Page 50 of Cipher

“What happened to him?”

“Nothing.” The word tasted exactly as foul as it had years earlier. “Senior leadership ordered the report sanitized because exposing him would’ve damaged an alliance and disrupted negotiations already in motion. He was silently removed from duty but retained his rank and title until he was honorably discharged a short time later. They called it protecting the bigger picture.”

Bex’s expression turned sad. “The bigger picture had names.”

“Exactly. I refused to certify the sanitized version. Finished my obligation, declined reenlistment, and walked when the twelve years ended.”

“Did Stryker know?”

“He was one of three people who got the full truth.” I rubbed my thumb across her knuckles, remembering the night he found me after I left the teams. “He flew out, bought a bottle neither of us needed, and after the hangover cleared, he told me to stop breaking codes for people who didn’t care whether I came home. Offered me a job at Black Castle and a place beside brothers who did.”

Bex absorbed the story and her gaze moved over my face with quiet understanding. “Trusting a person doesn’t mean predicting every decision they’ll ever make. It means believing that when the choice matters, they’ll make the right one—even if it costs them. You trusted yourself to choose what was right when the institution didn’t.”

She rose from my lap, and stood between my knees, placing her palms on my cheeks so she could kiss me. I wrapped both hands around her hips and drew her closer, deepening the contact.

When she pulled back, her fingers slid through my hair, pushing the stubborn lock off my forehead with a tenderness I’d never experienced.

“I trust you too.”

Her lips curved. “Even though I’m making you disable the remote access to my car?”

“Still going to track your phone.”

“I would’ve worried if you stopped.”

I pulled her onto my lap again, this time settling her astride me while her arms circled my neck. The soft heat between her thighs pressed directly over my cock, turning it rigid beneath the thin layers separating us as my hands slid under the hem of the shirt and closed around her bare waist. She breathed my name against my mouth, and hearing Corbin in that intimate voice tore through the last distance between reflection and need.

I kissed her slowly at first, taking the sweetness she offered while her fingers tightened in my hair. Then she rocked over my erection, and restraint gave way to hunger as I caught her nape and deepened the kiss until her breath broke against my tongue. My hands climbed beneath the shirt, palms spanning her ribs before my thumbs grazed the soft undersides of her tits, and the quiet moan she gave me made my cock throb hard enough to demand we clear the desk.

“Keep moving like that,” I warned against her swollen mouth, “and you're gonna end up bent over this desk.”

Bex rolled her hips again, deliberately this time. “How about laid out on top of it?”

“Can’t wait,” I growled as I raised her hips so I could free my cock from my pants and shove her shorts and panties to the side enough to expose her hot center. Slowly, I lowered her onto my dick, shuddering at the wet suction pulling me deeper. “Fuck, baby. You’re soaked. Want to live inside this pussy.”

The pleased sound she made went straight through me, and I lost all control. I squeezed her hips hard enough that I was gonna leave bruises, but it only made her moan. She clenched tight around me as I began to guide her up and down.

“Corbin,” she whimpered. “I need you.”

“I’m all yours, baby.”

I sped up my movements and punched my hips up each time I slammed her pussy down on my rigid shaft. “Fuck!”

Bex threw her head back and cried out as I filled her over and over. “Corbin! Yes!”

“That’s it, baby. Ride me. Fuck, yes!” My mouth latched onto her neck, and I groaned as I sucked on her soft skin.

Her channel spasmed, squeezing the hell out of my cock. She screamed my name as her climax crashed over her.

The sound of her pleasure and the throbbing of her pussy sent me right over the edge right after her. “Fuck! Bex! Oh, fuck!”

My seed poured into her and I grabbed her ass to hold her against me, trying to keep every drop inside.

I caught her hips, held her still over my cock, and took one final kiss while both of us fought for breath. Her forehead rested against mine, and the smile touching her lips told me she enjoyed testing my control.

Eventually, the aftershocks faded, and our breathing began steady. When she stood on shaky legs and my still half-hard cock slipped out, I had to stop myself from diving right back in before Sunday morning disappeared beneath several hours of showing her how thoroughly I could claim her.

I scooped her into my arms and carried her to our bathroom to shower. Which was how we lost the rest of the morning anyway because I fucked her twice more before we finally shut off the water.