My girlfriend Kim and I had been together for eight years, since high school, and for the last three of those years, we’d had an open relationship. The catch was that it only swung one way. It was open for her. Not for me. That was the deal, and if I'm being honest, I didn't mind it that way.

We had both just turned twenty-four. By then, aside from one night with a stranger, she'd been with four of my friends. Han was first, back when it all got started. Then Tony and Paul, together, on a friends' trip to Cancun. And now Danny.

I was pretty sure everyone in our group knew. Nobody said it to my face, but I caught the whispers and the side remarks. Back then nobody in our circle used words like cuck or hotwife. They had their own ways of putting it.

They're swingers, but she swings by herself. Or, They have an open relationship, but only one of them's having any fun. And sometimes, when they thought I was out of earshot, a word that stung more than the rest, slut.

It should have humiliated me, and it did. Yet every time I heard it, I felt something stir beneath the shame, a flicker of pleasure I couldn't quite explain.

Danny had been seeing her for months. Kim called him her "special friend." Danny called them "fuck buddies." The word nobody used back then was "bull."

And he looked the part. Tall, lean and cut, with a jaw straight out of a magazine. The kind of guy I'd never be no matter how many mornings I dragged myself to the gym.

After the first time they slept together, Kim told me he had the perfect cock.

"It's so long and smooth," she said, smiling. "And it doesn’t curve like yours."

That last part was a shot at me, and we both knew it.

I could have lived with all that. What I couldn't stand was how Danny acted about it. I was sharing my girlfriend with him. I figured that earned me a little respect, maybe even some gratitude.

Instead I got the smug look across the table and the sly comments. "Tell Kim I said hi." Or, "Send Kim my love." Always loud enough for everyone to hear, and always with that grin.

I wanted to keep our arrangement quiet. Danny seemed to enjoy making sure it wasn't. The problem was that he was charming and witty, everybody liked him, and he never missed a chance to stir the pot. He treated the whole thing like a private joke, and I was the punchline.

So when my best friend Ben chose Danny as his best man instead of me, it stung even more.

Danny planned the bachelor party. Our core group of eight, all Asian guys, plus Ben's white friends from work and out of town, guys I'd only met once or twice. Fifteen of us total. The plan was textbook: dinner, drinks at a bar, and then a club.

A strip club had been talked about, but Ben's fiancée, Mai, had shut that down. In fact, she'd made Ben promise. No strippers, no girls, nothing she'd see as disrespectful to her.

"Don't worry," Danny had told the group. "We'll find a way to improvise."

Kim had a party of her own to attend that night. Mai was having her bachelorette, so as far as I knew, Kim was occupied.

That lasted until the check was paid at dinner.

"We need girls," Danny announced.

That set everyone off. Phones came out. Guys scrolled through their contacts, texting single friends, exes, "floosies," as one of our friends put it, anyone who might make the night more interesting.

Danny didn't have to scroll. He was already texting. Then he looked up and found me across the table.

"I've got someone in mind."

He held my eyes just long enough for me to understand, then smiled and went back to typing.

I didn't have to ask who. Half the table didn't either. Ben, the groom-to-be, caught my eye and gave me a look of pity that was worse than Danny's grin.

We packed into three cars so fewer of us would be drinking and driving. I rode with Ben and Danny, squeezed in the back between two other guys.

We'd been at the bar maybe ten minutes, one round of shots in, when my phone lit up. Kim.

I stepped outside where it was quieter. "Hey, babe."

"Hey, honey." Her voice had that loose edge it gets after two glasses of wine. "So... Danny's been texting me."

"Yeah. I figured."

"He says you guys are hitting a club later. He wants me to come."

"Kim, I'm not sure that's a good idea tonight. There's fifteen guys here. Half of them I barely know, and they're all on the hunt for girls to fool around with."

Then came the pause, brief and deliberate. She knew exactly where to press.

"Isn't that what you want?"

I didn't answer. I changed the subject instead. "How's your party? Anything... interesting?"

She laughed, knowing exactly what I was hinting at. "No male strippers. No guys at all. It's so boring. You know Mai. She won't do anything even a little naughty. We're just sitting at a wine bar talking."

Her voice dropped. "Honestly? I'd rather hang out with the guys."

I should have told her no. Stay there with Mai and the girls. Finish your wine and go home.

Instead, I didn't say anything at all.

"Well, if we finish early, I'll stop by," she purred, and hung up.

Back inside, the second round of shots was already lined up. I threw mine back and looked across the bar at Danny. He was staring at his phone, and when he finally glanced up at me, his grin told me everything.

She was coming.

