Page 42 of Villainous Rise

“Maybe that’s just my face when you’re around.”

His eyes narrowed. “I know you’d prefer wine, but water is what you need right now.”

“I’m not a child, Cipher,” I snapped. “I don’t need you monitoring my fluid intake.”

“Then stop acting like one.” His voice was level, but there was an edge to it that hadn’t been there before. “Grown-ups feed themselves properly. They hydrate. They don’t starve themselves out of fucking spite.”

I slammed my chopsticks down. “This isn’t about spite!”

“No? Then what is it about, Annie? To me it seems like you’re punishing yourself to prove some kind of point.”

I finally looked at him. Behind the controlled expression, behind the carefully neutral tone, Cipher was furious. His eyes were darker than usual, his posture too rigid.

“You’re angry.”

“No shit. You think I enjoy watching you waste away? That I get some kind of kick out of knowing you’d rather go hungry than accept anything from me?”

His control was slipping, just barely. I could see it in the way his fingers pressed too hard against the countertop, in the slight flush creeping up his neck.

“I didn’t ask you to watch,” I said.

Cipher leaned forward, his eyes locked on mine. “You didn’t have to.”

A complicated knot of emotions caught in my throat. Anger at his presumption. Embarrassment at being caught in my self-destructive spiral. And beneath it all, a treacherous warmth that he still cared enough to be this angry.

I picked up the water glass and took a sip. But only because I was thirsty. Not because he’d ordered me to.

“I’m not skipping meals on purpose,” I said. “Work’s been crazy. Things slip my mind.”

Cipher leaned against the counter, arms crossed. “You’re skipping them on purpose now. You’re actively refusing food to spite me.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“Is it? Most of those deliveries you sent back, did you eat afterward? Or did you just go back to work and forget again?”

I remembered turning away the Thai food yesterday, then working straight through until midnight without a single bite. And the breakfast pastries this morning that I’d refused, only to subsist on nothing but coffee and a sad protein bar until now.

“I had things,” I muttered lamely.

“Things. Like that protein bar? The one that constituted your entire fucking lunch?” His eyes narrowed. “Or the half-eaten yogurt from two days ago?”

I pushed the sushi tray away, appetite suddenly gone.

He pushed the tray back toward me. “Eat.”

“You brought the food,” I said. “You can go now.”

Cipher circled the island, his eyes never leaving mine. Each step was deliberate, giving me plenty of time to retreat. I stood my ground instead, gripping the edge of the counter behind me.

“Remember what I told you would happen if you didn’t eat?”

My skin prickled at the tone of his voice. I remembered. God, did I remember. The promise had replayed in my head every time I’d sent a delivery back.

“You wouldn’t dare.”

He stopped directly in front of me and my heart hammered against my ribs. I was caught between the hard edge of the counter and the even harder line of his body.

“Open your mouth, Annie.”