Page 26 of How To Catch A Killer … And Date His Best Friend

Shit. I was just joking when I called him a psychopath when we first met, but every encounter with him makes me wonder if maybe I was right all along.

I don’t respond, just glare at my phone. There has to be a way for me to work this bastard out of my system.

This was supposed to be my time to cool down, but now I’m just getting worked up all over again. God, I hate him.

Hunter: What’d I say about leaving me on read?

Hunter: I like you, Lyra. What’s it gonna take for you to march that perfect ass back out and have a good night with me? I’m not working tonight. Promise, no interruptions.

Lyra: I’m not interested in your brand of insanity. Give up. It’s not gonna happen.

Hunter: That’d be a tragedy, Savage.

I put my phone down, unable to look away from the screen. That fire he ignited in me last week is back in full force, and my thighs clench at just the thought. God, why the fuck am I so desperate for a man like that?

My hands twitch on my lap, desperate to give in, to just tell him exactly where I am so he can finish this once and for all, but I won’t stoop to that level. Hunter Cole will never get the satisfaction of fucking me.

Damn it.

I throw myself to my feet and immediately pace the floor in front of my coffee table. I hate how worked up I am. I hate how stupid this man is making me. I shouldn’t be hung up on him like this. It was one really awesome date that had a terrible ending. I should be able to get over it and move on, yet here I am, stomping through my apartment like a crazed maniac.

He had no right to turn me into this. He left halfway through our date and disappeared for a week, then he shows up during my shift and demands a second chance like I owe him. A guy like that doesn’t deserve to occupy so much space inside my head.

I need out. I need alcohol. I need a bad decision, and I have just the bad decision in mind.

My gaze shifts to my camera sitting all alone on my kitchen counter, and my plan is already in motion before I slide my shoes back on, grab my phone, and sling my camera strap over one shoulder. I fly out the door and straight across the hallway to the lonely door that sits at the very end.

Maddox Blake.

Now, I know this is his friend’s place, but what have I got to lose? Maddox is either here or he’s not, and if not . . . I don’t actually know. I’m making it up as I go.

My knuckles rap against the door like I’m here to collect a debt, and I wait three painful seconds before the door finally swings open and my gaze collides with the most infuriating man I have ever met.

Maddox Blake.

Damn, he’s a super snack.

He stands before me in a pair of dark sweats with a white shirt stretched around his strong frame, that dirty blond hair slightly ruffled as though he’d either just run his hands through it or he’d been fast asleep. But judging by the sharpness in his hazel eyes and the way he’s already eating me alive, I doubt my presence is a problem.

A cocky grin slowly stretches across his handsome face, and for just a moment, Hunter Cole is nothing but a figment of my imagination, and honestly, that’s more dangerous than it has any business being.

“Well, shit,” he says, propping his shoulder against the doorframe. “Look who came crawling back for more.”

I roll my eyes so hard that if I were properly paying attention, I’m sure I would have seen my own brain. “That’s not what this is.”

He shakes his head. “Uh-uh. You don’t get to show up here at four in the morning and claim this is gonna be anything different.”

“Maddox,” I warn.

He drops his gaze to my camera and his brow arches. “Shit, Savage. I didn’t take you for that kinda girl, but I’m down if you are.” He opens the door wider as if inviting me in. “Don’t say I never did anything for you.”

I groan and fix him with a hard stare. “You are unbearable, you know that, right?” I say. “I’m not here to make a sex tape with you. Though . . . that does sound kinda fun.”

His brow arches, and he watches me for just a second, creeping closer toward me as his muscles flex. My gaze is drawn back to his chest, reminding me just how good it felt to be pressed against it while he slammed into me over and over again.

“So, if you’re not here to make a sex tape, then what are you doing here? Come to confess that you can’t live without me, that you finally realized we truly are soulmates, or you need help burying a body?”

I grin as my gaze shamelessly continues working its way over his body. “Still deciding.”