"Keep it in my room," Elian said to the maid who had just taken my clothes bag from him.

I raised an eyebrow and asked suspiciously, "What's that about?"

"You are staying in my room," he simply said, heading up the stairs that led to his bedroom.

"Why?"

"I don't like the idea of you staying in another room while you are at my place."

"You do know that we just started dating today?" I asked just in case he messed up the timeline, following close behind him.

"So? We will just sleep together and cuddle. It's all innocent, Alena," he reasoned.

"Sure, the way you were kissing me outside my apartment was innocent." I rolled my eyes.

He shrugged in response.

When we entered his bedroom, he said, "Sit somewhere. I will grab some antiseptic."

"Antiseptic for what?" I asked in confusion.

He tapped on the right corner of his lips, and I touched mine, only to hiss at the stinging pain. I looked at the half-dried blood on my index finger.

"I didn't even notice this," I muttered.

Fighting with Anya had been hard. She was like one of those skilled assassins from the movies, bloodthirsty to kill me. But I had managed to win against her through my wits and taking advantage of her blind rage.

I sat on the edge of the bed when Elian came with the antiseptic cream and cotton. He wiped the blood and asked me to open my mouth to check for any internal gum bleeding. Seeing there was none, he applied the cream to the cut in the corner. I hissed.

"Go to shower a little later. Let it dry a bit," he said, and I nodded. He picked up my right knuckle and gently applied more cream to them. As he blew some air on the bruises, I smiled, admiring him. "Did you get hurt anywhere else?"

I shook my head, my eyes still glued to his handsome face.

"Done." He gave a light kiss to the back of my fingers, making goosebumps rise in my body with just a simple gesture, and said with a smile, "I'm going to take shower first then. Meanwhile, make yourself comfortable."

After he left, I laid down on his bed flat on my back, replaying the crazy scene from today.

Imagine returning from the best date ever, only to find someone jumping out from under the bed with a knife.

I shut my eyes at the horrifying memory. While I was willing to get stronger for Elian's sake, I wasn't sure how well my heart would be taking this in the long run. I wish I could someday convince Elian to back out from his mafia work.

I shook my head because it wasn't something I should wrack my head with at the moment. What was more important was that I was in my boyfriend's bedroom and he was in the shower.

He's in the shower. He's n— No, Alena, stop! Think no further.

I believed him when he said he just wanted to cuddle and sleep together, still, I couldn't help but feel a tinge of excitement and nervousness.

I got up from the bed and opened the zipper of my travel bag to take out my nightwear. My eyes almost blazed with rage at the sight of my ugliest set of clothes.

I had a section in my closet—ugly clothes which I hated wearing. And Elian knew about it.

Yet, he only brought clothes from the section. I didn't delude myself for a single minute thinking that he probably made a mistake. I was certain that Elian knew what he was doing.

Because it was Elian. He knew almost everything about me. He knew my habits like the back of his hand; it was almost a bit intimidating how well his memory served.

I stormed towards the bathroom door and loudly knocked several times. "Elian, come out! I have something important to talk to you about!" I hollered from outside.

A couple of minutes later, he came out with a towel draped around his waist. My eyes traveled down his body, instead of glaring.

God, does he have to do this to my little left sanity? Why does he have to look so irresistible?

It's okay, Alena. You will have time to admire his body later. He's all yours, anyway, my subconscious said, and it was right.

I cleared my throat, begrudgingly raising my eyes up from his abs, and demanded, "Why did you pack those clothes?"

"What clothes, Alena?" he asked innocently, walking towards his closet room.

"Don't play dumb. You know, I hate wearing those clothes." I remained outside the walk-in closet and asked, "So what's your master plan? Tell me."

"What master plan?"

"The plan where you pack me clothes I would never wear, which leaves me nothing to wear to bed!" I fumed.

"You could sleep naked. It's just me, after all," he joked.

I felt my cheeks heating up at the mere suggestion, but I tried to regain my calm and retorted, "In your imagination."

"I don't need imagination for that." He chuckled, and I glared in his direction. "Jokes aside, you can wear any of my clothes," he offered, coming out of the closet, just in his trousers.

He might try to act as innocent as he wanted, but he couldn't fool me, especially not with that little smirk begging to form on his lips. But I wasn't one to back off.

I smirked and said, "Alright. Fine by me."

