17. Chapter 17

17

" W e've got a new prisoner coming in on G-wing. Gary Austin, twenty-five, assault," Henry mumbled. "Ben and Dan are bringing him in. They didn't have time to process him during the day. Ryan wants him in a cell by morning. He's a mouthy little shit."

"Can't wait." Alfie sighed.

"He's still at the stage where he's playing the big man, hasn't accepted he's been locked up…"

Just as Henry's voice trailed off, a stream of bad language flowed from the corridor.

Marie and Glen widened their eyes, then looked at each other before shaking their heads. "That's a colourful range of curse words and curse word combos," Glen said.

Ben and Dan had a tough time dragging the man into the lobby. He looked older than his twenty-five years. His teeth were yellow and crooked, and his hair was threadbare and see-through. He leaned back and spat toward one of the twins, narrowly missing his face. Even with his hands cuffed at his back, he lashed out. Henry stood to help, but Alfie rushed in front of him. He couldn't sit in the office and watch Henry get knocked to the ground.

Alfie grabbed on to Gary's forearm and tried to get the bucking man under control. Dan tripped, Ben lost his grip, and the next thing Alfie knew, his ears were ringing and there was warmth flowing from his nose. He tasted metal, and when the buzzing in his ears faded, the pain to his face grew. His eyes watered, and he blinked rapidly to ease the sting.

Alfie kept a firm grip on Gary, and Ben recovered and gripped his other arm. Dan opened the gate, and they dragged Larkwood's latest prisoner, spitting and swearing, into his cell.

They kept the cuffs on and promised to remove them once he had calmed down. Gary growled and kicked at his cell door in reply.

Dan grimaced when he saw the bloodied mess of Alfie's nose. "We've all had one of them here. You're in the club now, Alfie."

Ben nodded. "Yeah, I've had at least three bloodied noses from this lot."

Alfie wiped his sleeve under his nose, then glared at the expanding blotch of red.

"Shit."

Marie hurried forward with a tissue and a face of sympathy. "I don't think it's broken."

"Just a knock," Alfie said, taking the tissue with a smile.

Henry struggled out of the office. "No longer a fish, but a real prison officer with your first battle scar."

"Does that mean you'll stop calling me fish?"

Henry nodded. "Albie from now on."

He rolled his eyes. "It's Alfie."

"Is it?"

Alfie glared at the old man until his confusion morphed into a smile. "Course I know your name. Us and them, and now you're officially one of us ."

Ben clapped him on the back, and then his brother did the same. "You're in the exclusive headbutted by a criminal club."

Alfie pressed his palm to his chest. "I feel honoured."

If he had known all he needed to do was get a hit to the nose and they'd use his name, he would've let it happen sooner.

By the time roll call arrived, his face only hurt when he pulled an expression, and his voice sounded nasally with his blocked nose. Marie tugged her mini mirror from her pocket and turned it to Alfie. The skin under his eyes was puffy and bruised, but his nose looked straight with minimal swelling.

"Not broken."

Glen shook his head. "Worse from shaving."

"When have you ever smashed up your nose from shaving?" Alfie asked.

Glen waved his hand. "It's just a saying."

"A stupid one," Alfie muttered, then followed Marie through the gate.

With each step closer to Nate's cell, Alfie's smile grew. His pain faded as excitement began to mount. It was an unconscious reaction that he tried to cure by rubbing the back of his hand on his smile. It didn't work. The giddiness of talking to Nate after hours of waiting remained. The dim lights of the prison thankfully hid his face from Marie and Glen. It was not the expected reaction when approaching a man who had killed three people.

"Queenie?"

Alfie listened as the bed creaked in his cell.

"Yeah, I'm here. You got a cold?"

"Something like that…"

"When you going to move to day shift?"

Alfie shrugged. "No idea. Not up to me. Why?"

"It would be nice to see your face, that's all."

"Is my voice not good enough?" Alfie laughed.

"Yeah, sure it is. You just got a face too."

There was a groan from Nate's cell, and Alfie looked to his door.

"Stop flirting with Freshman, Queenie. I've been waiting all night for him."

Queenie tutted. "I'm only saying, it would be nice to see Alfie on day shift."

"Leave off. He's mine."

Alfie hugged his clipboard and darted looks at both cells. "I'm not yours, thanks."

"Sure you are. You accepted my pizza date."

"Doesn't mean I'm exclusive."

Nate made a noise in his throat, more of a growl than a purr, and Alfie's skin reacted immediately. He shivered and rolled his shoulders to fight the reaction, but it didn't stop the tingles roaming down to his toes and up to his scalp.

"I don't do sharing."

Alfie forced himself to swallow. "Shame, guess it's just me and Queenie then."

