Private Relations

by J. M. Hall

  “Yes, I was. And then you left.”

  “I had to. Deep down, you know that.”

  “So, what now?”

  “Well, Kurt wants me to join the firm full-time, for starters. Drake might need therapy. But, at the same time, one thing has stayed the same.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “I finally realized that I’m still in love with you.”

  That did it.

  Bobby and I came at each other like two teenagers. My mouth devoured his, a kiss so fast and fierce it nearly knocked us both to the ground. He leaned back against a nearby fence, letting me open my mouth and slide my tongue against his. I shuddered when his hands snaked up my shirt, and gasped when his fingernails scraped a trail over my stomach.

  I broke free, leaned my forehead against his. “Jesus.”

  “My sentiments exactly.”

  “Your place or mine?” he asked.

  “Yours. Let’s go.”

  Chapter 28

  I pushed Bobby’s onto the bed and told him to take off his clothes. He stripped, slowly, shedding his shirt one button at a time. His jeans came off next, though he requested that I take off his underwear for him.

  “Already hard,” he said, holding his erection through the cotton of his boxers. “All you need to do is set me free.”

  I climbed on top of him and kissed him on his forehead, his cheeks, and finally his mouth. Sliding down his body, I licked a trail across his hairy chest before scraping his right nipple with my teeth. He hissed in protest but pressed my head down further, encouraging me to take it into my mouth and suck.

  “Harder,” he said. “Your tongue…”

  A quick swirl of the tongue and he cried out my name. I nuzzled my way down to his abdomen until I was between his legs. Smiling in glee, I hooked my thumbs into the waistband of his boxers and slid them down to his knees, letting that eight-inch cock spring free.

  “You’re as big as I remembered,” I said, then licked my right hand. “Enjoy…”

  I grabbed his cock and started to jerk him off. Bobby shut his eyes, leaned back, and surrendered himself to the pleasure of it. When I flicked my tongue across the head -- tasting the glistening hint of semen at the tip -- he begged for more.

  “Maybe I’ll make you work for it,” I teased.

  “You cocky son of a bitch…”

  I took him in my mouth and sucked for a few minutes before releasing him. His balls were next, and then I did something I’d never dared to before: I slipped my hands beneath his ass, brought him closer to my mouth, and pressed a finger against his hole.

  “I want to feel myself inside of you,” I said. “You game?”

  Bobby rolled over and raised his ass into the air.

  “Well, that answers that question.”

  “Will you stop talking and fuck me already?”

  I reached into his nightstand and took out a box of condoms and a tube of lubricant. I squeezed the liquid onto my fingers and warmed them together, then teased them against Bobby’s ass. One finger slipped inside, followed by another, and then a third. I fucked him like that, taking them in and out, scissoring and expanding them to get him nice and ready.

  “Fuck…” he hissed.

  “The show’s not over yet,” I said. “Hold on.”

  By the time I slipped on a condom he was all but moaning in protest, begging for me to hurry up and fuck him. I took my time, not quite knowing his tolerance for being topped. Still, he was expanding by the minute, and after a few quick thrusts, my cock slid inside.

  “I’ve learned a few things since we last slept together,” I said. “Can you tell?”

  Bobby grunted under his breath and spread his thighs even wider apart. I gripped his hips, fucked him in quick, sharp strokes followed by longer strides. Sweat coated my skin and dripped onto Bobby’s naked back. I leaned down, licked the perspiration off his skin and pressed my mouth to his ear.

  “You’re so fucking tight,” I whispered. “I’m not stopping until you come.”

  I gripped his hips and gave him everything I had. The sound of my skin slapping against his was punctuated only by the grunts and moans from the both of us. My right hand strayed from his hip and cupped his ass -- and it wasn’t until I spanked him that the both of us finally came.

  We collapsed into the sheets, a sticky mess of sweat and lube. I slid out of Bobby’s ass, went into the bathroom to take off the condom and clean up. When I came into the bedroom, he’d gotten out of bed and told me to start the shower.

