Page 153 of Villainous Intent

“You should be.” His eyes searched mine, desperate. “You don’t get it, Annie. This isn’t just about possession. It isn’t just about winning.” He leaned down, his forehead resting against mine. “I’m going to kill anyone who touches you, not because you’re mine, but because they deserve to die.”

I surged up on my toes, gripping the back of his sweat-damp neck to pull him down to me and kissed him.

His body went rigid against mine. For a split second, I thought he might push me away, that he truly believed he was too tainted to touch.

Then he broke. A growl tore from his throat, and his hands, slick with the life he’d just stolen, clamped onto my waist, dragging me flush against him.

The monster he’d been so desperate to hide slammed into me, demanding, taking, possessing. I didn’t pull away. I opened to him, drinking down his darkness, letting the blood on his hands stain my skin because it meant I was alive. It meant I was his.

He pulled back just enough to speak, his breath hot against my lips. “Tell me to stop. Tell me to get the fuck away from you.”

My fingers tangled in his hair, pulling him back to me. “No.”

I crushed my mouth to his again. I tasted copper. It didn’t matter whose blood it was. I swallowed it down.

Cipher moved us until my back was against the wall, his body pinning me in place. His hands gripped my hips, lifting me. The only sound that mattered was our ragged breathing, the only sensation his touch burning my skin as I wrapped my legs around his waist.

“You shouldn’t want this,” Cipher growled against my neck, even as his hands worked frantically at his armor. “You can’t want this.”

“I do,” I whispered, my voice sounding unfamiliar. “I want you. I need you.”

Metal clasps clicked open, fabric rustled, and then he was pushing into me.

“Fuck,” I gasped, the sensation overwhelming, too much and not enough all at once. The stretch burned, my body struggling to accommodate him.

Cipher’s forehead pressed against mine. “Is this what you want?” His voice was rough, desperate. “A monster who just killed a man?”

He pulled back and thrust again, harder this time.

“Yes,” I panted, my head falling back against the wall with a dull thud. “Don’t stop.”

Each thrust drove me harder against the wall. My mask shifted with each impact, the edge digging into my cheek.

“You can’t want this,” he repeated, his words punctuated by the sound of skin against skin. “Can’t want me.”

“I want you to consume me,” I whispered, the confession torn from somewhere deep inside.

His fingers dug harder into my thighs, and he buried his face against my neck. The thundering of my pulse drowned out everything but the sound of his ragged breathing and the slick slide of our bodies coming together.

I didn’t know where the violence ended and the pleasure began. I just knew I needed him to break me so I could feel whole again.

Cipher’s teeth caught my lower lip and the sharp sting made me gasp against his mouth. Blood smeared along my thighs where he gripped me, sticky. Baron Ash’s blood, painting my skin. I arched into the touch, desperate to be marked by him.

When I came, my body seized, wringing everything out of me, both the fear and the relief. I choked on a sob, my nails scratching uselessly against the armor of his suit as the pleasure tore through me.

Cipher pulled out of me with a groan as he came, his release spilling hot against my thigh. His eyes squeezed shut as his body shuddered.

Eventually, he set me down carefully, my legs shaking as they took my weight. He looked down at me and his gaze snagged on the red smears across my thighs, his handprint. His eyes widened, just a fraction, before the shutter slammed down. The heat vanished from his face, replaced by a terrifying, blank mask before he clenched his eyes shut.

“Look at me,” I whispered.

He turned his head away.

“Cipher?”

He didn’t answer. His chest rose and fell with each harsh breath, as his hands moved mechanically, adjusting his suit. He looked angry.

“Look at me,” I repeated, my voice stronger this time despite the uncertainty I felt.