The bright, late-morning sunlight poured freely through the gaps in the living room blinds, painting warm, golden stripes across the messy carpet. The digital clock sitting on the small kitchen counter read exactly 11:00 AM.
Both Max and Bellatrix were already fully awake. They were sitting close together on her plush, comfortable couch, the television screen playing the local morning news channel at a low, murmuring volume.
The atmosphere in the apartment was a strange, heavy mixture of domestic tranquility and lingering, intense physical exhaustion.
Max was sitting back against the cushions, his arms crossed over his chest, his amber eyes intensely focused on the scrolling ticker at the bottom of the television screen. He was looking for any breaking updates, any police reports of mysterious car crashes, or any mention of amber-eyed victims. He was hunting for the ghost.
But the news anchor was simply droning on about a local mayoral debate and upcoming weather patterns.
"It seems your creepy stalker and that elusive serial killer don't want to show their faces in the news again today," Bellatrix said, her voice laced with a playful, teasing lilt.
She shifted her weight on the couch, wincing very slightly, and reached out her hand. She gently placed her palm against Max's muscular thigh, tracing a light circle with her thumb.
"Hmm, I really wonder what happened to that person, Max? Do you think he got scared of you?" she teased him, leaning her head against his shoulder.
Max kept his eyes on the television screen, deliberately ignoring her teasing tone. However, while his face remained a mask of calm focus, his mind was heavily occupied with genuine worry. He wasn't worried about the serial killer in this exact moment; he was deeply worried about her.
He could clearly see how she was moving. Or rather, how she wasn't moving. She couldn't walk well at all. Every time she tried to shift her hips or reposition her legs on the cushions, a sharp, involuntary hiss of pain would escape her lips. It was the direct, undeniable aftermath of having incredibly intense, hardcore sex with him for hours on end.
Max finally turned his head and looked down at her.
Despite her obvious physical soreness, her face was practically glowing. Her bright gray eyes were full of an overwhelming, radiant happiness and a mischievous teasing energy. There was no regret in her expression, no fear, and no sadness. She looked completely at peace.
Seeing her look so incredibly happy, Max felt the heavy tension in his chest loosen. He let out a soft, genuine smile, relieved that she was actually alright mentally after everything that had transpired.
'It seems she is perfectly alright emotionally after fucking her for so many intense rounds,' Max inwardly said to himself, a mix of pride and lingering guilt warring in his mind. 'Although, earlier this morning, around 9:30, she literally couldn't even stand up to walk to the kitchen. Lol, what did I explicitly say to her last night? I warned her. Don't challenge a man like me and push my limits when you say you want a hardcore experience. Because you will literally get exactly what you asked for.'
He let his amber eyes drift downward, visually cataloging the damage he had inflicted on her pale skin.
She was currently wearing one of his old, oversized gray t-shirts, which hung loosely off her frame, the collar slipping off one shoulder. The exposed skin of her neck was heavily marked. It was covered in dark, vivid bruises in the unmistakable shape of his fingers from where he had choked her, surrounded by a chaotic constellation of deep purple and red hickeys. Even further down, peeking out from the loose collar of the shirt near the curve of her boobs, he could clearly see the dark, crescent-shaped bite marks he had left behind in the heat of the moment.
He had marked her completely.
Max sighed, shifting his body to face her fully. He reached out and gently brushed a stray lock of blonde hair behind her ear.
"Are you truly sure you are alright, Bell?" Max asked her again, his voice dropping into a low, serious tone of concern. "You know I went way too hard on you last night. Though, to be perfectly fair, it is entirely your own fault for calling me a pussy during our second round just because I was actively trying to go gentle on you at that time. You pushed my buttons on purpose, so you got your own severe consequences."
Bellatrix didn't look ashamed or intimidated by his scolding. Instead, she let out a bright, ringing laugh that echoed in the quiet living room.
"Ehh, it's exactly what I wanted anyway!" Bellatrix replied cheerfully, her gray eyes sparkling with a dark, satisfied thrill. She leaned closer to him, her voice dropping into a sultry, seductive whisper.
"Also—" she paused, dragging her fingernails lightly up his thigh.
"…We can always do it again right now, y'know, daddy~."
