Nashville Nights

The lobby still smelled like the citrus cleaner they used after the morning rush and the carpet still had that still, just installed give under their shoes as four couples came in from the vans, already cutting each other off mid-sentence. Nobody was really listening to each other as the trip had started the second the airplane doors closed. They'd landed Saturday afternoon and didn't have anywhere to be until their return flight on Tuesday. Three nights of no kids, no work, no schedules, only themselves and Nashville

Kelly stood near the check-in desk with her phone in one hand and her tote slung over the opposite shoulder. Fifty-three looked good on her in the late afternoon light coming through the glass. But lately she had been catching herself in the mirrors, both at home and in the teachers lounge, and thinking, not unkindly, that she had spent a long time being useful as a mother, teacher and wife. This weekend was all about herself, her husband, her group of friends and fun.

Matt watched her like he always did, admiring his wife of 20 years without making a show of it. She was in her travel clothes now, as soft tee and jeans, but he knew what she packed and what he was in for this weekend, or so he thought.

"Collins, two queens," the clerk said.

"King," Matt corrected. "We requested a king."

Kelly glanced over her shoulder and smiled at him, knowing how particular he was about the bed and the room. Just then Kelly's sister, Amber appeared at Kelly's elbow, already talking. Where Kelly could make a room feel quieter simply by entering it, her sister was determined to fill every silence.

"We're on eight," Amber said. "You?"

"Seven"

"Close enough. Ryan already found the rooftop bar he was talking about all week. He wants to start there before we hit Broadway."

Ryan stood a few feet away with Mike, both of them nodding at something on Mike's phone. Mike and Sarah had been the ones to push the trip from maybe into booking. They were loud and game for anything, the kind of couple who treated the weekend like a dare. Tom and Lisa waited near the luggage car, quieter, already looking as if to measure how much of the night they actually wanted.

Four couples, eight people, who would spend the next three days drinking too much and sleeping it off. All have been friends for many years with Kelly and Matt with Amber and Ryan folded in because Kelly wanted her party sister there.

Once everything was situated at the front desk, Matt took the key cards and all headed for the elevators and their rooms, promising to meet in the lobby in the next half hour. In the elevator, Kelly leaned against Matt, not for balance, but like she often did just for contact.

"You okay,:" she asked.

"I'm good."

"You're quiet when you are taking everything in."

He kissed the side of her head and felt her smile as the elevator opened to their floor. Their room faced the city at an angle. Nashville was already warming up below them. Kelly unzipped her suitcase and started hanging things with the unhurried competence of a woman who had packed for her family many times. Matt watched as she shook out a sleeveless top.

"Do you think this is too much for Broadway? Amber said some of the places are basically tourist traps."

"Wear it. You look good in that."

She studied it for another second, then hung it beside her jeans. "I brought sandals and the cowboy boots I just bought. If we are going to be on our feet and dancing all night I know which ones I'm going to look good in and regret wearing later."

"The cowboy boots, of course." Matt smiled.

Just then amber knocked as if the door were just a suggestion. She came in talking immediately, dropping into the chair by the window and launched into a rundown of which bars Ryan and Mike had circles and which ones Lisa had already vetoed as too young.

"Are you wearing the black top or the other one?" Amber asked.

"The sleeveless."

Amber nodded, approving. "Good. with those jeans?"

"Yes, the dark ones."

"That's the move. I'm not doing a dress if we're going to be bar hopping. I'll spend the whole night tugging at it." She tipped her chin at Kelly's glasses, which were still in her hair from the flight. "You wearing those out?"

"Probably. I actually want to see."

"Fair." Amber grinned, then looked at her sister a beat longer. Then they continued with the talk of clothes, timing, whether anyone had the energy to last past midnight.

They met the others in the lobby at seven-thirty. Everyone had the loose excited energy of people who had already started with a drink and the buzz of the night to come. Kelly had changed, top showing her shoulders, jeans doing what she knew they would do. She looked like a woman who was here to let her hair down. Mike did a double take and covered it with a joke about being Nashville dangerous as Sarah swatted his arm. Kelly laughed and took Matt's arm.

Outside the air was still warm. Music leaked down the blocks before they even reached the thick of Broadway. Matt kept his hand on hers and let the others pull them towards the lights. Broadway does not ease you in, it arrives all at once, neon stacked on neon, live music fighting live music, the smell of beer and hot grease and perfume, bodies moving in currents that had nothing to do with courtesy.

The first bar they went to was a place where Ryan claimed to know a guy and claimed a high top near the front. Mike was already arguing with him about which place had a better band. Drinks came fast, Tom ordered the first round and looked relieved to have a drink in his hand. Kelly started with something cold and citrus and finished it quicker than she ever did at home. Matt took a whiskey and slowly drank it, he wanted to remember the night not have it be a blur.

He noticed her being looked at. Not constantly but in pieces. A man at the bar whose eyes noticed her when she laughed. Two guys near the stage who tracked her when she stood to let someone by her. A young guy, late twenties, who looked at her the way men look when they have not yet decided if they should approach or not. Kelly noticed the attention and she didnt flinch from it. She didn't perform or welcome it either. She just smiled and eased her shoulder, having a good time.

Amber leaned in and said something about the band and then pointed to the floor like a dare.

