Double Life of a Cell Block King novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Pell Street

I did not touch the board that day.

Katie fed me chicken soup at the yellow tablecloth, standing at the stove with her back to me, talking about nothing.

The neighbor's beagle.

The bus route.

The man at the corner market who had saved her an orange every Saturday for ten years.

I ate three bowls.

When I finished, she took the empty one from my hands and looked at me for a long moment.

"There's one bedroom," she said. "I'll take the couch."

"I'm the one coming from a bunk."

"You're a guest."

"I'm your husband."

"On paper."

She said it too quickly.

I stood up.

"Then I'll take a shower, and we'll argue about the couch after."

The bathroom was tiny, with a pink tile floor and a cracked mirror.

I stood under the water until it ran cold.

Eighteen months of showers with a guard counting the minutes, and now the water was just mine.

When I came out in a towel, with my prison clothes in a ball on the floor, Katie was in the bedroom door.

She had changed into an oversized sweatshirt and nothing I could see below it.

Her hair was down.

It fell past her shoulders in thick auburn waves, and it was the first time I had seen it loose.

She was holding a pair of her father's sweatpants, and she had stopped talking.

Her eyes went over my chest.

I knew what she was seeing.

I had two scars from the yard and a bruise on the ribs where the guard had caught me.

My body had been built in a place with nothing to do but get hard.

"These might fit," she said, and her voice cracked.

"Thanks."

I took the sweatpants.

I didn't move.

Neither did she.

The house was so quiet I could hear the refrigerator humming.

"Reed."

"Yes."

"I said we'd be roommates."

"You did."

"I'm a very good liar," she whispered. "I've been practicing for two weeks in the mirror."

"And?"

"And it isn't working."

I let the sweatpants fall.

She was in my arms before they hit the floor.

Her mouth found mine, and it wasn't polite this time.

It was hungry, with her hands fisted in my wet hair and her whole body pressed up against my chest.

I lifted her by the thighs, and she wrapped her legs around my waist with a little breath that went straight through me.

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