26. Arlo
It’s been twelve minutes since I stowed my dick away, and I’m hard again. I know just the place to put it.
The limo’s door opens, and I step out. Late afternoon sun gleams off the side of my jet as it taxis to the carpet between us. It stops, the engines quiet, and a few minutes later, the door opens. Sana peers out and shoots a laser beam smile my way.
I give her my usual nod, but already my eyes scan the interior for a glimpse of Hailey. My palms rub together in an effort to appease this new desire to touch. It’s a foreign concept, but one I’m becoming quite fluent in for one person. And one person only.
Why can I touch her so easily, when she’s not the first person I’ve yearned to touch?
Maybe it’s her impenetrable walls. They force me to scale mine to catch a glimpse of what is on the other side of hers. She makes me leap in hopes that she follows.
When we said goodbye minutes ago, I saw her rebuilding the footholds I’d made. She’s scared. Me too, but I’m willing to risk everything for her. I just have to show her that the risk is worth the reward.
Then again, maybe it’s the euphoria of skin on skin. For so long, it was pain. Then the memories of that pain were so fresh, it marred any chance to experience that addictive kind of touch.
I am addicted to the feel of Hailey’s skin on mine. It’s all I think about. She is all I think about.
Natalia descends the stairs first. For the first time, I find her pretty silver hair in disarray and her eyes red-rimmed. My heart drops a notch.
Have I fucked up? Jumping to the conclusion that Hailey needed me to distract her. Leaping at the assumption that she’d like to see me when she returns.
Plinko’s box stalls in the doorway with Hailey’s arms wrapped around it. She bids adieu to my pilots and Hota, who caught a ride back. It might have been overkill, sending him the day before to secure their route and arrival, but I’ll risk being overzealous for her.
Her aunt reaches the bottom of the stairs and notices me. Her sorrow is slowly overshadowed by a wide grin and a small wave. I give one back and feel only a little bad that my dick was in that hand minutes ago.
Hailey descends the steps. Her eyes are locked on the metal treads, stepping carefully with her arms full. I drink her in like a perfectly aged bourbon. She goes down smooth and somehow leaves me breathless. Red hair cascades down her back in wild curls that my fingers itch to tangle inside. Her pale pink dress and the glorious curves of her body are hidden behind a brown and black houndstooth coat. But every step she takes reveals a hint of long leg that peeks out as she positions the low boot on the next tread. Every time she comes closer to me.
I discreetly adjust myself.
Nat is jarred by the box of Plinko in her back. She shuffles to the side and takes him from her niece at the same time Hailey’s confused expression shifts from the stairs, to her aunt, and then to me.
I don’t know what I expected from her. Perhaps, I hoped for a running leap into my arms. A little much for a man who didn’t touch anyone a couple of weeks ago. I’m nothing if not an optimist. She gives me a myriad of emotions in the span of two seconds.
Surprise. Joy. Fear. Confusion. Lust. Amusement. Sadness.
She settles on disbelief with her sweet lips slightly parted.
A buzz zips through me. She’s beautiful and a little broken, like me. I want to gather her pieces up, help her sort through them, examine them, and ease them back together.
If only she’ll let me.
I crook my finger at her.
She obeys.
Still, I push forward to meet her halfway. My need to be near her not allowing me to remain at the car. We stop with our shoes almost touching. Her stunning green eyes stare up at me. “Hi.” Her simple word whispers into the cool air.
Before I can restrain myself, my hands bracket hers. I lift them to my lips and drag kisses along her knuckles, the prominent eight, and then press her left palm to my cheek. The smile that blooms on her face is like sunlight to a frozen plain. New life sprouts within me.
My crew gasps. I ignore them.
“Hello, Hailey.” I shove the first two fingers of her right hand into my mouth. Her taste goes straight to my heads, both of them. I suck her fingers clean, and she shivers. “I’d like to see you all home, if you’ll let me.”
