HYACINTH wanted Erin to exist. She wanted it so much. But how could she bring a kid into this world and make her feel the things that almost broke her?

Maximillian doesn’t know the struggles she had as a kid. He doesn’t know how much Hyacinth resented her ability to the point that she nearly gauged out her eyes as a child. Max doesn’t know the fear of being used for others’ evil, selfish gain. She doesn’t want Erin to feel that.

Hyacinth is so tired of existing for others. She wanted to live her own life until she drew her last breath. This is the main point of her moving constantly from place to place. To escape from a situation that made her life insufferable.

At least Hyacinth was running away from an impoverished family. Maximillian, on the other hand, is a powerful man with connections and influence. There’s no running away from him even if she tried.

Hyacinth did everything to push him away but his lips suckled her lower lip, teasing, biting. Her limbs felt like melting at the intensity of his kisses, on how they made her feel.

“We can’t—” She was silenced again by yet another kiss. This time, his tongue explored the curves and shape of her kissers. She moaned in her throat as a sign of protest.

Her first kiss. Her first yet it felt so... intense. Heat engulfed her body and soul like wildfire in the forest. She felt like burning yet the Greene County’s air felt so cold on her now perspiring skin. It all doesn’t make sense to Hyacinth. She thought of kisses as magical and wonderful but his kisses contradicted that.

Maximillian Bismarck’s kisses were sensual, aggressive... and erotic. It seems so wrong yet her lips sought it. The sudden waves of pleasure tingled her skin and her nipples hardened against her brassiere.

The reaction of her body to him is unexplainable. Her flesh throbbed and responded to his every kiss, every movement of his hand along her spine, every flick of his tongue against her kissers.

His lips pushed her lips apart and his hands held her nape, angling her for a thorough invasion. “Oh, Hyacinth. One more... yes,” he whispered in between his kisses.

She can feel his manhood throbbing against her navel so she tried to push him away. No, she can’t agree with what he wanted. He needed to realize that Erin’s disappearance from their respective futures will set things back to normal.

Yet a part of her wanted him to continue. Her heart desires for her to bring her daughter back...to seduce the man himself in order to achieve that.

His touch and kisses promised thousands of nights of fulfilled promises. Maximillian pressed his groin against her as his tongue clashed with hers and groaned triumphantly when she responded by pressing her navel against it.

She pushed him away to stop herself from doing more illicit acts with him. Hyacinth took a few steps back and tried to catch her breath. Maximillian looked at her in astonishment as if he experienced something incomprehensible and utterly...weird?

“Yes, I know. I’m not experienced. My kisses suck. Crucify me!” she poised like a crucified man, then she gestured at him. “Why the hell did you kiss me, anyway? To prove a point? To seduce me?”

He shook his head. “I was angry and mourning because of Erin’s disappearance earlier. You don’t expect me to be happy about that, do you? I was miserable, Hyacinth, because I never believed her to be my kid.”

“And she vanished into thin air knowing that you believed her. That is more than enough.” Hyacinth swallowed the lump forming in her throat. “This is why we thread readers don’t interfere with black threads and ashen threads, Mr. Bismarck. They intertwine with ours when they turn back into glistening white threads again. And if you continue to pursue me for Erin’s sake, our threads will become tangled again and, this time, the future will change. It will either give you Erin or another kid or no kid at all. The future can turn ugly, chaotic, and unpredictable if one kept messing with the threads. Are we so selfish and cruel to allow that to happen?!”

Hyacinth panted after the longest explanation outburst of her life. She has to convince Maximillian to leave the future alone or they’ll both suffer.

Maxim combed his midnight black hair to the back of his head with his fingers. He was so frustrated and aroused that he didn’t know what to do.

“You can’t just tell me to not think about Erin, Hyacinth. I came to adore her. I was planning to take her in and send her to school even when I believed her a liar. Erin was...” His voice trailed off as he closed his eyes firmly, reminiscing those little moments with his daughter.

“I know, it felt so fulfilling that someone filled the gap that you never knew existed in the depths of your soul, Mr. Bismarck, because Erin is a part of you. The same thing goes for me. But Erin has to go, Mr. Bismarck.”

He shook his head. “No, Hyacinth. I’ve made up my mind. I’ve decided to entangle my fate with yours and make you change your mind regarding the future.”

Hyacinth laughed in hysteria as if she just heard the funniest joke in her life. Her eyes glistened with tears and she wiped them off her eyes immediately. Showing her weakness to this man will be the beginning of a downward spiral to endless begging and seducing until he achieved whatever it is that he wanted.

“Mr. Bismarck, I’ll never change my mind. The only way to do that is to offer me assurance for Erin’s safety. But people will want her abilities and use them for their greed. The same thing happened with me and I never wanted that life for her.” She heaved a sigh. “My abilities will immediately make someone powerful and rich. That’s my fate, Mr. Bismarck. I am a tool.”

Maximillian held her chin and tilted it to make sure that he was looking straight into her eyes.

“As I said, I will entangle my fate with yours. That’s not a promise. It’s a fact.”

Hyacinth raised a brow. “No, Mr. Bismarck. I’ll leave Greene County tonight.”

“No, you won’t.”

There was a finality in his voice, but she ignored it.

.

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