He had been pretending not to notice because he had assumed Hyde’s feelings were a passing infatuation that wouldn’t last. Something like a child reading a fairy tale and declaring ‘I’m going to marry the prince!’ Because that was probably what he was to Hyde. The person who had saved her from danger, so he must have looked like a prince on a white horse. That was why she had developed feelings for a man so much older, he had decided.

But now, faced with her feelings laid bare, Carbon realized he had misjudged.

He had been wrong. Hyde’s feelings were not a small flame that would burn out before long. They were the kind that could weather storms without breaking and, given even a little sunlight, would drive their roots deep without hesitation. A heavy, dense feeling that he sensed could not be undone once named.

Carbon’s thoughts grew complicated. How had it come to this. Had he given her reason to hope? Had he failed to hold a line? If so, he needed to draw one clearly, right now.

“I’m sorry.”

Carbon refused her cleanly and looked at Hyde with guilty eyes, then set her down carefully onto the ground. He took off his cape and spread it beneath her, then draped the suit she had taken off over her like a blanket.

But that was all. Carbon tried to remove himself from the situation, leaving Hyde where she was. He didn’t want to stay alone with Hyde, who had just confessed and been turned down and still wasn’t fully herself with the effects lingering……

‘I can’t let him leave like this.’

An uneasy instinct drove Hyde forward. Getting even this far had been a miracle. A precious chance born from a chain of coincidences. Once today was over, once they were out of this closed-off space charged with heat, Carbon would never touch her again.

And it wasn’t only that. She might have to stop being his sidekick. After touching her most sensitive places and hearing her confess, would Carbon really keep her at his side? He already had that look on his face. He would apologize and make sure they never had to face each other again, that much was certain.

If she got thrown out of the office and couldn’t be his sidekick anymore, she wouldn’t be able to see Carbon at all. Never mind trying to win him over, she wouldn’t even be able to contact him, and she’d be stuck staring at photos of him in the news. She didn’t want that. Hyde bit her lip and thought of a way to break through this.

Her strength had returned enough to use her ability. Hyde activated it.

Whoosh! Her shadow writhed and shot out, binding Carbon in place.

“Hyde!”

Carbon froze, startled.

With his superhuman strength, breaking free of something like this would have been nothing, but if he forced the ability apart, the backlash would hit her hard.

Hyde was already worn down from the lingering effects of the aphrodisiac, and Carbon hesitated, unwilling to add more strain to her.

In that gap, Hyde climbed on top of Carbon’s bound body. The weight settling on him, followed by Hyde pressing close all at once, made Carbon startle.

Carbon lowered his voice and gave her an order.

“Get off.”

“No.”

Hyde glared at Carbon defiantly. He reached to press a hand to his forehead, but his arms were bound in shadow and he couldn’t move, so he could only exhale.

“Who told you to use your ability for something like this.”

“I’m using it efficiently, just like you taught me. Good, right?”

Hyde smiled brightly. The cheerful face almost softened Carbon’s mood before he caught himself and set his expression back to firm.

“Hyde. Sweetheart. Stop here. It’ll be alright.”

He called me a kid again. What kind of grown adult gets called that! Hyde went prim again.

She ignored Carbon’s words and reached for the center of him. Carbon startled when her hand landed on his *rect c*ck.

“Hyde!”

“This must be uncomfortable. Let me take care of it.”

“I’m fine. I’m fine, so get off and undo this.”

Hyde paid no attention to Carbon’s refusal. She lightly worked his suit down.

His c*ck sprang free, flushed and insistent. The same deep tone as the rest of his skin, it looked healthy and well-colored. The size, though, was staggering. Like a water bottle…… Hyde stared at the massive c*ck with wide, curious eyes.

“Doesn’t it hurt, being this hard?”

“It doesn’t hurt. So stop―”

“I’ll take care of it.”

Hyde began touching his c*ck with inexperienced hands. She smeared the bead of fl*id at the tip across her palm and stroked up the shaft, and the c*ck that had seemed like it couldn’t get any bigger swelled further. The straight shaft had veins standing out along it, and when Hyde ran her fingers along them the whole thing gave a heavy twitch.

After focusing for a while, Hyde glanced up. Carbon’s face was set in a complicated, sunken expression. While below he was this worked up.