Nate breathed heavily at the door. "Not funny, Freshman."

"I agree," Queenie said. "Don't bring me into this—"

"You started it," Nate growled. "Saying you wanted to see Alfie's face."

"I do, but not in that way. Everyone knows you'll go crazy if someone even mentions he's cute."

"What did you just say?" Nate asked.

Queenie groaned, then laughed. "See? You're impossible."

"I'm happy that Freshman works the nights. He's away from all the animals in here, and I'm the only one who gets to see his pretty face once a month, and one day, I might even convince him to open my door and join me."

Alfie ticked off their names and backed away. "Not going to happen. Besides, you wouldn't want to see my face right now."

"Why's that? You all ill and gross?" Queenie asked.

Nate huffed. "I'd still want to see you, even with snot down to your lips. I'd play doctor, might tie your hands up with a stethoscope, though. I'd feed you, but it wouldn't be medicine, it would be my c—"

"I'm not ill. Let's just say my nose got acquainted with a prisoner's forehead."

Queenie sucked in a breath. "He's clearly suicidal."

Alfie frowned, but before he could ask Queenie why that meant he was suicidal, Nate answered his unspoken question and battered the door.

"Who? Who hit you?" he shouted.

The outrage in his voice made Alfie shiver and clutch the railing behind him for support. "It doesn't matter who," he mumbled.

"Yes, it does. I want to know who I'm going to kill for laying a hand on you."

Alfie gawped at the door. "It was just a new prisoner on G-wing—"

"Open the hatch!" The voice wasn't the tempting siren. It was savage and commanding, but it still made Alfie itch to do just that, open the hatch .

He'd done it before…

Alfie swallowed and shook his head. "You know I can't do that."

"I want to see what that bastard did to you!" Nate thumped the cell again, both fists together. The metal clanged and vibrated the walkway.

Alfie looked over the railing, but Marie and Glen had already gone, and Henry was asleep in the office. "Stop it. Calm down."

"I will if you open the hatch."

"You know I'm not supposed to—"

"If you don't, I'll trash my cell. I'll get the rest of this lot to drum their doors. I'll get them to shout across to G-wing. The bastard that hit you will leave in a body bag, mark my words."

Alfie crouched, slotted his key in the lock and lowered the hatch.

Nate dropped down to the floor on the other side. His eyes were huge and manic as they took in Alfie's face. The fury in him froze Alfie to the spot.

"That bastard," Nate hissed. "He didn't try anything else, did he?"

Alfie was too stunned to reply, and Nate's anger morphed into horror. His jaw dropped open, and his lips twitched like he wanted to speak, but no words came out.

"Freshman?" he said finally, in a much softer voice, then he swallowed. "He didn't try to touch you, did he?"

If Alfie wasn't so frozen, he would've frowned. Of course Gary touched him. He headbutted him.

Nate blew a breath out slowly. "Talk to me. Did he grope you… Alfie ?"

It was Nate saying his name that lifted Alfie's paralysis. Never had Nate sounded so soft, so coaxing and gentle. Alfie's stomach flipped, then his brain kicked into gear, and he realised what Nate had been asking.

"No, it wasn't like that. He was just kicking off. He wasn't trying to—do anything like that."

Nate closed his eyes and released another slow breath. "Jesus, I thought…" He opened his eyes, and his gaze softened.

"Just a few bruises," Alfie mumbled. "Eyes always bruise when the nose is struck—"

"I know that, Freshman. I, of all people, know that."

Alfie frowned, poised to ask why, but then Nate's hand was reaching through the hatch.

"Give me your hand."

"Nate," Alfie said. "You know I can't."

"I'm not asking you, I'm telling."

Alfie let Nate link their fingers. He squeezed, and Alfie squeezed back.

"Have you calmed down now?"

"I still want to kill him, and the thought of someone trying to touch you, trying to—I can't bear it."

"It wasn't personal," Alfie whispered. "My face just happened to be closest."

"What's the prisoner's name?"

Alfie flexed his fingers against Nate's. "I can't tell you that."

"I'll find out who it was. You know I will."

Nate let go of Alfie's hand and cupped his cheek. Alfie exhaled against his wrist, allowing his eyes to close. Nate moved his hand, and the next thing Alfie knew, fingertips were pressing lightly against his throat.

Alfie gasped, leaning his neck back for Nate to touch more. He bared his throat, knowing Nate could easily crush his windpipe with one pulse of his hand.

Nate held him, not applying any pressure, but the contact still made Alfie dizzy. He trusted Nate not to squeeze. His eyes slid shut of their own accord, and he slowed his breathing.

"Don't expose yourself like this with anyone else. In these walls or outside them."