"Come on. We're not sitting the whole night," Amber said.

Kelly looked at Matt.

"Go." he said.

The first song was easy, more sway than anything. Kelly danced the way she did when she forgot to be careful like the Mom she is. She was not trying to be twenty-five, she was just being herself. Someone she hadn't met in a while, confident, warm and approachable.

After a while they all decided it was time to hit Broadway and another bar. By this time everyone had loosened up. Sarah was already pink cheeked and loud. Ryan had his arm around Amber. Lisa was smiling at something Tom said and looking faintly like she might be done. Kelly had switched to whiskey and Coke and was talking with her hand. When she reached for Matt, her fingers stayed on his wrist longer than they needed to.

"You're staring," she said, close to his ear so he could hear her over the band.

"You're easy to stare at."

She smiled at that, flushed from the drinks and the heat of the room and kissed the corner of her mouth before Amber pulled them towards the doorway and the next bar.

The third place was bigger, darker and the stage louder. People packed the floor until dancing had pretty much become a contact sport. Kelly went out with Amber, without having to be pulled out this time.

Matt stayed on the rail with a better view than he wanted and not as good as he needed. He was still sipping whiskey, now on his third. He noticed younger men moving through the crowd with the ease of people who didn't have a care in the world. Most of them kept going past Kelly, glancing and moving on and a few didn't. One in particular found her and stayed in her orbit.

He was fit in the way that was obvious even in a dark bar, shoulders, chest and the easy posture of someone who spent time in a gym without announcing it. Early thirties if Matt had to guess, with short hair and a mouth that smiled and lit up a room. He wasn't crowding Kelly, he was just there, matching her energy and her moves, letting the music do the introducing.

Kelly turned towards him as the chorus hit, finally noticing him. He said something to her that made her laugh and then turned back to Amber. She turned again and her hand found his forearm for a second to steady herself in the press of bodies but she didn't take it back very quickly like she normally would have.

Matt took it all in. There was a sense of almost pride in him because she was still the woman he wanted most in any room. There was a touch of jealousy but there was something else underneath all that. Matt stayed at the rail and watched. There was the ordinary jealousy, the pride that she was still the woman he wanted most in any room, and underneath both of them the older thing he almost never let himself look at directly: the private picture of her wanted by someone else, of her taking it, of him knowing and not stopping it. He had carried the shape of that picture for years without ever saying the words even to himself. Tonight it was standing on the dance floor with its hands on his wife.

Kelly danced closer, her body had stopped pretending the space between them was accidental. The young man's hands hovered at her waist and then settled there, light and testing. Matt hadn't noticed Amber had left Kelly until she appeared at his shoulder with a fresh drink and filled his gaze without thinking much of it.

"She's having fun," Amber said. "Good."

Matt made a sound that stated his agreement.

On the floor the song changed and Kelly stayed as well as the young man. She said something close to his ear, he bent to hear it and the line of his mouth near her temple made Matt's stomach drop that he could describe.

Kelly glanced toward the railing and found Matt. She didn't stop dancing, just gave Matt a nod letting him know she was okay. What he saw was his wife, drunk, a little flushed, letting him know the night had arrived. She smiled and turned back into the music with another man's hand at her waist.

Matt finished his whiskey and pondered what to do next. If he did nothing, Kelly would dance, they would all move onto the next bar and tomorrow this would become one more night he remembered privately. If he crossed the room, he would possibly set in motion something that could change their relationship possibly for the better, maybe for the worse.

He decided to go to the bar and get another whiskey without a plan. He went the long way around the floor and noticed the man, up close, was even more obviously Kelly's type than he had noticed from a distance. Matt continued to the bar, not stopping from dancing. Matt reached the bar and ordered. While he was waiting for his drink he noticed the young man had left the dance floor to get a drink from the bar. He noticed the man kept looking back at Kelly as if to make sure he didn't lose sight of her.

Matt took his drink and moved next to the young man.

"Band's pretty good here." Matt stated to the young man.

The man glanced over, polite and a little guarded. "They're all right. Loud at least."

"That's their job I guess." Matt said.

The bartender then slid over a drink and the man drank it then looked at the dance floor almost eager to get back.

Kelly was with Amber now, flushed, taking a long drink of something before heading back to the floor.

"You with that group?" the man asked.

"Part of the group, yes. "

"She's a good dancer. The one with the glasses."

Matt felt the words land. "Yeah she is."

The man nodded as if it settled some small internal debate about whether she had overstepped. He started to turn back towards the floor.

"Shes my wife," Matt said.

That stopped him in his tracks. Just a quick recalibration in his head as he turned back to Matt.

"Didn't know," he said. " Wasn't trying to...."

"I know." Matt kept his voice low enough that only the two of them could hear. "I'm not here to cause trouble or tell you to back off."

The man studied him properly now, looking for the joke, the angle, or the threat. Matt let him look, at his age he didn't need to puff up.

"Okay," the man said slowly. "Then what is this?"

Matt watched as Kelly laughed at something Amber said.

"She's having a good time with you," Matt said. "I can see that."

The man waited to hear the next statement.

