feel when he comes with you both inside him.”

Marcus didn’t need much more stimulation, and once Tiago closed a hand around his aching erection, he found himself shaking with the force of his orgasm. His body clenched and spasmed, and in the space of half a dozen heartbeats Tiago and Harper both flowed into him. The three of them lay there, sweat soaked and gasping for oxygen, until Marcus pushed Harper off him so he could breathe properly.

“C’mere, show pony.” Eric beckoned with two fingers. “Come close.”

Marcus got up, his knees shaking with the effort, and stood between Eric’s parted thighs.

“Yes Eric?”

“Was that good for you, Beautiful?” Eric scanned Marcus’s cum painted abdomen, the seed of his other lover’s spreading slowly down his inner thighs. “Looks like it was. Let me taste you.”

Marcus collected his emission with his fingers and offered them to the other man, who licked greedily.

“Mmmm… Now just do one last thing for me,” he commanded, “Kneel down.”

Marcus complied without question, opened his mouth and took Eric’s heavy cock between his lips. His boyfriend came in moments, and Marcus made sure the other man could see the way his orgasm covered his waiting tongue. He rose to kiss his lover and un-fastened Eric’s dominant hand before returning to Harper’s bed where Tiago and the captain were making out in a fantastically lazy sort of way. They welcomed him back in with open arms until Eric, too, came to join them. Gently, with many kisses, Marcus removed himself from the tangle of the men he loved.

“I’m going to take a shower. No, you all stay right there.” Marcus sighed happily. “God, that’s a good sight. I think I’m suddenly going to miss being naked in the sauna. I’ll be right back. Stay.”

The shower in Harper’s bathroom wasn’t luxurious, but it was hot, and with the door closed, plenty steamy. Marcus scrubbed himself all over with Harper’s ice-mint scented shower gel, and then sank back against the tile with a sigh. He’d never felt so tired in such a wonderful way in his whole life. He shaved, because he never took a shower without doing so, and scrubbed himself with the biggest of the many towels before returning to Harper’s room. He frowned slightly.

“Something’s different...”

“Told you he’d notice,” Harper said with a grin.

“You guys changed the sheets?”

Tiago nodded.

“You guys...”

“Our show pony loves clean laundry after a shower.”

“Oh yeah,” Marcus exhaled in satisfaction. “Get out. All of you. Out.”

“Marc….”

“Out!”

As soon as the bed was vacated, Marcus smoothed the new sheets and slid under the covers. For one long, glorious moment he spread himself out in a star shape, as big as he could, closed his eyes and just breathed in the scent of fresh, clean cotton. Then he tucked himself up into a ball, and buried himself in a pillow.

“This is bliss.”

“Uh-huh.”

Marcus glanced up at his boyfriends, all three of them standing at the foot of the bed, nude, satisfied, and impatient.

“Oh for- Get back in here.”

Marcus sighed happily as the rest of the swim team slotted themselves in around him. He kissed each of them, and then yawned.

“Has someone set an alarm for training tomorrow?”

“Yes, babe,” three voices replied in unison.

“I love you.

“We love you too.”

*

Marcus slammed the front door of his dorm building too hard, winced at the noise in the still of the early morning, and began to sprint across campus. He was at a loss to explain what had happened, because his alarm had gone off, he’d gotten up and dressed, and now he was late to training. He’d just stood there, looking at his bed, and lost half an hour of the morning. No one had called to tell him he was late, but they would be in the pool already, their phones inaccessible. Even yesterday, Marcus wouldn’t have said he was stressed about the swim meet, but something was clearly up.

There were more people around than usual as he headed to the sports complex, because it was later in the morning, and other students were actually up and heading to very early classes, or jobs, or doing the walk of shame from other people’s dorm rooms. Most of them stared as Marcus raced past, moving the fastest he ever did on land, skidding around the last corner and slamming through the outer door to the pool with his shoulder. Through the inner glass door we could see the ripples in the water as someone swam, saw coach pacing the far end of the pool, and Harper standing on the closer side, arms folded, his expression hard and brimming with disappointment. It was Harper who saw him first when he arrived, and the captain gestured to the coach and nodded tightly.

“I’ll deal with it.” He took Marcus elbow, and began to steer him back towards the changing rooms. “Come with me.”

“H-Harper I’m so sorry! I dunno what happened… I-I-I’ll make it up to the team, I promise. I-” Marcus stopped speaking when he realised that not only was Harper not saying anything, but his expression was no longer angry either. “Harper?”

“You’re stressed about the meet, aren’t you?”

“No.”

Harper arched an eyebrow at him quizzically.

“Yes. We did so well last time, what if I suck now? And all our friends are going to be there, and my parents are coming, and-”

Harper silenced him with a kiss. The changing rooms were deserted, because the pool didn’t open to everyone else until after the swim team had finished practice, and Marcus dropped his bag as he was pressed back against the wall. Harper ran strong hands down his chest to find an opening to access his skin, and Marcus moaned against him.

