Chapter 29
CIPHER
Steam filled the bathroom, curling around us like the fog we’d left behind. Annie stood at the marble counter, working a brush through her damp hair, a white towel wrapped around her body.
I leaned against the doorframe, watching her through the dissipating steam. She caught my gaze in the mirror, her blue eyes meeting mine before darting away. Even now, after everything, she still blushed when I looked at her like this, not bothering to hide my hunger for her.
That blush fascinated me. The way it spread across her cheeks and down her neck when our eyes met. The same woman who had taken everything I gave her in bed, who had matched my darkness with her own, still responded to a simple look with that delicious flush of color.
I crossed the bathroom, pressing myself against her back. I took hold of her waist and nuzzled her neck.
“You smell like my soap,” I murmured against her skin before nipping gently at the spot.
Annie tilted her head, giving me better access. Her eyes fluttered closed as she leaned into me, the brush forgotten in her hand.
“Is that a problem?” she asked, voice already going breathless.
“No.”
My hand slid up to her throat, thumb tracing her pulse point. Her heartbeat quickened under my touch.
“Are you ready for your punishment, Sparks?” I asked.
Annie shivered against me but she nodded, the movement small against my palm.
“Words,” I demanded, tightening my grip just enough to remind her who was in control.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Yes, what?”
The flush deepened across her cheeks. “Yes, I’m ready for my punishment.”
I smiled against her skin. “Good.”
I guided Annie out of the bathroom, her hand in mine. She was still wrapped in nothing but that towel, a temporary state I intended to remedy. I stopped at the door directly across from my bedroom, the one she’d never asked about. The one I’d been waiting for the right moment to reveal.
“Close your eyes.”
Annie raised a brow but complied. I pressed my palm against the scanner and led her inside, positioning her in the center of the room.
“Open them.”
Annie opened her eyes and gave a sharp intake of breath.
Soft red lighting washed over deep burgundy walls and thick, sound-absorbing carpet.
A heavy steel suspension rig dominated the center of the room, bolted directly into the reinforced ceiling beams. A padded Saint Andrew’s cross stood waiting beside a custom-built bed draped in black silk.
The far wall displayed an arrangement of impact tools.
Floggers hung next to paddles. Stiff riding crops rested on polished mounts under focused spotlights. The air smelled of conditioned leather.
It was a monument to my obsession. I already had the Playroom in the Labyrinth, but having this here, in my penthouse, meant there was no escape from what we were to each other no matter where we were.
“Everything in here is scaled exactly to your measurements,” I said, watching her study the suspension rig.
She looked around in awe, her gaze tracing the black leather and the wall of meticulously arranged tools. “Why?” she asked, turning her head to look at me. “Why go to all this trouble when we already have the Playroom?”
I straightened, turning her fully to face me. The towel was barely clinging to her body now.
“Because I want to give you everything.” I tugged at the edge of the terrycloth, letting it fall to the floor so that she stood naked under the wash of red lighting. “Because everything in this room, including me, exists to make you feel exactly what you need to feel.”
Her skin was warm as I took her face in my hands.
“This room is yours, Annie. Just like I am.”
I lowered my mouth to hers, kissing her with a gentleness that contradicted everything I wanted to do to her. I wanted to devour her, to bite and bruise, but I kept the pressure soft, a fleeting taste of devotion.
When I pulled back, her lips chased mine, a desperate little sound catching in her throat.
“That’s the last gentle thing you’ll get from me in this room tonight,” I warned. “The rest won’t be gentle at all.”
Annie’s breath hitched, her chest rising and falling faster. “Good.”
My cock jerk. She craved the violence. She needed it to function, to strip away the suffocating rules of her life.
I stepped back, giving her space. “Look around.”
She gravitated straight toward the wall holding the impact instruments. Her fingers hovered over the braided tails of a heavy flogger and the stiff, unforgiving line of a riding crop.
I glanced up at the restraint system bolted to the ceiling and the floor, positioned directly in front of the floor-to-ceiling mirror that dominated the wall.
“It’s time for your punishment, Sparks.”
Annie eyed the restraint system, a deep flush creeping across her chest.
I guided her to the center of the room, raising her arms to strap her wrists into the padded leather cuffs of the suspended spreader bar. I knelt, securing her ankles to the bar bolted to the floor. Spread wide, she was a perfect canvas waiting to be ruined.