"I'm not asking you to do anything she doesn't want to do or anything more than what you're doing now. I'm not asking you to push her into anything. That's the only part that matters. You don't talk her into a corner, you don't get her more drunk than she is now, you don't dare her. If she wants to dance, dance. If she wants to talk, talk. If she wants something else, that's her. I just want her to have a good time, whether that's with you or me."

The man's mouth moved towards a smile and then thought better of it. "You always go up to guys in a bar and say this?"

"No."

"So why me?"

Matt didn't dress it up. "Because she already likes you and because you look like the type that would walk away if she told you."

The man exhaled a short laugh that had nerves with it.

"Jesus." He rubbed his thumb along his glass. "This is not a situation I have ever been in before."

"I know. You can walk away and it will all be fine."

He looked at Kelly again, then back at Matt.

"She has to want it," Matt said again. "If she doesn't or tells you to walk away, you do. I'm not interested in a story where she gets handled or I have to change the story."

"Yeah," the man said. "I got that."

A pause then he said. "I'm Luke. I'm up from Louisville for a friend's bachelor party."

"Matt."

Luke didn't offer a handshake. The moment was already too odd for that.

"She's going to think I came over because you sent me, not cause I want to."

"She won't know I said anything unless you make it obvious. She hasn't even noticed us talking."

Luke nodded once. When he spoke again the charm had thinned/ "You're a strange husband."

"I know."

"If she shuts me down, I'm gone. No worries."

"Good."

Luke looked at him again and then he stepped back into the crowd.

Matt stayed long enough to see everything that was about to happen from the side instead of the railing. Luke didn't go straight to her like a man on an errand. He made his way through the crowd towards the dance floor catching her eye the way he had done before. Kelly's face glowed and smiled widely when she saw him, the smile Matt had seen a million times before. She said something to him as he got close and Luke smiled widely. His hand found her waist again as if it never left. From where Matt stood, it looked like what it had been ten minutes earlier except now Matt had set things in motion.

The new song was faster and Kelly melted into it without hesitation. Luke dances like someone who had nothing to prove and now something to gain. When his hand moved further on her waist pulling her closer, Kelly did move it or move away. The jealousy Matt had felt before was now gone, replaced by something else.

Amber was talking to Lisa when Matt came back over and then she noticed Kelly on the floor. She leaned towards Ryan and said something Matt could not hear. Ryan glanced at the floor, shrugged and went back to his drink and conversation. Amber did not.

On the floor the chemistry between the two had stopped being subtle. It was not vulgar nor did it need to be. Kelly danced facing him now and when the crowd pressed them together she didn't create space nor did she want to. His hand slid from her waist to the small of her back sliding closer to her ass.

Amber appeared at Matt's shoulder without announcing herself.

"Who's that?" she asked.

Matt kept his eyes on the floor. "I don't know. Same guy from before I guess."

Amber watched them dance. "Well she's getting very cozy with him. That's not her polite dance face. I've seen that face before, the summer she decided to go out and go wild."

Matt gave her nothing she could use. After a moment she exhaled and shook her head, half amused, half annoyed at her sister.

"Leave it to Kelly to find the one guy in here who can actually dance."

With that she drifted back to the group. On the floor, Luke turned to Kelly with the music. Her back coming against his chest briefly. His hand found the front of her hip, testing the waters. Kelly's head tipped back towards his shoulder.

At that moment Kelly's gaze found Matt. Not because she was checking in with him but because the turn brought him into view and her gaze snagged on her husband the way it always did in a crowded room. She held his eyes while another man's hands rested on her hips. She looked at him not with shame in her eyes but she seemed unsure of what she was doing. Luke leaned forward and said something in her ear that pulled her attention back and she went with it.

The song changed but the dance did not. They were talking on the dance floor now heads close. Matt turned to the bar for another drink and that's all it took. When he turned back to the floor Kelly was gone from the place she had been. Luke was also gone and the crowd had already overtaken where they were. Nobody else had noticed her absence yet but Matt kinda knew better. But it still could be something as simple as a bar run, waiting in line for the bathroom or just stepping outside for air. Matt set his glass down and went looking anyway.

The place was built to lose people. A hallway past the restrooms, another room with a stage and a smaller crowd and a side corridor that smelled like spilled beer and cleaner. Matt moved through it without hurrying and without calling her name.

He almost missed the alcove off the side hall. A service door, beyond that a stack of crates and a pocket of neon that didn't fully reach the whole space. He heard a sound, not words, but something else. A sound he knew his wife made in her throat when she was kissed well. Matt stopped short of the light so not to be seen but he saw Kelly up against the wall. Luke had one hand in her hair and the other at her waist and they were definitely not talking anymore. They were kissing like the dance had only been the foreplay to this. Her glasses were slightly skew, her mouth was open under his, her top had ridden up just enough that a strip of warm skin showed above the jeans and Luke's thumb was there moving.

Matt stood in the dark corridor and watched his wife kiss a man she had just met maybe a little more than an hour ago. The kiss was not sloppy but it was hungry in a way that looked unplanned. Kelly's hands were on Luke's chest then his neck. She made that sound again when she pressed closer against her as they kissed. Luke broke the kiss just long enough to speak against her cheek that Matt only caught some of.

".... want you. Not here. You feel that...."

