Chapter 5 Craving

Layla stared at her phone from the edge of the bed, her back straight, her hands clenched so tightly in her lap that her fingers ached. The room felt smaller now as the walls closed in with every vibration of the device. She didn't need to look at the screen because she already knew but still, the name flashed anyway.

Liam.

Her stomach twisted-not with longing, not with regret-but with a sharp, familiar dread. The kind that settled deep in her bones and refused to leave, no matter how much time passed.

Her phone rang once more and then again.

Finally, with a breath that felt scraped raw from her lungs, she answered.

"Why aren't you here?" Liam demanded the moment the call connected.

"I'm not coming," Layla said as she closed her eyes.

The silence on the other end stretched, long and heavy, like a held breath before impact.

"What do you mean you're not coming?" he asked slowly, his voice dropping into something colder.

"What I mean by that is that I'm not coming means I'm not coming," Layla replied, forcing calm into her tone even as her pulse thundered in her ears. "I don't want to see you."

A sharp exhale crackled through the line. "You don't get to do that, Layla."

Her fingers tightened around the phone. "I do."

There was another longer pause this time.

Then his voice hardened. "Is this because of him?"

Layla didn't answer.She didn't need to.

"That's what I thought," Liam continued, his tone laced with something ugly. "You humiliated me. Do you have any idea what people are saying?"

"No,Liam. You humiliated me," she shot back, the words finally tearing free. "I saw you at the club,kissing a girl and you saw me and acted like I wasn't even standing there."

"Fuck, Layla. That didn't mean anything." Liam said as he gave out a humorless laugh.

"But it meant something to me," Layla said, her voice shaking despite her effort. "And I'm done."

The shift in him was immediate-like a switch being flipped.

"You don't walk away from me like this," he said, the warmth draining completely from his voice.

"I just did."

"You think you're safe?" he snapped. "You think hiding behind silence is going to protect you?"

Layla's heart slammed violently against her ribs.

"Layla," Liam continued, his voice dropping into something darker, more intimate, "you owe me and I don't forget."

Her throat tightened. "You don't own me."

A soft, dangerous chuckle answered her. "Careful."

She swallowed. "I'm hanging up."

"You'll regret this," he said instantly. "You think you're the first girl who thought she could walk away from my family?"

Her breath caught. "Your family?"

"You really think this is just about you and me?" Liam continued smoothly. "You think you can play games with people like us and walk away untouched?"

Layla's grip on the phone loosened slightly-not from fear this time, but something colder.

"Elias," Liam said casually. "You know who he is to me, right?"

She said nothing.

"He's my uncle," Liam went on. "My blood,my family. And you think he's some stranger you can disappear from?"

Layla exhaled slowly.

"I know," she said.

That made him pause.

"You know?" he repeated, surprise flickering through his voice.

"Yes," Layla said quietly. "I know he's your uncle, everyone knows and even you know that I know. So why act surprised?."

The silence that followed was sharp, recalibrating.

"You still went with him," Liam said, his voice lowering. "You still let him touch you."

Her jaw tightened. "Don't."

"You didn't just betray me," he continued, anger bleeding through now. "You embarrassed me in front of him."

"You embarrassed yourself," she said, her voice steadier than she felt. "The two years we dated was nothing but a waste and I'm not doing this anymore."

"You don't get to decide that," Liam snapped. "You don't get to choose him over me."

"I didn't choose anyone," Layla said. "I chose myself."

He laughed again, but this time there was no humor in it. "You're naïve if you think this ends here."

"I'm done," she repeated. "Don't call me again."

"You think he's going to protect you?" Liam said, his voice sharp with something that sounded like jealousy-and something worse. "You think my uncle doesn't destroy everything he touches?"

Layla's chest tightened as she heard those words.

"Stay away from him," Liam added. "Or I'll make sure you regret it."

"I'm not afraid of you," she lied.

"You should....."

Layla ended the call before Liam could finish rambling.The silence afterward was deafening.

