"Exactly. But Gary's also got to be willing to admit to himself just how much he cares about them. He's the one that needs to make the commitment, you...know what I mean? And maybe let Moira and Kate have a real say in what goes on around here. Mmm. These ugani ones are good with the teriyaki sauce, too," she added, forking half of a sushi piece.I waited until she'd put it in her mouth and she'd started chewing. "It's unagi, not ugani, " I corrected her. "And it's eel."She froze in the middle of. The first competition is a simple pain endurance test to place our contestants in the winners or losers bracket. But before I begin, I need to announce our rules."Turning to the 32 naked men and women cuffed to the platforms, he said, "Your safewords are all recorded on your entry forms. However, once we have progressed to the second contest, safewords will not be accepted. If you want to remove yourself from the contest, yell out your safeword now."Several of the bound women began yelling. I got angry and shouted something about it wasn’t normal for a girl to tell her boyfriend’s brother about this sort of thing, and why did she even want to tell her me this stuff. She ran off crying and we never had those conversations again. As the years passed I often noticed her eyeing up girls I brought home but told myself she was just being nosy. In recent years I had occasionally noticed her watching Lisa. The fact that Lisa often wore provocative clothing led me to tell myself that. And they always were, just like yesterday evening, when she needed them to join her and Jim Beam in a night of total destruction. They’d marched in, asking just enough questions to ascertain that Luke was the hound-dog they’d always told her he was, then spent the rest of the evening getting absurdly drunk and alternating between cursing Luke and making her laugh. Ah, Luke. Jane sank down further in the cushions of the outdoor couch, stretching her legs out in front of her. The pain she’d.