Page 42 of Villainous Intent

I tried to push past his signature, desperate to filter the surrounding noise, but the volume of power in the Continuum crushed down on me. My vision blurred and I was drowning in the undertow of a hundred Supers.

“—don’t you agree?”

Cipher’s voice snapped the tether.

I blinked, reality rushing back in a disorienting slide. We had moved. We were deep in the room now, standing before a massive, armored Villain whose scarred face swam in my vision.

“I—” The room spun. The power signatures pulsed brighter, closing in on my raw nerves.

“You’ll have to excuse us,” Cipher said smoothly.

Without missing a beat, he turned me. His shoulders and towering frame formed an impenetrable shield, blocking me from the room’s hungry stares as he guided me through the press of bodies.

“Easy,” he murmured. “Everyone is watching.”

I swallowed, trying to mask my panic as the crowd parted for us.

Cipher led me into a dimly lit alcove and hit a switch on the wall. A curtain fell, sealing us in. It shut out the bass of the music, amplifying the harsh rasp of my breathing.

“What’s wrong?” he demanded. “You look ready to pass out.” The corner of his mouth curved upward. “Surely you aren’t overwhelmed yet. My hands have barely been on you.”

I shook my head, fighting the sickening pressure building at the base of my skull. “I can’t find the rogue here. There’s too much...” I snapped my teeth together, catching myself before I revealed too much. “Too many people. Too many distractions.”

He tilted his head. “What exactly do you need to identify them?”

“I need...” I rubbed my temples, pressing my fingertips hard against the skin, trying to force the remnants of the screaming static out of my head. “Not so many Supers all in one place.”

A slow, devilish smile spread across his lips. “So what you’re saying is you can’t hunt your rogue, and you get to focus on being my plaything all night instead.”

I scowled at him, dropping my hands from my face. “Yes. That is part of the point of me being here.”

“Good.” He shifted his stance, trapping me with his body. “I was trying to be considerate before, since I knew you were searching. Now, I don’t have to be.”

“What does that⁠—”

I gasped as his hand slid up my thigh, parting the high slit of my dress until his fingers brushed the edge of my panties. My pussy clenched against the ache of emptiness.

“There’s no one in here,” I choked out, my voice breathless and weak. “No one can see us.”

“I know,” Cipher murmured. “But I need to make sure you can play the part you’re about to play.”

His thumb traced the edge of my panties again before resting directly over the wetness gathering between my legs. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think as Cipher cocked his head and stroked his thumb along the lace right over my pussy.

I reached up to grab hold of him to support myself, feeling dizzy as his thumb continued to stroke. I arched into his touch, urging him to increase the pressure.

“How am I doing?” I hated the question the second it left my mouth. I shouldn’t care what he thought about my reaction. But the desperate, pathetic part of my brain that needed to execute every task flawlessly demanded to know if I was meeting his twisted expectations.

His thumb pressed firmly, right over my clit. I inhaled sharply and my hips jerked forward again, chasing the pressure. Cipher leaned in close enough that his lips brushed mine when he spoke.

“You’re performing perfectly.”

The praise settled deep within me. I hated that the overachieving, rule-following perfectionist inside me reveled in the fact that I was doing exactly what I was supposed to do.

His thumb pressed hard against my clit one last time, pulling a soft whimper from me.

He smiled and withdrew his hand. The sudden loss left me feeling hollow.

Cipher wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me out from behind the curtain, thrusting us back into the crushing noise and blinding lights of the Opener.