I pulled out my phone and brought up her name, Shedevil, and typed, “I’m coming in. Unlock the door.”
Her phone faintly pinged from close by, and I smiled. Then, I quickly wiped the smile off my face.
I shouldn’t be fucking smiling.
Shedevil: No
I rolled my eyes and said through the door, “I know how to pick a lock, Madeline. Unlock the fucking door.”
My phone pinged again.
Shedevil: Good luck. There’s a chair pushed up against my door for extra caution.
My brows furrowed. There was a nuisance-like tug in my chest. I eyed the door to the bathroom that led to her room and grinned.
“Fine,” I finally said before walking over to it and whipping it open. Madeline was smart, always one step ahead of everyone else, so the chances of her rushing across her room to lock the adjoining bathroom door was likely, but unless she pressed her bed against it from the other side, I’d be able to pick the lock, and then she couldn’t hide or run like at the party.
Just as I stepped onto the tile, Madeline yelled, “Eric!”
My eyes grew wide, and I felt the actual dilation of my pupils when I found her. Water cascaded out of the tub and onto the floor with a splash as her naked legs came up to hide her body.
My jaw went slack. I should have turned around and banged my head off a wall to get the visual out of my brain, but I was nothing but weak when it came to her.
I moved my gaze from her slippery, shiny knees to her plump lips and was taken back to a couple of hours ago when they were on my mouth. The kiss tormented me because I was starving for more, but I knew I shouldn’t have been. Madeline was poison. She only kissed me because she knew I was circling in on her. She used our attraction against me.
And I didn’t like that very much.
I didn’t like it because now I could feel her all over. Slithering into my veins. Wrapping around my dick.
“What are you doing here?” Madeline asked as she wrapped her arms around her knees.
Thank fuck there were bubbles all around her in the bath; otherwise, I’d continue grazing her naked body with my hungry gaze.
What was I doing here?
I shut the door behind me, watching her flinch as the door latched.
“You didn’t answer my question, so why would I answer yours?” I tipped my chin at her, raising an eyebrow in her direction.
Madeline’s blonde hair was falling into the tub around her, floating out on top of the bubbles gracefully. Her arms wrapped even tighter around her legs, and she pressed her flushed face to her knees, moving away from my pressing stare.
“What’s your question?” she sighed, glancing to me for a moment.
I licked my lip, crossing my arms against my black tee. “Did you, or did you not, get…” I paused, unable to say the word. My throat tightened at the last second, and I fought to keep my arms crossed instead of clawing at the unwelcome feeling.
“You can say the word, Eric.”
“Fine,” I said harshly. “Who raped you?”
Madeline turned her head abruptly, resting it along her knees again. She might have thought I didn’t see the way she flinched at the word, but I did.
“Who told you I was raped?”
I held back a snarl as I pushed off from the door. “Well, considering you can’t even stomach hearing the word, I’d say you told me.” I stopped just a foot away from the tub, glaring down at her hidden face. “And not to mention, the nightmare.”
Water splashed as she peered up at me, all doe-like and innocent. Two things I never, ever expected to see from her. White cloud-like suds laid along her chest except for the tiny sliver of cleavage peeking up at me. “What do you mean?”
“You talked in your sleep the other night. I heard you.”