Page 15 of Opening It Up (Humbled Superstars #2)

Harley

L unches fucking sucked now that Lily-Mae was always too busy to eat with me, and I moped morosely down to the café to see Jeff waving me over to sit with him and some of the other marketing professionals in his office.

I had already sat down beside him before realizing Brayden was there, too.

He didn’t seem at all embarrassed by the fact that he’d punched me squarely on the nose the last time we’d met.

“Dude, your wife is so dope,” Brayden grinned, clapping me heavily on the shoulder. “I don’t blame you for getting all pissed that I’m dating her too.”

“Thanks for understanding,” I said dryly.

“Dude, your wife is so baller,” he went on enthusiastically.

“Oh, my God, I'd take her out every night if I could. And bro, good on you for suggesting an open marriage. Like I wanted her for so long but, like, didn’t think I’d ever have a chance when you were all monogamous and shit.

Fucking selfish to keep her to yourself, man. ”

“We have a very organized schedule,” I said stiffly.

“Yeah, I know your schedule,” Brayden said. “Family night is Friday night. Other than that I have to be fighting fucking Leopold for her every chance I get.”

Why had I only said Friday night was family night? Why had I ever thought that was a good idea?

I must have been experiencing some temporary insanity, because this whole schedule had been just way too hastily thought out.

I didn't remember what sources I had gone to, but the authors must have been a bunch of dumbasses, because I could not possibly do without Lily Mae for all these nights.

“What’s so great about her?” one of the other PR guys asked, shoveling fries in his mouth.

“Dude, where do I start?” Brayden rejoiced. “Fucking genius level pussy, man. Like literally prime rib pussy. Tits you could go to war for. And she’s freaking funny, too.”

My eyes felt like they burned as I stared at the menu.

How many more weeks did I have left of this?

I didn’t think I was going to survive them.

“It’s so easy to make her come, too,” the younger man said. “Like she’ll come two or three times with barely any effort.”

Barely any effort? What the fuck was I doing wrong? How many orgasms were these dipshits giving her? I needed to step it up.

“How is your wife?” I asked Jeff, because I couldn’t stand hearing Brayden talk any more about how wonderful it was to have sex with my wife.

“I don’t know,” my friend said, waving his hand in the air.

“What do you mean you don’t know how your wife is?”

“She actually—well, we might be--separating for a while, actually. Well, it turns out she--didn't really want to do the open marriage after all.”

My blood ran absolutely cold.

“I thought you said she agreed to it?”

“Well, I begged and pleaded. Kind of twisted her arm into it.”

Shit

Lily-Mae had said she wanted this, didn't she?

“So now I’m really single and ready to mingle!” Jeff added. “Hey, there’s an admin assistant in my office who is a huge fan of yours. Why don’t I bring her over here?”

But I didn’t want that at all.

With a horrible lurch in my stomach, I knew I was lying to myself. I had never dreamed my wife would actually go out with other men.

I hadn’t wanted an open marriage at all.

With how much she loved me. I just never thought she’d go for it.

I guess I thought she’d. . .maybe go on a few dates.

But nothing like this.

I wasn't imagining anything like what was currently happening.

“Dude, she does this thing with her tongue,” Brayden began as this woman from Jeff’s office sat down across from me.

“I took her to another concert the other night, and holy fucking hell, everyone there was jealous of me because of how hot she looked grinding up against me.”

What the hell? The last time I had danced with Lily-Mae had been at my cousin's wedding, where we had done the Foxtrot.

“Dude, can I get her number?” the other guy asked.

I almost choked on my drink. Did every man here want to date my wife?

But Brayden spoke up even quicker.

“Oh, hell no, fuck no.”

“I thought you said that she had an open marriage,” he complained.

“Hell, no.” Brayden said again. “I'm not giving you her number. I'm not splitting her time up even more. I've already got to fight Leopold for her time. I'm not gonna fight you too.”

“Oh, come on, you're making his wife sound so hot.”

“She is so hot,” Braden shot back. “That's why I'm not giving you her number. I don't want you calling her.”

Makayla whipped her ponytail around from the next booth over.

“Be quiet! I’m sick of hearing about Lily-Mae!”

They both ignored her and Brayden jerked his phone away so the other man couldn’t grab her number that way.

Just then, a limousine pulled up, and my wife stepped out of the car.

“Damn Leopold,” Brayden hissed. “That rich bastard. I wish I didn't have to do this stupid job. Then I could have taken her out for a late lunch.”

Lily-Mae put her sunglasses on as she got out of the car. There was a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach as I saw her lips were pink and puffed up, her hair disarranged artfully, and she was adjusting her skirt.

“So what kind of music do you like to listen to?” this woman asked.

Jeff said her name and I couldn’t even hear it. Couldn’t even have said what color her hair was.

“I’m such a major fan of the podcast,” she added.

But I had only one thing on my mind.

The fact that my God , did my wife look hot.

She was wearing a tight pin-striped shirt, and a tight black skirt with high heels, and she looked relaxed and happy.

Leopold put out a hand and helped her out, then wrapped a big arm around my wife's waist and bent down and kissed her.

“Give me that phone,” the other jackass said, grabbing for it. “Come on, bro.”

“I absolutely will not.” Brayden said, putting the other man in a headlock.

As they began to scuffle, Jeff looked up from his morose perusal of his phone.

“Dude, this divorce is really gonna cost me,” he said. “Like a lot.”

I had made a huge mistake.

I didn’t want to do this a moment longer. I wanted my wife back.

I watched as Leopold’s hand tightened on Lily-Mae’s waist.