Hyde pressed her lips together and moved her hand faster. Getting the hang of it, she brought both hands together and wrapped them fully around the shaft, squeezing tight. A wet, slick sound rose and fell.

Carbon’s lower abdomen tensed, and his brow drew together. D*mn it, not much longer. The urge to come was impossible to hold back in his c*ck, swollen to the point of bursting.

“Hkk!”

Carbon held his breath at the same moment a rush of c*m spilled from the tip.

“……That’s enough now. Undo it.”

Carbon’s voice as he exhaled a heavy breath was rough and low. Hyde couldn’t stand looking at his face, full of guilt and regret, and she fidgeted with her c*m-slicked hand and asked,

“Why do you keep refusing?”

“What?”

“Do you dislike me that much, Carbon?”

“Dislike you. Hyde. Sweetheart. That’s absolutely not―.”

“Then what? Or even after all this, you still don’t see me as a woman? Is that why you don’t want to do anything with me?”

Watching Carbon react as though she had hit something true made the pain worse. Tears began gathering in Hyde’s eyes.

“That’s not fair.”

“My dear. You’re still so young―.”

“Hup! Don’t, call, me, young! I’m, already, an adult!”

“……Alright. Then you haven’t experienced enough of the world yet. Once you get out there and meet people, there’ll come a moment when you feel embarrassed that you were ever drawn to an old man like me.”

“That day is never coming!”

“There are good men out there. Plenty of them your own age.”

“There aren’t. There aren’t any. No matter how hard I look, there aren’t.”

Hyde fixed Carbon with an intense stare and said,

“I don’t want anyone else. I want you, mister. I want Carbon……”

Where else in the world was there a man like Carbon? Handsome, in incredible shape, successful, capable, gentle and dependable with children, more of a hero than anyone, and above all, the only man in the world who had saved her and stood by her.

“It’s not my fault I was born fourteen years after Carbon……”

Carbon had no idea what to do with Hyde sobbing in front of him.

“Hey, Hyde, don’t cry, just calm down first. Alright?”

Trying to soothe her like a child only made her cry harder. Hnnng. Carbon panicked at the sight of Hyde, who had never cried even as a child, crying like a little kid now, and fumbled to comfort her.

Carbon searched his memory and recalled something from long ago, a story the young Hyde had loved. Hyde had been fond of fairy tales with ‘fated love’ in them. She would blush and say she wanted a love like that someday.

“There, there, it’s alright. Everything’s alright. You’re still young and pretty, so you’ll forget about me in no time and find a truly wonderful man. A fated kind of love.”

But the words Carbon offered as both comfort and a gentle push toward giving up only lit a fire in Hyde’s chest.

‘Fated love? For me, that’s you! I don’t need anyone else, no matter how great they are, no one but you!’

Whether Carbon didn’t know what was in her heart or was choosing not to, he kept trying to avoid the situation.

She couldn’t let him escape. She couldn’t let things end here. Her body, still running hot, drove her heated mind into sharp focus, and something like certainty rang out from her instincts.

Hyde followed what her instincts commanded. She quickly tightened her grip on Carbon’s c*ck. The c*ck that had gone soft after coming slowly stirred back to life under her hand.

“Hyde!”

Hyde paid no attention to Carbon’s protests and kept working him. Watching the c*ck stiffen again and bead with fl*id, Hyde smiled inwardly.

“Now, that really is enough―.”

Up until now Carbon had held back out of consideration for Hyde, but he was beginning to gather himself as though he had reached his limit.

Hyde felt in her gut that this was her last chance. So she lifted her hips, brought her p*ssy over the thick c*ck, gripped just below the head, and lowered herself down.

“Haahk!”

“Ngh.”

Carbon’s rough breath reached Hyde’s ear as she struggled through the pain of first penetration.

Ah, so he feels good.

The fist-sized head stretching her tight opening to the point of tearing hurt, but knowing Carbon was feeling pleasure made even the pain not entirely unwelcome.

Just as she thought, the pleasure from the soft membrane wrapping around his head nearly wiped Carbon’s reason out in an instant.

The urge to grab Hyde and take her apart surged through him. But the thread of reason he had left held him back.

Don’t give in to desire and take her, if you lose control of your strength she’ll be badly hurt, so hold on.

Carbon barely kept his grip on himself.

“Hyde, you……”

“Stay, stay still, Carbon.”