“You’re stressed,” Harper stated again when the kiss broke. “You need to relax.”

“But, I should go tra-”

“You’ll be no good in the water if you’re still all pent up.” Harper growled in his ear. “I’m the captain. It’s my job to look after the team. I’ll sort you out.

Before Marcus had time to wonder about the inflection of those particular words, Harper dropped to his knees, and pulled Marcus’s sweats down with him. He kissed his swimsuit covered crotch, and then pulled the clingy material down too as Marcus’s morning-semi leapt into hard relief. Harper wasted no time at all, and wrapped his lips around Marcus’s erection and sucked his length into his mouth eagerly.

“Oh Captain!” Marcus clenched his fists in his own hair, his crew cut had grown out and he hadn’t been bothered to do much more than trim his fringe, as sudden pleasure rocketed through his system. He’d been on the receiving end of Harper’s ministrations before, but never like this, and never alone. Marcus wondered why it didn’t feel illicit and wrong, but then he was distracted by Harper’s throat vibrating around him as he hummed softly.

Marcus stuck his fist in his mouth to keep from groaning as Harper worked him over, because the last thing he wanted was the coach to wander in and ask why he was late, and his spine melted helpfully against the wall. Harper keep him pinned, hands gripping his upper thighs hard enough to bruise, and Marcus watched the length of his cock appear and vanish from his captain’s warm mouth in a trance of pleasure and lust. He didn’t get a chance to warn Harper, his orgasm blindsided him unexpectedly, and Marcus whimpered as he flowed out into that constricting heat. Harper swallowed him without hesitation and when Marcus had stopped twitching, drew back with a smile.

“Feel better now?”

Marcus nodded as Harper tucked him back into his trunks, and helped him remove his feet from his sweats.

“Now you going to be a good racehorse and perform for us?”

“Yes Captain.”

Harper slapped his butt as he rose.

“Good, now get in the water and get warmed up!”

Marcus was just finishing up his last lap when the first of the visiting teams arrived, and Tiago hauled him from the water with a hand clasped around his bicep.

“Looking good, Beautiful. Captain’s gotta go welcome our competition. I figured we should stand here and make ‘em jealous.”

“Only one guy in ten is gay, Tiago.” Eric proclaimed as he came to join them. “We make up the whole quota.”

Marcus looped a damp arm round each of their waists.

“Cause a straight boy has never been jealous? Ha! Let them look, just as long as none them try and flirt with the captain.”

Eric arched an eyebrow at his lover.

“Marcus, you surprise me, I never pegged you for the jealous type.” Eric moved to stand behind his shorter boyfriend and nuzzled his hair. “You gonna be keeping us in check from now on, then?”

“Oh like you’d ever be looking at anyone else, Eric." Tiago sniggered.

“And he won’t. You neither.” Marcus looked at them both sternly. “I don’t play relationships for fun, boys. You’re mine, and I’m yours, and we’re all each other’s, and there ain’t anyone else involved. Is there?”

“No, Marcus.”

“No, Beautiful.”

Marcus smiled.

“Good boys.”

“Isn’t that my line?” Harper arrived by at their sides. “We have to let the others have the pool to practice and then they have to set up for the meet before we can do warm ups. Coach says we should go eat and rest.”

“Rest?” Tiago asked with a smirk.

“Yeah, and not fool around. Think how excellent our celebrations will be afterwards if we wait.”

“Mean, Cap.”

“Just keep it in your pants, Eric. And think about your backstroke instead.”

Eric rolled his eyes as the four of them steered towards the changing rooms.

“I know whose back I’d rather be stroking….”

*

“Why are we doing this again?”

“You won your race by two lengths yesterday, is that not a big enough excuse to treat you?”

Marcus smiled up at his boyfriend and hooked his arm into Eric’s as they walked.

“We didn’t win the whole meet though, even though we were hosting.”

“It’s not the end of the world Marcus – you can’t win them all.”

“Harper can.”

“The Captain’s, well, he’s the captain. I swear he’s part fish.” Eric steered them along a narrower wing of the mall, populated with smaller independent shops. “I can’t believe he’s not trying out for a professional club after graduation.”

Marcus stopped, shocked at Eric’s words.

“Oh Beautiful, I thought you knew? Harper’s major is in Sports Management, and he’s not just in it for kicks. He wants to work in promotions. Or maybe be an agent. It’s kind of a shame. He’s so good in the water.” Eric smiled at Marcus and reached for his hand again. “Sorry. I suppose in all the time we’ve been together, we haven’t all really talked about some of the important stuff.”

“Well what about you?” Marcus cuddled happily against Eric’s side. “What are you going to do when you graduate next year and abandon me?”

“You know we’d never leave you. Right? God Marc, I can’t imagine life without you guys in it.”

“All of us?”

