Cellblock Heat
“Do not let her touch you ever again.”
“Why not? She’s my…girlfriend. You’re just my sneaky link cellie.”
The rage in Jordan’s eyes is volcanic and terrifying. He takes a step closer, voice dropping to a threat disguised as a promise.
“Try me, Preppy… and I swear I’ll kiss you in front of every guard, every inmate, every pair of judging eyes in this hellhole. Then we'll see who you truly belong to.”
Quincy Laurent—alias, richie rich—had the kind of life people envy. He's got a future paved in gold. One mistake shattered it all. Now he’s Blackbridge’s prettiest, trapped in the same cell with Blackbridge's most chaotic, Jordan Vex.
Jordan is everything Quincy is not. inked, dangerous, magnetic, a walking storm with eyes that see right through the armor Quincy didn’t know he still had. They clash instantly. Quincy hates the chaos Jordan embodies… and hates even more how drawn he is to it.
While the prison changes him, Jordan ruins him. And the desire he believes is a fantasy is tested when he finally learns who Jordan is.
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Chapter: EpilogueQuincyThe engine's cold from how long we've been waiting in the parking lot of Blackbridge.Rafael is draped over the steering wheel like he's mourning a fallen comrade. His forehead thumps softly against it once. And twice…and thrice, for emphasis.He groans, and it takes my sharp senses to pick up his words. “We’ve been here for two hours and…” he checks the clock again, as he calculates with clear precision “fifteen minutes past the assumed release window.” I glance up from my phone, where I haven’t actually been reading anything for the past twenty minutes. “You’re exaggerating.”“I am not,” he says, voice muffled by leather and despair. “On your release day, it didn’t take this long.”I snort. “On my release day, you were eager to see me, so time wasn't a damn factor.”“That was payday, Quincy.”“And that was the release of your second boss. The genial one.”Among all my dad's worker's, I've always seen Rafael as someone I could be cool with. He wants to be strict in regards t
Last Updated: 2025-12-30
Chapter: EpilogueJordanBill is the last person I expect to see when the door buzzes.Not a guard. Not a clerk with dead eyes and a checklist. Bill—standing there like he owns the place, suit jacket folded over his arm, sleeves rolled just enough to say I’m official, but I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty.For a second, I think my brain’s fucking with me again.Then he smiles.“Well,” he says. “You ready to stop being state property?”I blink once. Then I scoff. “Didn’t know they let civilians do the honors now.”“They don’t,” Bill replies easily. “I insisted.”Of course he did.I step forward anyway, chains clinking softly as the guard unlocks the cuffs. The sound echoes too loud in the small room, like it’s trying to imprint itself into my skull one last time. Bill watches it all with an expression that’s calm but sharp—like he’s cataloging everything for later.The cuffs come off.Just like that.My wrists feel naked. Wrong. Free in a way that makes my skin prickle.Bill gestures toward the desk.
Last Updated: 2025-12-29
Chapter: EpilogueFour months laterJordan.In the absence of you know who, I made adjustment. Yeah, b’cos “amendment” ain't the word.JordanThe yard feels different when it’s your last day in it.Same cracked concrete. Same rusted bleachers baking under the sun. Same chain-link fence humming faintly as the wind passes through it. But today, every sound lands heavier, like my body already knows I’m about to leave it all behind.I sit on the bleachers anyway.One foot planted on the bench below, elbows resting on my knee, hands loosely clasped. My duffel bag is by my feet—everything I own reduced to frayed fabric and folded prison-issued clothes. It’s strange how light it feels. Like I expected more weight. Like I expected leaving to hurt in a different way.Manny drops down beside me with a grunt, stretching his long legs out in front of him. He looks the same as always—unbothered, unhurried, permanently settled. Manny has the posture of a man who knows exactly where he’ll be sleeping for the rest of
Last Updated: 2025-12-28
Chapter: Chapter 182: DenizenJordan From a distance, Stacy looks so small. She folded in on herself, knees drawn up. I see a glass of wine dangling loosely from her fingers like she forgot it was there. The ocean laps somewhere beyond the glass railing in a steady motion. Rafael chose to park properly in the garage, then we took a walk to the ocean view suit to clear the alcohol out of our heads. We didn't expect to see Stacy waiting in…whatever that state was. Rafael slows beside me instinctively, already angling toward her. “I’ve got this, man,” I murmur, my hand lifting to stop him. “Go take a rest.” He hesitates, searching my face, then nods once. He didn't go off like I asked him to. He stays back, close enough to intervene if needed, far enough to respect the moment. I walk toward her slowly. The closer I get, the clearer the details become. The dark stain of wine bleeding into the pale fabric of her dress. Her shoulders shook in that restrained way that tells me she’s been crying for a while
Last Updated: 2025-12-27
Chapter: Chapter 181: Lost LoveQuincy From a distance, Stacy looks so small. She folded in on herself, knees drawn up. I see a glass of wine dangling loosely from her fingers like she forgot it was there. The ocean laps somewhere beyond the glass railing in a steady motion. Rafael chose to park properly in the garage, then we took a walk to the ocean view suit to clear the alcohol out of our heads. We didn't expect to see Stacy waiting in…whatever that state was. Rafael slows beside me instinctively, already angling toward her. “I’ve got this, man,” I murmur, my hand lifting to stop him. “Go take a rest.” He hesitates, searching my face, then nods once. He didn't go off like I asked him to. He stays back, close enough to intervene if needed, far enough to respect the moment. I walk toward her slowly. The closer I get, the clearer the details become. The dark stain of wine bleeding into the pale fabric of her dress. Her shoulders shook in that restrained way that tells me she’s been crying for a while.