  “This will be a trip down memory lane.”

  “Unless you’d rather not…?” he asked.

  I stepped into the glass shower and turned on the water. After rinsing myself clean, I made it my mission to wash Bobby from head to toe. His body was still in incredible shape. Broad shoulders gave way to a trim waist and sculpted thighs. His stomach was flat and even now, I wanted to run my fingers through the hair on his chest.

  “There,” I said. “Clean.”

  He turned me around and let his cock press against the small of my back. I chuckled, knowing that he had the innate ability to stay hard after sex. I was too tired for another round, and truthfully, so was he.

  “If you think you’re leaving town before I get to fuck you, you’re sadly mistaken.”

  “Time for that later on. The two of us have a pretty big day tomorrow.”

  “True,” Bobby said. “What do you think will happen?”

  “Kurt is holding a meeting with the Board of Directors to tell them that we have Drake on our side and solid evidence of his relationship with Simone. Basically, that will enable them to fire her.”

  “Finally.” Bobby wrapped his arms around my waist, pulled in me close for a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “For coming back. For helping me get that conniving bitch out of my nephew’s life. He has too much going for him to get sidelined by her.”

  I shut my eyes and leaned back into Bobby’s embrace. The water was still hot, still pulsating against both of our bodies. Part of me pondered staying in New Hope after the case ended, but I was getting ahead of myself. I had a life to go back to in New York. Though for the first time ever, having sex for cash was decidedly less appealing.

  “Stay with me,” Bobby said.

  “You know I can’t do that. If anything, this made Kurt all the more convinced I need to be part of Victory & Associates full-time. He made me another offer today.”

  “Are you going to take it?”

  “There are certainly worse jobs out there. I just don’t know if I would want to give up all the easy money escorting brings.”

  “Is it just the money?” Bobby asked. “Or is it something more than that?”

  “I do it because I enjoy it. There’s a risk that goes along with it, sure. But that risk makes for one hell of a rush.”

  “I wouldn’t know.” Another round of kisses on my shoulder and neck followed. He tickled my ribs -- something he knew drove me wild -- then turned me around to face him.

  “Can I ask you something?”

  “Sure.”

  “Do you have sex with other men?”

  “No,” I said. “You’re the only one I’ve been with, ever.”

  Relief washed over his face. I grazed his lower lip with my thumb, craned my neck to press a kiss to his forehead. By the time we got out of the shower and dried off, it was well past eleven.

  “Are you going back to your hotel, or…?”

  “Jesus. I bang you in the ass and now you want to get rid of me?”

  “Nice to know your smart-ass mouth has remained intact.”

  “I’ll stay the night if it makes you happy.”

  “It does,” he said. “Stay.”

  We crawled into bed and lay in each other’s arms. As I lay there, I noticed something was different. Gone was the feeling that Bobby was somehow my elder, my protector -- my superior. Yes, he was still older. But now, after a decade has passed, w
e were on equal footing. I wasn’t a boy; I was a man.

  No reason to feel guilty now. I rolled over, wrapped my arms around his stomach and nuzzled his hair. I shut my eyes, and drifted off to sleep.

  Chapter 29

  Simone entered the conference room and took a seat opposite the Board of Trustees. She wore a formfitting black sweater with gray slacks, silver hoops dangling from each ear. I could see the effect she had on men -- the way their eyes glazed over the minute she walked into a room, or even how they stuttered when addressing her verbally.

  “Is there a reason I’ve been asked to come here today?” she asked.

  Russell Grant, head of the Board of Trustees, cleared his throat and handed Simone a manila envelope. Her face darkened as soon as she saw the contents, and I even noticed her hands began to tremble as she sifted through each page.

  “As you can see, there’s been a change of heart when it comes to Drake,” Russell continued. “We have his word that you and he did in fact engage in a sexual relationship during your tenure here at New Hope Academy.”

