Page 29 of Auctioned to the Prisoners

“Lory?” Grady asks, glancing toward the door.

“Sleeping,” I reply. “With Hyde.”

Grady’s expression flickers, but he quickly masks it. “Good?”

I don’t respond, my thoughts still tangled up in the image of them together. He’s not asking about the sex. He’s not that kind of man. He’s asking if she’s settled in and if this plan will work. I nod curtly, and the warden lingers for a moment as if he wants to say something more but doesn’t.

“Trouble last night?” I ask. It’s weird to not be wired into the gossip mill in this place.

“The usual suspects. Solitary is full today.”

I nod, relieved to have missed getting dragged into something that’s none of my business.

He eyes the closed bedroom door, hesitates, then nods and leaves, the door clicking shut behind him.

Rock and I go about the morning routine, each of us lost in our own thoughts. It’s not until Lory emerges from her room, looking slightly disheveled, that the atmosphere lightens.

Hyde is quiet as he follows her into the common area, his usual energy replaced by a wary calm. He looks at me, then at Rock, as if searching for some kind of reassurance that everything is okay between us. I’m not mad about how he behaved last night. It’s impossible to be mad at him when I know where he’s coming from. If he’d hurt Lory, it’d be a different story.

“There’s cereal for breakfast,” I tell them. “And coffee.”

“Sounds good.”

Lorry folds her arms over her chest. “I could do with a change of clothes.”

I lift the small bundle that Grady provided for her to look at. There’s a pair of black leggings and a woman’s shirt that looks like it might be too big for her. There’s also some underwear.“I’m going to shower,” she says, heaping the bundle into her arms, then eyeing each of us.

“We’ll be out here,” I say, so she understands she'll have some privacy. We need time to talk without her around.

When she disappears into the bathroom, I fix four mugs of coffee, and Rock and Hyde sit at the table, cradling the steaming mugs in their oversized hands.

“You sleep well?” I ask Hyde.

“Yeah,” he answers gruffly. “Fuck yeah.”

He’s bleary-eyed but not tired like his sleep was too long and too deep, and he’s struggling to return to the land of the living. I like the idea of wrapping myself around Lory and burying my face in her sweet-smelling hair. I love the idea of burying my dick deep inside her and holding it there for hours, just warming it. Maybe I’ll get the chance tonight.

“She good with what you did?” I ask.

“Yeah,” he says again. “She’s cool.”

“So, you think she’ll be okay with taking things further?”

Rock lowers his coffee and licks his lips. They both know what I’m asking. Is fucking on the agenda? My dick is impatiently stiffening between my legs.

“She’ll be okay.” Hyde rubs his scorpion tattoo so hard it’s as though he wants to erase it from his skin.

“And you?”

“Yeah.” His eye twitches, and he rubs it, licking his tongue over his teeth. He’s still a murky green, but his eyes have a brighter edge like the rim of the sun peeking around the moon during an eclipse. “Yeah. I’ll be good.”

Maybe I was right about Lory’s ability to bring him back.

When Lory appears, the atmosphere shifts again. She smells like regulation shampoo and soap, but in her Grady-donated clothes, she looks more like the girl every man wishes lived next door. She tugs at the hem of her blue shirt like it doesn’t fit herhow she’d like. My mind fills with thoughts of stripping off those clothes and making her filthy again. My cock is like a frigging homing pigeon for her cunt, but I don’t want to spook her. Our patience is paying off.

We eat cereal together and talk about our ideal breakfasts. Mine involves sausage, bacon, eggs, fried tomatoes, and mushrooms. Rock likes an omelet with everything in it.

“Buttermilk pancakes with blueberries and maple syrup,” Hyde says, almost dreamily. “What about you, Sunshine?”

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