Eric stopped so quickly the force spun Marcus around on their linked arms. Eric pulled his boyfriend out of the shop doorway, and their chests met with a thud. Marcus lost himself for a moment in Eric’s intense gaze and the richness of his smile so close.

“If I told you I love Tiago and Harper just as much as I love you, it would be true. But if I told you I loved each of you in a different way, and that was true too, would you believe me? Before you came along I never thought of what I had with the other guys as serious, not really… It was fun and it was good, but no one can stay like that forever. That’s what I thought.” Eric wrapped his arms around his neck and nuzzled Marcus’s hair. “But now I want to think this… whatever this is, can last forever. I never heard of four guys together, not outside of porn anyway, and I don’t know how we’re all supposed to make this amazing thing we have into a relationship we could even begin to explain to other people.” Eric paused to take a deep breath, and moved to look Marcus in the eye once more. “But I damn sure know I want to try.”

Marcus flung his arms around Eric’s neck and kissed him until he had to let go for fear of passing out through lack of oxygen.

“You’ve no idea how happy that makes me! So what shop is it you’re taking me to, anyway?”

“This one,” Eric jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Gonna buy you something pretty to make the guys drool.”

Marcus hadn’t even known there was gay book-and-everything shop in town, and he was instantly distracted by browsing the paperback fiction, reading snippets of stories, and quickly creating a growing stack of books on the end of the counter. The slender effeminate man behind the counter smiled at Eric knowingly.

“He’s gonna cost you a lot of money.”

Marcus had reached the non-fiction shelves, and added a book called Roadmaps Through Polyamory to the top of the pile. The store manager arched a perfectly plucked eyebrow.

“My, my…. Are we exploring the manifold possibilities of being young and beautiful?”

It was Eric’s turn to smirk as Marcus reached the end of the books and began to browse the items Eric had brought him in for. Marcus blushed privately, and Eric practically purred.

“He can be as expensive as he likes, there are three of us to spoil him after all.” Eric sauntered up to his boyfriend and slid an arm across his shoulders. “Found anything you like, Gorgeous?”

“You brought me in for special underwear?”

“Nothing gets past you, huh?”

Marcus rolled his eyes.

“I remember very clearly the first night we all spent together. I can’t help but think it’s probably not just speedos which make the three of you all riled up. Am I wrong?”

“Never.”

“Is there anything in particular you like, babe?” Marcus asked, scanning the display racks of underwear which ranged from the slinky and form fitting right through to the downright fantastical. There were several items which Marcus couldn’t work out how anyone would wear. They seemed...complicated.

“Well… it’s up to you.”

“But you know what you like to look at. Go on, choose for me.”

Eric chose underwear like Marcus chose books: hastily, and with scant regard for the number of items he was accumulating. Marcus began to sift through the pile, returning several items he could hardly believe Eric had selected in the first place. His boyfriend turned to him with an eager expression.

“I’m not wearing these.”

“They’re cute though.”

“They’re flesh tone.” Marcus shook his head decisively. “I am not wearing those, or those mesh ones with the hole in the back. They’re practically not there.”

“Well that’s kind of the point.” The shop manager maintained a respectable distance, but he still looked over the items they had remaining to choose from. He checked Marcus up and down and smiled softly. “May I make some suggestions?”

Eric looked sceptical, but Marcus nodded enthusiastically.

“Unless I’ve judged you both totally wrong, and I’m not often wrong, I think your boyfriend here has just got a little carried away because these-” he scooped up several items and put the hangers back on the racks, “-are a bit advanced for you. I’m thinking rather than fetish wear you want something a bit less covering than traditional underwear and a bit more sensuous than being naked? Right.” He smiled at Marcus again. “You’re young, you’re very pretty - oh the blushing is adorable but you can’t not know you have a pretty face. You need two looks: soft and bold. This, this, and these, are very good for the bold. You have to get these – the criss-cross at the front gives great direction, and… yup, we have them in your size. Honestly,” He gave Eric a stern look, “if you ever go shopping for him again, get all his sizes and write them down or he’s going to end up swimming in his clothes.” Marcus giggled. “You won’t find it funny on date night when your pants won’t stay up in the restaurant, you mark my words. OK, for soft, you need these – feel how nice the lace is? And the pale green will really go with your skin tone and your eyes. And D&G’s for sure, preferably in every colour. These are right on the borderline: sexy, cute, slick, revealing, but not too much, and they will show you off beautifully.” He handed the contoured soft mesh briefs over with a sigh. “I won’t ask you to try them on, but I am imagining you in them – manager’s prerogative.”

“Don’t worry,” Eric practically leered at his boyfriend, “I’m already imagining him in them. OK, ring us up!”

Marcus took one more item from the rack and handed it to Eric.

“Trophy Boy?”

“I need those, for Harper.”

“Oh yeah,” Eric nodded happily, “The Captain is gonna love you in those. And every man needs a jockstrap….”