Page 36 of Devil May Lie
“Don’t flatter yourself.”
“There,” Madden said, “that. You keep doing that, too.”
“What?”
“Speaking to me like that. With inflection. You only ever speak plainly—unless you’re working. Then you’ve got this scary maniacal grin and speak excitedly. Is that it? Planning on conducting an experiment on me, Butcher?”
“I’m not going to poison you,” he stated, exasperated.
“Why not? You already drugged me.”
“Accidentally.”
Madden snorted. “No, you drugged yourself accidentally. You dosed me on purpose.”
Oh. Right.
He rolled his eyes. “Is there a reason you’re standing in my bedroom, Madden? Because if not, I’d appreciate it if you could leave so I can—”
“Put some clothes on?” Madden took a pointed step closer so that he could fully enter the room. “That’s okay. I like you better this way.”
Berga’s traitorous heart leaped in his chest, but he was confident he didn’t let as much on. “Skin can stain just as easily as clothes can.”
Madden made a face. “What? Butcher, what does that even mean?”
“How long are you going to call me by title? You’re literally in my bedroom right now staring at me naked.”
“Too formal for you?” Madden took another step closer. “How about…Baby?”
He sighed. “Get out.”
“No can do.”
“I no longer have the energy for you.”
“That’s half the reason I can’t leave,” Madden said, then he dramatically collapsed onto Berga’s king-sized bed. “Managing you has exhausted me. The least you can do is let me stay the night to recover.”
“In what ways have you been managing me, exactly?”
“Seriously? No, thank you for pulling you out of your episode at the Academy. No thank you for giving you what had to be the most phenomenal blowjob of your life—”
“You flatter yourself too much.”
Madden sat up. “Why? Who gave better head than me? Was it Flix?”
“Why do you sound jealous every time you say his name?” It was an observation, one he shouldn’t have spoken aloud, but Berga was used to voicing his thoughts with little to no care what others thought about him, and didn’t think to censor himself until it was too late.
“Probably because I am,” Madden said. He pressed a hand over his heart. “It feels very uncomfortable here whenever I think about the two of you fucking behind my back.”
Berga stared, waiting for the punchline that never came. “I can’t screw someone behind your back. You and are I aren’t together.”
“We’re together right now,” he corrected. “And we were together in the car. At the Docks. We can be together in the shower in the next five minutes if you want.”
“I do not want.” He sort of did. Good Light, what was wrong with him? Abstain. That was his plan.
The blowjob didn’t count.
For…reasons.