The gasps turn into hoots and catcalls.
“Oh, the things I’ll let you do,” she says with sass and seduction, but her other hand freed now, brackets my face and she pulls me close. Very slowly, as if giving me time to back out, she presses her cheek to my temple in a gesture so sweet my knees go weaker than they did at my climax.
The warmth of her hands spreads through me like a tonic, demolishing the toxins that have festered inside me for so long. It revitalizes my immune system. Now, its only weakness is its only antidote.
I’m fucked in the best possible way.
A smile stretches my lips.
She eases back. Her eyes stay on my face, studying the angles. “With a smile like that, there aren’t many things I wouldn’t let you do.”
“Perfect.” I keep hold of her hand, shoot a withering look at my pilots, and then urge Natalia forward. Hota has enough good sense that he’s already out of my line of sight, but I know I heard him whooping.
Can’t say I blame him. Me touching anyone is an aberration. Touching someone and enjoying it. Well, that’s a fucking miracle.
“Hello, Mr. Judge.” Nat offers with a grin she’s trying and failing to keep under wraps.
“Nice to see you, Natalia.” I open the door for her, unburden her of Plinko, and then see her inside.
I’m slow to release Hailey, but it must be done. The tips of her fingers glide over mine for an added second before she climbs into the car. I follow, careful to maneuver the box without knocking it on the doorframe.
Natalia sits on the long bench alone. “Thank you for arranging everything. It made an uncomfortable trip as smooth as possible.”
I close the door and then turn my gaze on Hailey, who’s chosen to sit beside me along the back. I shouldn't be surprised by how much it pleases me, but I am. “It was my pleasure.”
The pale apples of Hailey’s cheeks blush red. Her lips quirk. “Yes, thank you.”
“Any time,” I answer, without taking my gaze off her.
Nat clears her throat at the same time Plinko gives an incensed meow.
Terror grips my throat like a fist. I pluck the lid off. “How did he travel?”
What if he hated it and is stressed? What if he got sick because I’m an idiot? What if he dies?
The gnarly cat in question props his front paws on the side of the box and nuzzles his face under my neck.
“Like a royal, the spoiled brat.” Hailey’s laugh is soft and melodic. “No wonder he smelled like you. He’s being quite the hussy.”
I pet his head with one hand and slip the fingers of my other across the top of Hailey’s hand. “You jealous?”
“Maybe.” She grins, but there’s something behind it. I want to know what it is and how to fix it. But I’m pushing a lot already.
“He is quite taken with you,” Nat chimes. “I’ve never seen him be quite so enthusiastic about his affections.”
“Perhaps he and I have something in common.” I twine my fingers with Hailey’s, but let my gaze slip from hers to meet her aunt’s. My other hand slips over gnarled ears. “I think we have quite a lot in common, actually.”
Abuse. Neglect. The admiration for and the affection of an amazing woman.
“Hotaru?” Natalia expertly shifts the conversation into safer territory. “Is he your lover?” Then again, maybe not.
“Nat,” Hailey shrieks. “That’s hardly your business.” She huffs. “It’s not even mine, and I’ve had Arlo’s cock in my esophagus.”
Nat’s eyes go wide, like she can’t believe her niece said what she said. “Hay,” she chokes.
I’m suddenly struck by the surreal nature of this situation. I’m a grown man who’s experienced enough that I shouldn’t blush at the exchange, but I can feel my cheeks go hot. Then my shoulders shake uncontrollably. A laugh builds from deep within my belly and ratchets up my lungs until it fills the car.
Plinko leaves me for the comfort of his box because I’ve clearly lost my mind. I can’t stop laughing. It’s like an orgasm of the soul. If feels like a weight is lifted off my chest and I might float up off my seat.
“Arlo?”
When I finally meet Hailey’s eyes, they’re light with amusement but tempered with worry. My hand has left hers to brace onto Plinko’s box in an effort to keep myself upright.