She delivered the pet kink name with a flawless, shameless tease, looking up at him through her eyelashes.
Max let out a long, heavy sigh at her relentless teasing. A sudden, intense flare of heat rushed straight to his lower stomach. He really, desperately wanted to flip her over the couch and punish her smart mouth again right now. His instincts as a dominant man screamed at him to take her up on the offer.
But his rational mind fought back hard. He needed to hold back his primal urges. He knew for a fact that he had gone way too hard on her fragile body, especially considering he had taken her virginity and even pushed the boundaries further by stealing her anal virginity during the later hours of the night. Her body was completely battered. If he touched her again now, he would actually cause her severe physical damage.
Max firmly shook his head side to side, silently rejecting the tempting offer. He pulled his eyes away from her exposed collarbone and forced himself to focus entirely on the boring political debate happening on the news broadcast.
The room fell into a comfortable, quiet silence. Bellatrix rested her head on his shoulder, perfectly content just to be near him, while Max kept his vigil on the screen.
After another twenty long minutes of scrolling text and weather maps, Max let out an annoyed breath. He grabbed the remote from the coffee table and pressed the red power button.
The screen flashed black.
Since there was absolutely no new information about the green-eyed killer or any suspicious amber-eyed victims, watching the morning news any longer was completely useless to him. He needed to be proactive, not passive.
Max placed his hands on his knees and pushed himself up from the deep cushions of the couch.
"Alright, I'll go to the bathroom and take a shower first," Max announced, rolling his broad shoulders to get the stiffness out.
He took a step toward the hallway, then stopped and turned back to point a firm, warning finger directly at her.
"And listen to me carefully," Max said, his amber eyes narrowing in a mock-threatening glare. "Don't you even dare try to follow me into that bathroom. Rest your sore body on that couch for a while, you goddamn slut."
He delivered the heavy, dirty insult with a bright, genuine laugh, waving his hand dismissively at her as he turned and walked down the hallway.
Bellatrix sat on the couch, her cheeks flushing a deep, pleased red at the dirty talk. She loudly clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth in highly exaggerated disappointment.
She crossed her arms over her chest and pouted. She really, genuinely wanted to have sex with him again right now in the hot shower. But her rational brain agreed with his command; she knew she physically couldn't walk well enough to even stand up in the slippery tub. The previous evening, the long night, and the early hours of the morning had been a continuous, marathon blur of intense, physically demanding sex. They had spent hours tangled together.
'And here I thought I could convince him to let me feel that amazing 8-inch dick inside me again this morning…' Bellatrix complained inwardly, letting out a frustrated breath. 'Sigh, what a tragic waste of a morning! Tch!'
She leaned her head back against the couch cushions, closing her eyes and letting the deep, throbbing soreness in her lower half remind her of exactly who the man in the shower truly was.
***
After another twenty minutes had slowly passed, the sound of the running water in the bathroom finally stopped.
The door opened, and a thick cloud of warm steam rolled out into the hallway. Max stepped out, a fresh white towel wrapped securely around his waist, his damp amber hair sticking to his forehead. He had scrubbed the sweat and the lingering smell of sex off his skin, feeling refreshed and alert.
He walked back into the main living room, drying his hair with a smaller hand towel.
He stopped in his tracks. Bellatrix was still sitting on the couch in the exact same spot he had left her, but her entire demeanor had changed. She was no longer glowing with happiness. She had her knees pulled up to her chest, her arms wrapped around her legs, and she was visibly sulking, her lower lip pushed out in a massive pout.
Max let out a tired sigh, tossing the hand towel onto a nearby chair.
"Bell, what did I explicitly say to you before I went in there?" Max asked her, crossing his arms over his bare, scarred chest.
Bellatrix just let out a heavy sigh of her own, clicking her tongue loudly to show her deep displeasure.
"You said that we shouldn't do it again this time," Bellatrix grumbled, resting her chin on her knees. "Because you are so overly scared of me being permanently crippled, just because we did it so many intense times... which also happened to be my very first time."
Max let out a rich, echoing laugh at her dramatic summary.
"Good. Your memory works perfectly," Max said, walking over and standing right in front of her. "And yes, we should definitely stop doing sex for right now. Your body needs to heal. Besides, you didn't forget our serious promise from yesterday morning, did you?"
