Page 52 of Villainous Intent

“If I were using you for a power trip, you wouldn’t be talking,” he growled. “I’d have you on your knees under this table and I would be fucking that mouth until you forgot how to speak.”

A wave of heat rolled through my body. It started in my chest and ended between my thighs.

“My cock would be so deep down your throat you couldn’t breathe. You wouldn’t be arguing, sweetheart. You would be gagging.”

He brought his thumb up and pressed it against my windpipe. Just enough to restrict the air and mimic the sensation he described.

“Tears would be streaming down your face,” he murmured, watching my reaction. “Looking up at me with those big blue eyes. Begging for permission to swallow.”

“That’s not—“ I started.

“Not what?” he challenged. “Not what you’ve been thinking about since the moment you saw me? Not what you touch yourself to at night?”

“Let me go.”

“Why? So you can run back to your safe little world? Where you don’t have to face what you really are?”

“And what exactly am I?” I demanded. “Besides a pathetic little keeper you like to torture?”

“A fraud.”

He released my throat and trailed his hand down until it rested heavily over my heart.

“You play at being untouchable,” he said. “But you’re the one dripping on my hand while you insult me. You want to surrender, Annie. You hate the control as much as I do.”

“Shut up.”

His fingers dug into my ribs. “You’re terrified of how much you want me to break you.”

“Fuck you,” I spat. I was trembling. It had started in my hands but it had quickly spread throughout my entire body.

He released me as if I had suddenly become boring and turned away. He raised a hand to signal a server and when the woman approached, he ordered a bourbon without even looking at me.

I sat there on his lap, unacknowledged and invisible.

He turned his attention to a Villain who slid into the next booth. They started talking about weapons shipments. Cipher laughed at something the man said.

I sat there burning with humiliation as I realized I was only a prop in his performance.

I was still seething, trapped on his lap and ready to claw his eyes out, when a familiar figure approached.

Menace paused at the entrance of the booth. His gaze flicked between Cipher’s masked face and my obvious fury.

“Bad time?” he asked.

“Not at all,” Cipher replied. His voice was back to that bored drawl.

I didn’t bother hiding my anger. Who cared if Menace saw?

“I’ve been making the rounds,” Menace said, sliding into the seat across from us. “Eclipse is definitely making moves on the eastern territory. She’s got three new lieutenants.”

“Boring,” Cipher said. He took a sip of his drink. “Tell me something useful.”

Menace continued his report and Cipher nodded occasionally but his hands never strayed to my body. They simply rested on the table, holding his glass.

I’d been demoted from fake plaything to breathing mannequin.

I couldn’t even call him out on it without compromising our cover. So I sat there, a furious smile plastered on my face and imagining all the ways I would make him suffer for this.