Free Menage on 34th Street by Elise Logan Page A

about?”
    Liam hadn’t been expecting the blow, and the impact shuddered through him. The lobster turned to dust on his tongue as his mouth went dry. He’d made a mistake thinking she needed him to make peace with Hunter in order to go forward. No, everything hinged upon him earning her forgiveness. “Kat...”
    She zeroed in on him and Liam knew she had come to the same conclusion. “No, Hunter’s right. We’re ignoring our real problems. Liam...God.”
    She turned her face away and swallowed visibly. When she met his eyes again, hers glimmered with fresh pain. “When Hunter left, I felt like I’d lost a limb. You knew that. You saw what I went through. And you didn’t do anything to help ease the hurt, even though you could have taken it away with just one stroke of honesty. You let me believe Hunter abandoned us. You let me hate him for the hurt he caused. And you robbed him of our love.”
    Hunter’s quick intake of breath told Liam that he hadn’t missed the significance of Kat’s choice of words. Even though he knew he shouldn’t look away from Kat, Liam glanced at Hunter.
    “When we invited you to join us, it wasn’t for sex. It was for everything.” Liam willed Hunter to believe him.
    Hunter stared back at him. “My father made a sport out of beating the hell out of gay men and he did his damnedest to hammer his hatred into me. Did you really think I could have been what you wanted me to be?”
    Liam’s gut twisted. And twisted a little harder when Hunter transferred his attention to Kat.
    “I wanted it to be you and me,” Hunter said to her. “No one else, just the two of us.”
    Kat’s shoulders fell and sadness muted her earlier anger. “The fact that you equated—maybe still equate—love with monogamy doesn’t mean that I have to think that way. That isn’t me. I need more.”
    “I didn’t think so, not if it was you and me. I would have made it enough.”
    “You would have made it enough.” She repeated the words in a considering tone. “All right. I believe you.”
    Liam’s chest contracted and he wheezed through a knife-stab of pain. The thought of Kat choosing Hunter and leaving him behind—ten years ago, tomorrow—cracked him open.
    Hunter met his eyes over the table before refocusing on Kat. “You do?”
    “Yes. I believe you would have tried. I’m not like you, though. Assuming I was built for that kind of relationship, I wouldn’t have been able to be the more that you need. And even on the very slim chance I could do the job with a dildo and a harness, you never would have shared your needs in the first place. Being open and honest with your wife wouldn’t have meshed with your self-denying, self- ashamed definition of marriage.” She opened her hand on the table top, spreading her fingers. “But I wouldn’t have chosen that life if I’d known, going into it, where it would end. I wouldn’t have chosen just you.”
    Liam had to replay her words several times before the pain behind his ribs eased enough for him to really comprehend what she’d said. When it finally sank in, he closed his eyes. Thank you , God.
    “Shame doesn’t drive my actions anymore, Kat. Reality does. The Corps is incredibly conservative about cheating.”
    Kat sighed. “It’s not cheating if everyone agrees.”
    Hunter made a frustrated noise that, for reasons he didn’t really want to investigate, shot right to the base of Liam’s spine. He ignored the pang of arousal to focus on what Hunter was saying.
    “It doesn’t matter what you think or what I think, it matters what the Corps thinks. My promotions and career depend on how my command perceives me. Labels make a difference in my world. I had—have—plans, goals. And those goals aren’t going to happen if people have questions about my personal life.”
    “What plans?”
    “I’m going to be a gunner. Not gunnery sergeant, that’s where I am now. An infantry weapons officer.”
    “I don’t know what that means. Explain