CHAPTER 29: MY STEPSISTER TRIED TO START A FIRE, SO I BURNED HER HOUSE DOWN

Her lips crashed against mine with the force of a freight train. Not a gentle, tentative kiss, but a bruising claim of ownership. I could taste the anger on her tongue, feel the desperation in her fingers as they dug into my shoulders. All that jealousy I’d been stoking all day had finally ignited, and Natalia Kuzmina was burning up.

For one glorious second, I let her think she was in control. I let her believe this was her show, her conquest.

Then I remembered who the fuck I was.

I wasn’t Satori the fat loser anymore. I wasn’t even just the new, improved Satori with his mysterious fire powers and workout routine. In this moment, I was Kaelen Leone again.

And Kaelen Leone had never let a woman lead.

My mouth took command of hers, transforming her desperate assault into something controlled and consuming. My tongue swept past her lips, claiming territory that had never been invaded before—virgin soil now being methodically conquered. Her indignant protests dissolved into broken, pleading whimpers against my mouth, the sound vibrating between us like a private melody only I could orchestrate.

My arms, wrapped in the new muscle that still startled me whenever I caught fleeting glimpses of myself in mirrors or reflective surfaces, snaked around her slender waist with practiced precision. The Strength stat that had painstakingly climbed to D-277 through countless grueling workouts now served its purpose perfectly. With just a grunt of effort—mostly for theatrical effect, a performance to maintain the illusion of strain—I lifted her clean over the back of the couch, her body light as a feather in my grasp.

The girl who had sneered at me for months, who had treated me like something scraped from the bottom of her designer shoes, now trembled in my hands like a captured butterfly, wings beating helplessly against inevitable desire.

She weighed nothing. One smooth motion and she was airborne, her eyes widening in shock as I pulled her across and settled her firmly on my lap, facing me, legs splayed on either side of my thighs.

"Mmmph!" The sound she made against my mouth was half surprise, half arousal.

Her body went rigid for a split second as the shock of being manhandled registered. Then something changed. The tension in her spine melted away, replaced by a liquid heat that I could feel radiating through her thin pajamas.

She began to move against me, her hips finding a slow, desperate rhythm.

"Ahnn..." A low, broken moan escaped her throat as my hand slid from her waist up her spine, fingers digging into the muscles I’d massaged just yesterday. Her head fell back, exposing the pale column of her throat.

Mine.

She was coming apart in my arms, this girl who had looked at me with such disgust. The System wanted her surrender for its quest, but the part of me that was pure Kaelen wanted it just for the taste.

I could feel the heat of her through our clothes, the growing dampness where she rocked against me. My [Intermediate Kama Sutra] skill activated without my conscious input, flooding my brain with information. The meaning behind her hitched breath (high arousal, approaching first plateau), the subtle shift of her hips seeking maximum contact (inexperienced but instinctual), the racing pulse I could feel under my fingers (140+ BPM, fight-or-flight response converted to sexual energy).

A blue text box appeared in my vision, Nel’s sterile analysis intruding on the moment.

[Nel: Target’s heart rate has exceeded 140 BPM. Arousal indicators are critical. Primary Quest progress is accelerating. Suggestion: Apply pressure to—]

Shut up. Silence until morning.

For a moment, the text box flickered in protest, then vanished completely. I didn’t need a play-by-play from my divine warden.

I broke the kiss, pulling back just enough for us both to gasp for air. Natalia’s face was a masterpiece of my making. Cheeks flushed crimson, lips swollen and slick, her violet eyes glazed and utterly lost. Her purple hair, always so perfectly styled, had been mussed by my fingers, wild strands framing her face.hm

This was my victory. My conquest. And I wasn’t going to ask permission for what came next.

My hands slid from her back to hook securely under her thighs. In one smooth motion, I stood up from the couch, lifting her as if she weighed no more than a backpack. Her legs instinctively wrapped around my waist, arms locking behind my neck.

"Satori!" Her voice was high, breathless with surprise and something darker. "What are you—"

I cut her off with another kiss, swallowing whatever protest or question she had been about to voice. Her mouth responded hungrily, her kisses turning frantic and desperate as I began to walk, carrying her out of the living room.

I kicked my bedroom door open with my foot, the loud bang a punctuation mark on our old dynamic. The room beyond was dark except for the dim glow of my computer monitor in sleep mode, casting everything in a faint blue light.

I carried her across the threshold, feeling her heart hammering against my chest. The door swung shut behind us with a definitive click.

I moved through the darkness toward my bed, navigating from memory. Natalia’s breath came in short, ragged gasps against my neck, her thighs squeezing my waist tightly. She was trembling, a fine vibration running through her entire body.

"Scared, princess?" I murmured against her ear, letting my lips brush the sensitive skin there.

"N-no," she stammered, betraying herself.

"Liar."

I reached the edge of my bed and paused, still holding her aloft. Her weight was nothing to my enhanced muscles, but I made a show of adjusting my grip, using the movement as an excuse to slide my hands up to cup her ass. She made a small, startled sound but didn’t protest.

"Last chance to run," I told her, my voice dropping to a register I hadn’t used since my Yakuza days. "Once I put you on this bed, there’s no going back."

In the dim light, I could see her eyes searching mine.

"I..." she began, then stopped, swallowing hard. Her fingers tightened in my hair, a small pain that only heightened my arousal. "I don’t want to run."

Those words sent a rush of satisfaction through me that was better than any hit of Schema Points the System could provide.

"Good girl."