Layla sat there, phone still pressed to her ear, listening to nothing-her heart racing, her hands trembling as if they'd been stripped of strength. Slowly, she lowered the phone and stared at the dark screen, half-expecting it to light up again but it didn't.

She stood abruptly, needing distance from the bed, from the room, from the thoughts spiraling too fast inside her head, and walked into the bathroom.

She splashed cold water on her face, gripping the edge of the sink as she looked at her reflection-pale skin, flushed cheeks, eyes too bright with things she didn't want to feel and then-unbidden, unwanted-

Elias.

The memory surfaced without permission.

His hand at her back as if he'd known exactly where she would be before she did.The sound of his voice-low, controlled-sliding beneath her skin like a command she hadn't questioned.

Her breath hitched.She squeezed her eyes shut, but the images sharpened instead-the heat, the closeness, the way the world had narrowed until it felt like there was only the two of them and the danger humming between their bodies.

She leaned her forehead against the mirror, breathing shallow.

"This is wrong," she whispered.

But her body didn't listen. She slowly removed her clothes as her thoughts spiraled, replaying the way he'd looked at her-not like something fragile, not like something to be careful with-but like something he wanted. Something he'd already decided belonged in his hands. Her mind drifted through every move made on her. She found her hand drifting onto her nipples and pulling on them, really hard, and even pinching them to the point where it hurt. Her other hand was of course caressing her ass and then her finger pushing itself into her anus.

She took her shampoo and poured on her body ,savouring and anticipating every drop of water that touched her skin. She washed her body as soapy hands caressed her nipples and held her breasts.

She snaked down and over her belly and slipped sexily between my thighs. Her pussy jumped in anticipation as she washed her legs and then poured more shower gel onto her hands.

Layla's hands came up onto her breasts and cupped them again. She pushed the soap all over them and while holding them up she leant against the shower wall and tweaked her nipples hard. She felt a jolt of pleasure shoot through me. She reached for the shower head and adjusted it so that the water fell over her belly and onto her pussy. Her hands came back onto her nipples as she stared dreamily out of the shower.

She pinched her nipples a few more times while Elias gaze and touch stuck on her mind.

Her hands finally snaked down to her waist. She followed her curves and loved how it felt.

Layla thought that when Elias does this, it would make her go all soft and weak at the knees, but she had to admit, she only once felt those caresses when Elias fingered her.

Her hands rested on her hips for a while before one of them started to caress her ass. Her hands seemed to have a mind of their own, like they knew what to do without any instruction from her. Both of her hands caressed her ass and she felt a finger probe along the cleft of her anus. It hovered over the hole, waiting to be told what to do.

She looked up at the shower head. The water was still pouring over her body. She reached up and unhooked it with her right hand while the finger of her left hand had its way with her ass. Finger pushed itself inside, it wiggled itself about and then the shower head came up between her thighs and she felt hot, powerful jets of water caress her pussy lips. She held the shower head between her thighs as her fingers caressed her lips and clitoris. Her eyes were now opening and closing as she concentrated on several intrusions and sensations all at the same time.

She removed her finger from her ass and replaced the shower head in its holder. She was lusty, too lusty and horny to ignore it.

She murmured the word "fuck" as she slid her three fingers into her pussy and started bucking herself up and down. In no time,her orgasm exploded out of her as his name lingered on her lips before she could stop it. She gasped loudly as it ripped its way out and washed itself away with the water.

The intensity made Layla collapse onto the shower floor. Her legs opened slightly as she relaxed.. She was breathing heavily and her thighs were still twitching as she stood up. She finally raised herself into the full flow of the water and started to breathe a little more easily.

When it finally passed, she straightened slowly, shame and craving tangling so tightly she couldn't tell where one ended and the other began.She hated that she wanted him,hated that even now-after the threats, the warnings, the knowledge of who he was-her body remembered him better than it remembered fear.

Layla turned off the light and walked back into her room, unaware that this was only the beginning because once desire learned a name, it never forgot it.