Kelly's answer was too soft to hear, a yes or something shaped like that. Luke kissed her again this time much deeper. He then heard footsteps coming towards him, a group who were loud and oblivious. Matt's attention went towards them for a moment and when he looked back the alcove was empty.

He moved into the alcove to see where they went and he noticed a side door near the alley had been left open on its latch. Matt could feel the warm air coming through the gap as he pushed it open far enough to see. The alley ran between the bar and the next building. A security light threw a hard white shine over a stack of empty kegs and left the rest in dark. He noticed Luke and Kelly just past this where the brick turned black.

Luke had Kelly up against the wall and this was not the almost careful exploring kissing from the alcove. He was all over her now. One of her legs was hiked up against his hip. His mouth was on her throat and then moved lower. He pulled her top down and found her breast with his mouth and Kelly's head dropped back against the brick, a broken sound leaving her mouth as the music from inside almost swallowed.

Matt stayed just outside the door, out of the light, barely breathing at the sight before him. Luke's hand worked the other side of her top, pulling that down and working on her other breast. His thumb dragging over skin Matt knew for years. Kelly's fingers were in Luke's hair, not pulling him away but holding him there, pulling him in closer. Luke came up for air and said something as he looked up at her that Matt only caught part of.

"..... could fuck you right here."

Kelly laughed an unsteady, breathy laugh but didn't say no. Instead her hand slid down his stomach, over the front of his jeans and stopped, Even from where Matt was he saw the change in her face. She didn't expect what she felt as she traced the shape of him through the denim. Luke made a low sound as he put his forehead to hers. Kelly kissed him again, shorter this time and then Matt saw her sinking to her knees, It was not graceful and almost hurried. One hand on his hip for balance, the brick wall at her back, her hair falling forward as she opened his jeans. When she freed him, the alley light caught how big he was, long, thick and heavy, already wet at the head. Kelly went still for a second and that told Matt everything.

"Oh my God," she breathed, almost to herself.

Luke's hand hovered in her hair. "You don't have to..."

She did it anyway, she took him in her mouth, the way she did when she decided something and was not going to talk herself out of it. Careful at first because of his size, lips stretching around him, one hand wrapped at the base where she could not take anymore. Luke's head dropped back, his hand settling in her hair, guiding her not forcing her. Kelly pulled off just enough to breathe, startled again by his size, then went back down, wetter, using her hand as her mouth worked over the head and taking as much of the shaft as she could manage.

Matt watched the whole thing unfold. His wife on her knees in an alley in Nashville, top shoved down enough that her tits were bare to the night, sucking a stranger's cock like she had been hungry for it since the dance floor. The sounds he heard were obscene in the quiet between the music. Kelly gagged softly when she tried to take more and did not stop. She adjusted, eyes watering behind her glasses and kept going. Luke's voice came apart in scraps.

".... fuck, look at you...."

".... that mouth...."

".... gonna.... wait, I'm..."

Kelly didn't wait. She stayed on him, hand stroking what her mouth couldn't hold and when Luke came, it was with his finger in her hair and a broken curse against his teeth. He tried to pull back at the last second but she followed just enough that most of his cum went in her mouth. What she couldn't keep in her mouth spilled at the corner of her lips and down onto her chin, a pale streak that caught the security light when she finally drew off of him, coughing once, eyes wet and still holding his cock as it jerked through the rest of her cum on her tits.

Luke stood there shaking, Kelly wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, missed some of it and laughed under her breath like she couldn't believe what she had just done. He pulled her up and kissed her anyway, tasting himself, one hand on her bare breast as if he was not finished with her.

They didn't look towards the door nor did they know he was there. Matt's hand found the edge of the door and quietly stepped through it, the images running through his mind of what he just saw racing through his head, the image of her mouth on his cock, the sounds she made and the lust of how she wanted it. He could have stopped it at any time and this is what he wanted. He walked back through the service hall with his hands still shaking. Inside their friends were still at the table when he reached them, taking his whiskey in his hands and taking a long drink. Amber looked up and noticed him and that Kelly was not with him.

"Where's Kelly?"

"Getting some air," Matt said

Amber accepted the answer in a way that he knew was quite enough for her. Still her eyes stayed on him waiting for more that wasn't going to come. He stood at the table with his drink wondering when or if his wife would make her way back to the group. He promised himself he would wait and let her decide, no text, no looking for her.

It took longer than he thought it would until she appeared. When Kelly came in through the front door, he had put herself back together enough for a crowded bar, her top was straight, her hair finger combed, but the flush was still high on her chest and her mouth looked used. Anyone who wasn't married to her and hadn't just witnessed what she had done would have thought she was flushed from dancing.

But Matt knew better. He saw the extra color in her mouth and the faint smear she hadn't quite gotten on the side of her mouth. The way her body still had the unsettledness of someone who was just on her knees not long ago and was supposed to go back to being a married woman. She still had no clue either that Matt had seen all of that.

Amber said something to her about heading to another bar. Kelly smiled, too quick and shook her head.

"I need a minute," she said. "Matt."

She pulled him away from the group to a pocket of quieter hallway near the bathrooms, far enough from the others that the music would conceal their conversation. Kelly leaned against the painted cinderblock column near her and then pushed off it again, restless, as if she was nervous about what she was going to say. She kept looking away but then focused on him.

