I'm a huge fan of Marie Sexton, as I had read her more recent works. I decided to go back and read her backlist because of this. 
 After reading about Zach & Angelo, then flowing into this novella, I was disappointed that Sexton went 'there'. & I'm not saying this because I don't believe open relationships or menage work. If all parties are mature emotionally and mentally, it can work. It will, & it does. But I don't think this was the right couple to represent this type of relationship, especially after the way they were written for 300+ pages prior. 
 It felt like shock-value, and a chance to inject more sex into the series, when I felt there was already too much of it to begin with. What I love about Sexton's mature writing was missing from these earlier works, and I feel horrible saying such. 
 This trainwreck simply read as toxicity to me, and it turned me off from reading the rest of the series (I made it to 70% of book #4 before I had to stop). Angel was not emotionally mature enough, and he showed absolutely no inclination toward this type of relationship while he narrated in the previous book, and neither did Zach, so it was out of left field and written out of character. 
 They were playing a relationship-destroying game, and not just the relationship they have with each other, but with their friends and whomever else they draw into it. Angel suddenly turned into someone who needed outside validation, as if he had such low self-esteem he needed a club-full of men to make him feel good about himself. Completely the opposite of how he acted in the previous book. 
 "Don't touch my hair." "I don't do the club scene." "I'm only here to meet a biological need." "I only need Zach because he completes me." 
 Now, in this novella and the couple's stories to come, suddenly Angel is free with his body... ... ... with anyone and everyone... into the club scene, a modern day swinger who doesn't allow his partner to touch anyone else. A raging hypocrite. Someone so volatile he's waiting for an assault charge by how he behaves in public. 
 Immature. 
 Angel is immature, now in a situation that only works for those who are so enlightened emotions don't dictate how their relationships function. 
 That is the reason for this low rating. The character traits that were laid out on the pages in an entire book negate what was written in the series afterward. 
 I don't care who is doing whom, how or why. I care when a character is let down by the author not remaining true to who they were created to be. 
 Neither Zach nor Angel sounded, behaved, acted, or reacted in the manner in which they were created.