Light streamed through the windows, and I was tangled in the sheets, still naked. Quinn was asleep next to me, his arm draped over my stomach. I blinked several times, trying to wake up and take in my unfamiliar surroundings. We had fallen asleep in Carson’s bed. I gently moved Quinn’s arm and sat up. I noticed the guys’ jeans on the floor beside the bed, and the memories of last night came flooding back. My pussy clenched involuntarily at the flashback, and I smiled. That was fucking hot, I thought to myself as I carefully got out of bed.

I found my panties and put them on, grabbed a T-shirt off the floor, and pulled it over my head. I freshened up in the bathroom and tiptoed out of the room. It was still early, and I didn’t want to wake anyone, but I needed water. The tequila from the night before left me with a headache and dry mouth.

Carson was asleep on the couch, in only his boxers, a throw blanket covering part of his bare chest. I smiled again, thinking of last night. I filled a glass with water and gulped it down before filling it again. I was halfway through my second glass when Carson whispered in my ear, “Good morning.” I spun around, sloshing water on the floor.

“You scared the shit out of me.” I hit his arm playfully. “I thought you were asleep.”

“Nah, I’ve been awake for a while. I saw you checking me out.” He winked, and I tried not to blush.

“I wasn’t checking you out,” I said indignantly.

“Uh-huh, sure.” Carson looked me up and down. “You’re wearing my shirt.”

Damn it. Of course it was his shirt I picked up.

“Sorry.” I shrugged. “Do you have any coffee?”

“I’ll make you coffee if you give me back my shirt.” He winked again.

“I don’t think so … I can make my own coffee.”

“Come on, it’s a little cold in here.” He rubbed his hands up and down his arms.

“You have plenty of other shirts … put one of them on.”

“They’re all in my bedroom, and I don’t want to wake up Quinn.”

“Well, you’re not getting this one, so you’ll just have to be cold.”

“I can think of another way you can warm me up,” Carson said seductively, his deep voice sending shivers down my spine. I busied myself with making coffee, trying not to look at Carson. I had thought that last night would help rid my desire, but I was wrong. I wanted him just as badly as ever—maybe even more. I bent over to put the old coffee grounds in the garbage, and then reached up on my tiptoes to get a new filter out of the cupboard. With every move I made, his shirt rose.

“You know you’re killing me, right?” Carson said from behind me. He was leaning against the kitchen counter, watching me closely.

“What do you mean?” I played dumb. I reached up into the cupboard again to get two mugs, Carson’s shirt rising to reveal my lace panties as I did so. When I set down the mugs, Carson was right behind me. He put his hands on the counter on either side of me, his breath hot in my ear, his erection pressing into my back.

“Do you feel what you do to me?” He pressed himself even harder into my back and ran a hand up the inside of my shirt, his fingers tracing the underside of my breast before he ran them over my nipple. It hardened under his touch, and I let out a moan. I leaned into him as he kissed from my ear, down my neck, and back again. His other hand glided down my stomach and into my panties, and I moaned even louder when he used two fingers to rub circles around my clit.

I heard a door click closed behind us and ducked under Carson’s arm, moving to the other side of the kitchen just before Quinn appeared in the doorway, in only his boxers. He rubbed his face and yawned as he walked over to me.

“Good morning babe,” Quinn said, kissing me on the cheek. Carson hadn’t moved, but he watched me out of the corner of his eye.

“Good morning,” I replied, trying to keep my breathing steady. I avoided eye contact with Carson and made us all coffee. When it was ready, I took my mug and headed back toward the bedroom.

“I’m going to take a shower,” I said, needing distance. I closed the bedroom door behind me and leaned against it, taking a few deep breaths, to calm my racing heart.

“Shit, that was close,” I muttered to myself. I turned the water on as hot as I could stand it and let it run over my face and body, until my heart rate returned to normal. I had just finished washing my hair and was about to turn off the shower when the bathroom door opened and Quinn stepped in, naked and hard. He didn’t say a word, but kissed me like his life depended on it. My body melted into his, as he pulled me close, the water running over both of us.

“I fucking love you, Chloe,” he said. Then proceeded to show me just how much.

---

Ten minutes later, I got out of the shower, leaving Quinn to finish up. I towel dried my hair, put on my clothes from last night, and went back out into the living room. Carson had found shorts and a T-shirt while I was gone, and was sitting on the couch with his arms crossed. He didn’t look at me when I entered the room.

“Did you just fuck him in my shower?” he spat, the words like venom.

“What?” He couldn't possibly be asking me what I thought he was.

“You heard me,” he said, almost glaring at me. “You and Quinn just fucked in my shower.” It wasn’t a question.

“Are you shitting me right now? In case you forgot in the last twenty minutes, Quinn is my husband; he’s the one I’m supposed to be fucking, not you.”

Carson finally looked at me. He looked angry, and hurt, and confused all rolled into one.

“What about last night? I thought you ‘wanted me so bad,’” Carson said in a mock girly voice.

“You’re an asshole. I was drunk and horny.”

“You’re a liar. You come in here this morning half-naked, practically begging me to fuck you, and now you’re going to try and tell me it was nothing.”