Last Updated: 2025-12-26
Chapter: Chapter 180: GroundedQuincyMy sight isn't the first thing that comes back to me. It’s muffled sound warped, like I’m underwater and someone’s yelling from the surface. Voices collide and separate, echoing strangely inside my skull. There’s a pressure on my firm chest and it's rhythmic, and my body reacts before my mind does, a sharp gasp tearing out of me like I’ve been dragged up from a deep water I wasn’t done drowning in.Air burns my lungs.I choke on it.“Idiot, absolute fucking idiot.” a voice snaps with panic and something dangerously close to guilt. “I should’ve never…never agreed to this—”That voice becomes clear, and it doesn't take me a lot to realise it's Rafael's.Even half-dead, my brain recognizes the cadence of his voice. The way he sounds when he’s furious but terrified underneath when he didn’t meet up my Dad's expectations. The way he sounds when he thinks he’s failed at a job he takes personally.Something wet splashes across my mouth before I can brace for it, and my body convulses
Last Updated: 2025-12-25
The Wrong Type of Free
Parole is Shaw Carter’s final shot at freedom, and he doesn’t want to lose it. After a felony conviction nearly cost him everything, the path forward is narrow—keep his head down, stay out of trouble, and survive long enough to earn his life back.
It would be an easy task if he wasn’t placed in the mayor’s custody, and is forced to share the same apartment with his son.
Lucas Hale is everything Shaw should avoid. He’s sharp-tongued, infuriatingly composed, and far too comfortable pushing Shaw to his limits. From the very first night, it’s clear Lucas doesn’t want Shaw there. Every word that came out of Lucas' mouth was a provocation.
Shaw tells himself it doesn’t matter. He can endure anything for a few months.
But tension has a way of twisting.
What starts as hostility quickly turns into something far more dangerous. Their fights grow closer and sharper, charged with something neither of them wants to name. Their moral lines blur. Control slips. And suddenly, the one thing Shaw can’t afford becomes the one thing he can’t stay away from.
Because Lucas isn’t just getting under his skin, he’s unraveling him.
But beneath the tension and the touching and everything neither of them will say out loud, Lucas is carrying a secret, one that doesn’t just connect him to Shaw’s past.
It is Shaw’s past.
And when the truth finally surfaces, Shaw will have to decide if the man he’s falling for is his salvation or the reason he never should have been free at all.