He leaned down slightly, catching her gray eyes.
"We firmly agreed that we should actually date first. We need to go out and properly know each other on an emotional level, Bell. We can't just build a relationship entirely on the physical aspect."
Bellatrix nodded her head lazily, clearly uninterested in the logic of dating when she had a lethal, handsome assassin standing half-naked in her living room.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say," Bellatrix replied, her tone dripping with impatience. "But honestly, I really want to do it again, y'know. I'm literally so wet right now just looking at you."
Max, hearing her blunt, entirely unfiltered confession, just blinked his amber eyes slowly. He stared at her for a long second, completely bewildered by her lack of shame. He slowly shook his head side to side, rubbing his temples as a familiar headache threatened to return.
"Sigh. Bell, you have zero filter," Max muttered. "What would happen if your sweet Auntie Irmela somehow walked past the door and heard you saying this degenerate stuff out loud…"
Realizing that her aunt actually did have a habit of showing up unannounced, Bellatrix's face flushed slightly. She quickly decided to switch the dangerous topic.
"Cough, cough! Mhm!" Bellatrix coughed loudly into her fist, sitting up straighter on the couch. "So, speaking of our promise... when exactly are we going to go on this magical, highly anticipated date of ours?"
"Today," Max responded quickly and firmly.
Bellatrix widened her gray eyes in pure shock. Her jaw dropped open.
"To—today?!" Bellatrix stammered, pointing a finger at her own chest. "Wh—why today?! Can't we just do the dating part tomorrow instead? I mean, I literally can't even walk well right now, y'know! My legs feel like jelly!"
Max offered her a dark, highly amused smirk.
"And exactly whose fault is that?" Max shot back, raising an eyebrow. "You begged for the rough treatment. But don't worry about the logistics. If you can't walk, I can just easily carry you on my back the entire time if you want."
Bellatrix stopped complaining instantly. A bright, eager gleam appeared in her gray eyes as she heard the magic word 'carry'.
"Re—really?!" Bellatrix gasped, her hands flying up to cover her mouth. "You will actually give me a piggyback ride? Outside? Where people can see us?!"
Max offered a firm, confident nod.
"Yeah, I will," Max confirmed. "And since it is admittedly partly my fault that you can't walk well today because I lost my temper, I will gladly let you catch a ride on my back for the entire date."
Max then turned around slightly and patted the broad, heavily muscled expanse of his own back with his hand.
"So, don't worry about your legs," Max reassured her gently. "I'll carry you everywhere like a spoiled princess. But first, you really should go and get a hot bath right now to soothe your muscles before we leave."
Bellatrix looked at his broad back, then down at her trembling legs. She put on her best, most pitiful expression.
"Bu—but my legs hurt so much I can't even walk to the bathroom!" Bellatrix whined, dramatically reaching her arms out toward him. "Please carry me on your back to the tub! Pleassssssee eeeee!!!"
Her gray eyes got incredibly big and round, shining with fake tears as she shamelessly begged him for the physical contact.
Max let out a long, long sigh of sheer defeat. He had originally wanted to make her suffer just a little bit more for what she had done, and to teach her a lesson about pacing herself. He had planned to make her slowly crawl her way to the bathroom just like he had let her crawl to the couch earlier that morning. It was his twisted way of punishing her for calling him a pussy.
But looking at her big, pleading eyes, his iron resolve completely melted away. He couldn't say no to her.
"Fine…." Max grumbled, running a hand through his damp hair. "Y'know, sometimes you are really getting on my last nerves, Bell."
He said it with a warm, genuine laugh that completely ruined his intimidating aura.
He didn't give her a piggyback ride. Instead, he stepped forward, bent his knees, and smoothly swept one strong arm under her legs and the other firmly behind her back. He lifted her off the couch with zero effort, holding her securely in a classic, romantic princess carry.
"Yehey!" Bellatrix cheered loudly, wrapping her arms tightly around his thick neck.
She looked at his handsome profile, her heart swelling with an overwhelming sense of affection. Without thinking, she leaned forward and planted a soft, lingering kiss directly onto his cheek.
