Page 21 of Shades of Henry
“But I couldn’t do it. Not one more time. Dammit, I loved the Army. I… I wanted to shine. My CO came to me one night and asked me why I was holding myself back. He told me Mal would never be more than a hometown guy, and friendship and loyalty were one thing, but Mal didn’t have the promise I did. And a part of me was angry, you know? I wanted to show him that Ididdo shit right and Ididn’tfuck around. So I took the test, and I got the promotion, and I told Mal, hey, we had a reason not to do the thing anymore. Because it could ruin us both.”
“What did he say?” Lance asked.
And Henry shook his head, because he thought, hey, that should cover it, right? Things didn’t work out—obviously.
“Henry, what did he say?”
“He was… he was pissed. And he… you know. Always liked a rough fuck when he was pissed….”
“Herapedyou?” Lance’s voice came out as a squeak. “Is that what you’re telling me?”
“Well, seduced,” Henry said, because it had dignity. Lance’s hand clamped around his ankle then, not gentle.
“Define seduced.”
Seduced. Seduction was a hand over his mouth, bent over the bed of his new private barracks, cold tile hard against his knees, in pain.
Without lube.
“Coerced, then,” Henry managed to admit, but his face was wet, and he wasn’t sure how it happened. He tried wiping his eyes on his T-shirt, and it came back soaked.
“Henry,” Lance murmured, and his touch grew softer again. “C’mon, man. Say it. Just to me. I won’t tell a soul.”
Henry shook his head. “Don’t make me say the word.”
“Henry—”
No. “I wish that was the worst part,” Henry choked, because he couldn’t get the rest of the story out if he said the word.
“There’s something worse?”
“For me, yeah. He threatened me. He threatened to tell our CO, have me court-martialed, have the entire affair blow up in our faces, if I didn’t keep… doing what we’d been doing.”
C’mon, Henry. I don’t like doing it this way. Just keep being sweet. It’ll all be okay.
“Oh, honey—”
“My sister has a baby, and she’s pregnant again. If it blew up, and she found out, her life would be over. But I… I thought we were doing it because we were….” God. “At least friends,” he said bitterly.
“You were in love with him, and he betrayed your trust,” Lance said.
“Is that what love feels like?” Henry rubbed his chest, and then shook his head. “I’m the bad guy here. I was fucking my sister’s husband. I mean, there’s no sugarcoating that.”
“People aren’t all black and white, Henry.” Lance gave him a game smile. “I mean, my dad’s Russian and my mom’s Filipino—living proof, right?”
“That they should bottle that gene pool?” Henry said, smiling a little. “Damned straight.” God, he was beautiful.
“No flirting in confessional,” Lance said, and he dropped Henry’s one ankle, so Henry could bend his knee again—and then started to stroke the other one.
“Understood,” Henry said.
“So what did you do? I mean, you’re here.”
“I went to my CO and confessed the whole thing,” Henry said. He closed his eyes, remembering the man’s sorrow, his disappointment. “He was… kinder than I’d expected. Told me that I had two choices. I could take the dishonorable discharge, and Malachi could keep his job, or it could come down to a court-martial, and it would be my word against his. He said….” Henry swallowed. “He said now that I had rank, it was likely they’d find in Mal’s favor.”
“And both your careers would be ruined.”
Henry let out a breath. “It’s… I was fucking my sister’s husband,” he said again, as if Lance hadn’t gotten the enormity of that sin. “It just seemed better for her. She and my nephew and the baby in her stomach are innocent. I thought….” He couldn’t go on.
