He drew his hand back, letting go of my hands. He stared at me wide-eyed with his mouth agape as if I grew a second head. “W-what?”

My heart rate began to pick up. Not being able to gaze into the eyes that flashed with intrigue any longer, I averted my eyes- directing them at the trash can that was standing behind Mark against the wall. I had to gulp down my saliva- coating my parched throat that felt constricted as panic coursed through me. “A-Anyway, i-isn’t this what you always had wanted? W-well, it’s not like anything is set in stone. There’s still a possibility that we go our separate ways.” I stuttered.

I flinched at the feeling of his callous hand cupping my chin- turning my head so I had to look at him.

“Kitten, w-what do you mean?” His shaky voice was freighted with anticipation- eyes etched with genuine concern and curiosity boring in to mine. Every cell in my body was screaming at me not to do it, that what I was doing was suicidal. I gnawed down at my bottom lip. 

“April.” Mark whispered, his voice adorned with unwavering affection for me. His eyes, wide and eager as they took in every facet of my face hoping I wasn’t lying to him. Hoping the meaning behind my words was exactly what he thought. The unprecedented expression of his robbed me of my breath and tugged on my heartstrings. 

Fuck it. I had already dug my own grave might as well lie inside of it in peace. Wounding my hands around his neck, I pulled him down for a kiss. He hummed in delight against my lips and was eager to move his own- deepening the kiss as he wrapped his arms around my waist to press my upper body impossibly closer against him. 

His hands moved from my hips up to my hair, threading it with his fingers as he pressed his lips even more firmly over mine. I moaned and surprisingly rolled with it, wounding some of those inky hair strands over my own fingers. I parted my lips to let my tongue swipe over his teeth and I felt him froze. Briefly I wondered if I had done something wrong, but those thoughts were quickly flown out of the window as I was lifted into the air. His hands swiftly going down from the back of my head, down my back to my bum to scoop me up. Pressing me against the wall while wrapping my legs around his torso.

I gasped against his lips, securing my arms around his neck not wanting to fall down and felt him growl against my lips before moving to the crook of my neck- inhaling my scent and peppering it down with kisses from the column of my neck to my shoulder.

“Mark.” I breathed as I involuntary shivered under his tentatively touch. He drew back from my neck and his eyes, possessed by unquenchable hunger, never left my face. They darted from my hazy eyes down to my now slightly abused lips and he went in for another kiss- moving slowly against mine as if he wanted to savor it. His tongue then went over the seam of my lips, asking for entrance, and I gave it to him, parting my lips to let our tongues tangle with each other.

Everything around us fell in to a complete void as we became drunk in each other's presence. I started to feel light-headed at the lack of oxygen, breathing elaborately. Noticing this, Mark finally broke the kiss, giving me a chance to breathe. “Does this answer your question?” I panted, my skin flushed, reflecting the heat in my body.

“It does, but,” Bringing his hand up while keeping me up with his other hand, he cupped my cheek, letting his thumb softly brush over it. “I still want to hear you say it.” He whispered softly. He placed his forehead against mine, giving it a slight bump before closing his eyes. “Please.”

I don’t know if it was because of the close proximity between us or the undercurrent of vulnerability that could be detected in his mellow voice, but my mouth moved by itself before my brain could catch up. “I’ll be yours.” And with this I had officially sold my soul to the devil who’s hotter than hellfire itself.

He burrowed his face in the crook of my neck as he hugged me tighter. “I love you so much.” He breathed with a shuddering breath that induced goosebumps on my skin. I didn’t know how to respond to his umpteenth love declaration and only managed to awkwardly hug him back, giving him a pat on the head. My brain had caught up to my feelings, but I was still not ready to be vocal about it.

Mark chuckled against my skin and tightened his hold on me. “You’re so cute. You know I wouldn’t let you back out of this, right?”

I had to suppress a shiver at the ominous meaning behind his words. “Yeah…” I answered softly. “But Mark,” I said to hear him hum, his head coming out of its hiding spot to look me in the eye with a gleeful expression. I clasped his cheeks between my hands, squashing his face so that his lips would pout involuntarily, and pulled him closer to me.

“promise me that no matter how much my actions or my words pisses you off, you won’t harm my family nor my friends because of it and I want you to stop spying on me. Promise me that, and I will be yours.”

With his lips still resembling one of a fish, he narrowed his eyes at me. “At least allow me to keep a tracking device on you. I won’t listen in to your conversations and I won’t watch your movements through cameras if you let me do that much- deal?”

“Promise?” I asked skeptically. My eyes searching his expression for any lies or a hidden agenda, but his steeled expression let nothing through.

He brought up his right pinky in front of me. “I promise.” His voice came out sincere, which only made room for more concerns, as being ‘sincere’ isn’t part of Mark’s vocabulary.

With his pinky still up in the air waiting, my wearily eyes went back and forth between it and him. Hesitantly, I brought up my pinky closer to his. As I was about to hook my pinky with his, I retracted my hand swiftly back to my chest. “And no dirty tricks this time-”

Hooking his pinky quickly with mine, he cut my words off by giving me a chaste kiss on the lips. “I promise, little kitten,” He chuckled. “You trust me so little.” I wonder whose fault that is.

“What else?” He queried, receiving a questionable look from me.

“What?”

“Is there anything else that you would like for me to do?” He said, smiling softly at me.

Not expecting a question like that, I was lost for words. “Oh… that…” The Mark in front of me now looked more complacent compared to how he was at the beginning, giving me the feeling that it was okay to ask a little more of him. “Can you stop killing people?”