"I need to say this before I talk myself out of it," she said.

Matt nodded and kept his face as even as he could. If he looked like he knew what she was about to say or what she had done, the conversation they were about to have would be a much different one.

"That guy I was dancing with," she said. "His name is Luke. I wasn't looking for someone, I need you to know that. He was just there and then we started dancing and it...." she stopped. Then started again, "It got away from me... in a kinda a good way I guess. I haven't felt like this in a long time. I felt wanted, not that you don't want me... its just different."

"I saw how you were dancing with him, so I know." Matt said, which was true, just not the whole truth of what he saw.

Kelly's eyes flicked over his face, "Did you go talk to him?"

He could have denied that he did but he didn't want to.

"I talked to him at the bar, after you were dancing with him and he went to get a drink. I told him you were my wife and that was it."

She studied him, filing away what he said, not quite believing it but not ready to argue about it. "I know you saw us dancing before that so I know you didn't send him over to me."

"No"

Kelly nodded understanding what he was saying and then she lowered her voice.

"Im....." she exhaled, irritated with herself, with everything around her, with the fact of having to talk at all. "Im so fucking turned on right now. From the dancing, from his hands. From the way I let him..." she took a beat and then her mouth tightened and opened again. "And from everything else, I'm not going to spell it out right now. I keep thinking I should go back to the table, be normal and go to the next bar with the group, but I can't get my body to agree to that."

Matt's pulse was loud in his own ears, processing what she's saying, "Okay."

"I want to fuck him."

The sentence sat between them for a minute. Matt noticed Kelly's face get blushed and her eyes wider, waiting for him to say something.

"I want to take him back to our room or his room. I'm standing here telling my husband, who I love very much, that I want to fuck another man. I know this is insane and it's still true. I needed to say this to you before I went and did anything else."

Matt looked at her, his wife whom he watched on her knees just a little while ago without her knowing. The jealousy of her statement was there but so was the desire of him wanting this to happen, they did not cancel each other out.

"Are you asking if I'm alright with it," he said. "Or are you just telling me you're going to do it?"

"Im asking," her voice on the edge. "I don't want to cheat. I don't want to sneak off. He's outside waiting. He asked if we could go fuck somewhere and i didnt answer him yet. I came to find you. If this is not something you can live with, I totally understand and will end it now."

A group of women pushed past them towards the restroom, laughing. Kelly waited till the passed.

"I know this is a lot and it's not nothing," she said. "I'm not pretending it's just dancing that got out of hand. I want him and I'm asking if you can live with that."

Matt could have told her what he had already lived in the last hour but he didn't. That was his to carry.

"I'm not going to lie and pretend I'm not jealous. But Im not going to stand here and tell you the thought of you fucking someone else isnt a fantasy of mine. It is. And if this is what you really want, I can live with it."

Kelly's eyes widened, almost like she didn't expect this answer, "You mean that?"

"Yes"

She stepped in closer so only he could hear the rest "I want you there. I want both of you. You are my husband and I don't want this to happen in a place where you are not there. If you can't do that part just say so. I won't do this without you."

Matt looked at her with lust in his eyes, "I can do that."

Kelly searched his face one more time, looking for a catch, looking for anger but she saw none of it. She kissed him, brief and fierce and if she noticed anything on her own mouth she did not mention it.

She reached for her phone and said, "I'm going to tell Amber and tell her we are calling it a night. Then I'm going to find Luke. If he still wants to come then we do this. If he doesn't want to with you there, then we go to bed and this stays where it was before."

She paused at the edge of the hall and turned one more time, "I'm asking if you're sure about this. I don't want you to just give me permission to do this, I want you to want this as well."

"I know."

Kelly looked back at the table where her sister and the rest of the group stood. She made her way over with Matt following.

Amber looked up as they approached the table. "There you are. I was beginning to think you two did an Irish Goodbye."

"We needed a drink and to talk." Kelly said.

Amber glanced at the two of them, picking up on their faces. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah," Kelly said, reaching for her purse. "We're heading back to the hotel."

"Seriously? It's not even that late."

"I know. But I've had too much and I'm just ready to go upstairs."

Amber gave a skeptical look, then smiled. "Fine. But you're not heading home early the rest of the trip."

"Deal."

Kelly hugged her sister, careful not to linger long enough to invite more questions and said good night to the rest of the group. Then she turned towards the exit and the bar near it.

Luke was still there, standing with a couple of guys from the bachelor party. When he spotted Kelly, his expression changed. He smiled widely but his face questioning. He glanced at Matt who was following a few feet behind her after he had said goodbye to the group.

Kelly knew she could have sent a text to Luke telling him to meet her at the hotel but this seemed more right.

"Hey," she said, walking straight up to him.

"Hey." His eyes moved briefly to Matt again. "Everything all right?"

"Yeah. just wanted to talk to you for a second."

Luke set his drink on the bar. "Sure."

She stepped closer to him as they moved away from his friends.

"Matt and I are leaving and going back to the hotel."

"Okay." He waited for more.

Kelly took a breath. "Did you mean what you said earlier? About wanting to fuck me?"

Luke's expression changed. For a moment the confident smile he had with her on the dance floor and in the alley was gone, replaced by a more cautious smile.

