The door knob turned within seconds. Maddox was there, like he’d been waiting out in the hall for just this moment.
“Finally hungry, my mate?”
Ugh. The way he called her his ‘mate’ so easily almost stole her appetite away. It seemed as if he was taking a new approach, too. She was going with acting like the biggest bitch around so that he reconsidered keeping her with him. Maddox? He was all “act like she is his and maybe she will be”.
Yeah, right.
Not gonna happen.
Crossing her arms over her chest, leaning on her good ankle, Evangeline scowled. “I didn’t say that I wouldn’t eat dinner. I just said that I wouldn’t eat it with you. If you’re gonna keep me in here, the least you can do is feed me, you jerk.”
He smiled. The bastard actually smiled. “Of course. Give me a second. I’ll be right back.”
Maddox pulled the door behind him before he left. He didn’t lock it. She was kind of surprised.
Evangeline thought of the aspirin she finally swallowed, and the last of the water that was probably warm and stagnant by now. She cupped her mouth with her hands, shouting through the door. “A glass of water, too, if that’s not too much to ask of a kidnapper!”
Maddox heard her. He returned a few seconds later, carrying a fresh glass. “Here,” he said, offering it to her. “I figured you’d get hungry before long so I already made you a plate. I’m just warming it up now. Get comfy. I’ll bring it to you.”
He was as good as his word. Evangeline had just resettled herself on the bed when Maddox was coming back, carrying a platter with him in one hand, a tray table in the other.
Her mouth immediately started to water.
He made her steak and a monstrous-sized baked potato for dinner. It was one of her favorite comfort meals, and one she didn’t have often because she could never find the time to bake the potato for long enough. Not to mention that, every time she tried to grill a steak inside of her apartment, she tended to overcook it.
This one looked perfect. There was even a pat of butter sitting on top of the potato, melting down the salt-encrusted skin.
Just how she liked it.
Why wasn’t that a surprise?
He held the tray table out to her. Evangeline snatched it from him, settling the table over her legs; she had her ankle elevated on a pillow. Maddox placed the platter on top of the tray, then added a fork and knife he pulled out of his back pocket.
She yawned.
Maddox noticed. “Feeling tired?”
It probably wasn’t the smartest idea to admit to a prospective weakness. It just slipped out. “Yeah, I just… that’s so weird.”
Maddox chuckled. “That’s okay. Escape attempts take it out of a girl. You and your ankle will feel better after a full night’s sleep, promise.”
There was a twinkle in his eyes, a spark that made him even more attractive. As if that was hard. He might be a no-good kidnapper, but he was a gorgeous no-good kidnapper.
Damn it. It wasn’t fair.
As soon as her meal was arranged so that she could eat it, the bastard had the nerve to perch on the edge of the bed, leaning up against the bottom post. Forget gorgeous. The easy position, the stray lock of hair falling forward… he was sexy as hell.
Still wasn’t fair.
Her stomach flip-flopped. “Are you planning on sitting here and watching me eat?”
“I’ve just given you a knife. Gotta make sure you don’t try to use it to stab me in the back or anything.” He paused, obviously teasing, though there was nothing but earnestness in his tone when he added, “You’d only regret it when you remembered me.”
Evangeline snorted. If she could have any wish, it would be that she could remember everything she’d lost over the last handful of years. Wouldn’t it just twist his tail if he discovered that she still had no clue who he was?
Even if his eyes—and that sly smirk of his—were so annoyingly familiar, glancing at his face was like an itch she couldn’t scratch.
She shrugged, trying to push her burgeoning uncertainty aside. “Watch me. Whatever. It’s just food.”