“Do you hear yourself? Did you hit your head this morning? Did you forget that I’m married to your best friend?”

“So that’s it?”

“What the hell do you want from me? What am I supposed to do?” I was asking Carson as much as I was asking myself. This was exactly what I had been afraid of, although I expected the possessiveness from Quinn, not Carson.

I’d known Carson for a just about as long as I’d known Quinn and we’d become friends almost instantly. Not the fake friendship you have with your boyfriend’s friends just to keep the peace— a genuine friendship. Our friendship had only grown once his girlfriend dumped him for her CrossFit instructor, and he moved back to Portland.

There had been years of innocent flirting, but I had always thought Carson flirted with me just to mess with Quinn. There had been nothing to suggest Carson had feelings for me, nothing—until now—that had suggested my dirty fantasies were reciprocated. Hell, I was practically one of the guys with those two; the idiots talked about nothing but sports, beer, and vaginas when I was around.

“Unbelievable,” Carson muttered under his breath, bringing my attention back to him. He looked hot as fuck when he was mad. I wanted to cross the room, run my hand through his messy blond hair, and kiss him with everything I had. But that wasn’t an option right now.

“Fuck you. I’m leaving,” I said. I grabbed my purse off the floor and my phone off the kitchen counter and left. I was glad Carson and Quinn had already been together when I’d gotten off work last night. I had been annoyed about having to drive to Carson’s to meet them then, but now I was glad I had a way to escape.

I texted Quinn on my way out.

I needed to get away.

Great, more of Carson. I threw my phone on the seat of my car and pulled out of the parking lot, pushing the Bluetooth button on my steering wheel.

“Call Dani,” I said. The phone rang for what seemed like an eternity. “Come on, come on, come on, please pick-up,” I whispered. Just before I was ready to hang up, Dani answered.

“There better be a damn good reason you’re calling me before ten on a Saturday,” she said.

“Hello to you, too.”

“Seriously, what time is it?” she asked through a yawn.

“It’s almost nine … it's not that early.” I glanced at the clock on my dashboard as I navigated the streets of Portland. “Get up I’ll pick you up for breakfast.”

“I’m going to hang up now.” She yawned again.

“No, please don’t,” I begged. “I really need to talk to you.” The desperation in my voice perked her up.

“What happened?”

“I’m not talking about it over the phone. Get dressed. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

“Fine, but this better good.”

“Trust me, it is,” I said before disconnecting the call.

Dani was waiting on the curb when I pulled up, her blonde hair in a messy bun on top of her head. She was wearing yoga pants, flip-flops, dark sunglasses, and a T-shirt with the words “Bite Me” on the front. I couldn’t help but smile at the sight of my best friend.

We had met at a dual-college sorority volunteer project freshman year. Dani had been at Oregon, and I was in the fashion design program at Oregon State. We had been paired together to pull weeds at the house we were fixing up. We’d bonded instantly over our hatred for weeds, ditching the project and using our fake IDs to get into a dive bar down the street, spending the rest of the afternoon getting drunk on $3 beers. We’d been friends ever since.

“Good morning,” I said a little too cheerily. Dani wasn’t a morning person and I could feel her death stare, even through her aviators. She didn’t say anything, just pointed to her shirt. I laughed and pulled back out onto the street and headed to our favorite breakfast spot a few miles away.

“Spill the beans,” she said five minutes later, the first words she’d spoken since she got in the car. I bit my lip and looked sideways at her. “Come on … out with it. I didn’t get up before nine to have to drag information out of you.”

“All right, all right.” I pulled up to the diner, surprised there was anywhere to park. I turned to face Dani. She sipped on the water bottle she always had with her.

“I had a threesome, with Quinn and Carson.” I just ripped off the Band-Aid. Dani coughed and spit her water all over me. “Come on!” I glared at her as I wiped water off my arms.

Dani finally regained her composure, took off her sunglasses, and stared at me, her blue eyes boring into me like lasers.

“Are you fucking serious? Wait, don’t answer that, I know you are. Jesus, Chloe, when you said it was going to be good, I didn’t think it would be this good. How did it happen? How was it? Oh my God, what happened this morning?” Dani rambled off the million questions I had known she would ask, getting more excited by the second. I’d talked to Dani more about having a threesome than I ever had with Quinn. She knew all about my secret crush on Carson, and all my dirty fantasies.

“Can we get some coffee and food?” I asked. “I promise I’ll tell you all the details.”

“Fine,” she said, getting out of the car. When we were seated in a booth, coffee in front of us, orders taken, she turned and looked at me, a huge grin spread across her face.

“What?” I said.

“I didn’t think you had it in you. I mean, you’ve been fantasizing about Carson for how long now? I didn’t think you were ever going to do anything about it.”

“Well, I did, and now everything is fucked up.”

“Oh, come on, it can’t be that bad.”

“It’s pretty bad.”

“Tell me about the sex first. I don’t want to be depressed before I even have breakfast.”

I smiled as I remembered last night. Carson’s mouth on me, two sets of hands on my skin, two cocks in my mouth, three amazing orgasms.

“Earth to Chloe.” Dani snapped her fingers in front of my face. “That good, huh?”

