Page 19 of How To Catch A Killer … And Date His Best Friend

Her gaze slowly lifts to meet mine, her stare narrowed and full of suspicion. “Uh-huh.”

I laugh to myself. I really am heading to the fourth floor, but her squirming makes this more than worth it. Just because I want round two doesn’t mean she’s off the hook just yet.

We travel in silence as she fidgets with her hands, holding them together as though scared she might reach for me. But let’s be honest, if she did, I wouldn’t hesitate to pull that stop button and put it down right here. But again, boundaries and all that shit.

The elevator finally reaches the fourth floor, and I wave my hand toward the opening. “Ladies first.”

She shakes her head. “No, really. Assholes first. I insist.”

“Oh, well if you insist.”

A smirk settles on my lips, and I step past her out onto the fourth floor before turning to the left and starting down the hallway. I take my time, and after a moment, the feisty little vixen falls in step beside me, her gaze narrowing with every apartment we pass.

By the time we’re reaching the end of the hall, there are only two doors ahead of us, and I can’t believe my fucking luck. There’s no way this woman lives right across the hall from the very apartment I’ve been half-living in for the past few weeks.

We inch closer to the door on the left of the hallway, and as she steps directly in front of it, she comes to a screeching halt. “Okay, what gives? You’re absolutely following me now. Are you actually a creepy stalker? Because apart from screwing me raw in a back alley, I don’t know what more you could want from me.”

“Creepy stalker? Who, me?” I ask, spinning to walk backward as I continue down the hall. “I’m offended.”

She watches as I continue to the final door in the hallway and gently rap my knuckles against the wood. “Wait,” she says with a gasp, her eyes widening as she realizes that this is all nothing more than a very convenient coincidence. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Is that where your friend lives?”

“Sure is, Savage. You wanna come in for a snack?”

She huffs and turns back to her door, jamming her key into the lock and madly twisting. “This can not be happening,” Lyra mutters to herself before whipping her stare back to me. “See? This is exactly why I don’t get involved with neighbors. It’s messy. I don’t like it.”

She throws her door open and storms in. “I’ll be seeing you, Savage,” I call after her.

She scoffs and pops her head straight back out the door. “Wishful thinking.”

“Nah, baby. Wishful thinking is believing that I could get you to dress up as a candy striper with blood-red lip gloss and suck my cock for hours on end. Knowing I’ll be seeing you again? That’s just inevitable. It’s in the stars and all that shit.”

“Never gonna happen.”

“Oh, it’ll happen. My rising moon told me so. But between you and me, I won’t be the one to cave. You’ll be calling me, and when you do, you’ll be begging for it.”

She scoffs again. “Ain’t gonna happen.”

“Say what you want, baby, but you and I both know you’ll be the one to crack.”

Lyra shakes her head and strides back out of her apartment, my shirt grazing her thighs the same way I wish my lips were. She walks right up to me, pressing up onto her tiptoes before raising her chin and gazing at me as though I’m the only man in her world. “Sounds like you’re throwing down a challenge, Maddox Blake,” she coos, almost bringing me to my knees with the way she says my name. “And for what it’s worth, I never lose.”

And with that, she turns on her heel and disappears right back into her apartment, leaving me staring after her, my heart pounding a million miles an hour. I know she thinks I’m full of shit, especially with all that soulmate crap, but I can’t help but wonder if I might have been onto something. Because how the fuck can two complete strangers have such an instant connection like that?

Sure, call it lust and wild flirting, but what are the chances that all the planets were aligned, and the moment we met out on that street, something magical happened?

Fuck me. It’s about the same chances of me ever admitting that this cosmic stuff is real. It’s not possible. I’m not that guy who gets hung up on a girl. I fuck and move on, so tell me why I can’t tear my eyes away from her door while hoping like fuck she decides to come out here just one more time.

I just need to see her again. At least once to work her out of my system, but like I said, I won’t be calling her. She’ll be the one begging. Though on second thought, I didn’t actually give her my number in return, but she knows where to find me now, and she’ll be the one who seeks me out. There’s no doubt about it. Lyra Vale will be the one to break.

It takes forever before I finally hear footsteps within the apartment. Usually, if it were daylight hours, I would barge right in, but this motherfucker is uptight about his security. He’s the shoot-first, ask-questions-later type, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

He’s my best friend. Has been since we were kids.

The door finally swings open and Hunter Cole stands before me in nothing but a pair of black sweatpants, his hair damp from the shower. He looks mildly annoyed, but for Hunter, that’s basically his resting emotional state.

It’s funny. He’d be the perfect match for the little spitfire across the hall, but sucks to be him, because I met her first. “The fuck are you doing here? It’s after five in the morning.”

“Can’t a man stop by to check in on his best friend?”