جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 30

(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

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

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

The tarmac shimmered under the late-afternoon sun as he walked down from the limosine, still baring her in his arms with the occasional evil eye look that shows she can’t escape him being naughty even when they are on the plane, and more than one part of her is throbbing in anticipation, the ache of the earlier morning completely forgotten.She clutched the lapel of her white terry robe, the belt loosely knotted, it’s hem brushing the tops of her bare feet. He came up the air stair two steps at a time, eyes locked on her as though everything else including the pilots, ground crew who bow one by one as he walks by, and then the runway… as though they all belonged to a lesser plane of existence.Without a word he bent, one arm behind her shoulders, the other beneath her knees, and swept her against his chest.The robe parted just enough to bare the outer curve of a breast, warm breeze slipped inside the fabric and kissed her damp skin. She caught her breath, fingers curling into the ope

Mavis’s voice falters before she even comes to realize that it has... She just can't seem to comprehend what's going on.Her hands miss the warmth of Lance's but reaching for it now will only make her look stupid and desperate and even Lance will wonder if she's okay all over again...Whatever argument is unfolding beside her now only dissolves into noise, the sharp edges of Charlotte’s voice and the low force of Lance’s response blurring together into something distant and irrelevant to her being. Words are being thrown around, accusations and denials colliding in the open air of the tarmac with the plane still behind them, but none of it reaches her in a way that matters anymore.It all sounds the same to Mavis.Excuses...Again.Her hand trembles slightly as she whips her phone from her carry on tote, fingers moving on instinct to just do something to get away from there coupled with intention. She barely looks at the screen as she calls for a taxi, barely hears the automated res