Page 9 of Hard to Judge

That’s when I know all this, me on his lap and my lips on his cheek, is for show. It doesn’t mean anything. It’s Arlo flexing his kink muscles, exerting his power, and finding new levels of comfort with himself. All this is amazing. He’s able to touch people now and push his limits.

Yet it’s less.

It has nothing to do with me. I’m just another puppet. And I hate myself for feeling anything other than joy for his progress.

The master tugs the string, and Karris is on his hands and knees. There’s a lusty grin on his face despite the reservations of his date.

“Now we’re talking!” Natalia whoops.

When Karris reaches Hailey’s feet, his white teeth flash as he nips her knee.

Arlo sighs. “That mouth is what got us into this predicament in the first place. Open up.” He nods to Hailey. “Give him something to keep him quiet.”

She stuffs the edge of the bag into his mouth. His white teeth clamp onto the material.

“Now, deliver it,” Arlo orders.

Laurent speaks in his native tongue about how this is the most interesting American party he’s ever been to while Nat, Hailey’s aunt, alternates between clapping and telling Karris what a good boy he is.

“He’s not a good boy. He wouldn’t know how to be one.” Arlo’s gaze lifts from the spectacle of Karris to me. “You are a good boy,” he whispers.

My dick goes impossibly hard.

Hailey leans over, placing her face close to mine and her breast in Arlo’s face because of the angle. “He could be the best boy.”

Arlo blinks at her as though she’s said something revolutionary when it’s simply something that doesn’t make any sense.

“I can’t believe Karris delivered every package on all fours.” Hailey saunters into the third-floor study. I see her freshly showered form in the window’s reflection. “Did you see the way Dobson was watching him?” She sighs. “It’s just a matter of time with those two.”

“That’s complicated.” I stay at the window instead of going to her like I normally would.

“What isn’t?” She shrugs.

Her hair is wet, and a silk robe clings to her chest and accentuates her hips. She sits on my desk and props a foot in my chair while sliding one gorgeous leg over the other. She’s not trying to seduce me. One elbow balances on her knee, and her chin is propped in her palm. She’s deep in thought, as am I.

I’d like to say we’re not complicated, but holy fuck were we. Hell, we still are after what went down this evening.

“Cut the fester and let it out.” My lover is a psychologist. Not so long ago, she was my psychologist. In many ways, she still is.

My eyes stare out across the cityscape of New York, New York, yet I see none of it.

“I can’t believe I didn’t know.” One of my hands rubs at my heart while the other tugs at the hair at my nape. “He slept on the street, Hailey. And that wasn’t the worst of it. I could see it in his eyes. It was bad, really bad, and I didn’t know.”

The scar tissue around my heart pulses with phantom pains. My guts feel like they might rot me from the inside out.

“There are many things you don’t know. Some because you weren’t meant to know. Others because you’re too afraid to ask.”

When I turn, she offers me a barefaced half smile.

“He was always so capable. He is so capable. I never thought…” I never thought he could be vulnerable. I never thought he wanted to go to Harvard with me. Why would he when I put him through hell?

I relied on him for my every breath, then pushed him away with the next. I hid from him until he made me face my uncle. The man helped me kill my tormentor when he was barely more than a boy. He saved me from the devil, and I still couldn’t be what he needed, what he deserved.

“Who is Nate?” As always, Hailey excavates one layer at a time to reach the heart of the matter. And Nate is a layer.

“He’s a guy we were in boarding school with. A guy who wrestled, who had a thing for Hota since year eleven.”

“Were they together?”

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