“It was fucking amazing. Like, ohmygod incredible.” A shiver ran down my spine at the memories.

“How many times did you come?”

“Dani!”

“What? It’s a legitimate question. And I want to know.” When I didn’t say anything, she badgered me. “Tell me now, or we can’t be friends anymore.”

“Three.”

She squealed with delight, and I laughed. “Well,” she said a few minutes later, her mouth full of breakfast burrito.

“Well, what?” I said, taking a bite of biscuits and gravy.

“Details woman! I need details!” She pounded her fist on the table, and a couple a few tables away looked up at us cautiously.

“Fine.” There was no point in arguing with her; I knew she’d win … she always won. She would know if I was leaving something out and would pester me until I finally gave up the details. “First orgasm, Carson went down on me. Second one, he was fucking me from behind, while I sucked Quinn off.” A piece of burrito fell out of her mouth as she gaped at me, for once in her life speechless. “Third was with Quinn, me on top, while I gave Carson a blow job.”

Of course, the waitress chose that exact moment to walk up to our table. She turned a deep shade of red and stared at me like I had three heads. She held a coffee pot in her hand, but was too stunned to speak. I lifted my cup so she could fill it, and then she was gone, practically running away from our table. Dani burst out laughing, but I was less amused.

“This was definitely worth getting up for,” she laughed. I didn’t say anything, just watched her over my mug. “What else?”

“What do you mean what else? What else can you possibly need to know?”

“Who initiated it? How did this even happen? Where, when, and how did they come?”

“Oh my God, okay, I get it.” I put my hands up in surrender. “You want ALL the details.”

“I initiated it. Well sort of...” I relayed the dance with Carson and conversation that followed.

“Damn girl, you’ve got some balls.”

“I didn’t think Quinn was going to agree, we’ve never really had a serious conversation about it and even then, I didn’t think Carson would be on board. I still can’t believe it actually happened.” I leaned back in the booth and let out a sigh. It was something I was always going to remember.

“You didn’t answer the last question,” Dani said a few minutes later as we got back into my car. I gave her a look that said do-you-really-need-me-to-answer-that, but she just nodded. “Yes, I want all the details.”

“Quinn, inside me. Carson, in my mouth. There … happy? You know all the dirty details now.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say I’m unhappy.” She leaned back in the seat, a smug look on her face as I shifted into drive and headed for her house.

“So what happened this morning?” she asked. I sighed again, this time the sound more frustrated than content.

I launched into the story of this morning, leaving no details out this time, this part being where I needed the most help—the entire reason I’d called Dani. We pulled up outside her house before I finished, and Dani turned to face me as I shifted into park.

“Well, you’re fucked,” she said, matter-of-factly.

“Help me,” I pleaded.

“Come inside. We can make some mimosas and figure out this giant mess you got yourself into.” I groaned and buried my face in my hands.

---

Three hours and a bottle of champagne later, we were no closer to figuring out what I should do. Dani had asked a lot of uncomfortable questions, like best friends did. Was I happy with Quinn? Was this thing with Carson just about sex? Was I going to tell Quinn about what had happened that morning? What did I want? I’d rattled off the answers in my head: “yes, maybe, no, I don't know.”

The truth was, I was happy with Quinn. We’d been together for eight years and had just celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary in May. My love for him had grown and changed over time, so it wasn’t the young, stupid, we’re invincible kind of love we’d had early on, but it was still there, and felt stronger than ever. I couldn’t imagine having a relationship with anyone else. But Carson made me feel things I’d never felt before, got me excited in ways I’d never imagined, and made my heart race and my head spin without even touching me.

“What are you thinking about?” Dani asked when I’d been quiet for several minutes.

“Why I’m never drinking tequila again,” I responded dryly.

“Let’s be real … this had nothing to do with alcohol. You saw an opportunity to bring a fantasy to life, and you took it.” I leaned my head against the back of her couch and groaned. I knew she was right. There was no one to blame but myself.

“And don’t sit there and pretend like you regret it either, because you and I both know you’d do it again if you had the chance. I don’t really even see what the big deal is here … Quinn isn’t the one freaking out. He’s the one you should be worried about, seeing as you’re married to him. Who gives a shit what Carson wants? He’s the other dude, so he doesn’t get a say. Tell him to fuck off. He’ll get over it.”

“Or he won’t.”

“So what? Then you three don’t hang out together anymore, no big deal.”

“I like hanging out with them,” I said. “I like Carson. I’ve always liked Carson.”

“Obviously…” Dani smirked. “But that’s not the point. You might like Carson, but he’s just your friend. If shit gets weird, you’re going to have to see less of him. You’re over-thinking this, Chloe, like you always do. This doesn’t have to be the end of the world.”

“What about this morning?”

“What about it?”

“Did you forget the part where I almost fucked Carson in the kitchen?”

“Eh.” She shrugged. “Almost doesn’t count. Call it an extension of last night.” I rolled my eyes, but she was right. I didn’t owe Carson an explanation. I didn’t owe Carson anything.

“You’re right,” I sighed, admitting defeat.

“Of course I’m right.” She smiled. “That’s why you love me.”