"Darrell's gonna fuck me," said Liz, "but I'm not cheating on you."
The slur in her speech wasn't enough to garble that. Bret still said, "How's that again?"
"He'll explain it," said Liz, assaying the final three steps to the patio sofa without rolling an ankle, though her spiked heels made that an almost. Her breasts wobbled, nips clearly seeking to slip beyond the loose, low neckline, as she flopped next to her husband. The drink in her hand stayed perfectly level, clearly intending to impair her further.
She leaned to nibble on Bret's ear. "And you can fuck Glynis too. It's all on the square."
Bret, his blood alcohol not too elevated, had been scowling until she said that. He definitely wanted to fuck Glynis, along with about thirty other women in Regency Estates. He even wanted to keep fucking Liz. Until now, it seemed like the latter was his only option.
"What, so, is this wife-swapping?" he asked. "Like, it isn't cheating, because we all agree on it, and everybody's happy?"
"Nobody has to agree, 'cept me and Darrell." Liz then downed much of her drink. "If you don't agree, then fuck off. It ain't cheating because...he'll explain it."
Bret looked out at the cocktail party, similar to every other cocktail party in Regency Estates. There was a party every night, only the location changed, but not so you could tell. All of the large, opulent houses were pretty much the same. So were all of the couples living in them. Bret had a vague awareness of a song about that, sort of funny but maybe insulting. As he tried to recall it, it slipped from his mind. That seemed to happen a lot to him, in Regency Estates.
Darrell and Glynis, looking like the least inebriated people on the Collinsons' pool deck, approached. Bret could imagine them swinging together, or cheating separately. He could believe that there was adultery everywhere around here. He hadn't tried for that himself.
As the other couple arrived, the first synapses that clicked in Bret's brain were macho-aggressive. "Do I have to kick your ass, motherfucker?" Bret growled at Darrell. "Comin' on to my wife?"
"Be cool, Bro," said Darrell, taking a chair across from the sofa. "It's just a way to have fun that's no harm to anybody." He glanced at his wife, who lowered herself onto the chair next to him. "If you do it to my lady, I'd have nothing to complain about."
"Since when are you swingers?" asked Bret, looking at Glynis, at Darrell, at Glynis, at her cleavage.
"We're not," said Glynis. "You know what a germophobe I am, Bret. You think I'd let STIs anywhere near me?" Her auburn hair was in a bouffant that might have reached her head through a cosmic wormhole from 1965.
"So what's all this about?" Bret spread his hands in puzzlement, only then noticing that Liz had dozed off, leaning on his shoulder, blonde tresses a-tumble.
Darrell chuckled, looking at Liz. "I guess she didn't explain."
Liz murmured, "Your job," eyes still closed.
Darrell's eyes turned towards Glynis. "I suppose we could demonstrate."
"You and me, for them?" asked Glynis. She looked at Bret with a crooked smile. "I think we should put it into actual practice." She glanced at Darrell. "If you really believe this isn't cheating."
Darrell's smile vanished.
Glynis winked at Bret. He had no idea what was going on, but his cock thickened.
Darrell looked now at Liz. Bret saw what he saw, that a shoulder strap had slid down her arm, and Liz's entire left breast was exposed, in all its bulk and beauty.
Glynis said to Darrell, "You've always wondered if hers are better." Then, to Bret: "Do you wonder about mine?" She leaned towards him and drew in a large, theatrical breath, straining the deeply-darted fabric on the upper part of her dress.
Darrell nodded, and stood. "All right, yes. I'll arrange it."
Bret watched him thread among the smart-casual-dressed men and dolled-up women. Bret didn't understand how Regency Estates upheld this situation, with every resident affluent somehow and all the kids falling asleep early and staying that way until morning. The place was gated, but more than that. It was walled in, with guards on duty 24/7, hi-res security cams on every streetlight, drone patrols, maybe more that Bret had never seen.
Whenever he thought about that, Bret got distracted, usually by the sight of a woman he wanted to bang. Even Glynis's normal breathing got his whole attention.
Darrell returned less than a minute later, and gestured the others to follow. Bret, with an arm around Liz, concluded that the Collinsons weren't using the Access Room. Nor was anyone else. It was still early in the evening, no serious hanky-panky prospects had formed up.
Bret winked at a few women, believing that his smile wasn't a leer. He told himself that if he came on to them, he might make their husbands into his enemies. A flicker of fear at getting his ass kicked was quickly doused by the thought that he should stay on good terms with the men in Regency Estates. They were successful, maybe favors could be traded. In his mind there might have been an echo from his youth, 'bros before hos,' maybe from his own voice, but that vanished as he made eye contact with yet another attractive woman.
Every house in Regency Estates had a room in the basement that was available to any resident as long as the homeowners weren't using it. It wasn't a Panic Room. Every house had one of those, also, completely controlled by the homeowners. The Panic Rooms were full of electronics and control panels and displays, which could alleviate paranoia, and also boost it.
The Access Room didn't look special at all. Two sofas, four overstuffed chairs, thick plush carpeting, recessed ceiling lights, no windows. Bret didn't see any electronics. For an instant he wondered if they were present anyway. Then he remembered that he might get sex in this place, and that claimed his focus.
Glynis said to her husband, "You talk. Bret and I will act it out."
Darrell still looked unhappy, but said to Bret, "Cheating is physical. We all know that. Men know that."
Liz, dress more or less in place, giggled as she settled on a sofa. "This part is hilarious."
Bret saw that Liz had a fresh drink. He didn't know when she got it. On the way here, when Bret wasn't ogling other wives, he had been focused on the sway and roll of Glynis's ass.
"Women worry about emotions," Darrell continued. "Men, real men, don't. The purpose of this, then, is for a man to gain sexual satisfaction without a woman committing an act that a man would see as cheating."
Bret sneered. "Like phone sex? The woman talks dirty and keeps her hands clean?"
"No," said Darrell. "This is physical. You fuck a woman. But not in a way that what she does can be considered cheating."
"You think I'd
force
myself on her?"
"You definitely won't. She gives consent to this specific kind of fucking."
"Without cheating?"
"Think of it," said Darrell, now looking charged up by his idea. "What is sex, really? The act of a man inseminating a woman. Yet the weakest sort of men are so insecure that they enlarge the concept of cheating to include any other act in which a man actively derives pleasure from a woman, and any act in which a woman takes specific action to give pleasure to a man's genitals. Oral sex, anal sex, handjobs, breast fondling and licking, must all be confined to a married pair, or there is said to be cheating. The weaklings have missed one thing, however. A thing for which our wives are highly qualified."
"So, Bret," said Glynis, "take off your pants."
"Whaaaatt?!"
yelled Bret. He looked at Glynis, with her tiny smile; at Liz, who guffawed; and at Darrell, who was forcing himself to look neutral.
"Of course, all of those sex acts, and more," said Darrell, "can be extra-marital if everyone involved agrees, and approves. What's brilliant about this is, even if the spouses
don't
approve, it can't be called cheating."
Bret had a flash of insight, before he could flash anatomically. "Is this something you're pushing in a divorce case?"