I breathe deeply. “The shit that comes out of your two mouths.” My head shakes, and my shoulders continue to bounce. “It’s better than therapy.”
With that, they join me in the absolute hysterics, as though they need it as much as I do.
Finally, I collapse back against the seat, drained as though I just went a few rounds with Hotaru.
Natalia wipes her eyes and Hailey draws deep, cleansing breaths.
“Hota and I go at each other a few times a week.” I let my gaze slide between the two women and then stay on Hailey’s. Her eyes are alight with mischief. Her smile is huge, as though she knows exactly where I’m going with this. “It’s invigorating and exhausting. He’s a big guy. A giant by Japanese standards.” I flick my gaze to Nat, who looks intrigued but also like she’s holding her breath. “He’s one of a few men”—Nat’s brows shoot up at that—“who are my boxing partners.”
Nat slaps the air in my direction. “Oh you!”
Hailey giggles, and it fills me up.
“If I were able”—and not so fucked up—“Hota would have obliged long ago,” I add. “His sexual prowess knows few limits. Gender is not among them.”
“Now I’m blushing,” Nat chirps.
“That’s what you get, Nosy Rosie.” Hailey gives her aunt the side-eye.
We ride in a quiet that is ruffled every couple of blocks by errant laughter, but no one is brave enough to take a crack at a new subject. It’s a nice, light feeling that I haven’t experienced, maybe ever. Plinko’s weight, curled inside the box, feels comfortable on my legs while Hailey studies me from the side. It’s as though she’s trying to map my features for a drawing she’s about to attempt. The glide of her gaze is almost a caress. It’s amazing.
When our gazes connect, it’s like a circuit is completed. A current pulses, energizing us and sparking in the close confines.
Too soon, the car stops outside of their building. The connection is severed. Hailey’s gaze hits the floor between our feet. I want to know what’s going on in that maze of a brain of hers.
“Mr. Judge?” Nat starts.
“Arlo,” I correct.
“Arlo, thank you again for your hospitality.” She’s talking, but I don’t take my eyes off her niece. “I’m going to get out, and I’ll take that lump of love off your hands.” Hailey shifts as though to help, but her aunt stills her with a tut. “I’ll drop him off and make sure his royal highness has his dinner.” With a pat on Hailey’s knee, she’s out and reaching for the box.
I close the lid and carefully pass him to Hailey, who hands him to her aunt. “Thank you,” she whispers. Natalia blows her a kiss and then closes the door.
The city flows around us, but it’s still and quiet in the car. A handful of seconds pass, and then slowly her gaze finds mine. There’s confusion behind her eyes.
“Tell me,” I demand in a whisper.
Her lips press into a line. The green of her eyes flicks to the front of the car and then back to me. She draws a deep breath. Leisurely, it filters out through her mouth. I want to press my lips to hers and suck it into my lungs.
“I’m happy you were there when we landed.”
A part of me wants to rejoice, but I withhold. That’s not all she has to say. When the rest doesn’t come immediately, I hike a brow.
“I am.” Her chin shoots up in protest. Then her pink lips purse, and her chin falls. “So happy it’s terrifying.”
My lips stretch into a fat fucking smile.
“Why are you grinning at that?”
“Because I know exactly how you feel.” I shrug and let my smile simmer. “You don’t trust it.”
“I trust you.” She turns to face me, wedging her knee onto the seat between us.
“I said you don’t trust it, not me. You don’t trust the good feelings, that they’re real. That they’ll stay.”
The side of her cheek goes concave as she chews on it. “When did you get your psychology degree?”
“When I was at Harvard, before my MBA.”
Her mouth drops open. “Of course you did.” She tosses her hands up and lets them smack onto her coat-covered thighs. “What haven’t you done?”
I’m about to say fall in love, but that’s no longer accurate. “Let someone touch me while I fuck them.”
“Jesus.” Hailey pulls at the front of her coat, working it off her shoulders. “And you talk about the things that come out of my mouth.”
