Chapter Five: Forbidden Desires

Sarah knelt at the edge of the bed, her body trembling as though the air itself weighed on her shoulders.

She couldn’t believe this was happening. Couldn’t believe she was here, forty-five years old, divorced, hungover, and staring at the bare, beautiful feet of a man half her age, cuffed to her bed like some fever dream she had no right to live.

Liam’s head leaned back against the headboard, his gray-blue eyes dark and steady on her, but he said nothing. His chest rose and fell, broad and perfect, his body stretched taut by the restraints. It should have been intimidating. But it wasn’t his chest, or his abs, or the cut of his hips that held her.

It was lower.

Her gaze locked where it shouldn’t. Where she had sworn she would never look again.

His feet.

Long, masculine, perfectly shaped. The toes slender and neatly trimmed, the faint veins visible across the top, the subtle pinkness of his arches. Strong, elegant, and beautiful.

Sarah’s throat went dry.

She hated herself for it. Or rather, she had been taught to hate herself for it.

Her ex-husband’s voice echoed in her memory, casual and cruel: “Can you believe some people are into feet? That’s disgusting. Honestly, it makes me sick.”

She had laughed along with him then, hiding the flush of shame that crawled up her neck, hiding the secret that had pulsed inside her since she was a girl. She had locked that part of herself away, shoved it down so deep that not even therapy could coax it free.

She had told herself it was wrong. Cringe. Dirty. That she was broken for wanting something so strange.

But now…

Now she was on her knees before Liam Hamilton, twenty-five-year-old CEO, and his foot moved. Just a small twitch, the unconscious curling and uncurling of his toes.

And something inside her shattered.

Her chest ached. Her eyes burned. Years of denial, of silencing herself, of feeling less than a woman, all of it cracked open at the sight of that simple, unintentional gesture.

She wanted them. God, she wanted them. To hold them, to worship them, to give in to the part of herself she had buried for half her life.

Tears pricked her eyes.

It wasn’t just lust. It wasn’t dirty. It was her. A piece of her soul, a piece she had denied so long she had forgotten how much it hurt.

Her ex never knew. Her friends never knew. She had carried the shame alone, convinced it made her unlovable. And yet here she was, her heart pounding, her body trembling, drawn helplessly to the very thing she had once cursed.

Maybe there was nothing wrong with me, she thought desperately. Maybe this is just… part of being human. Part of being a woman. Every fantasy, every desire, it’s not sin. It’s not sickness. It’s me.

Her hands shook as she reached for the sheets, needing something to ground her. She wanted to cry, laugh, scream all at once.

Liam’s voice cut through her spiral, low and devastatingly calm.

“You’re staring again.”

Her breath hitched. She looked up, startled, and found his eyes on her, piercing, but not mocking. There was no disgust there. No judgment. Only curiosity, heat, and a flicker of something she couldn’t name.

Her lips parted, but no sound came.

He tilted his head, the smirk softening into something gentler. “What is it you’re so afraid of, Sarah?”

The dam in her chest cracked.

“I…” She swallowed, her voice trembling. “I’ve wanted this for so long. And I hated myself for it. Everyone would hate me for it.”

His brows arched, interest sparking in his eyes. “For what?”

Her throat closed. Shame wrapped around her like chains, but the sight of his feet, his perfect, twitching, beautiful feet dragged her forward.

“For wanting something… I was told I shouldn’t,” she whispered at last.

Silence stretched between them, thick with tension. Liam didn’t speak. He didn’t laugh or sneer or pull away. He just let the words hang in the air, let her tremble under the weight of them.

Then his toes curled again, an unconscious reflex.

Her breath hitched violently.

Liam’s lips curved. “That’s it, isn’t it?”

Her face burned scarlet. She looked away, ashamed, humiliated.

But then, gentle, unexpected, his voice came again, softer than she had ever heard it. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting, Sarah.”

Her head snapped toward him. His eyes burned into hers, and she felt the truth of it strike her soul.

“You’re not dirty,” he said, his tone rough but certain. “You’re not wrong. Desire makes you alive.”

Her chest broke open. A sob rose in her throat, but she swallowed it, trembling, shaking, her body alight with fear and need.

Her hand moved before she could stop it. Slowly, trembling, she reached forward, her fingers hovering inches from his foot.

The air between them charged, electric. Liam’s breath deepened, his chest rising and falling faster now, though he stayed silent, watching her.

Her fingertips brushed the top of his foot, featherlight.

Liam inhaled sharply, his toes curling in response. A low, involuntary sound escaped him, half-groan, half-moan, raw and unguarded.

Sarah’s entire body trembled at the sound. Her shame burned away in an instant, replaced by a heat so consuming she nearly wept. For the first time in her life, she felt powerful. Whole.

She pressed her hand firmer against him, her thumb brushing over the veins, her lips parting as a rush of arousal surged through her.

Liam’s head tipped back, another groan ripping from his throat, louder this time, rough and helpless.

The sound vibrated through her, delicious and dizzying.

And in that moment, kneeling before him, trembling with desire, her hand on the forbidden part of him she had denied her whole life, Sarah knew there was no going back.