My breath got snagged and my core clenched. Mark pushed my bra up, settling it above the swell of my breasts. My toes curled up as he traced his finger around my breasts and when he grabbed one of them, a moan escaped my lips and, as if it enticed him, he released a growl before he squeezed it with his palm again.

“Mm!” I tried to thwart the cry from escaping my lips by pressing them into a thin line as I felt embarrassed that my body was so responsive to his touches. But I didn’t manage to keep my lips shut for long when he confined my nipple between his index finger and thumb, the friction of them together puckering the skin.

“Ah!” To make sure that the other nipple didn’t feel lonely, he gave it undying attention with his mouth that felt hot and wet as his tongue was swirling around the bud.

“Mark!” I writhed under his touch that made my back arch from the pleasure and my fingers found themselves to be entwined with his dark locks that shined under the moon’s gaze.

“Hearing you call my name like that drives me crazy.” Remarked Mark, before he sat up between my legs. My pencil skirt had rolled up by itself from me squirming around, to settle above my waist, allowing Mark’s eyes to feast on my laced garment that was under my see-through panty. Sensually, Mark slides the panty together with my garment over my legs to toss them aside, leaving my skirt on before pulling his own shirt over his head and casting it away.

Caressing my face, Mark leaned forward to capture my lips. I felt his finger enter me where he added a second finger, preparing me while ravishing my lips. I kept moaning against his lips when his fingers started to pump in and out of me at a quick pace.

Disconnecting our kiss, Mark whispers against my lips with a ragged breath, “I just can’t get enough of you.” He removed his fingers and replaced it with his rigid length, thrusting himself fully inside me until the base.

I let out a keen cry, feeling myself stretch to accommodate to his length. My toes pressed against the bed sheet while my hand crumpled them. His manhood filled me completely throbbing for release. Every time he slides out of me to slam right back in left my lips parted to elicit moans and cries from them.

I kept calling out Mark’s name in a desirous state of mind, only to be responded with a thrust that made me forget how to form a proper sentence. A light sheen of sweat had formed on our body, and Mark bended down to capture my lips with his lips. Feeling like I was floating moved my hands up to hold on to his shoulders, and with every surge of his hips snapping against mine, earned him light scratches that covered his back, but he didn’t seem to mind it as his face was filled with pleasure as he got closer to the edge.

Soon my body started to tremble in his arms, and I cried out his name as I came apart. A few seconds later, Mark released his own share of roar as he emptied himself into me.

Mark’s breathing was heavy as he pulled himself out of me and laid next to my body that was still humming from our love-making. Entwining his fingers with mine, he brought them up to place a chaste kiss on them, sending delicious tingles down my already trembling body.

“I love you. I love you so fucking much.” He said with so much conviction that it had left me rendered speechless. My heart strummed again as my eyes trained themselves on the disheveled man next to me. His hair tousled from my fingers raking trough them. The long scratch marks on his back that turned slightly red together with the sheen of sweat that slowly was gliding down his marvelous body. It was truly a sight to behold, but it was his face filled with content that struck a blow to my heart. It felt like it was the first time that I really took my time to gaze into those blue eyes that held undying love for me. Their intense stare messing up my mind and hypnotizing me yet again. We were just drowning in each other’s presence and before I could stop it my lips parted while I squeezed in our conjoined hands, my eyes brimming with determination,

“About our marriage,” I started. “I want to get married to you in few months if that’s possible. Until then, I want to take my time to get to know you properly. You know everything about me, but I’ve just realized that I know nothing about you. Like, what’s your favorite color?”

I’ve known this man for a while now and the only thing that I’ve learned from my interactions with him is that he is a killer, that his parents are still alive, and that he’s insanely obsessed with me.

Mark used his other hand to rake through my hair gently as he answered nonchalantly, “Red.”

My lips pursed at his answer and I narrowed my eyes skeptically at him. “The answer better not be red because of my hair color,” I warned him with a pointed stare.

