Page 32 of Villainous Intent

Think about it. If we’re going to convince the world you belong to me, I need to look at you like I know your secrets. Like I know exactly what you sound like when you beg.

Is this how you talk to all the women you stalk?

I was desperate to regain some ground.

Only the ones who have read “Villain’s Captive” fourteen times.

My stomach dropped through the floor.

Chapter twelve specifically.

Oh god. Chapter twelve.

I am going to find you and murder you in your sleep

Kinky. But that’s more chapter fifteen material.

Delete whatever is on my computer. Now.

My fingers slipped on the phone screen as I typed, trembling with a mix of rage and mortification.

You just said we’re pretending. I’m not your boyfriend or lover.

I’m your villain, Annie. And villains don’t uninstall spyware just because they’re asked nicely.

I wanted to scream. A scream that would shatter the windows and bring Havoc crashing through the ceiling, demanding answers I couldn’t give him.

“Fine,” I whispered to the empty room. “You want to play? Let’s play.”

I marched back to the window, yanked the curtains closed, and meticulously adjusted them until they were perfectly straight. No gaps. No cracks. Just an impenetrable wall of fabric between me and whatever surveillance equipment he was using.

I knew it was a futile gesture. He was already inside the walls. He was inside my head.

I settled back on my bed, reopened my laptop just as my phone buzzed again. I shouldn’t look. I knew I shouldn’t.

It was a screenshot. It was that photo. The one buried deep in a mislabeled system folder. The one where Cipher was caught mid-fight, his suit damaged and revealing a tantalizing glimpse of the sculpted muscle of his chest. His mouth was curved in that dangerous half-smile that haunted my dreams.

I’m flattered, Annie. According to your metadata, you’ve opened this file 47 times in the last month. Mostly between the hours of 11 PM and 1 AM.

He didn’t just know I had the photo. He knew the goddamn schedule. He knew exactly what I was doing in the dark, alone in my bed, when the city was asleep. He had quantified my lust.

Fuck you

Is that an invitation?

Because I’ve been thinking about it since I caught you. I’ve been thinking about how you’d look under me.

The phone trembled in my hand as he kept going.

I want to replace that photo in your mind, Annie. I want you to look at me while I push inside you. I want to feel you clench around me when I make you come.

Heat flooded my veins and settled between my thighs until I was aching. It was a betrayal of every survival instinct I possessed. I should be terrified. I was terrified. But I was also fucking wet.

My phone buzzed again.

Your heart rate just spiked.

I’m done with this conversation and I’m done with you invading my privacy.