Chapter 39 Escape
Ava Reed
I should have left.
The thought repeats itself like a bruise you keep pressing just to confirm it’s real. It’s not regret exactly. Regret implies choice. This feels more like inevitability catching up to me, hands closing around my throat, reminding me that I’ve never been very good at walking away from things that already own pieces of me.
I should have walked out the second Liam stormed into the restaurant, grabbed my wrist, and dragged me into this bathroom like he owned me.
The truth is, part of me had recognized him before I even saw his face. The shift in the air. The way my skin prickled, like my body knew who was near before my brain caught up. I’d always hated that about him. How deeply he was etched into me. How fast my resolve crumbled in his presence.
I should have fought harder when he pressed me against the sink, when his voice dropped to that rough, commanding tone, demanding to know why I ran.
I told myself I ran because I was scared. Because loving him felt like standing too close to the edge of something massive and unforgiving. But standing here now, pinned by his body and his voice, I wonder if the truth is simpler. I ran because staying would have ruined me just as completely.
I should have never let him kiss me.
I knew better. God, I knew better. Knew exactly what his mouth would do to me, how one kiss from Liam Carter had always been enough to erase every smart decision I’d ever made. Letting it happen felt like stepping into a fire I’d already been burned by.
Because the second his mouth crashed against mine, I knew…I knew there was no running from Liam Carter.
The past folded in on itself in that kiss. Every fight. Every stolen moment. Every promise we never said out loud but felt anyway. His mouth didn’t just claim me. It reminded me.
And now… now I’m trembling, my dress bunched around my waist, my back pressed against the mirror as I stare down at the man kneeling between my legs like he was made to be there.
The mirror shows me a stranger. Flushed. Unraveled. Eyes too bright, lips parted like I’m waiting for something I’ve already decided to accept. I don’t recognize the girl staring back, but Liam does. He always has.
Liam grips my thighs, his fingers firm against my skin, keeping me right where he wants me. His dark eyes flick up, locking onto mine, and fuck, he looks feral. Possessive. Determined.
There’s no hesitation in him. No doubt. Just hunger sharpened by anger and something dangerously close to relief, like finding me again has steadied something wild inside him.
"I should make you beg for it," he murmurs, dragging his lips up the inside of my thigh, slow and teasing. "Should make you say you’re mine before I even touch you."
My breath stutters. My body reacts before my pride can catch up. I hate that he knows me this well. That he knows exactly how to undo me with nothing but his voice.
"Liam…" I shudder, my head falling back against the mirror as his grip tightens.
His name leaves my mouth like a confession.
"But the thing is, Snowflakes…" His breath is warm against me, making my entire body clench with anticipation. "You already are."
Then he licks me.
A long, slow drag of his tongue against my core, and my whole world shatters.
The sound I make doesn’t feel human. It feels like something pulled from deep inside me, something raw and unfiltered that I don’t get to take back.
My thighs jerk, but his hands pin them down.
"Fuck!" I gasp, my fingers flying to his hair, tangling in the strands, trying to pull him closer, needing more, needing him.
I tell myself I should stop him. That this is where I draw the line. But my body has never listened to my good intentions when Liam is involved.
He chuckles darkly. "Yeah, baby? That what you needed?" His tongue flicks against my clit, and my entire body shakes. "This what you were running from?"
I don’t answer because I can’t. Because the answer is written all over me.
I can’t speak. Can’t think.
All I know is Liam Carter.
The weight of him. The certainty. The way he makes everything else fade into background noise. Bills. Consequences. Tomorrow.
The way he devours me. The way he holds me in place like he’d tie me down if he had to. The way his tongue circles my clit before plunging deep, like he lives for the way I tremble for him.
My hands grip the edge of the sink, knuckles white, grounding myself in something solid while everything else spins.
I don’t realize I’m panting his name until I hear him groan against me.
"Fuck, I love it when you say my name like that." His hands slide under my ass, pulling me closer to his mouth, deeper into his heat. "Say it again."
The mirror rattles softly as my body arches, as if the room itself can’t quite contain what he’s pulling out of me.
"Liam!" My back arches off the mirror as his tongue strokes that one perfect spot, sending electricity crackling through my veins.
He hums like he’s satisfied with himself, like he planned this, like he knew exactly how to break me apart.
Of course he did. He always knew.
And then…oh God…he sucks my clit into his mouth, and I scream.
The sound feels torn from me, sharp and desperate, bouncing off tiled walls that don’t care who hears.
My thighs try to snap shut, but he holds me wide open, pinning me down, forcing me to take every bit of pleasure he gives.
I’m dimly aware of how exposed I am. How little I care.
I can feel my stomach tighten, every muscle in my body tensing, and my breath hitching, because I know what’s coming.
It feels inevitable. Like gravity.
I can feel it building, twisting, burning through me like wildfire.
"Liam, please…" I moan
I don’t even know what I’m asking for anymore.
His fingers dig into my thighs. "Give it to me, Ava."
And when his tongue presses just right, I shatter.
White-hot pleasure pours out my body, so intense, so overwhelming, I forget how to breathe. My vision goes black, my whole body locking up as wave after wave crashes over me, tearing me apart and putting me back together in the same breath.
For a second, there is nothing but sensation.
Liam doesn’t stop.
He keeps licking, keeps sucking, drinking me in like I’m the only thing that’s ever mattered.
My hands claw at his shoulders, my legs trembling violently around his head, trying to pull away, to catch my breath, but Liam growls, locking me in place.