Page 42 of The Madness Within

I got up anyway and tested the handle.

Locked.

Of course it was.

A softclickechoed behind me.

I turned just as the door swung open.

“Trying to escape, podcast girl?” Dorian Vale stood there like sin sculpted in human form, sleeves rolled up, shirt faintly speckled with drying blood, gaze sharp enough to slit throats.

“Call me that again and I’ll break your fucking jaw.”

He smiled like the devil had just found his favorite toy. “Violence already? We’ve barely had a second date.”

I crossed my arms, grounding myself. “This isn’t a date. This is kidnapping.”

“Semantics.”

He stepped in, tray in hand. The smell hit first, garlic, herbs, something savory that made my stomach ache against my will. He set the tray on the nightstand like he was some doting husband, not the man I’d watched slice someone open like a science experiment.

“You know,” I said, moving toward the tray, “for a murderer, you’re really big on hospitality.”

“What can I say?” he replied smoothly. “I like my enemies articulate and well-fed.”

“So now I’m your enemy?”

He stepped closer, eyes scanning me like I was a riddle wrapped in red tape. “You’re a complication.”

“Funny,” I said, leaning back onto the bed. “You don’t seem like a man who minds being complicated.”

“I don’t,” he said, gaze dipping, collarbone, throat, hips. “I just like to be in control of the chaos.”

His presence was overwhelming. He didn’t touch me, but the room tilted around his gravity. The air got tighter. Thicker. Hotter.

“You’re sick,” I whispered.

“And yet,” he murmured, stepping closer, “you haven’t looked away from my mouth since I walked in.”

“Because I’m trying to figure out where I’d need to stab you to shut you up.”

He laughed, low, rich, infuriating.

“You watched me kill a man,” he said. “You should be terrified. Screaming. Running for the door.”

“You locked it.”

“That didn’t stop you from trying.”

“I’m not afraid of you.”

He leaned down until our faces were a breath apart.

“No,” he said, voice dragging over me like silk laced with barbed wire. “You’re not. That’s what makes this fun.”

My heart pounded, but I refused to back down. “Get out.”

He didn’t move. “Say please.”

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