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Darci smiled. “I’ve learned from my therapist that it’s sometimes good to talk about, but tonight I’d like to gloss over it. After she wrote her story, she contacted me to have lunch with her sometime and I said yes. The rest is history.”

Olivia came back with three baskets of fried appetizers and a basket of wings for Darci.

Peter felt ill just looking at it. But Carrie picked up a fried pickle and handed it to him.

“Deal’s a deal, Mercer.”

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this.” He plucked the pickle out of her hand and popped it into his mouth while she picked up a cheese stick and bit into it. He was mesmerized watching the cheese stretch as she pulled it away from her lips.

Clearing his throat, he picked up an onion ring. “So how did you two end up as part of the founding membership for Exposure?”

Darci grinned. “I had been going to kink parties for a long time. I learned a lot from the Internet. Let’s just put it that way. I thought Carrie would enjoy it, so I invited her to one, and she laughed at me and said she knew of a much better one. That turned out to be Edith’s house.”

Carrie smirked. “I’m just glad you stopped going to Midnight Diamond.”

Peter’s mouth set in a straight line. “That place is bad news. Always has been.”

Darci nodded. “I realize that now. I was young, and they were public and the only place I knew to go at the time.”

She stood, straightening her skirt. “Excuse me, I need to run to the ladies’ room.”

Peter waited until she was halfway across the bar before he leaned in and spoke. “We haven’t talked about her yet, which we could have done on the ride here if you hadn’t insisted on being a brat about it.”

She ducked her head and for a second he thought she was going to be contrite, but her gaze was stubborn when she looked at him again.

“I’m not sure what there is to talk about. We said no strings, remember?”

He scowled. “Maybe I’ve decided I want some strings. At the very least, we need to establish some safe sex guidelines.”

“It’s been months since I slept with Darci last. Not that it’s any of your business.”

This conversation wasn’t going how he wanted it to. “We can talk about it later.”

Darci came back and slid back into her seat. “What did I miss? You both seem tense.”

“Nothing important,” Peter assured her.

Carrie leaned her head back and closed her eyes. “No. It’s important. Strings or not.”

Darci looked at her quizzically. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I’ve slept with both of you. Technically, I’m still sleeping with both of you. It’s unfamiliar territory for me.”

Darci picked up a hot wing. “What’s there to talk about? Are we talking threesome or just how to manage multiple partners?”

Peter quirked an eyebrow up at the mention of a threesome. Not that he was against the idea. It just seemed to come from out of nowhere. “Let’s start with the latter. The former will happen or it won’t.”

“This was not what I had in mind for tonight,” Carrie said with a wry chuckle.

Darci grinned. “It’s more fun than talking about the weather.”

To Peter she said, “How do you feel about the fact that I’ve been involved with Carrie?”

Peter shrugged. “I’ve never been one to share, but I get that this is a unique situation. What about you? How do you feel about her sleeping with me?”

“I’ve never had a problem sharing Carrie. We’ve been open with each other from the beginning. We enjoy each other but we also like men and we’ve always agreed that if something serious comes along for either of us, we’ll step back.”

Peter and Carrie had agreed to no strings, but he was growing more and more attached to her every day. Now he was trying to figure out where Darci fit in all of this.

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