Rebecca felt almost like a different woman by the time Matthew had finished cutting her hair. Even before the… Whatever it was that had happened to her in the center of the pyramid… Even before she changed, Rebecca had let her hair grow long and free, but Matthew – in his no nonsense way – had simply grabbed her hair in a tight grip at the base of her neck, and then hacked if off above that with a long knife of some sort.

Rubbing her hands across the back of her neck and feeling her hair now – or the lack of her hair -- felt completely strange to Rebecca. No more long stands to twist and twirl in her fingers. No more loose strands to blow in her face, or get in her mouth when she was eating. Matthew had hacked the hair off straight at the nape of her neck, and the lightness of it all was going to take some time to get used to.

“Do I look okay?” Rebecca asked, still stroking her fingers through the top of her hair and down to where it now ended.

“You look fine,” Matthew assured her, never looking up from where he was gathering the long stands of loose white hair which he’d just cut free from her. “It’s better like this. It can’t fall in front any hide your boobs now.”

“You and your damn boob obsession. Sometimes I think all you have is boobs on the brain!” Snorting disgustedly, Rebecca quit playing with her hair – there wasn’t anything she could do about it now anyway – and turned to watch Matthew as he struggled with the seemingly endless blanket of hair he’d cut. “Just what are you doing anyway?”

“I’m going to save this,” Matthew told her calmly as he continued to focus whole-heartedly on trying to fold the hair into a neat stack without tangling it. “For all we know, this could have some sort of magical or alchemical properties. Yesterday your hair was normal,” he explained as he kept struggling under the sheer mass and volume of loose hair. “Today, it’d be long enough to roll out as a red carpet, if it was just red instead of white. Something changed it, whether magic, alchemy, or just the heart’s influence. I don’t know what the hell happened,” he shrugged, “but it’s a rare enough occurrence that the people who are going to want to study those things will probably find it valuable and want to buy or trade for it.”

“In this new world,” Matthew asked, looking up and wiping a few trickles of sweat from his forehead, “do you really think anyone is going to put much value in a dollar bill anymore? Me personally, I doubt a dollar will buy shit. It’s all going to be ‘trade me something I want, and I’ll give you something you want’. Either that, or it’ll be a case of ‘give me what I want and I’ll only kill you a little’. Not much we can do with the ones who’ll want to kill us, but we can try and collect as many odd and rare things as possible and keep them for the other guys.”

“And hallway long hair is about as odd as it gets,” Rebecca sighed, moving over to help.

“Hallway long, pure white, hair,” Matthew corrected, taking a moment to reach over and squeeze her breast before going back to work. Sighing, Rebecca said nothing and simply ignored him as she focused on doing her part.

After struggling to neatly fold and gather the hair for what felt like an eternity, Matthew finally opened the portal to his ring’s storage space and with Rebecca’s help the struggled to pick it up and toss it inside.

“Just how much damn stuff can you toss into that ring, anyway?” Wiping sweat from her forehead, Rebecca had to admit to herself that was a lot more work than she would’ve imagined. Walking over, Matthew eased up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, cupping a breast in each hand and squeezing gently, as he slightly nibbled on Rebecca’s ear. “No idea honestly,” he admitted. “It’s a level ring of storage. The higher the user’s level, the more stuff it can hold.”

“Do you have to do that?” Sighing, Rebecca leaned back against Matthew’s chest, without trying to stop him.

“I do,” Matthew laughed, squeezing again lightly. When Rebecca sighed again in response, Matthew leaned up and gently kissed her on the neck. “Seriously, I really do have to. It’s for me and you both.”

“How the hell is it for me and you both?” Tugging his hands away lightly, Rebecca turned to face him, staring Matthew in the eyes.

Chuckling lightly, Matthew leaned forward and kissed her on the nose lightly, while caressing his hands down Rebecca’s back and working them under the rips in her skirt to cup each cheek of her butt firmly. Standing like that for a few moments, Matthew half swayed as if he was trying to dance to a sound only he could hear.

“It’s for several little reasons, in all honesty,” Matthew finally whispered as he leaded his head down beside her ear, continuing to sway slowly, firm grip still on her rear. “First, and you’ll probably get upset at me for this reason, but I’m going to be honest with you – it’s to simply wear you down and train you to the point where you’ll learn to give in and surrender to my desire. Every man out there dreams about a woman who’s willing to let him do whatever he wants with her. I figure now’s my chance to train you to become my own little ‘Mistress of Passion’.”

Swaying slowly alongside him, Rebecca didn’t say anything, but her movements got a little stiffer and more hesitant. “I know, I know! I told you, you wouldn’t want to hear it,” Matthew laughed, gently kissing on her neck. “But, I’m being honest with you.”

Rebecca slowly stopped swaying and then gave Matthew a push back to arm’s length away. Frowning, she glared directly into his eyes. “So you’re going to train me to be your personal sex toy?”

