Shaw
Iwokeupwith a start. Ari was standing over me as if his singular purpose in life was to watch me sleep. As I straightened up, he stepped back. A pair of black skin-tight jeans hugged his slender waist. They were ripped and showed off the fishnets he wore beneath. The long-sleeved cherry-red top alluded to being modest if not for his bare, toned stomach peeking through in the loose cropped style.
A bit of jewelry glittered from his navel, and since when had he gotten a tattoo? Ink climbed up from his jeans at the side and snaked to his back.
My cock twitched. Way more than that. I was getting hard from looking at my stepson, something that never happened before. But then I never saw this grown-up version of Ari before now. Sultry yet sweet. Innocent yet tempting. So damn fuckable.
A conversation I had with Anne played in my mind.
"Don't you want me anymore?"
In the darkness, I shifted on my side to face Anne, even though I couldn't see her. I was still able to make out the stiff, unyielding lump in bed beside me.
"What are you talking about, Anne?"
"I'm talking about the fact that we haven't had sex in two months."
That long? I searched my mind to prove her wrong, but it was futile. With doing more than my share of work as the vice principal of a public school and having to act as a referee between her and Ari,it was draining coming into a household where the atmosphere was rife with tension.
"We'll make some time tomorrow," I said.
"You make it sound so clinical. Like I need an appointment to fuck my husband."
"I'm just tired, Anne." Even if I was willing, I doubted I could get hard.
"I'll be on top." She ran a hand over my chest. "You can enjoy the ride, baby."
"I don't know. Ari's still up."
She laughed softly. "Ari's not a baby. He knows we're fucking."
"Don't say that. It makes me feel uncomfortable. You can be loud sometimes."
"Shaw, that boy's getting dick more than I am. He's not a prude."
I rolled over and turned on the bedside lamp. "I'm sure that's not true. Why do you always have to put him down?"
"Why do you always defend him? Maybe it'll do him some good to hear us fucking. Then he'd know you're my husband. Not his. That you'll never have sex with him."
"Now you're being ridiculous."
She sat up as I rolled out of bed. My stomach clenched in tied knots. All I could see was Ari's innocent, shy smile. Why would she even think that of the boy? Besides, there was no way she knew I was also into men. I hadn’t shared that side of myself with her after seeing the way she was with Ari because he was flamboyantly gay.
"You keep denying it, Shaw, and I'm going to start believing you actually want to fuck him."
What? I gaped at her. She had insinuated more than once that I was sleeping with her son behind her back, but this was the first time she’d ever been so bold as to spill it out.
"Don’t look at me like that. You think you’re the first grown-ass man who's fallen for his little innocent act? Why do you think your neighbor does his best to get to you?"
I eyed her warily. "What are you talking about?"
"I've seen Ari flirting with Murray. The man's clearly jealous because he thinks you're fucking the boy he wants."
I pinned her with a glare. "And what do you think, Anne? Do you really believe I'd sleep with your son?"
Anne hadn't answered me that night, and as I stared at Ari now, a deep sense of shame washed over me. How could I even look at him that way? How could I validate what Anne had been obsessed with almost our entire marriage?
"You don't want me to go out," Ari said, even though I hadn’t spoken.