“I’d rather talk about the things that go in your mouth.”
“Oh my God.” She tugs the heavy fabric from underneath her and tosses it on the long bench. Her wide, dilated eyes meet mine. “If you keep talking like that, you’ll make me ruin my outfit.”
“I’ll buy you another one.”
Her fingers coil the hem of her dress while her jaw snaps in my direction. “I don’t care about your money.”
“I know.” She is one of few people for which that is the case.
“Good.”
Her inhale is cut short by the intercom. “Where to, sir?”
“That is up to Miss Fitzpatrick.” I offer her a shrug. “Where to, miss?”
She stalls for only a second before rattling off an address I’m not familiar with, and I can’t hide my smile.
“Don’t smile at me.” Her gaze narrows. “What if I’m abducting you?”
“I won’t put up a fight.”
The width of her smile tests the skin of her lips. It turns into a sinister smirk. “Were you sitting right here when you were bossing me around on your bed in your jet with your big, beautiful cock in your hand?”
It’s my turn to complain about ruining an outfit, but I don’t. “Yes.”
She slips off the seat and shifts onto her knees until she’s in front of mine. I spread them for her, and she scoots in close, though she’s careful not to touch me. I love it and hate it in equal measure. Her restraint shows care, which fills my chest with a warm fuzzy feeling. I want to tell her she can touch me whenever and however she wants. It would probably end poorly, if she did. And that, that makes me want to drive my fist through the glass.
“Why don’t we talk…about the things you want to put in my mouth?”
“I’d rather show you.”
Her mouth falls open and her tongue extends.
I lean forward so close I can swallow her tongue. Instead, I take my time, shucking my coat and suit jacket, and then toss them with hers. She hasn’t said a word or moved a muscle save for her eyes. They track my every movement. Owning her attention is a heady feeling that has my cock heavy against my leg. I take my time rolling my sleeves up just to my forearms. Her intelligent eyes catalog the handful of visible scars. Something glints in her gaze, but she maintains her posture.
“Good girls get rewarded.” I lean impossibly closer, putting us nose to nose. “But the best girl, she gets everything.”
A moan leaks from her throat.
I slip three fingers into her mouth, grazing her tongue as I go. I examine her wet flesh, her sharp teeth, the roof of her mouth, and then the back of her throat. She gives me little choking sounds but refuses to gag.
“Mmm.” I take my hand from her mouth and slip it under the hem of her dress. The skin between her legs is puffy and full and wet. I add the wetness from her mouth and slick her from front to back. She spreads open for me, while still holding her mouth wide.
My lips encircle her tongue. I suck it into my mouth and revel at the new feel. Less than a minute in and I couldn't walk anywhere, much less hold a coherent conversation. Lucky for us, I don’t have to do either. I fill her mouth with my tongue and she returns the favor, sucking it deep. Then our lips battle. It’s a slow war, dark and hedonistic.
She pants against my lips as I work between hers. I shove two fingers deep. My thumb massages her clit, while my pinky toys with the pucker of her ass. I haven’t been inside it in a while. I wonder if it counts toward that declaration I made the other day. It’s my rule, so I can fudge it if I want. My dick jumps, but this isn’t the place for full back-door action.
I reach around and fill my free hand with her ass. The lush skin molds to my touch. I shake it and spread her cheeks apart. My wandering pinky slips just inside the wet, tight hole.
“You feel so good wrapped around my fingers. So hot and tight for me.”
She nods against my cheek. Her breaths are coming in tiny gasps. They dance over my neck.
“Arlo.” She chokes. Her hands are balled into fists. “Can I touch you?”
“Yes.” I expect her hands to shoot to my throbbing cock, but they don’t. She wraps her fingers around the back of my neck while her other hand drapes across my back. Her hold is tighter than her cunt. She pulls me close as though she’s scared I’ll vanish. “I’m right here, Hailey. I have my fingers inside you.”