What had they been doing in that limo? I was so choked with jealousy it felt like I was going to throw up.

“I heard he has a monster dick,” Makayla hissed in my ear. “Like bigger around than my thigh. That’s what I heard.”

Brayden shoved his coworker aside and bounded to the door to open it for my wife.

“Lily-Mae!”

There was a brief scuffle for who got to take her purse but then both men led her to a booth.

They were sitting directly behind me now.

She didn’t even look at me, and I tried not to hyperventilate, tried to concentrate on this random woman (did her name start with a K? Kourtney? Karli?). But all I could think about was my wife in the booth behind me, and the two men arguing about who got to take her out on Sunday.

“Come on,” Brayden coaxed. “It’ll be a perfect day for floating down the river.”

“Nonsense,” Leopold said. “Lily-Mae doesn’t want to spend all day in some filthy mud puddle watching you make armpit noises. She wants to go wine tasting with me.”

“She can get a bottle of wine on the river,” Brayden insisted. “Problem solved.”

“I’ve seen what you drink,” Leopold snorted. “I’m not going to let her get food poisoning hanging out with you and your day-old tuna sandwich ass friends.”

My wife seemed to find this all very amusing.

But I was burning with jealousy to get her to myself.

“I’ll be right back,” Lily-Mae laughed. “Maybe you can leg wrestle for it.”

My eyes followed her as she left the room and I instantly got up and pursued.

By the time I got to the hallway, she was already in the bathroom, so I paced up and down outside.

Come on, I was supposed to be so good with words.

“Why don’t we spend the day together?” I asked as soon as she emerged, catching at her sleeve.

“Silly,” she chuckled, brushing me off. “It’s not Friday night.”

“We don’t have to only spend time together on Friday nights,” I said, realizing to my horror my voice had risen to a whine.

She raised her eyebrows.

“What’s the problem?” she asked.

“I don’t like this at all. You are my wife.”

“You don’t like what?”

“How our open marriage is going. I don’t like having to wait in line for my own wife.”

“Oh, Harley,” she said, patting me kindly on the shoulder. “You’ll get used to less attention from me.”

“I don’t want less attention from you!” I cried.

She poked her head in and looked at Kaylee. Or was it Kayleigh? Fuck, I sucked at this.

“She seems nice,” my wife said nicely.

“I hate her,” I said passionately. “I only want you, baby! I’m sick of this shit! I want my wife back!”

But she was already heading back into the café.

My shoulders slumping, I went back and sat down, my lunch untouched in front of me.

“So you have an open marriage?” Kaylee/Kayleigh asked encouragingly. “Want to go out sometime?”

“No,” I said, staring down at my hands. They trembled ever so slightly as my fingers tightened around my coffee cup. “I’m not going out with anyone besides my wife.”

I hoped Lily-Mae heard this, but Leopold and Brayden were arguing so loudly.

“You know I can go again right away,” Brayden said, leaning forward and resting his obscenely muscled arms on the café table. “ He’s gonna need like 45 minutes and three whiskeys to go again.”

Leopold only snorted. “No one needs you jackhammering away for hours. Quality is more important. How many times have you made her squirt?”

Squirt? I had never seen my wife squirt in her life.

Before I could stop myself, I whirled around and clutched my wife’s arm.

“Emergency,” I gasped. “We have to go.”

“What’s the emergency?” she asked skeptically.

“The washer, it’s—making a--funny noise.”

Both Leopold and Brayden looked pissed.

“Run along and fix it then,” Leopold said.

“Don’t bother Lily-Mae with dumb shit like this,” Brayden added. “She’s too beautiful for it.”

“Please,” I said. “It’s—it might explode.”

Lily-Mae’s cool eyes met mine, then she shrugged and stood up.

“We have to go,” I insisted.

“There’s no problem with the washer, is there?” she asked as we drove down the road.

“I—maybe. I don’t know. Better safe than sorry.”

“Harley, you can’t be getting jealous with every date I go on. What happened to letting each other experience new moments of unexpected joy? To meeting new people?”

“I didn’t think you’d be out here squirting all over my business colleagues! Why aren’t you squirting for me? I can make you squirt.”

“If you didn’t want me having sex with other men, you shouldn’t have suggested an open marriage,” Lily-Mae said with unconcern.

“Fine. I fucked up,” I begged her. “I admit it.”

“You admit what?”

“This open marriage idea was a way to. . .to sleep with someone without guilt.”

I wriggled in shame under my wife’s eyes.

“And who is someone ?”

“Makayla,” I said miserably.

“How nice for you. How come you didn’t bring her on the date then?”

“It’s—not going very well. I didn’t—it wasn’t what I had thought it would be. It wasn’t anything like you ,” I rushed on. “Not at all.”

“That’s too bad.”

“Please,” I begged. “Can we pretend this never happened? I admit I was wrong. I’m so sorry.”

My wife took out her lipstick and began to apply a fresh coat, my cock twitching as she pressed her lips together.

“Guess what, Harley? I knew you fucked her. You’ve been lying to me for weeks. I can’t just pretend this never happened, because you’ve completely destroyed my trust in you and I don’t know what you could do to get it back.”

Then she brought out her phone and began taking a few selfies, adjusting her top, but there was no adjustment that could make her look better than she did—perfect skin, gleaming smile, curvy, intoxicating body, everything about her dripping sex and desire.

“Please,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

“You were so right that this has expanded our horizons,” she said. “For example, I bet you didn’t think I’d actually go out with other men, did you? What a fun new horizon to expand.”