Page 171 of Villainous Rise

“That’s right,” I snarled, releasing her throat to grip her hips again. I slammed into her harder, rewarding her honesty with exactly what she needed. “You’re mine. Every fucking inch of you.”

Annie’s pussy tightened around me and she came, screaming my name.

“Cipher! Oh god, Cipher!”

I wouldn’t last. Not with violence and lust roaring through my veins. Not with Annie’s perfect cunt squeezing me like she was determined to extract every drop.

“Cipher,” she gasped, my name breaking on another moan.

That was the final trigger. I buried myself, holding her hips flush against mine as I emptied myself inside her.

“Fuck,” I hissed, the word barely recognizable as I pulsed inside her. “Fuck, Annie.”

I stayed buried deep, unwilling to break the connection even as the last aftershocks faded. My breath came in harsh pants as I pressed soft kisses against the sweat-slicked skin of her shoulder.

I came back to myself slowly, the haze of violence and lust receding. Annie’s body was trembling, tears streaming down her face. The monster in me, the one that wanted to keep her like this, bound and marked and filled with my cum, roared for more.

I silenced it without effort. There would be time for more. Later.

“Annie,” I murmured, reaching to release the restraints. She collapsed against me the moment she was unbound and I scooped her up into my arms.

“I’ve got you.” I cradled her against me as I carried her from the Playroom and back to my bedroom—our bedroom—where the sheets were cool and the lighting soft. Where I could worship her properly for the gift of her surrender.

I laid her on the bed gently, following her down to press my body along the length of hers. Her skin felt feverish against mine.

“You were perfect.” I brushed damp strands of hair from her forehead. “So fucking perfect.”

Annie’s lips parted on an exhale that might have been my name.

“Drink,” I commanded, reaching for the water I’d placed on the nightstand earlier. I supported her head as she took several long swallows. When she’d finished, I pulled her against me.

“Mine,” I whispered into her hair, the word both possessive and wondering. Even after everything, it seemed impossible that she’d chosen this. Chosen me.

“Yours,” she agreed, the word barely audible but unmistakable.

I traced lazy patterns on her back, careful to avoid the marks I’d left for now. Her breathing eventually evened out, but I could tell from the tension in her muscles that she wasn’t quite asleep, just resting.

I’d never expected Annie to be like this, so perfectly matched to the darkness inside me. The rule-following Keeper who melted into a creature of pure need under my hands.

I kept my hand moving over her spine, feeling the fragile architecture of her bones beneath my palm. “I love you, Sparks,” I whispered.

Annie’s eyelashes fluttered against my jaw before she opened her eyes. The blue of her irises were dark with exhaustion but clear. She shifted against the mattress, tilting her chin up to press her lips to mine.

“I love you,” she whispered against my mouth.

Hearing her say it settled a vicious, hollow ache deep within me.

Her hands slid up my chest, leaving trails of light behind them where they touched my tattoos. She tangled her fingers in the hair at the nape of my neck and gave a subtle pull, urging me to shift until I was directly over her.

“You told me I wouldn’t get any gentleness from you in that room tonight,” she said, her voice soft and raspy. “But we aren’t in that room anymore. Will you give it to me here?”

I wanted nothing more than to drag her down into the pitch-black depths of my affection, to show her that my love was just as consuming as my cruelty.

“Yes.”

I settled my hips between her thighs and Annie’s breath hitched as I entered her, her nails digging into my shoulders as she stretched to accommodate me.

I watched her face as I began to roll my hips slowly against her. I wanted to memorize the way her expression softened, the way her walls desperately gripped me. I was a monster who built a legacy on calculation and force, but here, buried inside the woman who held my fractured soul in her hands, I was exactly where I was meant to be.