He looked a little confused as I headed into the closet and grabbed a few clothes. I made them into a ball and made a dash to the bathroom so that he couldn't see what I took.

Surprisingly, there was a section in the bathroom that contained female body products. It wasn't there when I stayed here the last time. He must have asked the maids to make arrangements for me.

I smiled at his consideration, but that wasn't enough to make me back off from making him suffer.

Once I finished taking the shower, I came out wearing the clothes I had stolen from Elian's closet.

Elian looked up from his iPad, and his jaw dropped.

"You like it, baby?" I shot him a victorious grin and looked down at the full sleeves black sweatshirt and baggy trousers. The sweatshirt was reaching up to my mid-thigh, and the edge of the trousers was dragging miserably on the floor. All the skin below my neck was covered up.

Elian closed his jaw and gritted out, a tight-lipped smile on his face, "Of course. As long as you're comfortable."

I continued grinning and made my way to the dressing table to dry my hair. It was such a pain to do because my sleeves were longer than my fingers. Plus, the clothes were making me sweat; they definitely weren't summer-friendly, even with the air conditioner on.

After I was finally done drying my hair, I almost tripped over the hem of my pants before slipping into the bed beside Elian, who was reading some proposals from the technical team.

He pulled the duvet up to my chin to cover me, and I almost choked due to too many layers. "Goodnight," he said, dimming the lights of the room, and I didn't fail to notice the smirk that was growing on his face.

"Goodnight, Elian."

I turned to the other side to get comfortable, but I couldn't.

"You can do this, Alena," I muttered to myself, trying to adjust to the thick, uncomfortable clothes and duvet over me.

I turned and tossed quite a few times before I huffed and sat up in frustration.

I shot a glare at Elian who was pressing his hand over his mouth to stop himself from laughing out loud.

"Having fun, Elian?" I asked.

He didn't reply, only continued to stifle his laughter.

Another idea popped into my head.

Ugh, I should have just gone with that in the beginning.

I got out of bed and went to the closet room. I stripped out everything I was wearing, including my bra. I picked out a white cotton shirt from his collection and put it on, keeping a few top buttons open.

I looked at myself and fixed my hair, decorating them to look sexier, then I smirked and headed back into the bed.

It would be fun to tease him. But little did I know that we would go further than teasing.

"Did you finally find something even baggier to get back at me—" Elian's words stopped midway, his breath caught in his throat, as he stared at me.

I bit my bottom lip while maintaining eye contact with him. I could see his pupils dilating and the hungry gaze in his green eyes, and it made me twitch in an unexplainable way, as if I just had to touch him right that instant, or else, I would snap like a spring coiled too tight.

I had no idea why I thought I could tease him and not get affected myself. Because just his dark gaze was making my body react.

Thankfully, he put his iPad aside and got down from the bed to come to sweep me off my feet. As soon as our lips connected, I drew my arms around his neck and he picked me up, my knees locking around his waist.

The way our lips were moving against each other, it was nothing like I could remember experiencing. It was intense, rough, and heated, and I wanted more and more of it.

We kissed each other like the world was going to end in a few seconds, and it was our only chance to get it all out of our hearts.

My hands found their way to his soft hair, tugging and making him groan. When his hands moved up my bare thighs, I gasped at the sensation, letting him win the dominance between our tongues.

He walked slowly towards the bed and gently dropped me on it, laying on top of me with our lips still attached.

"Tell me to stop," he whispered against my lips, breathing heavily. His hands were feeling up my sides.

He knew he couldn't stop himself unless I asked him. He was trying to be reasonable—as in doing the right thing. He said we would only cuddle and sleep. This was not a part of the plan. Or maybe, it was. I couldn't care less.

But how could I tell him to stop when all I could think was about him and how much I wanted him right now?

So much for not getting laid with the man I had a first date with.

The hind part of my brain said maybe it was still too soon. But the other part of my brain said there was nothing to lose anyway. Elian was my original first, and with my memories of those days gone, he was again going to be my first.

However, the logistics were too much to think of at the moment.

All that mattered was that we loved each other like crazy and my body craved him like the last drop of water in a desert right now.

"Tell me to stop, Alena," Elian asked again, trying to hang on to the last string of self-control he had. His lips were grazing my neck like feathers, one sentence shy from claiming me as his own.

Therefore, I smiled and said, "I don't want you to stop, Elian."