We drove to the club. Nobody said it out loud, but everyone knew why we were there: to hook up with the girls the guys had texted, girls they’d find inside, whoever was willing. I scanned the crowd for Kim the moment we walked in, but she hadn't made it yet. Somebody ordered another round, and by then we were all feeling it, especially me, the lightweight.

That's when Danny came up beside me and draped an arm over my shoulder.

"Let me buy you a drink," he said. "I never thanked you properly for these past few months. You know." He leaned in. "With Kim."

It caught me off guard. For a second I actually wondered if I'd misjudged him.

It wasn't a shot. It was a full glass, dark amber, and he pressed it into my hand. "Three Wise Men," he said. Whiskey on whiskey on whiskey. His own glass was something clear. Water, maybe. I didn't think much about it then, but I should have.

I took a sip and it burned all the way down.

"Come on," he said. "Bottoms up."

He watched me until the glass was empty.

I was too naive to see what he was doing. That drink on top of three rounds of shots and the drinks at dinner was way too much, way too fast. The room tilted. My pulse pounded. I stumbled to the restroom, and by the time I came back out, I'd lost track of everyone. The guys had scattered across the club, some of them already chatting up girls, some meeting the ones they'd called.

And then I saw her.

Kim walked into the club, and I watched heads turn one by one as she moved through the crowd.

She looked stunning in the short, tight zebra-print dress I'd zipped her into before she left. It clung to her hips and stopped high on her thighs. Her hair and makeup were flawless. She had a pretty face, but it was her body that made men stare, slender, with natural, full breasts. She'd gone braless, and the thin fabric did little to conceal it. With every step, her breasts moved beneath the dress, their outlines visible through the material.

I pushed my way over. She spotted me and her face lit up.

"There you are," she said, looking me over. "You look wasted."

"I'm fine," I lied. "You look... so... good..."

I never got to finish.

"She’s finally here!" Danny was suddenly right beside us. He didn't even look at me. He took Kim's hand like it was the most natural thing in the world. "Come on. Let me introduce you to the guys."

And just like that, he pulled her away.

I followed a few steps behind, unsteady, and watched him walk her through the crowd, introducing her to Ben's coworkers and friends, the guys I barely knew. Not as my girlfriend. As if she were his. Danny's palm slid down to the small of her back like it belonged there. She didn't move it. Instead, she leaned into him and let him lead her away, leaving me standing there by myself.

One of Ben's out-of-town friends drifted up beside me. I'd already forgotten his name. He was watching Kim, his eyes moving slowly from her legs to her hips, then traveling upward to the low neckline of her dress, where they lingered on her cleavage before settling on the distinct points of her nipples beneath the thin fabric.

"Damn," he said. "Is that Danny's girlfriend?"

"No," I said. "That's my..." I caught myself. "She's a friend."

He turned and looked at me, the way you look at someone when something doesn't add up. Then he looked back at Kim, slower this time, like he’d just been given permission. Like she wasn’t there with anyone at all.

Ben appeared at my other shoulder, a frown on his face. "What's Kim doing here?"

"Mai's party ended early. She just came to hang out."

"Bro." He lowered his voice. "You think that's a good idea?"

I made a lame excuse. "She's just one of the guys tonight."

One of his eyebrows shot up. I knew that look.

"Well, don't let her out of your sight," he said. "My coworkers are dogs. After a few drinks, they won't care who she belongs to."

Ben was the alpha type, and he'd never approved of my arrangement with Kim. He never came out and said it. He didn't have to. He dropped little comments like that instead. But he was my best friend, and for all of that, I could always count on him to look out for me.

Then Danny waved everyone toward the bar. "Let's get another round for the ladies!"

The guys all followed, along with the four or five girls who'd joined us by then. Shots came out, and somehow I knew this round was more for Kim than for anyone else.

Danny made sure to hand me one himself, pressing it into my fingers and standing close until I raised it.

"To Kim," he said, just loud enough for me to hear. He raised his glass, but he was looking straight at me when he said it.

He didn't take his eyes off me until I drank it.

The tequila burned all the way down. When I looked up, Kim was watching me, concerned. You okay? she mouthed.

I nodded. I was completely drunk by then, but I still had some control. Or so I thought.

Our group scattered again, and Danny and Kim drifted to the far end of the bar. Kim leaned against it like she was trying to flag down the bartender. Danny came up behind her, put both hands on her hips, and pressed himself against her ass.

She didn't pull away. She pushed back into him. Right there at the bar, in front of everyone, she bent forward and rolled her hips against him in rhythm with the music, the two of them moving together in the most obscene way.