Alfie snorted. "I don't. I won't. Just you."

Nate hummed and ran his thumb over Alfie's Adam's apple. "You say the sweetest things."

Nate moved his hand away, and Alfie couldn't help the whine. He opened his eyes but didn't connect their gazes. He knew Nate would be smiling smugly, all pearly teeth and crinkled eyes.

Nate's warm hand cupped Alfie's cheek again, and he couldn't stop the elated gasp. Nate's thumb hooked the edge of Alfie's mouth and slipped inside. Alfie pressed his tongue against the pad of Nate's thumb. It wasn't a lick, more a wet pressure, but it spurred Nate on, and he fed his thumb into Alfie's mouth, in and out.

"Look at me," Nate purred. "Look at me while you suck my thumb."

Alfie dragged his gaze up, and their eyes locked. Nate's pupils engulfed the blue of his irises, and his lips were slightly parted as he drew in silent breaths. The eye contact made Alfie shiver, mouth trembling around Nate's thumb as he sucked it gently.

"You're a dirty tease, Freshman," Nate whispered. "If you knew…if you only knew how much I lie in my bed and jerk off to you."

Alfie pulled his mouth from Nate's thumb. "Too much."

"It's nowhere near enough."

Nate reclaimed Alfie's hand in his and pulled it through the hatch into the darkness of the cell.

"Nate…"

He pressed Alfie's hand to his cheek, then turned his head to kiss his palm. He breathed against Alfie's skin.

"I hate the thought of anyone hurting you. That's the hardest part of being in here. I want you to be safe and cared for, but the thought of anyone else doing that besides me makes me goddamn feral."

Alfie opened his mouth, but no words followed. He snapped it shut. Never had anyone said anything like that to him before, with fire in their voice.

Nate moved Alfie's palm down from his face, against his throat, and onto his bare chest.

His bare chest , which was warm and hard. Nate's heart pounded, pressing against Alfie like it wasn't underneath his skin but in his hand.

He felt sections of muscle, dips and bulges, and Nate shifted, standing, moving his body to get Alfie to touch more. Alfie couldn't see him through the hatch, could only feel, and he swallowed when he was certain the sharp angle his fingers traced was a hip, then a small dip of a belly button that made Nate's stomach twitch.

There was hair, trailing down, then Alfie felt Nate's hard cock, and his mouth went dry.

Nate guided Alfie's hand to touch him, wrapped his fingers around his erection to feel it pulse, to feel how tight the skin got, how aroused Nate felt. Alfie didn't know what to do. He didn't pull away, and he didn't take over the stroking. He allowed his hand to be used, and when Nate groaned, low and dark, Alfie whimpered.

"This is what you do to me," Nate whispered.

He knew Nate was getting close when his breathing changed from near silent to a pant. Their joined hands were wet and slippery as Nate continued to move them at a slow pace over his cock. Alfie twitched his fingers, giving more pressure when their hands rubbed the tip. He swiped his thumb over the end and bit his lip to catch his groan when Nate got wetter.

He got wet in Alfie's hand.

Nate gasped, and Alfie felt him shudder.

His radio was there. He could've called for help. He could have fought harder to reclaim his hand, but he didn't want to. He turned off all the niggling thoughts in his head and focused on the feel of hot flesh, the sound of Nate's quickened breathing. Alfie's stomach fizzled, his skin tingled, and his head filled with pleasant rushes.

The radio at his belt hissed, and Alfie snapped his eyes open.

Nate's hand wasn't guiding his anymore; it was just Alfie's working Nate over, jerking him off through the hatch.

He let go, pulled his arm out of the cell, and closed the hatch.

He stared at his wet hand accusingly, then at his erection showing clear as day through his trousers.

"Fucking hell, Freshman," Nate groaned, and it sounded pained. "You tease."

Alfie scrunched his face. Reality crashed down on him. "I hate you."

Nate chuckled breathlessly. "You don't."

Alfie looked at his hand, shining with precome under the lights. His tongue twitched; he swallowed the pooling saliva in his mouth.

He wanted to taste it.

"Fuck," he murmured, rocking back and forth.

Alfie gave in and pushed his thumb past his lips. He gently sucked, the same way he'd sucked on Nate's thumb when it was in his mouth.

He groaned at the taste of him.

Nate chuckled by the door. "I know what you're doing…"

Alfie pulled his thumb free. There was no way Nate knew .

"I want you in my cell."

"No," Alfie gasped, clambering to his feet. He used the railing opposite to help himself stand. "That's not going to happen."

"It is. The sooner you accept it, the sooner you can be laid out on my bed with my head between your legs. I'll take care of you, in every way you want to be taken care of."