"Yeah," he said. "I did."

"Even now?"

He glances at Matt who had stopped a few feet away, close enough to hear but not close enough to make things weird.

"Especially now," Luke said, then looked back at Kelly. "But I don't want to get the wrong idea here. You two have talked about this?"

"We have."

"And he's on board with this?" Luke said glancing towards Matt

Kelly followed his glance. "Why don't you ask him yourself?"

Matt stepped closer. He'd spent most of the evening imagining what he might say if this moment actually arrived. Now that it had, the words seemed less important than the way he handled them.

"Kelly has told me what she wants and I know what she asked me. I am fine with everything that could possibly happen tonight."

There was a brief silence between them. Kelly suddenly felt exposed standing there between the two men. She'd been able to tell Matt what she wanted in private. She'd been imagining this conversation with Luke since she left him in the alley. But saying it all aloud made it all the more real.

"I don't want you to think this is something I or we do every weekend," she said.

"I don't,: Luke replied.

"And I'm not that drunk that I don't know what I'm asking for."

That earned a smile from him. "I wasn't going to ask."

"Good. Then shall we go?" she asked.

Matt nodded and looked at Luke. "Let's go then."

Luke went back to the guys he was with, exchanged a few words with them, offering a quick explanation that he was headed out, then returned to Kelly and Matt.

"Ready?" He asked.

Kelly reached for Matt's hand and they pushed through the bar's entrance into the warm Nashville night. Broadway was still crowded, neon reflecting off the pavement and live music spilling out of every bar. For a few steps no one spoke.

Then Luke glances at Kelly, "So, which hotel."

"Four Seasons." She told him.

"Not far then."

"No," she said with anticipation. "Not far."

She'd expected to feel exhilarated, Instead, she felt a knot of nerves tightening beneath her ribs. She wanted this, she was sure she wanted this. But wanting something from across a crowded dance floor was different from walking toward it with both men beside her. She could feel Matt's hand around hers. Luke was walking on her other side, no longer the stranger who'd appeared on the dance floor and turned her evening upside down. He was a real person now, walking with them toward a decision that all three of them would have to own.

At the intersection before they made it to the hotel, Kelly turned and looked at Matt.

"You're really okay with this?"

"He squeezed her hand, "I'm here aren't I?

She smiled, "That's not really telling me how you're feeling?"

"I'm nervous as well, Kelly. But I know you want this and I want this as well. That's the truth."

"Thank you," she whispered.

"You don't have to thank me. Just keep talking to me."

The hotel lobby felt like a whole different world than the one outside. The citrus cleaner smell was still there, but the lobby was quiet now and the night clerk barely looked up as they crossed the tile to the elevators. Kelly's fingers were laced through Matt's with Luke walking a half step behind her on the other side. Nobody seemed to know quite what to say.

In the elevator, Kelly stared at the changing numbers, swallowing nervously. Matt watched her reflection in the brushed metal glass. A married woman taking two men to her room on purpose. He knew how crazy that would have sounded to him much earlier in the day. Even standing here he was still trying to process the night. Watching her dance with Luke, watching her in the alley with him and not here in the elevator on the way to their room with him. His jealousy was still there but it was overtaken by his curiosity and his desire to be a part of whatever happened next.

The elevator door opened and they walked to the room in hushed silence. Kelly took the key from Matt's hand and placed it on the lock. Hearing the click she opened it and moved into the room. Matt waited for Luke to enter before following him in, shutting the door behind them. For a second no one moved, then Kelly set her purse down and took her glasses off then nervously put them on again.

"I don't want this to be weird and silent," she said, her voice low. "I want to hear you, both of you. I want to know what this is while it's happening."

"Okay," Matt said.

Luke nodded. He looked briefly like a man who was unsure of himself, realizing the room was smaller than the idea of he'd been carrying around in his head.

Kelly moved towards Matt, visibly shaking and kissed him first. It was clearly not the first time they'd kissed but this one was different. There was nervousness in it, heat and hunger. It was a wife pulling her husband into what she was about to do. When she turned her face towards Luke, she kept a hand on Matt's chest, almost anchoring herself.

"Come here."

Luke kissed her slower than he had in the bar or the alley. Kelly made a small sound into it, surprised all over again by the heat of a mouth that was not her husband's. It felt different here with Matt standing so close watching her.

"God, she kisses like she means it," Luke muttered.

"She does," Matt confirmed.

"Then stop talking," Kelly said, her voice unsteady. "Take my clothes off. Go slowly, I don't want to skip the part where I forgot how we got here."

Matt studied her face for a moment, making sure he understood what she was asking, then he helped her out of her top while Luke eased her jeans down. They moved carefully, giving her the time to adjust to each new movement rather than rushing her.

When she stood before them in just her underwear, Kelly felt suddenly exposed in a way that had little to do with how much clothing she had on. She was fifty-three, a wife and mother, a woman who had spent most of her life knowing exactly who she was. Now she was standing between her husband and another man, breathing too quickly and trying to reconcile with the decision she'd made with the reality of it actually happening.

Matt moved closer and kissed her throat while Luke kissed her shoulder. The two kinds of familiarity and unfamiliarity seemed to meet in her at once. Kelly closed her eyes, melting into it, her head tipping back

"That's it." she whispered.