I made my way over. "Hey," I said. "Everyone's watching."

Kim looked at me, biting her lip, like she thought I might be mad. Danny just kept grinning.

"Let's go upstairs," he said, to both of us.

He grabbed Kim's hand and pulled her across the dance floor toward the stairs. Kim looked back at me over her shoulder, and her eyes said it plainly, 'Let’s just see what he’s up to.'

I didn't say no. Nor did I stop him.

I stumbled up the stairs behind them. At the top was a small private lounge with low velvet sofas, a few armchairs, and a glass table covered in empty bottles. The music from downstairs still came through, but softer up here. A few people wandered back and forth, and couples were tucked into the dim corners.

Danny pulled Kim close again and picked up right where they'd left off. His hands tightened on her waist, and she swayed her hips back into him, her head tipping back against his shoulder. I'd seen her dance like that before, with other guys. But something about that night felt different. She was enjoying herself with Danny, but she was looking at me the whole time. Up here, with more privacy, the show was just for me.

I sank onto a sofa. My legs gave out more than anything, so I sat and watched.

They moved together the same way they’d been fucking for months, his hips rocking into her from behind, her ass grinding against him, nothing between them but his slacks and that thin little dress.

Danny's hands began to roam. Over her chest. Down her stomach. Onto her thighs. Then one hand slipped under the hem of her dress and pushed it higher until the black fabric of her panties came into view. His fingers pressed firmly between her legs, sliding up and down over the thin material covering her pussy. Kim's mouth fell open, but she didn't stop him. She kept her own hands at her sides and let him explore.

I froze. My chest was tight and my face was burning. Jealousy twisted through me, sharp and bitter. That was my girlfriend, and another man's hand was between her legs in front of strangers. And underneath all of it was the part I could never explain to anyone. I was painfully hard, straining against my pants. My heart was pounding so hard I could feel it in my throat. I hated how much I wanted to look away, and I hated even more that I couldn't. I didn't want it to stop.

That's when I heard footsteps behind me.

The guys had followed us up. Not all of them. Some had stayed downstairs with their new lady friends. But most of our group was there, including Ben and three of his white friends. One by one they settled onto the empty sofas and chairs around us, like an audience taking their seats for the show.

Nobody said anything. They just stared at Kim, at Danny's hands all over her, and then, one by one, at me.

Tony and Paul moved first. They'd already had their turn with her in Cancun, and they knew exactly how much freedom I gave her. Tony slid in front of Kim, dancing close, his hands finding her waist. Danny stepped aside and made room for Paul, who took his place behind her, picking up the same slow, dirty grind.

Kim was sandwiched between them, and the deja vu hit me hard. The three of them together again, and me watching, just like before.

Then Ben's friend got up, the one who'd asked me downstairs if she was Danny's girlfriend. He'd been eyeing her the entire time, and I wasn't surprised he wanted a turn. He moved in beside her, and the guys made room for him.

Kim had always had a thing for white guys. I watched her slip away from Tony and Paul and wrap her arms around his shoulders as if he weren’t a stranger at all. He pressed his hips into hers the way the others had, their legs intertwined as they moved to the slow, heavy beat.

Another one of Ben's friends was already hovering nearby, waiting for his chance. He came up from behind and pressed his crotch against her ass, so she was sandwiched again, this time between two men she'd met only an hour ago.

Between partners, Kim's gaze kept returning to mine, checking to see if I was still watching. And each time I didn't look away, she took it as permission to go a little further.

I watched her get passed from one pair of hands to the next, and it felt like I was watching from outside my own body. She was irresistible to the new guys, but they didn’t know who she really was. To them, she was just some wild, sexy girl who'd crashed the party. They had no idea she was mine or why I was just sitting there letting it all happen. Shame burned in my face, but under it was that feeling that had become so familiar, an arousal that took over everything else.

Then one of Ben's coworkers, a big, drunk bald guy, got up and didn't bother waiting his turn. He was rougher than the others. He cut right in, wrapped his arms around her waist from behind, and pulled her flush against him. He didn't even pretend to dance. He just held her there, his hands wandering all over her hips, her thighs, her stomach, like he wanted to know how every inch of her body felt.

Then he did what every guy in that room had wanted to do all night. He slid both hands up and cupped her breasts through the thin dress, thumbs dragging over her stiff nipples as he squeezed. Kim gasped, then smiled and crossed her hands over his, giggling like she didn't mind at all that a total stranger was groping her in front of her boyfriend.

Ben was sitting next to me. He finally spoke up, his voice stern. "Bro, are you really okay with all this?"

