Page 133 of Villainous Intent

“You’re a high-performance asset that I plan on breaking tonight. If you faint from low blood sugar while I’m using you, it ruins my rhythm.”

“Do you plan on being rough tonight then?” I cocked a brow at him.

“I’m always rough, Annie. You wouldn’t come for me if I wasn’t.”

I shifted on his lap, feeling the truth of that in the ache between my legs. It was a dull throb of overuse.

I’d learned something new about Supers this week. Apparently, when your partner is a genetically enhanced powerhouse with the stamina of a machine, friction becomes a genuine hazard. Cipher had produced a small jar of balm earlier in the week, a translucent gel designed specifically for the human partners of Supers.

It accelerated healing and numbed the rawness just enough to keep going.

“Eat,” he said. “So I can wreck you properly later.”

A dark heat curled through me. Instead of being insulted, the idea of being used, of being nothing more than a thing for him to break and put back together, made me all the more eager to obey.

Cipher dipped his thumb into a small pot of honey on the slate, coating the pad of it in the gold liquid. He held his hand up to my mouth.

“Lick it off.”

I wrapped my hand around his wrist to steady him and swirled my tongue around his thumb. I sucked the tip into my mouth and my eyes fluttered shut as the taste of him overwhelmed my senses.

Cipher let out a ragged exhale. He pulled his hand back, his thumb slick and wet as he brought it to his own mouth and licked it clean.

“Fuck. Keep looking at me like that, and I won’t wait for us to get home. I’ll shove you under this table and have you choke on me while the League watches.”

My thighs clenched involuntarily at his threat as he pressed another piece of meat to my lips and I took it. He licked a stray drop of oil from his thumb and all I could imagine was that tongue on my pussy.

I leaned forward to kiss him, desperate for the feel of his mouth on mine, but his body went rigid against me.

“Fuck me,” he sighed.

Before I could ask him what was wrong, the feeling hit me. I gasped and slammed my mental shields on Havoc’s power down. I pressed myself back against Cipher, trying to burrow into him as if that could save me from what was coming.

“Ash,” I choked out.

Cipher’s arm tightened around my waist in response.

“He feels...” I couldn’t finish. Wrong didn’t cover it. He felt like death walking.

“I know.” Cipher turned my face toward him, forcing me to look at his mask instead of the monster ascending to the VIP area. “Listen to me closely. You are going to sit here, look bored, and drink your champagne. You are not going to engage. You are not going to try to de-escalate the situation. You will let me handle it as I see fit.”

I swallowed hard but nodded.

“He wants to kill you.”

“He always wants to kill me,” Cipher replied, his tone dismissive, though the tension in his shoulders told a different story. “But he won’t try anything lethal tonight. Not here.”

“Why not?”

“Because he’s a sadist who gets off on an audience, and the lighting in here is terrible for the cameras. He’ll want to save the violence for the match so he can tear me apart in high definition. Spilling my blood on a club floor is a waste of good content.”

The casual way he discussed his own potential dismemberment, made me feel sick.

“Now, drink.”

My hand trembled slightly as I grabbed my champagne glass and took a long swallow.

Baron Ash went to a booth three tables away, his massive frame surrounded by a nervous-looking entourage. Even with Havoc’s power sealed down tight, I could feel the heat of his attention burning into the side of my neck.