Matt looked her in the eyes and hooked his fingers in her underwear and pulled them down. Luke then eased her onto the edge of the bed. For a moment, they looked at her. Then Matt dropped down to his knees and put a thigh over his shoulder and kissed the inside of it until she twitched.

"Matt..."

"Its okay baby, I'm here with you." As he dragged his tongue through her slowly. The sound she made was helpless. "You're already so wet."

Luke watched, then bent over her and took a nipple in her mouth. Kelly's fingers went into Matt and Luke's hair at the same time.

"Oh God. Don't stop. That's.... mmmm.... yes."

Matt ate her like he had all night, focusing on her movements. Luke switched breasts, sucking hard enough to pull another noise out of her.

"Shes shaking," Luke said, while sucking her nipple.

"Shes close," Matt said, closing his mouth over her clit.

Kelly came back with a broken, surprised cry, thighs tightening on Matt's ears, one heel digging into his back. He stayed with her through it until she pushed at his head, laughing and gasping.

"Wait.... wait. Too much."

He kissed her hip and stood. She looked wrecked already and nobody had been inside her yet.

"Your turn to take your clothes off," she said. "Both of you."

They stripped without hurrying, Kelly watching intently. They came closer and she reached for both of them at once. Luke's cock filled her hand the way she already knew it would, thick and heavy like she remembered in the alley, while Matt's sat just slightly smaller in her other palm, solid and known. She looked at both of them for a moment, then leaned in and licked a slow, wet stripe up Luke from base to head. The sound he made made her smile.

"Yeah," she murmured. "That's what I thought."

She moved over to Matt and took him next in her mouth, deeper. Then back to Luke, stretching her mouth around the thickness of him, hand working what she could not fit. She found a rhythm that put both of them against her lips, turning her head, spit shining on her chin, sucking one while she stroked the other.

"Look at you," Matt said. "Taking both of us like that."

Kelly pulled off Luke with a wet sound. "Bet you never thought you'd see this. But I like it. I like how heavy he is on my tongue. I like that you're watching me suck him."

She went down on Matt again, morning around him, then shifted so she could fit both heads close and lick them together, messed and unpracticed.

"Fuck," Luke said. "Your mouth..."

"Then tell me."

"Good Lord, it's filthy and perfect. Don't stop."

She didn't, not until her jaw protested. She sat back, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and looked at Luke.

"Do you have a condom? I want you to fuck me like you promised."

He grabbed his pants and found one in his wallet and rolled it on. His hands were less sure than they had been in the alley. Kelly moved up the bed on her elbows with her thighs open. Matt stretched out bedside so she could see him. Luke settled between her thighs and rubbed the head of his cock up and down her pussy not pushing in yet.

"You're soaked," Luke said. "Do you feel how wet you are?"

Kelly laughed, "I know, stop teasing me."

He pressed his cock in until the head penetrated her pussy. The sound she made was not a word. It was a punched out gasp that climbed into a thin cry as he stretched her.

"Oh.... oh God.... wait..."

Luke froze, half of him in her. "I've got you."

"You're thick. You're so thick. Just..... give me a second." Her fingers dug into Matt's arm.

Luke gave her another inch and her mouth fell open. A raw shaky "ah" came out of her, then another, but higher, as he gave her more.

"Fuck. Fuck. That's.... mmmn.... so much." Her hips twitched, trying to adjust. "Don't stop. Just.... yes... like that. Oh my God."

Luke slid in deeper. Kelly's voice cracked on a sound that was almost a sob and wasn't pain, not exactly. When his hips finally met hers she lay there trembling.

"He's in," she whispered, turning to Matt." He's all the way in. I can feel him everywhere."

Luke leaned down and kissed her deeply "You want me to move?"

"Yes, slow. Then i want you to fuck me like you mean it."

The first strokes he made pulled noises out of her on every pass. Shots punched 'uh' sounds. Then longer ones as he dragged back and pushed in again.

"God, God. you're stretching me. Matt.... he's stretching me."

"I can see that," Matt's voice was wrecked as he stroked himself at the sight in front of him.

Luke's control frayed. He hooked on of her knees higher and started fucking her in earnest. Deeper and harder. Kelly stopped being careful with her voice.

"Ah.... ah. Fuck... yrd..... just like that... don't ease up..."

He didn't plan on easing up. He planted a hand beside her head and fucked her into the mattress. Kelly's cries turned rhythmic, filthy and helpless.

"Harder.... harder. Oh my God. Luke.... fuck me... I'm so full.... Matt, look.... look at what hes doing to me...."

"I'm looking," Matt said as he kissed her. "You're so wet you're dripping down him."

"It feels so good I can't even think. Don't stop. Don't you dare stop."

Luke pulled out only long enough to turn her onto her stomach and drag her hips up. He pushed back into her from behind with one thick slide. Kelly's face went into the pillow and the sound she made was a loud even muffle. She turned her head so they could hear her.

"Jesus. That angle. That... ah... ah.... fuck..."

Luke held her waist and drove into her harder now. Matt got in front of her and put his cock on her lips. She took him into her mouth greedily while luke kept fucking her from behind, moaning around Matt every time Luke bottomed out.