“You’re so deep. Arlo, you’re in me so deep.”
I know she doesn’t mean physically because I’ve been a hell of a lot deeper than this.
“I know.” I’m in so deep, I’ll never find my way out, and I don’t want to. “How does it make you feel?”
Her fingers thread through my hair, tugging. “Too good,” she sobs.
My hand slips from her butt up her back to hold her close. Skin to skin. “Then you take it, Hailey. Take me deep and show me how you love it.”
How you love me.
I don’t dare say it, but I think it as I curl my fingers inside her body.
“Yes, I am. I will. I do. I…” Her words break off into a moan, and her body convulses in my arms. Her pussy squeezes my fingers. I milk her release, making it last.
She comes down in a melted heap. Her weight presses against me. I remove my fingers and arm from her body and adjust her clothes while she burrows under my chin. Her shoulders shake, and wet tears slip down my neck. My heart, the calcified rock she revived, cracks under the onslaught.
“Come here.” I gather her onto my lap, cradling her back in one arm and her scrunched legs in the other. “I’ve got you,” I whisper. “You’re safe.”
She clings to my shirt and cries against my neck. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. You have nothing for which you should be sorry.”
“We all do,” she hiccups.
“I don’t believe that.” I smooth my hand over her hair. “We apologize too much. Some things, many things, don’t warrant contrition. Some things just are.” When I press my lips to her forehead, her skin is hot with a fine layer of sweat. I lick my lips and grin at her taste. “You shouldn’t apologize for crying in my arms. As much as I hate that you’re hurting, I love that you’re giving me your tears.”
I release her legs, tilt her chin up, and lick the tears from her cheeks. “I’ll take them, drink them down, and give them back in the form of cum. That way, they can’t hurt you anymore.”
“Arlo.” She says my name slowly, like a song with its own melody. It’s music to my ears, when my name has often been a curse. Her palm cups my cheek. She pulls my lips to her wet ones, and I suck any sign of tears from her mouth. “You’re my angel with little devil horns propping up your halo.”
You really have no idea how right you are.
We pull up to a business that looks a bit like an upscale barbershop. I press the intercom to the front. “Circle the block for me.”
“Yes, sir.” My driver continues. Hailey’s gaze flits to the storefront and then back to me. She makes no move to escape my arms.
I smooth the smudges of mascara from the corners of her eyes but don’t press her to say more.
“Were you…Have you…” She bites her lips together.
“Anything, Hailey.” I kiss the tip of her nose. “Maybe one day, you’ll believe me."
She pulls in a shuddered breath. “Have you forgiven your uncle?”
My body goes hot. The inside of a quaking volcano. I kiss her lips and sit her up on my lap to face me. “He does not deserve my forgiveness.”
“They say.” She shrugs. “Some people say, many therapists, that you should forgive for your own peace.” Her head shakes. “I haven’t been able to…” She trails off.
“Some people, many therapists,” I offer her a smile that surprisingly reaches my eyes, “are full of shit. I’m working on forgiving myself. I am the only one in that equation that deserves it.” My smile falls. “If you’re finding it hard to forgive, it’s possible that the person doesn't deserve it, but I know you deserve whatever forgiveness you have to offer.”
Her smile is big, just as big as her fresh tears. They glisten down her cheek and fall onto my arm. She traces the lines of my scars. Razorblades. Self-inflicted. Then she moves to the circles. Cigarettes. Cigars. Not self-inflicted.
“He is a horrible, evil man who doesn’t know how to love. Because you are too easy to love.”
My throat goes tight. “I’ve never been called easy.” I’m surprised the words actually manifested.
“If love wasn’t the hardest, most terrifying thing for me to do, I would have loved you weeks ago.” I press my forehead to hers. A single tear slips from my lashes. Hailey swipes it with her finger and licks it off the tip. “Too easy for me.”
“Only for you, Hailey.”