MasukIgnoring the ache in her lower body that she has not felt for so so long since she’d never let any man touch her since all those years before, she rolled over and over again in the white sheets, letting the feeling of peace wash all over her.She’d spent the night in his hands, he’d pampered her like she was a Faberge egg, and she’d been taken care of in both body and desire. He’d met them all through the course of the night till early in the morning before they’d fallen asleep as a result of exhaustion, in one another’s hands of course.She finally relaxes and opens her eyes to the one ray of sun that’s threatening to blind her if she does not move away from the bed. She sits up in bed and sighs heavily, yawning before she opens her eyes.The side of the bed is empty.She puts her hand on the scattered sheets and it is cold, very cold, which means whoever was there stopped being there over an hour at the very least.Bile rises in her throat as she suppresses an overwhelming feeling o
He carried her upstairs, his eyes never leaving her glinting sea green ones, his legs are sued to the path so he does not mind walking without seeing the path. On getting to the room, he laid her gently on the bed, took a step backward and shook his head in awe.“How did I manage to miss all of these for seven years…?”He stepped forward, hands finding the curve of her hips, strong fingers pressing through thin layers to the welcoming flesh beneath. Mavis melted toward him, her low moan vibrating against his throat as she rolled her hips into his hold. She tangled one hand in his dark hair and tugged, forcing his mouth to hers.Their collision was bruising with their lips, teeth and ragged breathing from wanting to touch and taste it all at once. She tasted of that kind of midnight wine that makes a man tipsy on the first glass and Lance groaned into the kiss as his tongue met hers in a claiming duel neither tried to soften.Hatred, longing, regret, desire… they poured into each other
For a moment, neither of them looks away from the other, years of longer suddenly surging in their bodies, in the way their needs for one another has suddenly taken the rein, past logical thinking.Seven years collapse into the space between them, years of anger, grief, and longing pressing against the fragile present. Lance’s jaw tightens, not in rage, but restraint, his self control has been screaming since morning, and there is only less than a single percent left.Mavis can see it now, the effort it takes for him to stay where he is, to not reach for her the way he once did without thinking.“I never stopped loving you,” he says at last, the confession quiet but devastating. “I just learned how to survive without you, I moved on.”Her breath shudders. “I didn’t move on,” she admits. “I just learned how to pretend.” That breaks something in them.Especially as she’s still hiding the biggest truth of all from him.Lance steps closer, close enough now that she can feel his warmth, th
The living room feels different after the truth is spoken.Not quieter, not louder, but altered in a way that is difficult to describe, as though the air itself has shifted and neither of them is quite sure how to breathe inside it yet. Mavis sits on one end of the couch, legs folded beneath her, fingers clasped tightly in her lap. Lance stands near the window at first, his back to her, one hand braced against the glass as he stares out into the darkness beyond the villa.They have exchanged their stories.All of them, well, most of it, they’d both left out the after of the weeks together, especially Mavis.Everything although, from the argument to the next morning, the men that neither of them know who they are, the woman visitor, the contraceptives that Mavis swears she did not own nor use, the card that had been taken from her, then to the airport, the radio silence that followed. Each revelation has landed with its own quiet devastation, stripping away years of certainty and repla
(Lance’s Flashback — Seven Years Earlier)Lance left the villa that morning with the intention of returning quickly.The visitor had arrived unannounced the night before, requesting a brief meeting regarding a matter that could not be handled over the phone. It irritated him, not because the meeting itself was inconvenient, but because the timing was wrong. The argument with Mavis still sat unresolved between them, heavy and unfinished, and he had gone to bed knowing he owed her a thorough apology.He had planned to give it to her first thing in the morning.That was why he chose to meet the visitor outside the villa grounds rather than bringing her in. It was a deliberate decision, one made with Mavis in mind, because the last thing he wanted was to deepen the tension between them or give her any reason to feel uncertain about where she stood.He knew how insecurity could creep in after a disagreement, how silence could stretch into doubt if left unattended. He had intended to keep t
(Mavis’s Flashback — Seven Years Earlier)The argument the day before had been stupid, dumb and simply idiotic. It’s not the type of fight anyone should be having but they did.That was the cruelest part of it, the detail that would replay in Mavis’s mind for years afterward, sharpening with every retelling until it cut her anew. It hadn’t been about betrayal or lies or anything substantial enough to justify the ending that followed. It had been small, careless, born out of exhaustion and jealousy and the kind of insecurity she had not yet learned how to name.They had argued the night before over something trivial, something so forgettable she would later struggle to remember the exact words. She only remembered the feeling of it, the way it had escalated too quickly, the way voices had risen when neither of them intended for that to happen.He had been distracted and she had been sensitive.She accused him of not listening. He accused her of overreacting. She swore at him in a momen







