Page 50 of The Madness Within

“Confident.”

“No,” he said, lower now. “Certain.”

I hated the way my body leaned into his like it was starved. I hated the way his voice slipped down my spine like a kiss. Ihatedhow badly I wanted to know what he tasted like when he lost control.

I let my hand rest on his chest. His heart beat steady. I flattened my palm, feeling the heat beneath his skin.

“Why me?” I asked, softly now. “Why not just kill me like the others?”

His lips ghosted against mine. Not kissing.Threatening.

“Because none of them ever made me want to burn this slow.”

My robe slipped lower on one shoulder. His gaze followed it like a starving man, but he didn't touch me.

Not yet.

We’re playing with matches in a room full of gunpowder. I could tip my mouth up. I could pull him in. I could give in.

But not yet.

“Careful,” I whispered, brushing my lips near his ear. “You chain me too tight, and I might just like it.”

He exhaled like it physically cost him to step back.

But he did.

Barely.

“Eat,” he said, voice like gravel now. “Record. Behave.”

“Or?”

“Or I’ll stop pretending I’m a man,” he said, eyes dragging down my body, “and show you what I really am.”

The door clicked shut behind him.

I sat back on the bed, pulse racing, lips dry, thighs pressed too tight together. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.

But neither did he.

And that’s the first crack in the Devil’s armor.

Chapter Twenty

??The Devil You know

Ember

Every night, it was the same.

He came in with food, I told him to kick rocks, he laughed and told me to eat or else. He didn’t give me a choice because he stood there and gawked at me until I took several bites of everything on the plate.

I wondered who supplied these meals because there’s no way Dorian Vale cooked. I snickered at the thought as the mic hummed softly in front of me, waiting. Just like he was.

I know he’s listening.

He never let me leave the room he first brought me to, still the same four walls, the same locked door.

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