“I am,” Matthew nodded, not seeming the least bit hesitant with his answer. “Heck,” he shrugged, “if I knew where one of them stores were that sold all the cute little handcuffs, ropes, leathers, and all that stuff was, I’d raid it and enjoy trying each and every little toy, shackle, and chain out on you.”

“Why?” Rebecca asked, putting her hands on her hips. Her nose was wrinkled in an angry frown, and she was staring hard into Matthew’s eyes.

“First,” Matthew said, holding up one finger, “simply because I can. It’s what you agreed to when I gave you the book and mentored you. At this point I can overpower you at any time, and I think we both know it. I really don’t know you well enough as a person yet to fill overly guilty about simply taking what we’ve agreed to.”

“Second,” Matthew said, holding up a second finger now. “If I don’t take advantage of the situation now and train you, I’ll always regret it. They’ll always be a ‘could’ve, would’ve, should’ve’ that’ll haunt me. People are creatures of habit,” Matthew explained, looking somewhat sad for some reason. “If I let you say no to something now – anything now – that no will only grow stronger over time.

“Jennifer said no to sharing my bed,” Matthew sighed, draping his head sadly. “That’s in stone now. It’s a wall between us, and a border that will most likely never be crossed. She may travel with us and be a fighting companion, but she’ll always hold herself back and distant. She’ll tell herself that she can’t be with me, as she’s saving herself for some idiot ‘true love’ that might never come along, and even if she ever does fall in love with me, she’d never admit it.

“I don’t want that distance between us,” Matthew admitted slowly, opening his arms. Rebecca hesitated for a moment before giving a long sigh and stepping forward to lay her head upon his chest. “I could come to hate you, you know,” she warned him softly as she slowly wrapped her arms around his waist.

“I know,” Matthew agreed, leaning forward to kiss her lightly on the ear, “but I don’t think you will. I took precautions.”

“Precautions?” Rebecca half-laughed, half-snorted. “What precautions?”

“For starters, I got you to agree to it all ahead of time. You might come to regret your decision, but you can’t blame me for it,” Matthew whispered, starting to nibble on her neck again. Once more his hands were drifting ever lower down her back and he was starting to sway again lightly. “I’m only doing what you told me I could do,” Matthew repeated gently into her ear. “Besides, I’m not a bad guy by any stretch of the imagination. I’m going to teach you and help you learn this new world. I’ll watch over you and protect you. I’ll keep you safe. There’s people and things a lot more deviant than me in this new world, but they’ll never get their hands on you. I won’t let them.

“You’re mine, and mine alone,” Matthew promised, picking her up and tumbling back onto the thick mossy carpet with her.

“So I’ll never have to be with someone else? Something else?” Rebecca was starting to breath heavily as Matthew tugged her arms above her head, pinning them tight in the iron grip of his left hand, as he used his right to push her legs apart.

“Just me,” Matthew promised, stealing several deep, passionate kisses from her. “And I’m promise you this,” he breathed heavily between her breasts, “if I ever do feel a burning need to release my passion with a woman, it’ll always be with you first.”

“And what about Kristy?” Rebecca asked, wrapping her legs around his waist, pulling him down tightly against her.

“She’ll just have to settle on waiting for me to finish with you first,” Matthew laughed, half biting and tugging on her nipples with his mouth. “Stay,” he ordered, slowly releasing his grip on Rebecca’s wrists. A light groan escaped from her lips and she arched her back, bringing her breasts back up to his lips, but she didn’t move her arms or hands.

“And what if I drain you dry first?” Rebecca asked, sweat dripping lightly down her nimble frame,as she continued to arch herself up, straining to feel Matthew’s warm breath and lips across her chest.

“Open,” Matthew ordered, lightly tapping her knees which were wrapped around his waist. “Wide,” he laughed, “and then stay that way. I’ll tell you what I want next.” Groaning reluctantly, Rebecca squeezed him tightly one last time with her legs, and then slowly unlocked her ankles and moved them wide apart.

“Looks like you’re ready for me now,” Matthew laughed, pulling up and away from her for a moment. Looking down, he stared and grinned broadly as Rebecca panted and slowly settled back down to rest her back against the mossy ground.

“Bully,” she half pouted, not sounding like she really meant it.

“Not really,” Matthew chuckled. “I just needed you to let me go long enough so I could undo my pants.” Unbuckling his belt, Matthew undid his pants and let them drop around his ankles.

“As for your question,” Matthew laughed, half throwing himself atop her, “if you can ‘drain me dry’, then I’m afraid poor Kristy will never get the loving from me that I once imagined she would. I truly meant it,” he promised again, kissing hard all over her, “you first, before any other.”

“And me with no other?” Rebecca moaned, quivering from the effort to stay as he’d put her.

“And you never with any other,” Matthew confirmed, as he began to indulge himself fully upon Rebecca.

If she said anything else, it was lost to the throes of passion.