Recently, I haven’t been reading much. I finished the latest in Kresley Cole’s series and I just haven’t wanted to spend time on reading. BUT, I did blow through Lauren Dane’s portion of Three to Tango entitled Dirty/Bad/Wrong, which I LOVE as a title.

In essence, Ava is returning to a place she thought she’d left behind for good. The product of a broken home and an alcoholic mother, she must go back to bury her mom and clear things up. When she goes back, she puts on her toughest exterior but she knows eventually she’ll run into Luca, her friend/lover of years past. And then there’s Angelo, with whom she was also involved. In fact, the three of them had a thing before she fled across the country to escape.

Once Ava is back in town, she’s staying at Luca’s and this passage explains what’s up:

Then they’d sort of clicked back into how they’d been before. And that, he thought, sweating because he’d begun to pace in the sun instead of sitting in the shaded chair, disconcerted him.

Only Angelo shared that space in Luca’s life, that sort of effortlessness of being with someone you trusted completely.

So you see, the two men kept seeing each other even after Ava left town. So I am totally picking both Luca and Angelo as my book boyfriends. (I’m also going minimalist with my dudes in terms of pics.)

Luca:
The denim was so well used and faded it had gone white in some places. Threadbare glimpses of his thigh only added to the overall effect. No shoes. Just a pair of low-slung jeans, a slice of sun-kissed belly when he reached up to run a hand through that mass of golden hair. That downy trail of hair leading from his navel inside the waistband of his jeans led to places she’d never forget.

I didn’t get a real good image of Angelo but he has along hair that he usually ties up, he’s big because he played football, and he has Samoan tattoos.

(imagine long hair there.)

The conflict in the story comes in when Angelo doesn’t want to have to give up Ava but he wants it to be their threesome. Though he likes living (part-time) with Luca, their little reunion made him realize that this is what he wants, what he needs.

Problems arise when she walks in on the two of them together and though she’s clearly turned on by this, she also feel a little on the outside. And after having to deal with all the crap having to do with her mom, she just can’t handle it. Big penultimate scene:

“Why are you both acting like you want me here when when it’s totally obvious you are just fine without me? It offends me to be lied to.”

 Tears had begun to run down her cheeks, so she wiped her face on Angelo’s loose shirttail when he wouldn’t let her free. Served him right.

Luca finally spoke, “Fine without you? Is that what you think? I’ve spent the last week thinking on a plan that could get us together somehow. All of us. I want you to stay, Ava. I want you to be with me every single day.”

Ava’s a lucky girl, having two wonderful men both wanting her. Though I still don’t think the logistics of a threesome IRL would work, I love reading them. 🙂