Chapter 19 #2
“Are we done with the posturing portion of this call?” Cipher asked. He shoved two fingers inside me and it took everything I had not to cry out. “I have actual work to do,” he finished.
Actual work apparently being how quickly he could make me come.
Cipher’s thumb pressed harder against my clit, circling faster.
I knew with horrifying certainty that I was seconds away from embarrassing myself spectacularly.
I prayed for the call to end or for the floor to open up and swallow me whole.
Don’t let me come like this, I silently pleaded. Not in front of Baron Ash. Not while discussing murder and League rankings.
But I was right there. The pressure built. Every circle of his thumb was a promise. Every curl of his fingers inside me was a command. Just a few more seconds.
Then he stopped.
I wanted to scream. I shot him a desperate glance, but his attention remained fixed on Baron Ash, his expression hidden behind his mask.
Baron Ash’s fiery gaze suddenly swiveled toward me.
“And after I’ve reduced you to nothing,” he growled, “I’ll take your little whore. She looks like she needs a real man to show her what power feels like. I bet she screams prettily when—“
“Careful now,” Cipher cut in, his voice made the hairs on my arms stand up. At the same time, he pinched my clit. Hard.
I jerked in his lap and my vision spotted white.
“You’re embarrassing yourself,” Cipher said. “If you’re that desperate for attention, focus on improving your pathetic ratings. Stop fantasizing about things you’ll never touch.”
His fingers moved again. Fast. Rough. I bit down on my lip until I tasted copper as I fought to keep silent.
“You arrogant—”
“Boring.” Cipher waved his free hand dismissively. The other hand drove me right to the edge. I was falling. I was ready.
Then he fucking stopped.
Again.
My entire body went rigid. I was going to beg. I hated myself for it, but I was actually going to beg him to finish me in front of the murderous asshole.
“Is there an actual purpose to this call?” Cipher asked. “Or did you just need someone to witness your tantrum?”
Sweat beaded at my hairline and my pussy throbbed around his fingers.
“One week,” Baron Ash hissed. “We’ll see who’s boring when I’m burning that smirk off your face.”
“Looking forward to it.” His fingers resumed their torturous rhythm. I was so sensitive that the slightest friction sent little shocks through my nerves. He brought me to the precipice one last time. My toes curled. My hips lifted. And then he stopped.
I choked on a whimper of frustration.
Cipher tapped a button on the desk and the screen went black.
I let out a shaky breath. I needed him to finish this. I was right there. One more stroke, just one.
Cipher removed his hand.
“Cipher?”
He didn’t answer immediately. He just sat there, looking down at me with a tilt of his head and a smirk that screamed arrogance.
“You thought I was going to let you come?” His voice was rich with amusement.
“Yes?” I felt like I was vibrating. He ate me, he fingered me, why wouldn’t he let me come?
“You were beautiful. So desperate.” His hand slid over my ass. “But you seem to have forgotten something, Annie.”
“What?” I snapped. “What could I possibly have forgotten while you were fingering me in front of Ash?”
“Consequences.”
He stood up, lifting me easily as he rose. He set me on the edge of the desk and I jerked when my ass hit the cold surface.
Cipher stepped between my spread knees and loomed over me, his mask giving me no indication of his mood, but that mouth, that fucking mouth, was still smirking.
“You interrupted my work,” he said. “You stepped between me and my prisoner. You negotiated for a Hero’s life.”
“I’m an Alliance Keeper! I’m supposed to help keep idiots like him alive. I was doing my job,” I argued.
He leaned in, bracing his hands on the desk on either side of me.
“You wanted to save the Hero,” he said, his voice dropping to a dark purr. “You wanted to play the noble Keeper. That’s fine. I admire your conviction. But being noble often requires sacrifice.”
He reached down and brushed his fingers through my wetness. I gasped, my hips bucking, seeking the pressure.
He laughed then held his hand up between us.
“Look at that,” he taunted. “Wasted.”
I stared at his hand glistening with my wetness and felt the heat crawl across my cheeks.
“You don’t get to come, Annie. Not after you used that pretty mouth to defend another man. Not after you disobeyed me and left my bed.”
He wiped his hand on my bare thigh, smearing my own arousal into my skin.
“You get to sit here,” he said. “You get to feel that ache. And you get to know that I am the only one who can fix it.”
He stepped back. “And I’m not going to.”
“You’re an asshole,” I whispered.
“I am,” he agreed smoothly, unbothered by the insult. “And you are currently on the wrong side of my good graces.”
He turned toward the door and I just stared at his back as he walked away. He was just leaving after all that?
I sat half-naked on a cold metal desk, my leggings bunched ridiculously around my calves, dripping wet and trembling. He had hijacked my body, and now he was just going back to work?
He hadn’t even yelled at me for running away from his penthouse aside from that one offhand comment about leaving his bed. He hadn’t really addressed my disobedience at all.
My frustration boiled over, overriding whatever flimsy sense of self-preservation I possessed.
“That’s it?” I snapped.
Cipher paused. He didn’t turn around right away.
“Is that your grand punishment for me leaving last night?” I demanded, my hands gripping the edge of the desk so hard my knuckles burned. “Edging me? Leaving me frustrated because I didn’t wait around to play the good little pet?”
It was a stupid thing to say. A reckless, suicidal thing to say. But the sexual frustration clawing at my insides overrode my common sense. I wanted him to touch me again. I wanted to fight him. I just wanted something to snap the agonizing tension.
Cipher slowly turned around and stalked back toward me stepping right between my spread knees.
“My sweet, impatient Annie,” he murmured. “If you think a few minutes of denied pleasure is the extent of your punishment, you severely underestimate my creativity.”
He leaned down, the cold edge of his mask grazing my cheek. “This wasn’t the punishment, Annie. This was just to soften you up. To guarantee you are properly desperate when the real consequences begin.”
He straightened up and strode to the door.
“Fix your clothes, Bishop. We land in twenty minutes. I expect you to be presentable.”
He paused at the door and looked back over his shoulder.
“And Annie? Don’t touch yourself,” he ordered. His voice was hard now. “If I find out you finished what I started, you will fucking regret it.”
He didn’t wait for a response.
The door shut behind him, the magnetic lock engaging with a definitive thud.
My body was screaming, every nerve ending oversensitive and raw. The throbbing hollowness inside me was agonizing.
I looked down at the glistening streak on my thigh.
He was arrogant. He was cruel. He was a murderer who viewed my body as just another thing to control.
I squeezed my eyes shut, hating the twisted truth echoing in my head. I wanted him to come back and do it all again.