Liam's Revenge

Chapter 1 - The Phoenix

Four years later

Sunbeams slash across my eyelids, dragging me from a dream tangled with emerald eyes I desperately try to banish from my mind; those damned eyes and a husky voice that sends shivers down my spine.

And I am thankful for it. Fingers scrunched into balls, I swallow hard and stretch.

The warmth of the morning sun seeps through the window, painting golden stripes across the bed, and a sigh escapes my lips, a contented sigh.

How far I've come.

Ireland, my mother, my father's Kieran's suffocating hold, the whirlwind that was Liam – it's almost as it all happened another lifetime ago.

Italy is my home now. I am never going back to Dublin.

The morning light catches Enzo's soft brown curls, turning them into an angelic halo around his sleepy face. He shifts around our bed, blinking his sapphire pupils at me.

"Buongiorno, regina," his soft, kind voice greets me, each syllable dripping with tenderness. "How did you sleep, Chiara?"

Yes. Chiara. I swallow.

Here, in this sun-drenched apartment in the center of hustling and bustling Rome, I have to keep reminding myself I am no longer Alejandra Martinaj.

No more Alex, the hunted woman. Forced to do her mother's bidding, fleeing from her father, molded by Liam.

New life brought about my new identity. In Rome, I'm Chiara Bellini. The bright one. The luminous one. A fitting name meaning that resonates with my newfound lightness. A lightness I haven't known before.

"Buongiorno," I land a playful, tender kiss on Enzo's lips and allow myself to get lost in his sweet baby blues. "Um, I slept like a log." I giggle unceremoniously.

Even after two years I've spent with my handsome, perfect-in-every-way doctor, I can't help but compare Enzo to Liam—the two are always a glaring difference, a contrast tucked away in a corner of my mind.

But as the time passes I compare them less and less frequently. And I am sure that I will soon... stop altogether.

Enzo's tan skin, warm from sleep, stretches across his broad chest, a stark opposite to Liam's perpetual paleness. His build is lean but yielding, a more than a welcome change from Liam's imposing musculature. Here, in Enzo's arms, there's tenderness, a quiet understanding that Liam never offered. An allowance to... simply be myself at all times.

A smile full of warmth curls his lips. "So you feel well rested, and refreshed, yes?" His warm palms cup my breasts and I relish in the goosebumps his touch sends all over my body. The heat of the electrifying jolt penetrates all my pores.

Suddenly, a giggle pierces the stillness, the sound of Sofia echoing from downstairs. It's like a splash of cold water, pulling me back to reality. Enzo stirs beside me, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

"Looks like our little principessa is awake," Enzo murmurs, his voice husky with sleep.

I force a smile back, a bit miffed we got interrupted. "Probably demanding breakfast before school already."

He leans in and nuzzles my neck, a playful glint returning to his eyes. "Don't you worry, amore. I'll handle the morning chaos. I start later today after all. You go get yourself ready."

Enzo stretches languidly, sending a delicious shiver down my spine. He tilts his head with grace and a hot flush invades my cheeks as his gaze lingers on my breasts once more, for a second too long.