This topic has been brought up before and the answer he had given then was positive where he would stop all killing activities. But I didn’t know whether those words that were spilled were a fib to please me or truthful.

Staring at me with a thoughtful expression, Mark nodded and plainly answered, “Sure.”

Upon hearing his answer, the gears in my head stopped moving momentarily, as my face was painted in shock. “You mean it?” I asked in disbelieve.

Gently, he placed me on the ground and I could feel the ache on my back from leaning too long against the wall. The rim of the uneven brick wall rubbed against my back during our make-out session. That for sure is going to leave some type of bruise behind.

The feeling of Mark’s fingers softly brushing against my right cheek brought back my attention to focus on the eyes that gazed down ardently at me, bringing the heat back to my cheeks. The tall buildings surrounding us blocked the sun’s rays, casting a shadow on us- making those vibrant blue eyes even more prominent than ever. No matter how many times I see them, they are mesmerizing, keeping me spellbound. As if I had lost a compass and wasn’t able to find my way back to reality I didn’t notice the hand that caressed my cheeks gently to trail down my neck, to go further down my right arm until it reaches my hand to engulf it in its warm palm.

“You may not remember, but I told you at the beginning that to keep your loved one’s safe is to become mine.” He prompted. Oh, yeah… he said that, didn’t he? I thought to myself in a daze, trying to disregard how his hand was fumbling with mine, sending small shocks through my arm.

At the beginning, I thought I could put this deranged zealous man behind the steel rods of the prison. That I hadn’t lost the battle yet, but now I see I was fighting a losing fight from the very beginning- perhaps even from the moment I had caught his eyes. This man knows how to use his words wisely, curving it to his advantages. Playing me like a puppeteer who is pulling on the strings of his marionette.

Bringing my hand up to his lips as he bended forward slightly while placing his other hand on his arched back he said, “Now that you are truly mine, there’s no need for me to dye my knife with baseless killing. Your will is the law. Your wish is my command.”

He placed his lips on the back of my hand, letting them linger longer and, for a second, I forgot how to breathe. He retracted his lips and I could immediately feel the chilly wind grazing my hand. Its coldness seeping in my heart as I already yearned more for his touch.

Realizing this, I could feel the red hue dusting across my cheeks and a feverish feeling overwhelmed my body, making me dizzy. I slapped my hand over the back of my head mentally, berating myself. ‘Come on, April, keep a tight grip on yourself! How can such vile thoughts already be crossing your mind!?’

I pulled my hand back, that was still resting on Mark’s hand. Holding it against my chest and rubbing it using my other hand as if that would diffuse the warm tingling feeling on it. Turning my head to the side to look away from those clear blue eyes, I muttered just above a whisper,

“I would like to go home now.”

Upon hearing that, he smiled widely, flashing me with his pearl white teeth. “Yeah, let’s go home.”

I narrowed my eyes skeptically, having the feeling that his definition of home and my definition of home are totally different. “With going home, I meant to my apartment.”

“I know, and I meant going home to our house. I am not planning to live like the medieval time, where the rich married couples slept in separate rooms. So please tell me why you think I would let my woman live separately from me?”

“Because you love her so much that you would give her the space that she needs?” I answered with a wobbly smile. Looking up at him with my eyes that blinked innocently. Even though I agreed to be his, I am still not mentally prepared to live with him. I mean, aren’t we moving a bit too fast?

Mark scoffed indignantly. “I think that I have given you more than enough space for the past four years. I am done waiting.”

I opened my mouth, trying to protest, but he was quick to cut me in. “Before your cute mouth says something else and since there’s no need for me to use underhanded tricks anymore, I would like to tell you that I have bribed your land lord in terminating your contract with him. You’ll receive an evict notice very soon.”

The blinking of my eyes paused and my jaw turned slack. “Are you joking?”

“I’m not the type that would joke around when it comes to you.”

“Mark!” I yelled incredulously, receiving a benign smile from him. “Would you still like to go back to your apartment?”

I groaned, covering my face with the palms of my hand, grumbling in them, “Sometimes I want to stab you so badly.”

“Well, most of the time I would like to stab you with something else, even right now, so to speak.” He retorted suggestively in a low voice, reigniting the heat in my cheeks. Dropping my hands to my side in exasperation, I said, annoyed, “Do you always have to retort with noxious words?”

Mark grinned like a Cheshire cat, with mirth swarming in his eyes. “Of course. How else am I supposed to garner such cute reactions out of you?” He grabbed my hand and walks off, pulling me alongside him swiftly out of the damp dark alleyway.

“Now, let’s go home.”

With a melancholy expression, I gazed at my apartment as we drove it by. Despite it being a rickety building with many problems, such as water leakages and noisy neighbors, it was the first apartment that I could afford with pride. Something that I got to mark a new beginning, a new chapter in life. In the four years that I lived there, it became a place that I could call my home, but now I have to suddenly depart from it.

As if the time was slowing down, I watched with a distant look in my eyes how the building complex disappeared from my sight.

“Hey,” Feeling something squeeze my hand that was resting on my lap, I was forced to redirect my solemn gaze from the window to Mark, who had his eyes on the road. With one of his hands holding the steer while the other hand held my hand, he said with assurance in his voice,

“I won’t let you regret it.” And gave my hand another squeeze, to which I could only let out a heavy sigh as I slumped back in my seat, whispering under my breath, “I really hope so.”