"Thanks, Max!" she whispered happily.
Max's amber eyes widened in complete shock. His entire body froze mid-step. A sudden, intense rush of heat flooded his face, turning his cheeks and the tips of his ears a bright, highly visible shade of red.
He stared straight ahead for a second, his heart hammering against his ribs. Then, driven by an instinct he didn't fully understand, he leaned his head down slightly and pressed a firm, retaliatory kiss against her soft cheek.
"That's my payback, you fool," Max muttered, keeping his eyes firmly locked on the hallway ahead of them, his voice rough with embarrassment.
Bellatrix widened her eyes, feeling the warmth of his lips on her skin. She stared at his bright red face for a second before bursting into a loud, delighted fit of laughter.
"Hahahaha! Oh my god!" Bellatrix laughed, kicking her legs lightly in his grip. "To think that the big, terrifying hitman Max is actually a massive tsundere! Hahahaha! This is the best day ever!"
Max gripped her a little tighter, his blush deepening.
"I—I'm absolutely not a tsundere!" Max argued defensively, his voice cracking slightly. "Sigh, whatever… just shut up and let me carry you."
He continued walking toward the hallway leading to her bathroom, but his internal monologue was screaming at him.
'Y—y'know, she doesn't understand the gravity of this,' Max inwardly said to himself, trying to justify his extreme, blushing reaction. 'She is literally the only second person in my entire existence who has ever casually kissed me on the cheek with pure affection, besides Emhy. I've lived millions of lives surrounded by enemies and fear. So, it's completely normal for my brain to short-circuit and react like this to simple kindness.'
He stepped into the bright, tiled bathroom. He carefully set her down on the edge of the large porcelain bathtub, keeping a steady hand on her waist to ensure her trembling legs didn't give out.
He reached over and turned the heavy metal dials, adjusting the water temperature until it was perfectly warm and soothing.
For the next while, Max stayed in the bathroom, actively helping Bellatrix take a bath. Even though she was a grown woman and could theoretically do it herself if she leaned against the wall, she heavily insisted that she simply couldn't manage it because of how deeply exhausted her muscles were.
So, Max gently helped her wash. It was an incredibly intimate, agonizingly slow process. He carefully sponged the warm water over her bruised shoulders and her marked neck, his amber eyes tracing every single hickey he had left behind. He was entirely focused on being gentle, severely holding himself back from giving into his dark urges, throwing her against the wet tiles, and devouring her in the bathroom all over again. The slippery soap, the hot steam, and her soft skin were a dangerous combination for his fragile self-control.
After 35 long, agonizingly tense minutes, Max was finally done helping Bellatrix finish taking her bath. The water drained away, leaving the room thick with warm steam.
Max let out another heavy sigh, reaching for a large, fluffy white towel from the rack.
Before he could hand it to her, Bellatrix looked up at him, her wet blonde hair plastered to her forehead, and began to beg him again with her best puppy-dog eyes.
"Please, Max. My incredibly cool, handsome boyfriend. Please!!!" Bellatrix whined playfully, clasping her hands together in a prayer motion. "Can you help me wipe myself dry with the towel too? Pleasssssee eeeee!!! My arms are just so weak!"
Max stared down at her, rubbing his temple with two fingers. He let out a long, exasperated sigh.
"Bell. You are a fully grown, highly educated woman. You do not need my help to dry off," Max argued logically. "And also, for the record, we are not even officially dating or in a committed relationship yet. We haven't even gone on the first date!"
He looked at her persistent, begging expression. He knew he was going to lose this battle too.
"Sigh….. fine!" Max groaned, dropping his head in defeat. "You win again. But I swear to God, I will definitely get you back for treating me like your personal servant today."
Bellatrix threw her hands up in the air in victory, completely unbothered by her nakedness.
"Yehey!" Bellatrix cheered happily. She then looked at him with a wicked, entirely shameless grin. "And don't worry, daddy. You can easily get your payback tonight by violently choking me and biting my boobs and my tits again!"
She delivered the highly explicit, dirty talk with a bright, cheerful tone, as if she were asking him what he wanted for dinner. It seemed she had completely lost any remaining shred of shame or modesty regarding her own body and her deep kinks.