He gave me a heart throbbing laugh that charmed my own lips to curl up before pulling me into an embrace. “That’s partially the reason, but my favorite color is really red.” He stroked my head soothingly from the crown to the nape. “You can take your time in getting to know me, love. I’ll answer any question that you may have.”

I sighed, relieved, “Thank you, and…” Craning my head back, I gave him a kiss on the lips. Letting the kiss linger before pulling back and flashing him with a smile, “I love you too.”

…

After that day, I genuinely think that Mark and I grew closer. Mark took me out on a few dates, and I enjoyed every single one of them. Whether it was him taking me out to an extravagant restaurant or him ordering take-outs, he somehow kept the momentum of the dates so fun. And in the few weeks that we have been living together, I have discovered so many things about him. Like, how he is a terrible sore loser.

One time we played monopoly and somewhere in the middle of the game when I thought I had the upper hand noticed how he suddenly had so much money and property. He kept denying any accusations of him cheating, but he soon relented under my steel glare and confessed that he robbed a bank on his way. He didn’t want to lose so badly that he stole from a toy bank!

My stomach had never hurt so much until that day. I couldn’t hold back my laughter at how childish he was.

Next to that, I have learned that he can’t stomach broccoli, so whenever I was angry at him, made sure to prepare only broccoli filled dishes. His face would just blanch at the sight of the small green looking trees.

Like that, there were many other small things that I’ve learned and came to love about him. I think that our time together was so enjoyable and stress free because the matter of him being a contract killer was never brought up on the table again. We made a silent agreement that it wouldn’t do us both any good to talk about it, so we just avoid any conversations that contain the subjects, killing, stalking or Casper. Whenever Casper calls Mark to talk about work, Mark would take the phone to a different room where my hearing had no reach.

I also got to meet his parents last week, which was nerve-wracking. He said that his parents wanted to meet their future daughter-in-law, so we booked a flight to Virginia. Jitters consistently attacked my nerves, and it only became worse the closer we got to our destination, but I soon learned that those worries were for nothing. His parents were the sweetest people ever. They received me with open arms and made me feel at home right away. I could see where Mark got his good looks from, but where he got his personality from was still a mystery.

My mind got racked with bewilderment whenever I saw Mark together with his parents, wondering to myself where it had gone wrong.

“Brandon, do you take Cherry to be your wedded wife, to live together in marriage? Do you promise to love her, comfort her, honor and keep her for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, and forsaking all others, be faithful only to her, for as long as you both shall live?”

“Yes,” Brandon answered to the priest with a bright smile that was aimed at Cherry, who gazed dreamingly back in his eyes.

I was standing at the side, suppressing the tears of happiness from escaping while holding the colorful flower bouquet, wrapped in a white satin lint. Today was Cher’s and Brandon’s wedding. All the guests were seated in the church. On the right side sat Cher’s family, and on the left side sat Brandon’s family. Mark was also here and sat on the front left side. His hair was styled back neatly wearing a dark navy-blue suit.

“Yes,” Came the chocked voice of Cher, who wasn’t able to withhold her tears anymore as it was her turn to answer to the vows. Though crying, her dazzling smile shone through the stream of water, coming out of her eyes.

“I pronounce you now as husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.” The priest standing behind the podium table announced with a benign smile on his face, and Cher and Brandon did not wait a second longer to unite their lips for a passionate kiss.

Everybody clapped their hands, showing their support and happiness for the couple.

With her flowy white dress, Cher walked down the aisle with Brandon at her side, holding each other’s hands.

After the ceremony, we moved the location to the venue. As the maid of honor, I gave a speech, unfolding Cher’s dark past that received a stinky-glare from Cher but a bunch of laughter from the crowd. Soon after that, Cher and Brandon held their first dance and now everybody is showing of their moves on the dance floor or they were eating from the buffet like me. Mark needed to go to the restroom and thus left me behind, to be doomed as a wallflower. My back was perched against the wall while I was holding a plate filled with food. Stabbing the fork in the sausage, I brought it to my mouth to take a bite of it as I scanned around the beautifully decorated room to see Cher making rounds to greet all the guest and thank them for coming.

