Chapter Seven: The Shatter of Restraint

Sarah’s lips lingered against the damp skin of Liam’s arch, her breath hot and uneven, her pulse a desperate rhythm inside her chest. She had crossed the threshold, and there was no undoing it now. Her tongue had already tasted him, her shame already burned away in the heat of his moans.

And, those moans.

They weren’t gentle sounds. They were violent. Raw. Torn from somewhere deep in his chest where control did not exist. Every guttural note of them echoed through her bones, feeding the wildfire that had been buried inside her for decades.

She clung to his ankle as if the world might rip her away, her lips parting again to press another trembling kiss to his sole. Her tongue followed, a slow drag over the high arch that had already made him buck helplessly moments ago.

“Uggghhhhhh—fuck—Sarah—”

His voice cracked, reverberating off the walls, heavy with disbelief and need. His thighs flexed hard, his legs straining against the sheets. The leather cuffs rattled against the headboard as his hands fought instinctively for freedom.

Sarah closed her eyes, the sound of her name on his lips like a drug. She was forty-five, scarred, weathered by mistakes but in this moment, she felt like nothing less than a goddess kneeling at an altar, every stroke of her tongue a prayer, every groan from him an answered devotion.

He’s undone because of her.

The thought made her dizzy. She kissed along the ridge of his foot, reverent and slow, until her lips found the sensitive crease beneath his toes. She hesitated only a fraction of a second—then opened her mouth and took him in.

“Mmmmphhhh—ahhhhhh—God!”

Liam’s whole body convulsed. His abs rippled in a violent contraction, his back bowing off the bed as though her mouth had set fire to his veins. His thighs shook, toes curling hard, a strangled groan breaking into ragged fragments of sound.

“Shhhhit—Sarah—oh, fffuck—don’t—” His words collapsed into a low, wrecked moan, as though even language couldn’t survive what she was doing.

Sarah’s tears spilled before she could stop them, though this time they weren’t from shame. They were from release, from the impossible relief of doing the thing she had once thought would damn her. Every suck, every stroke of her tongue, felt like reclaiming herself piece by trembling piece.

She worked her mouth slowly over each toe, dragging her tongue between them, circling, tasting, savoring. Her breath shook, her moans muffled against his skin as her arousal built with every twitch of his body.

Liam’s restraints clattered again, his triceps bulging, veins standing out like cords along his arms. His jaw locked, his teeth clenched around another groan he couldn’t contain. His chest rose and fell in wild, broken heaves, sweat tracing down the ridges of his abs.

“Uhhhhh—nghhhhh—Sarah—Jesus Christ—” His voice dissolved into a strangled whimper, as if the torment of pleasure was too much to hold.

She lifted her eyes to watch him through her lashes. The sight was nearly unbearable. His face was flushed crimson, his brow furrowed in desperate tension, his mouth open in a ruin of sound. He looked destroyed, ruined and more beautiful than she had ever seen him.

Her hand slid down to clutch his other foot, grounding herself as her lips traveled lower, tracing the delicate arch, the ball, the pad beneath his toes. Every kiss, every lick was deliberate. Maddening. Worshipful.

Liam writhed. His thighs jerked, the tendons in his neck straining as another guttural moan ripped from him.

“Ahhhhhh—shhhhhh—Sarah—stop—no—ohhh, ffffuckkkk—don’t stop—”

The contradiction made her shiver. She pressed her mouth harder, tongue swirling circles into the tender arch until his whole body bucked against the sheets, trembling on the edge of some breaking point.

Sarah gasped against him, arousal flooding her so thick she nearly sobbed. She had never been so wet, so desperate, so alive. Every fiber of her screamed to taste more, to take more, to push him further into the helpless abyss she had built with her mouth.

She pulled back just enough to whisper, voice ragged, trembling but resolute. Her hand tightened on his ankle. Her eyes, shining with tears and fire, locked onto his wrecked face. And before he could form words, before he could deny or beg, she lowered her mouth to his other foot.

The first lick was slow. Excruciating.

Liam’s cry was instantaneous, broken, ripped straight from his chest.

“Ugggggghhhhhh—nnnnghhh—Sarahhhh—ohhhhhh God!”

His abs contracted in violent waves, his chest heaving with ragged gasps. His arms trembled against the restraints, shoulders bulging with the effort of pulling against the leather that held him captive. His legs kicked weakly, his muscles betraying him, too overwhelmed to obey his mind.

Sarah dragged her tongue from his heel to his toes, savoring the salt, the heat, the sheer wild humanity of him. Her moan vibrated against his skin, and the sound sent him into another fit of convulsions.

“Ahhhh—shitttt—ughhh—fuckkkk—” His words broke apart like glass, meaningless fragments drowned in pleasure.

Her lips found his toes, and she sucked gently, her tongue teasing the delicate spaces in between. His body jerked violently, a strangled growl tearing from his throat.

“Ghhhhhhh—Sarah—Jesus—what are you—ahhhhhh—Godddd!”

She smiled against him, her own body trembling with the power of it. For so many years, she had been silent. Ashamed. Afraid of the thing that made her different. And now here it was, transformed into power, power that could unravel a man like Liam, strip him bare of every ounce of control.

Her tears dripped onto his skin as she kissed him again, softer this time, reverent. “Mine,” she whispered, voice breaking. “You’re mine.”

Liam’s head slammed back, his throat working around another shattered groan. His chest glistened with sweat, his body quaking in helpless surrender.

She didn’t stop. She couldn’t. Her tongue traced every line, every curve, tasting him again and again until she felt her own release building, fierce and unbearable.

Her lips pressed hard into his arch one last time, and Liam broke.

“UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH—Sarahhhh—ahhhhhhh—fuckkkk—” His cry shattered, raw and animal, his body thrashing against the restraints, every muscle straining as if his soul itself were trying to break free.

And Sarah, Sarah felt whole. For the first time in her life, she wasn’t ashamed of her hunger. She was alive inside it. Powerful inside it. Holy inside it.

She kissed his foot one final time, then lifted her tear-streaked face to look at him.

He was ruined. Gorgeous. Quivering. His chest rose and fell in ragged bursts, his face slick with sweat, his eyes glazed with something halfway between torment and worship.

And she knew, without question, that nothing would ever be the same again.