Max just shook his head slowly side to side, closing his eyes as a massive wave of secondhand embarrassment washed over him. He truly didn't know how someone so smart could be so completely degenerate.
He stepped closer, unfolded the large white towel, and began to carefully wipe the excess water from her pale body. He moved methodically, drying her arms, her back, and her legs. He then gently gathered her wet blonde hair in the towel, squeezing the water out of the long strands until they were only damp.
As he worked, he was literally holding his breath, his jaw clenched tight.
He was repeatedly, heavily gulping down the saliva pooling in his mouth. The visual stimulation was almost too much for his highly tuned senses to handle.
'She is just so incredibly sexy,' Max noted inwardly, his amber eyes intensely scanning the curves of her body. 'I am so genuinely glad that I can rely on my assassin's discipline to hold myself back right now. I mean, she is always undeniably sexy, no matter what angle I look at her from.'
He dried her chest, carefully avoiding the tender bite marks.
'Even if her boobs are not massively big, unlike the heavy, perfect curves Emhy used to have, it's completely fine with me. Her size is already perfectly good to me already. I mean, they are definitely big enough and soft enough to give me an absolutely heavenly paizuri when I do it with her boobs.'
His eyes traveled further down her torso, tracing the sharp, feminine lines of her hips.
'But honestly, speaking of her waist… it's perfect. It's built perfectly for me to grip.' Max analyzed inwardly, the dark, possessive thoughts taking over his mind.
—GULP!
The sound of his heavy swallow echoed in the quiet, steamy bathroom.
Max's intense focus broke for a second, and he realized he was starting to literally drool as he stared at her naked waist.
Bellatrix looked up, catching his intense, hungry stare.
Max's amber eyes widened in panic. He quickly raised the back of his hand and furiously wiped off the small amount of drool from the corner of his mouth. He stood up straight and delivered a loud, highly fake cough to cover his tracks.
"Cough, cough! Mhm!" Max cleared his throat aggressively, tossing the damp towel into the nearby laundry hamper.
He turned his back to her, trying to quickly gather his scattered composure and hide the highly visible evidence of his arousal straining against his sweatpants.
"I'm fully done taking care of you now," Max said, his voice a little deeper and rougher than usual. "So, put some clothes on. Let's hurry up and get moving. We have a highly important date to go to today, Bell."
Bellatrix sat on the edge of the bathtub, watching his broad back as he practically fled the room. She let out a soft, delighted laugh at his absolutely ridiculous, flustered reaction to seeing her body.
But as her laughter faded, she smiled a deep, profoundly warm smile. She looked down at her own hands, feeling a massive wave of emotional peace wash over her. She was so incredibly glad that she had finally found a man who would look at her like that.
'I'm so genuinely glad,' Bellatrix inwardly said to herself, pressing a hand against her chest to calm her racing heart. 'I am so happy that there's a strong, incredible man like him in this world who would actually find a nerd like me deeply beautiful and intensely sexy at the exact same time. And the best part is, he really does have genuine, romantic feelings for me.'
She closed her gray eyes, a single tear of pure joy escaping her lashes.
'Thank you, God. Thank you so much for bringing him to my door,' Bellatrix inwardly prayed with every ounce of her soul. 'And please, please! I hope we can be together forever and ever. I never want this feeling to end.'
Meanwhile, out in the living room, Max was standing by the window, looking out at the city skyline. He checked the clock on the wall, his mind already calculating the tactical and emotional logistics of the day ahead.
He let out a slow, steady breath.
'Maybe… maybe after we go on three solid dates, and establish a real foundation of trust…' Max said inwardly to himself, his expression turning solemn.
He looked down at his own scarred hands.
'…I'm gonna finally sit her down and tell her my entire true story. Not just my bloody life on Earth as Max the hitman, but my millions of lives in the other world as Sylan the Dark Lord. And…'
His amber eyes darkened with old, unresolved grief.
'….I'm gonna tell her the absolute truth about Emhy, too. I need her to know the ghosts that haunt me.' Max inwardly resolved, tightly clenching his fist. 'Sigh. I just really hope she believes me when I tell her the insane truth about my endless regressions, and the sheer, unbroken suffering I endured as Sylan.'