Before I could say anything, Danny, sitting on the other side of Ben, cut in. "He's more than okay with it. He loves it." Danny looked right at me. "He wants us all to fuck her."

Ben, who'd always had my back, turned to him. "You're a dumbass."

But Danny was right. He knew me better than anyone. He could see right through me. He'd been sleeping with her, and every time, she came home and told me everything, and every time, I begged to hear more. To Danny, there was nothing confusing about any of this.

Kim finally slipped out of the bald guy's arms and dropped onto the sofa next to me. She was flushed and breathing hard, a sheen of sweat glistening on her chest. Her dress was twisted and askew, and she'd never looked sexier.

She leaned in close, her lips against my ear. "They got their hands all over me," she whispered. "Should I stop?"

I could have ended it right there. But I didn't.

"No," I said. "Keep... going."

Her smile was downright wicked.

Danny stood and raised his glass. "Gentlemen. To Ben. Next week, he'll be a married man."

"To Ben!"

"And since Mai won't let you have any strippers tonight," Danny went on, "I promised that I'd find a way. So, as your best man..."

He crossed to the sofa, took Kim by the hand, and pulled her to her feet. He walked her right past me to Ben’s armchair and nudged her down onto his lap.

Kim had known Ben longer than anyone in the group. He was like a brother to her, and Mai was one of her closest friends. In all those years, nothing had ever come close to happening between them.

They looked at each other, her sitting across his thighs, his hand at her back to steady her. Then they both looked at me.

I couldn’t react. I didn’t know how. And everyone took my silence as their signal to keep going.

“Give the man a lap dance!” Danny shouted.

Right on cue, her favorite song came on. Kim got up and started dancing in front of him. Ben sat back in the armchair, rigid, not sure what to do with himself. His knees were slightly apart, and Kim stepped right in between them. The guys started cheering, and she got into it like before, dancing wildly, turning, shaking her ass right in front of his face.

She grabbed his hands and tried to pull him up to dance with her, but he wouldn't get up. He was still hesitant. His best friend was sitting right there, and this was his best friend's girl, the one he'd tried to protect all these years.

But Kim wasn't holding back. With her back to him, she playfully dropped onto his lap and began to roll her hips, slow circles right over his crotch, keeping time with the music. Ben's hands stayed frozen on the arms of the chair, like he was afraid to touch her.

Then she spun around, put one foot up on the seat, and climbed onto him, straddling him face to face, her knees on either side of his hips, bouncing on his lap. Her dress had ridden up around her hips. The back of her black thong was showing, the full curve of her ass bare under the lights, and every guy in the lounge could see it.

They were cheering her on. Cheering Ben on.

"Grab her tits!" yelled one of the guys.

"Take her home!" one of Ben's coworkers shouted.

The cheers only egged her on. She rode Ben's lap faster, her ass rocking back and forth over the obvious bulge in his pants. She was acting exactly like a stripper, giving him the best lap dance of his life.

Even strangers walking by stopped to watch. A small crowd was forming behind our sofa. None of it slowed Kim down. She was focused on one thing, and that was Ben.

I should have been mortified. Our friends, Ben's coworkers, total strangers, all of them watching my girlfriend's bare ass bounce in another man's lap, the thin strip of her thong disappearing between her cheeks as she came down on top of him. I could feel every one of their stares. And I felt like they were watching me, too. Like they could tell, just by looking at me, exactly who I was. The boyfriend, sitting on the sofa, doing nothing to stop it.

She kept going, pressing down harder. And I watched Ben finally lift his hands off the chair, set them on her thighs just below where her ass was exposed, and push his hips up to meet her, the soft flesh of her ass spreading on the hard ridge in his pants.

The look on Ben's face was something I'd never seen before. Guilt. Disbelief. And then, slowly, surrender. Kim was staring into his eyes, and he was staring right back. I knew that look on her face. She wasn't just performing anymore. She was turned on, too.

"Make him cum!" Danny called out, finally saying what everyone was thinking.

Kim wrapped her arms around Ben's neck and pressed her bare cleavage against his face, the soft weight of her breasts muffling him as she ground down harder. Her eyes were squeezed shut, and from the look on her face I knew she was close. He had to be close too. She rode him fast and hard through their clothes, her hips working with a kind of desperation. They looked like they were fucking right there in the armchair, and I could hear her whimpering over the music.

I looked around. Every guy in that lounge was watching, mesmerized. Nobody was talking. Nobody was moving.

And then the worst possible thing happened.

Vomit exploded from my mouth.

It came without warning, all over the floor in front of the glass table.

That ended everything.