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Chapter: Chapter SeventeenProfessional RecommendationsLUCASI probably should not have helped Shaw Carter rebuild his life.That felt important to acknowledge.There were several reasons for this.First: he was technically an ex-felon with anger issues and prison trauma.Second: I was me.Third—and honestly most importantly—I was originally supposed to hate him properly and consistently.Instead, I was currently sitting shirtless beside him on the Hale family lawn while he held together the torn remains of his résumé like a grieving widow.Life came at you fast.“I might know how to help you,” I said.Immediately, Shaw narrowed his eyes at me like I’d announced plans to sell him illegally on the dark web.Fair.“Why do you look evil when you say helpful things?” he asked suspiciously.“That’s just my face.”“No, it’s not.”“It absolutely is.”He squinted harder.The sunlight caught against his hair annoyingly well today. His green eyes looked brighter outside. Softer too. Prison stripped a lot out of him, but
Last Updated: 2026-05-26
Chapter: Chapter SixteenEmployableSHAWGetting a job turned out to be significantly harder when society already had paperwork proving you were a terrible person.Who knew?I sat alone in the backyard with my phone balanced on my stomach and Mrs. Able’s laptop open beside me like it personally offended me. The Hale mansion stretched quietly behind me while sunlight beat against the lawn hard enough to make my eyes ache.Mrs. Able offered breakfast earlier.I lied and said I already ate, then I borrowed her laptop.Truthfully, I didn’t want conversation.Didn’t want Lucas.Didn’t want Richard Hale’s quiet disappointment floating around the dining room like expensive air freshener.Mostly, I just needed silence.I had less than a week before my next parole update with Ramos.Less than a week to become useful.The thought alone made my chest tight.I scrolled through another job listing and immediately regretted being literate.Nighttime industrial waste cleaner.What the fuck even was industrial waste?I kept
Last Updated: 2026-05-26
Chapter: Chapter FifteenMeltwaterSHAWThe speed of it shocks me most.One second Lucas is submerged in freezing water looking half-dead and emotionally gutted. He’s out of the tub the next second.Water crashing everywhere.My back slammed against the wall hard enough to rattle the mirror, and his hand formed a stem around my throat.I stare at him in stunned silence.Jesus Christ.He moved like instinct. Like panic gave his body permission before his brain caught up.Although his hold isn’t hurting, it’s enough to send a warning signal and a stupid wave of something down my spine.Cold water dripped from his hair onto my shirt. His skin was freezing against mine—so cold it almost burned through the damp fabric sticking to my chest.Our faces were a few inches away, too close. All that’s left of us were his rough breaths and my muffled ones. I can see the pulse jumping wildly in his throat.“You,” he said roughly, tightening his grip slightly, “do not get to play with things that can destroy me.”Neither of
Last Updated: 2026-05-25
Chapter: Chapter FourteenIce Baths & Emotional Blackmail LUCAS Ice packs. Cigarettes. Ice packs. I kept reciting these words like a mantra as I stacked up the basket with seven packs of ice. And also, if I reminded myself that those two things were what was going to calm me down, maybe my breathing would regulate. But it didn’t. It kept catching halfway into my lungs like my body forgot how oxygen works. I made it through the hallway and up the stairs, refusing to look at whatever expression Shaw, Mrs. Able, and the Officer wore downstairs. I couldn’t care less. My hands shake while unlocking the bathroom. I barely remember closing the door behind me. The memories are too loud now—Mom smiling through tears and blood. The fire swallowed her whole. My father said my mother was dead because of your behavior. It’s my fault she’s dead. It always has been. Fourteen years later and somehow my brain still treats that horrible day like it happened yesterday. My brain is my very own persecutor. How patheti
Last Updated: 2026-05-25
Chapter: Chapter ThirteenParole Check InSHAWMy visitor turns out to be law enforcement. Mrs. Able made sure to announce that before at the doorway to prepare me for the inevitable.I stand slowly from the dining table while Mrs. Able ushers a federal agent whose aim was to ruin my day which has barely started. She then meets me shortly,“Up, up, sweetheart. Duty parolee calls,” she says gently.That woman could call a serial killer sweetheart and somehow make it sound nurturing.I wipe my hands quickly on my sweatpants and chug the rest of my coffee before following her toward the living area.A young officer sits neatly on the couch in uniform with a tablet balanced over one knee and a polite smile that immediately makes me suspicious.Nobody associated with Blackbridge Correctional Facility should smile that much. I’m guessing he’s a rookie. Oh, he has to be. B’cos Blackbridge fucks up both their prisoners and staff. “Mr. Carter,” he says, standing briefly to shake my hand. “Officer Daniel Ramos.”His
Last Updated: 2026-05-23
Chapter: Chapter TwelveThe Ruined-Present Day LUCASI had long lost the inherent and inexplicable need to prove myself to someone who hates me and sees nothing good in me.There’s only so many times a person can knock on a locked door before they stop believing anyone’s behind it.I stopped trying years ago.My father buried his love for me in my mother’s grave.Since that day, I’ve always felt an invisible bridge set between us. So long and cracked, and it’s hanging over an endless void.He stayed on one side, while I learned how to survive on the other.So honestly?The emotional distance stopped hurting eventually.Or maybe I just got good at pretending it did.Say hey to the grown man with catastrophic daddy issues.I stepped harder on the accelerator of my Bugatti Chiron, the engine roaring beneath me as London blurred past in gold streaks and wet asphalt.The excellent speed helped.That was why I purchased it.Riding its powerful steering wheel stopped me from spiraling.I drove straight back to the
Last Updated: 2026-05-22
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