Chapter 19 #3
“You forgot dramatic,” Annie interrupted. She shifted her weight and dragged her bare thigh deliberately over my cock, derailing my train of thought.
“I—” I stared at her, my brain scrambling to process the raw hunger in her eyes and the heat of her bare skin against mine.
“I know exactly who you are, Cipher.” She swung her leg over and straddled my hips, her weight settling perfectly over my cock. The movement put her fully in the golden glow of the false window, illuminating every brutal mark I had left on her in the dark.
She looked down at the damage, then looked right into my eyes and smiled.
“I’ve seen the worst of you. I’ve felt the damage you can do. And it’s exactly what I want.”
“You shouldn’t.” My brain kept stumbling over her declaration, unable to process the beautiful, twisted reality of her sitting there.
“And yet.” Annie’s eyes held mine, unflinching and clear. She leaned forward, pressing her lips against mine again. When she pulled back, she stroked her fingers lightly over my brow, trailing them down to my jaw. I couldn’t stop myself from turning into her touch.
“You said you’d offer more when I was ready,” she said quietly.
I opened my mouth to argue, to list all the reasons, again, why she couldn’t possibly love me, why this had to be some kind of trauma response or misplaced gratitude. The words died in my throat as I looked at her. There was no mask and no anger.
There was just Annie, looking at me like I was someone worth loving.
I swallowed down the argument, the disbelief. “Alright.”
She gave me a small smile. “Alright?”
“Alright,” I repeated. My hand slid up her side, settling at the curve of her waist. “But you should know, you’re still to use me when you need to. When you need to break apart, when you need to forget everything else.”
Annie’s fingers traced one of the tattoo lines on my chest, her touch feather-light. “Only if it’s something you want.”
I pressed my cock against her. “It makes me fucking hard thinking about you using me,” I growled, my hand tightening on her hip. “I don’t mind in the least when you want to be violent or ask me to be violent toward you.”
Her eyes darkened, pupils dilating with desire.
My hand slid into her hair, gripping just tight enough to tilt her face up to mine. “I love you, Annie.” I brushed my lips against hers, not quite a kiss. “I love you so fucking much.”
Annie smiled against my lips before kissing me hard, her body pressing into mine with an urgency that made my cock throb. When she pulled back, her eyes were bright with mischief. “You have an interview in less than an hour. You’ll be late if you don’t get up soon.”
“Fuck the interview.” I flipped us over and pinned her wrists above her head with one hand while the other traced the curve of her breast. “They can wait.”
Annie laughed. “The great Cipher, making the press wait? What would your adoring public think?”
“That I’m balls deep in something more important.” I nipped at her lower lip, savoring the way her breath caught. “They’d understand.”
She arched against me, tempting and perfect, then twisted out of my grip. “Go to your interview,” she said, pushing against my chest. “Be the Villain you need to be.”
I caught her hand, pressing it against my heart. “You’re coming with me.”
Annie blinked. “Excuse me?”
“You’re coming with me.” I didn’t soften it the second time either. “Not asking, Sparks.”
Her eyes narrowed, though I caught something underneath the irritation, some flicker that said she’d already known this was coming. “And what exactly am I supposed to do while you play Villain for the cameras?”
“Just be there. I don’t want to waste a single minute away from you. Not today. Not when you’ve finally decided to love me.”
Annie held my gaze, and I let myself believe she was running the same calculation she’d already made the moment she chose to stay in my bed instead of running.
“I want to sit in front of those reporters and answer their mundane questions while knowing exactly where you are,” I said. “I want to look straight into the cameras and talk about destroying Havoc while his own Keeper stands ten feet away, wearing my marks under her clothes.”
“You’re serious.”
“Wear your mask. Hide in plain sight.” I cupped her face in my hands. “Let them look at me while I look at you.”
Her hand came up to cover mine, thumb stroking my knuckles.
“You could’ve asked, you know.”
“I could have. It wouldn’t have changed the answer.”
A short laugh escaped her, tired at the edges. “No. It wouldn’t have. But I’m choosing this. Not you deciding it for me.”
“Duly noted.” It didn’t matter whose choice it was, so long as she ended up exactly where I wanted her.
Something unfamiliar expanded in my chest. Normal people might call it happiness. I knew it as absolute victory. I had spent months trying to figure out how to make Annie mine and she had finally surrendered. I had finally broken down her walls, and now I got to keep her.
I pulled her down, my hand wrapping securely around the back of her neck to hold her exactly where she belonged.