The guys jumped up, cussing and laughing. Kim scrambled off Ben's lap, tugging her dress back down. I felt her hands on me, helping me up, and then Ben's arm hooked under my other shoulder. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Danny still sitting in his chair, grinning like this was exactly how he’d planned it.

I barely remember what came next. Stumbling down the stairs between them. The blur of the dance floor. The warm night air outside. Somehow making it across the parking lot and collapsing into the passenger seat of Kim's car, a complete mess.

The last thing I remember clearly was Kim in the driver's seat with the window down, and Ben standing outside it, leaning on the roof of the car.

"Is he going to be okay?" Ben asked.

"Yeah. He just had way too much to drink."

"Kim... about tonight." His voice was heavy with guilt. "The guys went too far."

"It's okay, Ben. I don't mind." A small laugh. "It was kinda fun."

Then came the part that still feels like a dream.

"I should get back inside," Ben said. "After you were on top of me like that, I really need to pee."

"You can go right here."

Even in my state, I was shocked to hear her say it. I opened one eye, just barely. Ben stepped toward the front of the car, and Kim leaned her head out the window, not even pretending she wasn't trying to get a look.

When he finished, he didn't leave. He came back to the door.

Kim reached her arm out the window. I couldn't see Ben from where I was slumped, but I could see her shoulder moving.

"Kim," Ben whispered. "Alan's right there..."

"It's okay. He's passed out."

Then I heard the click of the door handle. Kim pushed the door open, and Ben stepped into the gap. Even through the haze, the sight of it hit me like a jolt. His pants were open, and his cock was fully out. Kim turned in her seat, reached out, and wrapped her hand around the shaft. Even in the dim light I could see how thick and hard he was. She stroked him once, feeling him in her hand. Then her arm moved steadily, and I knew exactly what she was doing.

"Come closer," Kim whispered.

"Kim, you don't have to..."

"Shhh. Relax," she said. "I know Mai doesn't do this for you."

She leaned out through the open door, and her head dipped. I could still see it, the back of my girlfriend’s head bobbing slowly in the glow of the parking lot lights. The wet, rhythmic sound of her lips working him over the distant bass.

"Damn, Kim..." Ben's voice cracked.

And then she leaned further out, taking him deeper, working him with the skills of her mouth and tongue.

He braced both hands on the roof of the car. I couldn't see his face, but I didn't need to. I could picture it, head tipped back, eyes closed, lost in a feeling I knew better than anyone. I'd been on the other end of it countless times and I knew exactly how good Kim was at it.

People were walking through the lot. Anyone could have turned the corner and caught them. Kim clearly didn't care. If anything, the risk seemed to make her hungrier.

And all I could do was lie there and watch her suck my best friend's cock in a parking lot. The best friend who'd always had my back. The one who'd always been so protective of Kim. The one who frowned on our whole lifestyle.

Ben's breathing grew ragged. His fingers curled against the roof of the car.

"Kim," he groaned. "I'm gonna..."

She didn't pull away.

His whole body went rigid, and a long, shuddering breath came out of him. His hips jerked once, then twice. Kim stayed down, her throat working visibly until he finished. Only then did she pull back, a strand of cum connecting her lip to the head of his cock for a second before it broke. Then he sagged against the car like his legs had given out.

Kim sat back in her seat and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. For a moment, the only sounds were the rasp of Ben’s zipper and the clink of his belt buckle.

“Kim, don’t tell Mai...” he whispered.

“Don’t worry,” she said softly. “It’s your bachelor party. You deserve it.”

He leaned down through the gap in the door and kissed her. I could hear the soft smack of their lips. The kiss was tender, almost forbidden.

Over her shoulder, his eyes found me. He held there for a long second while I lay perfectly still, pretending to be passed out, just like Kim had said. Then he was gone, walking fast back toward the club.

Kim closed the door, started the engine, and pulled out of the lot.

When I opened my eyes again, I was in our bed and morning light was pouring through the blinds. Kim was sleeping peacefully beside me.

I got up slowly. My head was splitting. My mouth tasted like vomit and alcohol. I was hungover in a way I'd never been before.

I couldn't tell which parts of last night had actually happened. The lounge, I was sure of. The lap dance. Throwing up. But the parking lot felt like a dream. Ben at the car window. Kim's head bobbing through the open door.

I stumbled into the bathroom. Kim's dress was on the floor in a heap, the zebra print I remembered from last night.

I picked it up and looked it over.

Near the neckline, there was a long, pale stain, dried stiff into the fabric and running down the front of the dress.

I stood there looking at it for a long time.

It wasn't a dream.