Wondering where Brandon went, looked around to see him talking with Mark, standing next to the buffet table. They both wore a serious expression as they were discussing something. Like a curious cat, my eyebrows rose.

That’s strange, I thought. They had never exchanged a word with each other before, even after I had formally introduced Mark to Brandon. They didn’t make any effort to get to know each other, so why now?

Placing my plate of food on a random table, I advanced slowly to where they were so that I could hear what they were talking about.

Mark was holding two glasses of red wine as he was listening to what Brandon was saying. When I saw they were both going to look in my direction immediately hid myself behind one of the round blanket tables, crouching down while peeking my head over it.

I tried to strain my ears to catch anything, but the foghorn music in the venue outweighed their voices and I couldn’t hear anything. Brandon then stood closer to Mark, placing his hand on Mark’s shoulder as he whispered something in his ear while wearing a malevolent smile on his face before leaving to go to where Cher was.

The sinister smile got replaced with a mellow smile when Cher turned around to look at him.

What was that all about? I wondered inwardly. I had never seen Brandon smile like that before, and that gave me a foreboding feeling that something was amiss. My mind went then back to that day when I still had no clue about Mark’s identity. Didn’t Mark mention something about Brandon being a player? I mean, he did say that out of jealousy and rage, but Mark isn’t the type of person who would say something like that out of nowhere.

There was even a time that Cher suspected Brandon of cheating. It wasn’t true, of course, but what if? Glancing over my shoulder, I cast an apprehensive stare at Brandon who was chatting happily with one of the guests, his arms secured around Cher’s waist. It can’t be, right?

“Are you enjoying your hide and seek?” Came the amused voice of Mark and I snapped my head back to gaze up at him. He was still holding the two wine glasses as his upper body hovered over the table to gaze down at me with a curious look.

“I’ve got you some wine.” He handed me one of the red wines. I slowly rose up and received the wine, taking a sip from it.

“I can take us home if you’re that bored for some better activities.” He offered with a grin as he took a sip from his wine.

“I saw you talking with Brandon.” I said to hear Mark chuckle. “Is that why you were hiding? You should just have come up to us.”

I shrugged. “It seemed like you guys were engaged in a serious conversation. I didn’t want to interrupt you.” Gazing at my reflection in the wine, I swirled it in my hand before flitting my eyes to Mark, eyeing him curiously. “What did you guys talk about?”

Mark’s eyes drifted to look at Brandon before shifting his attention back to me, taking a sip from his wine. “Nothing interesting.” His voice clarified that it was anything but ‘nothing interesting’, causing me to furrow my brows.

“Is Brandon… cheating on Cher?” The words came out carefully in a small voice to make sure that no one else would overhear it, but the loud music obscured any sounds from my mouth.

At my question, Mark silently blinked at me copiously before releasing a toe-curling laughter that released butterflies in my stomach. “God, if only that was the case.” His body trembled from his laughter as he shook his head. “No love, the chances of him cheating on your friend is nihil.” While still releasing some chuckles, he took another sip from his wine.

“Then why did you say that he was and I quote “a fucking player” that one time?” I pressed to have Mark rub his chin thoughtfully before he answered, “That’s because I saw him walk once with his sister, but I mistook her for his date.”

Though his explanation was plausible, I was still doubtful. Mark saw the skeptical look in my eyes and leaned in to capture my lips in a languid kiss that blew my suspicions away.

“Stop causing your head unnecessary aches and dance with me.” He whispered lowly, taking the wineglass from my hand to place it on the table next to us together with his own wine. Taking my hand in his, he guided me to the dance floor.

“I may break your feet with my missteps.” I warned him as he wrapped my hands around his shoulder so that he could rest his hands on my hips as we swayed to the beat of the music.

“That’s why I’m wearing steel plates in my shoes.” He winked at me playfully. “We have to dance for our wedding too, so now it’s the time to practice and make mistakes.”

I laughed. “I will make sure to use all my weight then.”