The Photo Said I Must Die novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Letter Under the Letter

I woke up with the sun on my face and a man's arm across my waist.

The power was back.

Somewhere downstairs a refrigerator hummed, and a gull complained on the roof.

Judd lay behind me, one leg over mine, breathing slowly into the back of my neck.

I lay still and thought of the print.

Last night it had turned me toward him, given him a face, and stood the glass upright.

I did not know what that meant, and I was not ready to look again.

So I took inventory instead.

I was sore in a pleasant way, my hand ached under the bandage, and I did not regret one minute of it.

That was a bad sign for the rule I had made.

"You're awake," he said into my hair.

"No."

"Your heart changed speed."

"It does that when someone's lying on my arm."

He propped himself up on one elbow and looked down at me, hair wrecked, mouth curved.

"Before the ninth," he said.

I closed my eyes. "Don't."

"I'm only saying. Nothing happens between us before the ninth. I wrote it down."

"You did not write it down."

"I have a very good memory for rules that get broken in my bed."

He leaned in and kissed the corner of my mouth.

"Remind me what the rule was. No man's mouth on yours, and a head full of his name?"

"It's a very full head," I said.

He laughed against my cheek, the first real laugh I'd heard out of him.

I turned over and put my good hand on his chest and pushed him flat on his back.

"I'm not done being angry at you," I said.

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