Maddening (Cursed Superheroes #2)(7)

I nearly fall over from the suddenness, but he catches me by the waist and steers me backwards until my back is pressed against the wall. Then his hands come down against the wall, so my head is trapped between his arms. My heart thunders inside my chest, not out of fear but from startling excitement.

“Are you sure you want to know?” he asks in a low tone, his face inching toward mine. “Because once you find out, there’s no turning back.”

I wet my dry lips with my tongue and his eyes flick in the direction of my mouth. It makes me wonder how gross my lips look—how gross I look. “I-I want to know.” The uncertainty in my voice causes me to cringe. I hastily clear my throat and give it another go. “I want to—no, need to know; otherwise I’ll go crazy.”

“I’d really be careful how easily you throw the word crazy around.” He bites on his bottom lip, mulling over something. “All right, I’ll tell you. But just for the record, I tried to warn you.” He drags out a pause as if waiting for me to chicken out and then blows out a breath. “When a Maddening touches someone, it drives that person to the brink of insanity within a matter of seconds.”

I gulp. “And how long do they stay like that?”

His intense gaze carries mine. “Forever.”





Chapter 7





“Forever?” Shock lashes through me, powerful and potent. “But then…” Tears sting in my eyes as my future opens up in front of me. “No one will ever want to be with me—won’t be able to be with me. I’ll die alone….” My teary eyes drift to my cage, my home for nearly a decade and a half, and then my gaze returns to Caspian. “Wait? How come you can touch me and I don’t go crazy? I mean, I haven’t transitioned yet, so shouldn’t I be insane by now?”

“No, you’re cursed, so my powers don’t work on you,” he says, warily eyeballing the tears streaming down my cheeks. “You’re crying again.”

“I’m sorry.” I sniffle, but tears continue to pour out of my eyes. “But what do you mean by cursed? Cursed how exactly?”

“That will be revealed in time.” His tone is tight. “For the love of God, Heartley, would you please knock off the crying. It’s not the end of the world.”

“Yes, it is.” I gripe through a sob. “I’ll never be able to touch anyone.”

“That’s not entirely true,” he reminds me. “You’ll be able to touch anyone with Maddening blood inside their veins, like me.”

A few tears leak from my eyes, but I manage to get my sobbing under control. “Just how many of you… us are there?”

He shrugs. “Not that many.”

I frown, my eyes bubbling with tears. “So I’ll just be stuck with whoever I can find?”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” His lips threaten to turn into a smirk. “But how can it be when I’m in that category? After all, you already established that you think I’m rock solid.”

“Actually I said solid like a rock, which technically isn’t the same thing.”

“So you’re saying you don’t think I’m rock solid?” He sounds annoyingly doubtful.

I give a nonchalant shrug. “How do I know? I only touched you once.” My fingers twitch at my sides. “But maybe if I give it another try, I’ll have a better answer.”

His brow cocks. “You want to touch me again?”

I waver, questioning what the right answer is. But when I come up blank, I decide to go with the truth. “Yeah.”

He stares at me for an unnerving amount of time, to the point where I become fairly sure he’s going to say no. But then he shrugs. “Fine, if you must.”

I attempt not to get too overly eager as I reach forward and line my palm to his chest. But the instant my hand touches him, my heart starts to beat wildly. My legs begin to tremble as I run my hands over him, moving from the top of his chest to his abs. Then I trail my fingers across his collarbone, his chest, his stomach, all the way to the bottom of his shirt. When I reach the top of his waistband, my knuckles graze his skin. I shiver from the connection and repeat the movement again and again…

“Heartley,” Caspian growls out, sounding in pain. “I think you need to…” His words fade as I let my fingers wander underneath the waistband of his jeans.

I have no clue what I’m doing or why I’m doing it. All I know is that it feels so good, like my body is starved and finally getting a tiny taste of food for the very first time. And I want more.

My hands travel further downward…

“I don’t even know what I’m doing…” My dazed voice sounds so foreign. “Should I stop—”

His lips abruptly come down on mine so hard I swear I’m going to have a bruise. As quickly as the kiss began, though, he pulls back. His eyes are wild and filled with a hunger I can’t comprehend, but the sight makes my stomach twist in the strangest, most wonderful way.

“Oh my God, you’re driving me crazy, which is saying a lot,” he growls and then crashes his lips against mine again.

I groan as he bites my bottom lip and then parts my lips with his tongue. Never, ever have I felt anything like this. The blistering heat, the crazed frenzy, the hammering of my heart, the desire blazing through me. I want more. Crave more.