Page 83 of Villainous Rise

“Then hate me, Sparks.” His thumb traced my lower lip. “Hate me with everything you’ve got. But let go. Just fucking let go.”

“I don’t know how.”

His hand slid up my neck, fingers tangling in my hair, destroying what remained of my careful updo. “Yes, you do.” His grip tightened, just enough to make my breath catch. “You’ve done it before. With me.”

The memories flooded back of the nights spent as his plaything, writhing beneath him.

“I can’t be that person anymore.” My hands pushed weakly against his chest, a token resistance we both knew was meaningless.

“Bullshit.” He pressed his forehead against mine. “She’s right here. Stop fighting her.”

I felt the tears slipping down my cheeks beneath the mask, hot and silent. The fight drained from my body, impossible to hold onto no matter how hard I tried.

“I want to let go,” I whispered, the words barely audible. “I’m so tired.”

The savage triumph in Cipher’s expression softened.

“I know,” he said simply. He dipped his mouth to mine, gentle this time.

When he pulled away, the universe seemed to contract to just his face above mine, everything else falling away into darkness.

“Do you need me to help you remember how to let go?” His voice dropped lower, rougher. “How to stop thinking and just feel?”

I nodded. I needed him to help me silence the constant internal monologue of shoulds and shouldn’ts and give me permission to want the things I wasn’t supposed to want.

My heart hammered so hard I was certain he could feel it where our bodies pressed together.

His mouth curved into that dangerous smile—the one that had haunted my dreams. The one that promised pleasure and pain in equal measure.

He lowered his mouth to mine, and I surrendered to the fall.

CHAPTER 14

CIPHER

I took Annie’s hand, gripping it firmly enough that she couldn’t slip away. No more running. Not tonight. Not from me.

“Stay close,” I murmured, pulling her against my side as we navigated the shifting corridors of the Neon Maze.

The narrow passageway pulsed with electric blue light, catching on Annie’s mask. Her eyes darted nervously as holographic advertisements shimmered and reformed around us. The mask was working to keep her in that liminal space between her carefully constructed persona and the woman I knew lived beneath it.

“Where are we going?” Her voice was small, uncertain.

“Somewhere you can fall apart without consequences.”

The corridor opened into a sensory overload zone with competing signs creating a strobing tunnel of pure color. I pulled her closer as the ground beneath us rippled with each step, responding to our weight with waves of crimson light. The cacophony of sounds, bass from underground clubs, melodic chimes from gaming centers, and the constant electric hum all created perfect cover for our movements.

We passed through a holographic wall that parted like water, revealing a spiral staircase bathed in violet light. Three drunken tourists stumbled past us, their pupils dilated from whatever reality-warping experience they’d just emerged from.

“Almost there,” I said as we reached a section where the floor became transparent, revealing the level below. Annie hesitated, her grip tightening on my hand. I pulled her forward. “Trust me or don’t. Doesn’t matter. You’re coming either way.”

The door to my private room appeared, unmarked except for a subtle geometric pattern that responded to my touch. It slid open silently, revealing darkness beyond.

I smiled and pulled her into the darkness with me.

The door sealed behind us, and I activated the room’s ambient lighting, a soft violet glow that painted the space in shadows.

One wall displayed a shifting digital landscape of stars and nebulae, casting cosmic patterns across the polished floor. A massive bed dominated one corner, with black sheets and too many pillows. The opposite wall housed a stocked bar and a collection of equipment that wasn’t trying to hide its purpose—restraints, implements of carefully controlled pain, tools designed for pleasure’s sharper edge.