Page 92 of Villainous Intent

The tension drained out of my muscles instantly and I relaxed. I actually fucking relaxed. The realization sparked a flare of annoyance within me. I shouldn’t be able to relax around the stalker that had just broken into my home.

Cipher removed his hand from my mouth, and his fingers replaced mine in my hair. He found another bobby pin, sliding it out.

“What are you doing?”

“Taking the pins from your hair,” he replied, dropping the pin onto my dresser with a small clink. His knuckles grazed my sensitive scalp, tracing the sore lines where the hair had been pulled back. “I noticed your schedule has been cleared for the foreseeable future. Why is that?”

Of course he’d already seen my schedule. But I hesitated. He was being gentle and that made absolutely no sense. I had bolted from his penthouse in the middle of the night, explicitly defying his orders to stay put. I had spent the entire day dreading his retaliation, and now he was playing hairdresser.

“Havoc put me on administrative leave,” I finally admitted. “He wants me focused on finding the rogue.”

Cipher pulled the last pin free, letting my hair tumble over my shoulders. His hands slid down my sides and moved to my shirt, his fingers taking over the task of unbuttoning it.

I tried to pull away from him. “I can undress myself.”

He clamped an arm around my waist and pulled me back where I was. He didn’t say a word, just continued unfastening the buttons. He pushed the blouse off my shoulders and moved to the zipper of my skirt, dragging it down until it dropped around my ankles.

Cipher stepped back and began a slow circle around me. He wore his full suit, the glowing accents illuminating the dark plates of armor, but his mask was gone. He stopped in front of me and his gaze locked onto the bruises marking my collarbone and hips.

“I’ve been watching you press on them all day,” he murmured.

My stomach plummeted. The cameras. He’d hacked the internal security feeds at the Tower. The Aegis claimed the building was impenetrable, and Cipher had bypassed it just to watch me touch myself.

“Tell me, Annie. Does the pain make you wet?”

I clamped my jaw shut, refusing to acknowledge the way the question made my pussy clench. “Why are you here?” I asked instead.

“I’m here to take you.”

I stared up at him, trying to process the audacity of his claim. “Take me where?”

“You have a newly cleared schedule.” His silver eyes dropped to my mouth before dragging lazily over my breasts. “I’m not fucking wasting it. We’ll make our mandated appearances for the Aegis and the Syndicate, but the rest of the time, you’ll belong to me. So you’re staying with me.”

I took a step back. “I’m not staying with you. We can fuck all you want, but I never agreed to staying with you.”

“I wasn’t asking.” He reached out and wrapped his fingers around the back of my neck.

“You read those stories, Annie,” he said. “You crave the power exchange. You want a monster who takes control. I wouldn’t want to disappoint you now by making you think I’d give you a choice.”

He leaned down, his mouth hovering by my ear. “Besides, this gives me all the time in the world to punish you for running.”

“What’s to stop me from calling Havoc?” I demanded, my voice tight. I forced my spine straight, refusing to let him see how badly my knees were shaking. Logic. I needed logic. “What will Dawn think when I just disappear? She lives here. She’ll notice I’m not at home.”

He raised his left hand between us, my phone nestled between his fingers. I hadn’t even felt him take it.

I lunged for it but Cipher was faster. My phone disappeared into a compartment in his suit.

“As for Dawn, later, you’re going to text her something about why you won’t be home.” He leaned forward. “And you’d better make it fucking convincing, Bishop.”

I scowled at him. I really didn’t want to stay with him. My brain focused on the logistical nightmare of abandoning my own apartment to stay with Cipher to be his live-in plaything. Havoc would execute him if he found out.

But the thought of having days to let go of my control, of surrendering the crushing weight of my responsibilities and existing at his mercy?

It sounded really fucking good.

He had fucked me exactly how I needed to be fucked last night. He had pinned me to that glass, and reduced me to a desperate creature. And that was only the beginning.

Cipher knew every dark, taboo scenario I had ever read. He knew everything I secretly craved but could never confess to a living soul. I wanted to know what he would do when we actually had time. I wanted to experience every single fantasy he had threatened me with in the dark. I wanted it so fucking bad.