Villain: 10x Rewards Begins With The Protagonist's Mother

Natasha quickly looked away before he could notice.

’Get a grip.’ She told herself, digging her nails into her palm. ’That was JUST an accident. Besides, you’ve already seen his body before. This is nothing new!’

’You can’t be blushing like some young lady over every little thing he does.’ She scolded herself. ’You’re old enough to be his...’

She wanted to say grandma.

That was the truth and the reality check she needed. But her mind refused to let the word form.

’...to be his mother.’

She settled for that instead.

Somehow, that made it ten times more shameful.

Dante had the target feed open the whole time, using it like a third eye. He caught her turning away the second she blushed.

’She still hasn’t gotten over that day.’ He thought, feeling amused. After all, the harder you tried to forget something, the more it stuck to you like glue.

And he had no plans to let her forget.

"Master? Am I doing it wrong already?" Dante asked with a worried face, his hands hovering over the dough.

"No, you haven’t even started yet." Natasha cleared her throat and turned back to face him. "Go ahead. Remember what I showed you. Fold and press."

Dante nodded and pushed his palms into the dough.

But gentle was not the word for what he was doing.

He pressed down with his full weight, palms flat, arms flexing with every push like he was trying to beat the dough into submission.

"Dante, you’re being way too rough." She said, her voice coming out shakier than she wanted. "I said fold and press, not press it to death."

"Haha, sorry master." Dante laughed with an innocent face. "I thought I was doing what you showed me." 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

"You were not even close." Natasha said with a deadpan expression.

"Then can you guide me, master?" He said with the eager look of a student who wanted to learn.

Natasha hesitated. The inner voice in her mind was screaming at her to refuse. But the more she thought about it, the less she could justify saying no.

She was the one who offered to teach him. Going back on her word now over something this small would be pathetic.

More importantly, her pride as a MASTER was on the line.

’If I can’t even teach him how to knead dough, what kind of master am I?’ With that thought, she nodded.

She stood beside him and placed her hands over his on the dough. Her fingers wrapped around his knuckles and guided his palms through the motion slowly.

Fold. Press. Fold. Press.

"See? Like this." She said in a calm tone. "Let the heel of your palm do the work. Don’t use your whole body."

Right as those words left her mouth, a thought crept in that almost made her curse out loud.

’His hands are so big compared to mine.’ Her fingers didn’t even cover half his knuckles. Each one of his hands could probably wrap around both of hers with room to spare.

’When did his hands get this big?’

If it was just that, she could have handled it.

But she had been so focused on teaching him the right technique that she didn’t notice how close she had gotten. Her chest was almost touching his arm. Her face was right next to his shoulder.

His scent was everywhere and she had already breathed it in.

’He smells nice.’

The next moment she yanked her hands back and stepped away so fast she nearly crashed into the counter behind her.

"You got it?" She asked, looking at anything except his face.

Inside, she was tearing herself apart. ’What the HELL is happening to me?! This isn’t me. I’m not like this. This is all my stupid brain’s fault!’

"Yeah, I think so." Dante said, hiding the grin that was fighting to break across his face.

’I gave you a whole week to prepare and this is all you’ve got, Master?’

***

A few minutes later, Dante seemed to have gotten the hang of it and rounded up the dough nicely.

A look of relief appeared on Natasha’s face after seeing her efforts weren’t wasted. She opened her mouth to tell him the dough was ready.

But Dante had one more move left.

He raised his hand and slapped the dough.

His fingers pressed into it before he squeezed and folded it over softly.

Natasha had a smile on her face watching him play with it.

She used to do the exact same thing when she was learning.

But as she kept watching his hands, the way his fingers squeezed into the soft surface, the way he palmed it and held it like it was made to fit there, her smile slowly disappeared.

He gave it another firm slap.

The sound echoed through the quiet kitchen.

Her face turned red and her thighs pressed together on their own.

She was starting to wonder if she was just a dirty-minded person.

But as Dante kept slapping the dough over and over, veins popped on her forehead.

’I’m having a meltdown over here and this guy is just having the time of his life.’ Her face darkened, the smile barely hanging on.

Dante was watching her reaction in real time through the feed. He saw her expression turn dark and then watched her slowly raise her hand.

Before he could even think about stopping, her voice reached him first.

"D.A.N.T.E."

A shiver ran down his spine.

"M-master?" He turned around slowly.

What he got in response was a knock on the top of his head.

BONK!

"Ow!" Dante held his head with an aggrieved look on his face.

He looked at her with a puzzled expression. "Master, whyyy?"

’Phew. I was worried she wouldn’t catch on.’ He thought, feeling relieved. A devious smile formed inside. ’But I guess Master isn’t as uninterested as she pretends to be.’

"It’s not my fault you’re the dirty-minded one, master."

He really wanted to say it out loud but he knew better.

"Stop playing with that and go cut the vegetables." Natasha said with a smile on her face, her arm still raised and ready to go again.

"...Okay, master." Dante had a depressed look, his shoulders slumped, his eyes still confused like he had no idea what he did wrong.

’Did I use too much force?’ She watched his back as he started cutting the vegetables.

A small bit of guilt tugged at her.

It didn’t last long.

The image of him slapping the dough came right back.

And her filthy brain did the rest.

His hand slapping her bare ass so hard the sting would still be there minutes later. The sound of it echoing through the room. Her soft flesh bouncing back against his palm before his thick fingers sank in deep and grabbed a greedy handful like he had every right to.

Her face turned so red it reached her ears.

’It’s... it’s all that idiot’s fault!’ She screamed internally, crushing those images with everything she had.

.....They came right back.