Page 91 of Releasing 10
“Doesn’t matter.” Shaking off the sad feeling, I focused my attention on Hugh. My happy thought. My happy feeling. “You make a comfortable throne, brave knight.”
He winked. “Anything for you, milady.”
Feeling happy again, I let go of his hands and moved to climb off his lap, only to freeze when Hugh yelped out in pain. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, nothing, I’m fine,” he groaned, squirming around on the treehouse floor with his hands pressed to his crotch. “You just kneed me right in the nuts.”
“What’s the nuts?”
“The testicles,” he clarified through clenched teeth, as his face turned a deep shade of red. “Fuck, that hurt so bad.”
“It hurts?”
He nodded stiffly, still squirming. “It’ll pass in a bit.”
“Don’t worry. I know how to fix that thing.” I reached for the waistband of his shorts and tried to pull them down. “I’m good at it.”
“What? Wait! Liz, no!” Jerking away from me, Hugh bolted to the opposite side of the treehouse. “What are you doing?”
“I know how to fix it,” I explained, crawling back over to him. “I can make you feel better.”
“No, Liz!” He held out his hand to stop me. “You can’t.”
“I can’t?”
“No,” he repeated, shaking his head. “Youcan’t.”
“Oh.” Kneeling with my hands at my sides, I looked up at him, feeling like my whole world was about to crumble. I didn’t know what I’d done to make him so upset with me, and that devastated me. Tears prickled my eyeballs. I was so bad. “I’m sorry, Hugh.”
He eyed me warily. “Why did you do that?”
I shrugged, unsure of how to answer. “Don’t know.”
“Youcan’tdo that, Liz.”
I couldn’t?
“You arenotallowed to do that,” he repeated in a stern voice. “You areneverallowed to touch someone like that.”
I felt my face grow hot.
“And no one is allowed to touchyoulike that,” he added. “Especially not under your clothes. Only grown-ups are allowed to touch other grown-ups like that.”
I stared at him in confusion.
I didn’t understand.
Was I bad?
Did he hate me?
What was he saying?
“That’s a bad touch,” Hugh continued to explain. “And nobody is allowed to do that to a kid.”
“I’m sorry,” I blurted out, tears trickling down my cheeks. “I didn’t mean to give you the bad touch.”
“It’s okay,” he replied with a sigh. “And technically, you didn’t.”
