Page 62 of Villainous Intent

I reached up to pull his mask off, but Cipher side stepped my hand easily and tsked.

“How rude, Keeper Bishop.” He tapped his mask. “A Super’s mask is to remain on unless you’ve been invited to peek under it. Surely you know that rule.”

“I already know what you look like,” I snapped. “And if you want me to keep talking to you, I want to see your eyes. I need to know if you’re mocking me or being serious.

“And that’s why I’d like it to stay on, Bishop. I’d like to keep you guessing.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. If he wanted to play games, I could play too.

“I’ve seen Thomas Smith. I’ve seen how different you are without the mask. Not so scary, are you?

I looked at the black void where his eyes should be.

“You hide behind this because you need it,” I challenged. “You want everyone to think you’re a monster because the truth is too mundane. You’re just a man.”

“You think the mask is the lie?” He let out a dark, humorless laugh. “You think Thomas is the truth?”

He lifted the mask off and tossed it onto my bed without looking.

“Thomas is the performance, Annie,” he said. “Thomas is the suit I wear so people like you don’t run screaming.”

The face was Thomas. The high cheekbones, the mouth that I had spent too many nights thinking about.

But the eyes were Cipher.

They were silver and endless and devoid of any warmth. And without the barrier, the intensity of his stare burned. He looked like a wolf deciding where to sink his teeth

“Thomas is the mask,” he whispered. “This is what’s underneath.”

I swallowed hard, regretting my challenge. I stepped back, but he matched my movement instantly, eating up the space between us.

“What’s wrong, Annie?” he murmured, stalking toward me. “Isn’t this what you wanted? To see the man?”

I continued backing up, until I hit the bedroom door with a soft thud. I had nowhere left to retreat.

Cipher placed his hands against the wood on either side of my head, caging me in. His body blocked out the rest of the room as he leaned down, inhaling deeply near my neck.

“Do I still need the mask to intimidate you, Annie?” he whispered. “Or do you realize that Thomas doesn’t exist? That I’m the thing in this room that could break you, mask or no?”

I tried to force my breathing to steady, to ignore the way my body responded to his proximity, the way every inch of me was aware of him.

“This doesn’t intimidate me,” I lied.

“Your pulse says otherwise.” His gaze dropped to my throat, where I knew my heartbeat was visibly racing. “I can hear it. Every quickened beat.”

“You want to talk about hearing things?” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. “I can hear your ego from here.”

My fingers twitched toward my cuff. One press against his skin and the voltage would drop him, or at least make him back off.

I made my move to press the cuff against his exposed neck, but Cipher was faster. His hand shot out, fingers wrapping around my wrist before the cuff made contact. He spun us around, using his momentum to shove me backward.

I hit my mattress hard and Cipher followed me down, settling his weight over me, a blanket of heat and muscle that pinned me deep into the bedding. It was everything I’d been imagining moments before.

He captured both my wrists in one hand, forcing them above my head.

“I’ve been wondering when you’d start the foreplay,” he said, his voice dropping to a husky whisper that sent a shiver of warning down my spine.

His free hand slid under the hem of my tank top and kept going until it rested against my ribcage.