"That's it," Matt said. "Let him fuck you like you wanted. My little slut."

She pulled off his cock just enough to speak. " He's pounding me. He's so deep I can feel it in my stomach. I'm going to cum if he keeps fucking me like that."

Luke reached around her and found her clit with two fingers and rubbed it. That broke her. Her orgasm tore a raw, shaking cry out of her. She clenched down so hard Luke cursed and had to hold still a second, buried in her while she pulsed around him.

"Fuck, she just locked up on me."

Kelly collapsed on her elbows, still impaled, laughing in disbelief. "Don't pull out, I want more"

They rolled on her side, Luke hooking her top leg high, fucking her like that, chest to her back and on hand on her tit. The sounds were wetter and Kelly reached behind her and gripped his hip to keep him deep.

"You feel unreal," Luke said against her ear. "Tight every time I pull back. I could stay in you all night."

"Then stay. Fuck... right there.... right... ah..."

Matt lay facing her and sucked her nipple, then kissed her while she was getting fucked. She came again that way, smaller but sharper, a bitten off whimper against Matt's mouth.

Luke pulled out and Kelly made an unhappy noise at the empty feeling. She looked at Matt and rolled on her back.

"Good lord, come here." she gasped at Matt.

Matt took his place, sliding into her with a groan. He fucked her on her back, forhead against hers. She held his shoulders and took him in rolling drops of her hips. When she turned her head she found Luke's cock there and took him in her mouth, wet and sloppily.

Pulling her mouth off Luke, she said huskily, "I like this. I like having you in me and him in my mouth. I like how filthy it is and I asked for it."

She nudged Matt out of her before he got too close and went on her hands and knees again.

"Luke, get behind me and fuck me hard again. I want to feel you tomorrow."

Luke slid in her with one hard stroke, slapping her ass. And he gave it to her, no teasing this time. Kellys voice bounces with the backshots, broken 'yes', 'fucks', his name and Matts name. Matt knelt in front of her again and she sucked him in sloppy pulls, eyes watering.

"I'm going to cum again," she warned. "Don't stop. Fuck me through it please....."

Luke pounded her hard and fast as she came with her mouth off Matt and a raw cry into the sheets, arms shaking. Only then, when she was past pretending she needed to ease into anything, did she look back over her shoulder.

"I want you to cum on me," she said. "I want to feel you finish on me. I mean it."

Luke pulled out and stripped off the condom. Matt knelt up beside her as she lay on her back, still breathing hard, her thighs open, breasts flushed. She took them in her hands again, stroking them, mouth finding whoever was the closest.

"On me." she said." I want to see it."

Luke came first, he took his cock from her and stroked himself all over her stomach and the underside of her tits, then a little on her mouth and her cheek. Kelly gasped at the heat of it, a thick stripe catching her lower lip, not expecting it. She laughed once, stunned and filthy and kept her hand moving on Matt.

"Your turn." she got out.

Matt only lasted a few more strokes of her fist, surprised he made it this far. He came across her tit and her throat, a second pulse catching the edge of her mouth where Luke had already been. Kelly looked down at herself, at both of their cum on her skin and made a small sound that was not quite a laugh.

For a while there was only quiet and breathing, Luke sat on the edge of the bed looking at her, while Kelly reached blindly until she found Matt's hand. The noise from the city outside came in through the window. The king bed was wrecked, there was a mark she noticed on her breast from Luke's mouth and another on her hip from Matt's hand, and she was laying there still covered in their cum. Kelly turned her head on the pillow and looked at Matt

"Well," she said finally, voice rough, "that happened."

"Yeah." His thumb moved once against her skin. "It did."

Luke dressed in the bathroom light. In the doorway he paused, looked back at the two of them, and gave a short, knowing nod before he stepped out and closed the door.

Kelly turned her head on the pillow and looked at the ceiling instead of at him. The room still smelled like sex and the citrus cleaner from the lobby. She was fifty-three, marked, still wet, still feeling the stretch of another man and the weight of her husband's hand on her stomach. For a second she thought of the mirrors at home and in the teachers' lounge, of all the years she had spent being useful and correct and looked-at in the ordinary way. The thought did not stay. It simply passed through her and left her more present in the bed than she had been an hour ago.

"I can still feel him," she said quietly. Not as a confession, exactly. Just a fact she was testing out loud. "And I can feel you. Both."

Matt nodded. He didn't look away from the mess on her. "I know."

"You're not going to pretend you didn't like it."

"No." He exhaled. "I'm not."

She studied his face the way she had in the hallway earlier, looking for the catch. When she didn't find one, some of the tension left her shoulders. She shifted closer until her forehead rested against his.

She spoke again, softer. "Tomorrow we're going to have to get up and go meet Amber and the others like nothing happened. I'm going to have to look at my sister and not tell her any of this."

"Yeah."

"And you're going to have to sit across from me at breakfast and know exactly what I did. What we did."

Matt turned his head so his mouth rested against her temple. "I know."

They stayed like that, her still marked and uncleaned, his hand steady on her stomach, neither of them in a hurry to move or turn out the light. The line they had crossed was still there. It would still be there in the morning. For now, though, the room was quiet, the door was locked, and they were both still in the bed.