Chapter 141: 141. Just When I Leave Her For A Good Sleep, She then Called Right Away

The window in Marielle Vaughn’s bedroom faced west, allowing the evening light—what remained at this hour—to filter in at a low angle that bathed everything in an amber glow, making it feel slightly warmer than it truly was. She found comfort there, lost in her thoughts as the day faded to night, the soft colors setting her imagination alight.

In these moments, she dreamed of far-off places and whispered secrets, the world outside fading into a comforting blur.

Mike stood at the window, gazing out at Morrison Close and the quiet street beyond the green gate. Behind him, on the bed that had been set up for two but was now mostly occupied by one, Marielle slept with a settled quality that suggested she had stopped fighting something.

He looked at her with a sense of longing and contentment, wanting to be with her in that peaceful realm. The soft sounds of her breathing filled the room, and he couldn’t help but smile, thankful for the stillness in the midst of the chaos of their lives.

’She was so loud before when I fuck her, but now she’s peaceful...’

’How lucky... I want to sleep peacefully next to her, but of course, I can’t... not yet.’

’Especially when her son is about to come home.’

He had been standing there for about ten minutes.

The street was quiet, typical for a residential lane at this hour on a Friday. A single car passed by at the far end, turned, and vanished from view.

The gate outside remained closed, still the same dark green it had been when he arrived, while the garden beyond was fading into gray under the dimming light.

’But man... it always made that fucking satisfaction when fucking someone’s mother, especially the bully’s mother.’ Mike laughed.

Mike looked at his phone.

[MARIELLE VAUGHN — DESIRE LEVEL: 50/100.]

[ACQUISITION FACTOR: TRUST, PROXIMITY, GRATITUDE — THE COMPLETE SET. EFFICIENT EVENING.]

[YOU PROMISED TO PROTECT JAY’S REPUTATION. FILE THAT AS LEVERAGE OR DEBT, DEPENDING ON HOW YOU USE IT.]

’Fifty...? Now that’s some good shit.’ Mike grinned. ’I’m actually close, even though she didn’t want to at first and feels threatened... but everything changes when she feels it.’

Mike sighed and filed it as both, because the difference between leverage and debt was mostly a matter of timing and intention, and he hadn’t decided on either yet.

Fifty was a solid foundation for a first evening. Marielle Vaughn was not the kind of person who moved quickly in the ordinary run of her life, which was evident from the house and the careful tidiness of it and the way she had sat across from him with her hands together and processed things before she responded to them.

The fact that she had moved quickly tonight said something specific about the eight months and the quiet house and what it felt like to be the practical day-to-day of a life that had not intended to be a solo operation.

Mike was not unsympathetic to the situation. He was not exactly sympathetic to it either.

He simply noted it and treated it as the real thing it was, because pretending it was something other than real was inefficient and also slightly condescending, and he had no interest in being condescending to a person who had just trusted him with something significant.

’Glad she’s not a widow, though, ’cause fuck me... I’ll fucking run as fast as I can.’ Mike thought. ’I don’t know why, but... I have a phobia of women who are sluts for everyone or women who are widows.’

’What’s good about them...? Why do some people love them?’

’The answer... is probably more rare than any materials that can be found in the cave.’

’Okay... stop yapping, Mike.’

He put his phone in his pocket and looked at Marielle one more time, briefly, the way he looked at most things that were worth looking at but did not require prolonged attention.

"Thank you for today’s enjoyable sex, Marielle~! I do hope I can see you again soon and give more because I need money and points to get some good skills," Mike said while laughing. "Tell your son that I said hi."

Then he picked up his jacket from the chair where he had set it and let himself out quietly, the way he had let himself out of other rooms on other evenings, with enough care that the exit did not become the thing that was remembered.

...

He was at the front gate when his phone buzzed.

"Huh...?"

He looked at the screen. Marielle’s name appeared on the screen, and he had added it to his contacts an hour ago.

"She’s awake fast when I leave... what the fuck...?"

He answered.

"Hello there~! How’s your peaceful sleep?"

"You son of a bitch... I can’t believe you left just like that after nutting me," she said.

"Well, yeah, I did," Mike answered simply. "I don’t want to wait for you because I’m busy."

"I woke up and you were gone." A pause, brief and neither accusing nor anxious. "You see... I was going to offer you something to eat."

Mike already felt her affection towards him, even after everything he did to her. His system really is powerful to make a girl or a woman start to feel like that towards him, who was an asshole.

"Like I said... You were asleep," Mike said. "I didn’t want to wake you, and I also didn’t want to wait for you before your son got home."

"You could have," she said simply, not as a complaint but as a fact she wanted to record. "The house is quiet enough that I would have heard."

"And I could explain it to my son."

"I know," Mike said. "But you needed the hour more than I needed the food."

She was quiet for a moment. "That’s a presumptuous thing to say."

"It’s an accurate one," he said. "You’ve been carrying something since I sat down across from you."

"You needed to put it down for a while."

Another pause, longer this time.

"I need to get back," Mike said. "It’s been a long day."

"Yes," she said. "It has."

She exhaled, not quite a sigh, more the sound of someone settling into the end of something. "Thank you for coming, and also... for telling me."

"And for the other things," Mike said.

She was quiet. When she spoke again, the register was slightly different, more considered.

"I don’t usually do that, and... I want you to know that..."

"I don’t usually engage in such behavior with someone I’ve only just met."

"I know," Mike said.

"You couldn’t possibly know that."

"I know it from this evening," he said. "From the way you process things."

"You’re not impulsive."

"What happened today wasn’t impulsive on your part."

"It was something you needed, and the conditions were right." He paused. "Those are different things."

She was quiet for long enough that Mike thought she might be deciding how to respond to this, but what she said was: "You’re very matter-of-fact about everything."

"Is that a problem?"

"No," she said. "It’s actually—no, it isn’t."

She stopped. "Get some sleep... You’ve earned it, and I do hope you keep your promise about my son."

"Talk to Jay when you’re ready," Mike said. "Not before."

"How will I know when that is?"

"You’ll know," he said. "You’ve been reading him for twenty years."

She was quiet for a moment. "You’re very certain about things you’ve known for a very short time."

"Some things don’t require a long time," he said.

She made a sound that was not quite a laugh but was adjacent to one. "Goodnight, Mike."

"Goodnight."