  “He’s lying,” Simone said. “Just because he says we slept together doesn’t make it true. And unless you have any tangible proof I will not resign and let you besmirch my reputation like this.”

  She really was an incredible liar. And though I loathed admitting it, she was also one hell of a fighter. Even now, with her boy toy no longer on her side, she still thought she could make it out of this mess with her reputation intact.

  Unfortunately for her, that wasn’t the case.

  “There’s more,” I said. “It’s nice to see you again, by the way.”

  “What the hell is he doing here?” she snapped. “I don’t need any of this. If you have anything further to say, you can contact my attorney.”

  “Just walk away now and no one will press charges,” I said. “It’s your last shot. Or shall we discuss the contents of Drake’s laptop?”

  That caught the attention of everyone in the room -- Simone, Kurt, Russell and the rest of the Board of Trustees. At that moment, I did something incredibly unorthodox: I asked everyone to clear the room, in order for Simone and me to have a quick chat alone. The other board members protested, adding that I’d all but kept them in the dark for the course of the investigation.

  “I’d also like to know why Victory & Associates allowed a kid to do such sensitive work,” one of them added. “What are you, twenty-five?”

  “Twenty-seven, actually. But thank you for confirming that I’m aging well.”

  “Jesse…” Kurt’s voice was deep and grave, a stern warning that I was taking things a step too far. “Everyone, perhaps this was a mistake…”

  “No mistake,” Simone said. “Jesse, if there’s something you’d like to say to me, go ahead and say it. But remember, I know quite a bit about you as well.”

  “Yes,” I said. “Well, moving back to--”

  “Isn’t it true that you had a sexual relationship with a staff member when you were a student at the Academy as well?”

  It was then that I knew that Simone felt like she had nothing to lose. She was going to lose her job. She would also lose her teaching license -- meaning that she would never be able to step foot into a public or private institution again. If that was the price she had to pay for carrying on an affair with Drake, then she was going to make sure that Bobby -- the one person at the Academy I cared about most -- went down with me.

  “Is that true, Jesse?” she asked. “Or is that just a rumor?”

  Kurt shot me a glance as if to say, what the fuck is going on? The rest of the Board looked equally puzzled, and for the first time in my career, I didn’t know what to do or say next.

  “What happened while I was a student is in the past,” I said. “You’re the one making headlines, not me.”

  “Let’s move back to the matter at hand,” Kurt said. “Russell, would like to--?”

  Simone closed the manila folder and handed it back to Russell. She slipped on her leather coat and walked to the door, then paused as she reached for the doorknob. “I’ll resign under one condition,” she said.

  “We’re not negotiating anymore,” Russell said. “Either leave on your own accord or we’ll work with Drake and his family to bring charges against you in court.”

  “Don’t be an idiot,” Kurt added. “The minute you get labeled a sex offender and put on the registry, your life will be a living hell until the day you die.”

  Simone turned around with renewed confidence, and I could tell by the glint in her eye that she only had eyes for me. Her mouth turned up in a smirk, and when she brushed a wisp of hair away from her face, it was like the rest of the room just faded away.

  “You want me resignation?” she said. “Fine. But Jesse, I think the Academy has the right to know that you had a sexual relationship with Bobby Allen, Drake’s uncle, for more than two years.”

  The room fell silent. Kurt sighed, avoided eye contact with me at all costs. The rest of the trustees looked as stunned as Russell did, as it was clear that this domestic saga ran far deeper than any of them had previously thought. I’d greatly underestimated how vengeful Simone was deep down, and now I was paying for it.

  “Please leave the school grounds immediately,” Russell said to Simone. “I’ll have security escort you out.”

  “No need,” she said softly. “I just thought you had a right to know what’s been going on under your own noses for the past ten years.”

  * * *

  The Board of Trustees knew everything now.

