She Called the Bride the Help, So I Read the Bill Aloud novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Nothing Till You Filed

He knocked at eight exactly, with rain running off his shoulders and nothing in his hands.

"You said bring nothing," Reuben said.

"Then why are you standing in the rain?"

"Because I wanted to see you open the door."

I opened it wider.

My apartment is two rooms and a kitchen in a shotgun house, with a lamp on and a pot of coffee going cold on the stove.

I had changed clothes three times.

I wore a green silk robe my grandmother gave me for a honeymoon that never happened.

His eyes went down it once, slowly, and came back up.

"Joelle."

"Come in before you drown."

He came in and shut the door.

He stood on the rag rug dripping, with his hands at his sides, not touching me.

"Nothing till I filed," I said, because I needed the words out of me before anything else could happen. "That was my rule."

"Nothing till you filed, you said." His voice had gone rough. "You filed."

"I filed."

"Then you tell me what you want. You say it, and I'll do it."

I untied the robe.

It slid off my shoulders and fell to the floor at my feet.

I stood in front of him in nothing but a thin white slip and the lamp.

For a moment he did not breathe.

Then he took one step, and went down on one knee on my rag rug, and put his forehead against my stomach.

His arms went around my hips.

"God," he said into the silk. "Joelle."

I put my hands in his wet hair.

"Get up," I said, shaking. "Come here and kiss me."

He stood, and kissed me.

It was not like Saturday's kiss in his hall. Saturday he had held back, and tonight he had decided he was allowed.

His mouth was hungry, and his hands moved over my back, my waist, the curve of me, learning it.

I pulled his wet shirt over his head.

His skin was warm and pale, with a long scar along one rib and a light spray of freckles on the shoulder.

I put my mouth against it, and he shuddered.

"I want you to take your time," I said.

"I will."

"I want to tell you what I like."

"Tell me everything." He lifted me against him, and I wrapped my legs around his hips, laughing helplessly at how easily he did it. "Tell me. I'll learn it."

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