I positioned myself behind her, forcing her to stare at her own reflection. At the way her body was displayed.
“You hid yourself behind another man’s ring tonight,” I said, my voice low and vicious in her ear. “You hid yourself behind fake smiles. You pretended to be something you’re not.”
She glanced down and I gripped her jaw, forcing her head up to meet her own eyes in the mirror.
“You’re going to fucking watch yourself. You’re going to see who you really are when all those lies are stripped away.”
At the wall of instruments, my hand hovered over the heavy leather paddle before wrapping around the grip. I carried it to the steel table beside her and set it down with a deliberate clack. Her spine snapped straight at the sound.
I stepped up behind her and caught her breasts, squeezing the soft flesh before pinching her nipples hard. I tugged them sharply and Annie cried out, her back arching, grinding her ass against my cock.
“Look at yourself,” I commanded. “Watch how your body responds to me.”
I dragged my hands down her stomach to slip them between her thighs. She was already soaking wet for me. I slid two fingers deep inside her, hooking upward, and her hips jerked.
“See that?” I pumped my fingers into her cunt, watching her reflection. “That’s not the perfect little Keeper. That’s a woman who needs to be fucked. A woman who needs to be fucking owned.”
She tried to close her eyes, tried to escape what she was seeing.
“Eyes open, Sparks,” I warned, nipping her shoulder. “You’re going to watch every second of what I do to you. You’re going to see yourself come all over my fingers, on my cock. No more hiding.”
I worked her faster, my thumb circling her clit.
She whimpered as she climbed closer to the edge, her inner muscles beginning to flutter around my fingers.
I pulled my hand away and she slumped forward against the bar with a frustrated sound.
“Truce,” I said, the word tasting like ash in my mouth. “That’s your safeword, same as before. It’s the only mercy I’ll allow you tonight.”
I didn’t wait for her to acknowledge it. I picked up the paddle from the table, tested the weight of it in my palm, and brought it down hard across her right cheek.
Crack.
Annie sucked in a gasp, her body jerking sharply. Her ass flushed red instantly. I didn’t give her a second to recover. I swung again and again, the heavy leather biting into her flesh.
After the fourth strike, I dropped the paddle and plunged my fingers back inside her cunt. She gasped, her head falling back as the sharp sting of the leather melted into the crushing wave of pleasure.
“Look at how wet you are,” I said, my voice rough as I pumped into her. “Look at your cunt dripping down your thighs while I mark your ass. This is who you really are, Sparks. Not that pristine Keeper in her pressed uniform. This.”
I curled my fingers inside her, finding that spot that made her legs shake. Her whimpers turned into hungry little moans, her hips rolling shamelessly against my hand.
“That’s it,” I murmured. “Fuck my fingers. Show yourself what a desperate thing you become for me.”
Then I pulled out and grabbed the paddle again.
Crack.
“This is for letting that fucker put his hands on you,” I snarled, bringing the leather down again. Crack. “For wearing his ring.” Another strike, harder. “For playing the perfect little Alliance pet while your pussy was already wet thinking about me.”
I stepped close, pressing my chest to her back. “How many strikes is it going to take for you to forget all about Valor?” I asked. “How many strikes will it take to erase his hands from your skin?”
She shook her head. “Don’t stop,” she begged, the words tumbling out in a desperate gasp. “Please, Cipher. Don’t stop.”
I dropped the paddle and it clattered against the table. My fingers wrapped around the stiff, unforgiving handle of the riding crop. I dragged the leather tip slowly across her skin, tracing the dip of her waist, watching as she shivered.
“I know you can take this,” I whispered. “The pain will bloom across your skin like art. My mark on you.” I trailed the tip of the crop along her spine, watching goosebumps follow in its wake. “Beautiful. Fucking perfect.”
I stepped back and swung.
The crop bit into the sensitive flesh of her upper thigh with a vicious snap. Annie screamed, a raw, piercing sound that tore right through me.
I dropped the crop and immediately slipped my fingers inside her cunt. I pumped hard, grinding the heel of my palm against her clit, forcing her body to translate the pain into pleasure. Her scream dissolved into a shattered moan as her muscles clamped down around my fingers.