Chapter 26 #3
“Usually,” Cipher said, his tone turning mockingly gentle, “when a woman looks at you with something other than terror, you talk to her. You feed her.” He tilted his head. “Is this the first time you’ve seen a woman with actual desire on her face? It can be confusing, I understand.”
Ash took a step closer, the heat coming off him made sweat bead on my skin.
“She’s not just a warm hole to you, is she?” Ash asked, a cruel delight saturating his tone. “You actually like this one.”
Cipher’s hand on my neck tightened.
“She serves a purpose,” Cipher said. His voice was flat. Dead.
“I bet she does.”
Ash leaned in, the molten fissures on his mask flaring with a menacing orange light that made the shadows dance violently across the table.
“Ever since you saved her, she’s been glued to your side,” Ash continued, his voice dropping to a hiss that cut through the club’s thumping bass. “Every public appearance. Every social media post. It’s all the networks are talking about.”
“The fans eat it up,” Cipher drawled. “They love the aesthetic. The big bad Villain corrupting an innocent woman. It’s called branding, Ash.”
“Better keep her close, Cipher,” Ash whispered.
He walked away but the oppressive weight of his attention didn’t lift. It clung to my skin like a film. Even from three tables away, he made the hair on my arms stand up.
I shifted in Cipher’s lap, trying to shake the sensation, but it was useless.
“I wish he’d just leave,” I muttered, keeping my voice low. “I can feel him staring at me.”
Cipher leaned back against the booth, his legs spreading wider beneath me, adjusting my weight.
“Let him stare.” Cipher reached for the slate of food again, selecting a dark, glistening fig. “Let him watch. Let him covet.”
“Covet?” I repeated, incredulous.
“He wants what’s mine. He always has. He knows I’ve been inside you and he knows he never will be. That eats at men like Ash.”
Cipher shifted his grip. His hand moved up my thigh, catching the hem of the already obscenely short dress.
“Cipher,” I gasped, my legs instinctively trying to clamp shut.
“Relax,” he ordered. “Let him watch.”
He didn’t even try to be subtle. He palmed me right there in the booth, his hand cupping me and finally touching the wetness I’d been trying to ignore.
“Look at me,” Cipher commanded softly.
I stared at his mask, my breath hitching as his thumb pressed down on my clit.
“That’s it,” he murmured. “Let him watch you make a mess of my hand while he sits there with nothing.”
My hips bucked involuntarily against his hand.
“I like it when he watches,” Cipher whispered, a cruel amusement in his tone. “It makes me want to drag you onto this table and make you scream my name until he realizes he doesn’t even exist to you. Until he sees that you’re nothing but a vessel for me.”
“You’re sick,” I choked out, but I was trembling from the twisted thrill of being displayed.
“Guilty,” he said, grinding his palm against me. “Now, smile for the monster, Sparks. Show him who you belong to.”
With a subtle shift of his wrist, he hooked the edge of my underwear and slid one finger inside me.
“Not one sound,” he ordered. “Bite your tongue if you have to. Your sounds are for me, not anyone else. And definitely not for him.”
I clenched my teeth, inhaling sharply as he curled his finger, hitting a spot that made it very hard to stay quiet.
“Cipher.” I exhaled his name when I was sure I wouldn’t moan, my head falling back against his shoulder. “Not here. Anyone could look over the booth wall...”
“Let them look.” He added a second finger and I barely kept a strangled cry locked down.
He started to pump his fingers. I wanted to hate him for this, for using my body as a weapon in his pissing contest with Baron Ash.
I was just a prop to him right now, a way to mark his territory and display his dominance.
But I couldn’t muster the rage. Not when his thumb was pressing against my clit.
Not when his fingers were curling inside me, hitting that exact, maddening spot over and over again.
He was too good at this. He knew exactly how much pressure to apply and exactly how fast to move so I couldn’t even think.
I tried to swallow down a soft moan and failed.
“Quiet,” he warned again. “You make another sound and I’ll fuck you instead.”
I bit my lip so hard I tasted copper trying to keep the sounds locked in my chest. I could feel Ash’s gaze on us, but it was fading into the background as Cipher fucked me with his fingers harder.
My muscles tighten for the approaching climax and Cipher felt it too. He picked up the pace.
“Come for me,” he whispered.
My body locked up, a silent scream dying in my throat as I came. My pussy clamped down around his fingers and I could feel how hard he had to fight to continue fucking me through the orgasm.
When my breathing finally leveled out, he slowly withdrew his hand.
I slumped against him, boneless and ruined. I was shocked at how little I actually cared that he’d fingered me in public. I liked that he’d done it.
Cipher reached for his champagne flute with his wet hand. He stroked the glass slowly and when he lifted it, there was a distinct, glistening streak of my slickness on it.
He turned his head toward Ash’s booth and raised the glass in a mocking salute.
“Cheers,” he murmured.