  They knew that Bobby had “seduced” me as a seventeen-year-old boy, and that ten years later, the same thing happened to his nephew, his own flesh and blood. To call it Shakespeareans didn’t quite do it justice. This was an all-out, all-encompassing, motherfucking disaster of epic proportions.

  True, the Academy got what they wanted. Simone resigned, saving them an even more severe round of bad press and falling enrollment. I didn’t know how Kurt felt. I’d confessed everything to him back in New York, but revealing that he’d allowed me to work the case even though I’d suffered a similar situation myself?

  He wasn’t returning my calls. That was proof enough that things would be strained between us for quite some time.

  And now here I was, back at Bobby’s townhouse in downtown New Hope. Given that he’d already been placed on leave from the Academy for allowing this disaster to happen on his watch, he didn’t seem too fazed at my forced confession.

  He sat down beside me on the sofa, ran a hand over my back. “Jesse, I keep telling you it doesn’t matter. What is the Board of Trustees going to do? Fire me?”

  “I sacrificed you to get what the client wanted,” I said. “Forgive me if I feel like a bit of a heel right now.”

  “Still, this case can be considered a success, right?”

  “I suppose so. Simone resigned, after all. Kurt has the team back in New York working on getting that news to all local media here in Philadelphia. Beyond that, the new Dean will have to give a sit-down interview -- probably to the Inquirer -- about how they’ll ensure nothing like this will happen again.”

  “They can’t realistically promise that, can they?”

  “No,” I said, a tired smile across my face. “But that’s PR for you. Keep up appearances and say what people want to hear.”

  “No wonder you have sex for money,” Bobby said. “It sounds much more honest.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh, though it ended with a groan. Bobby snaked a hand up my shirt, let his fingers graze the bare skin of my back. Everything would be fine, he told me. And, for the record, there was one last thing I should know.

  “I don’t regret what happened between us,” he said. “I never have, and I never will. Even now, after you revealed it to the Board of Trustees, I still wouldn’t change a damn thing.”

  “That either makes you a fool or a romantic, Bobby. Perhaps both.”

  “I don’t suppose I could convince you to stay in town a big l
onger? Just so we can have some more time together to iron things out?”

  “It’s not that I don’t want to,” I said. “But I need to get back to New York. I need to figure out where things stand with Kurt, not to mention…”

  “What is it?”

  “I have other clients waiting for me, if you catch my drift.”

  “Right. No shortage of people willing to pay to have sex with you, it seems.” He leaned in, kissed me on the cheek. “I don’t like it.”

  “I knew you wouldn’t. But a man’s gotta eat. I’m leaving tomorrow night.”

  “I’ll miss you,” Bobby said.

  “What about you? What are you going to do now?”

  “I have no idea. I’ve got plenty of cash saved up, so I’m good for a while. One of the benefits of never getting married or having kids, I suppose. Plenty of disposable income.”

  “If I asked you to come to New York, would you?”

  “Permanently?” Bobby said. “Or, just for a weekend?”

  “The latter. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

  “I’d certainly entertain the thought.”

  Part of me truly didn’t want to go back to New York at all. Isn’t that what happened to all Manhattanites eventually? The lure of other cities began to creep into our minds, mostly the promise of lower rents, more spacious apartments, and a lifestyle that promised more leisure time?

  It was tempting to throw in the towel, to leave New York and never look back. There were plenty of other cities out there. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, even Boston or Miami. Right now, all I could think of was how warm and comfortable Bobby’s bed was -- and how much warmer it would be when he made it known that the two of us wouldn’t be sleeping without another few rounds of sex first.

  Alas, I had to leave.

  “Are you sure you can’t stay the night?” Bobby asked. “I promise I won’t handcuff you to the bed in your sleep.”

  “Nothing you haven’t done before,” I teased. “And yes, I really do need to leave. I need to go back to the hotel, sort things out with Kurt.”