Chapter Six: Tangled Heat
958 Words
The night was unnervingly quiet, save for the faint hum of the city bleeding through the windows of Ava’s apartment. She sat curled on the edge of the couch, knees drawn close, trying to mask the restless thrum inside her chest.
She hadn’t expected Jace to show up again, not after everything. Yet here he was, standing in her living room, his presence filling the space with dangerous energy. He leaned casually against the doorframe, but there was nothing casual about the way his eyes burned into hers.
“You always lock your doors this late?” Jace’s voice was low, teasing, but threaded with something darker.
Ava swallowed, trying to steady her voice. “Maybe I should. Especially with men like you around.”
He smirked, pushing off the frame, stepping closer. “Men like me?”
Her pulse skittered. She could smell his cologne now, something musky, sharp, intoxicating. It made the air heavy. “Trouble,” she whispered, eyes flicking away.
Jace chuckled, the sound low and intimate. “You keep calling me trouble, but you don’t exactly push me away.”
Her breath caught as he closed the distance, his hand brushing against the back of the couch near her shoulder. He didn’t touch her—not yet—but the nearness was unbearable. Her body betrayed her, leaning ever so slightly into the warmth of him.
“Why are you here, Jace?” she asked, her voice soft, almost breaking.
His jaw clenched, eyes locking with hers, unflinching. “Because I can’t stay away.”
The words hit her like a spark in dry air. She tried to laugh it off, to dismiss it, but the fire in his eyes made her heart tremble. She should have told him to leave, but instead she whispered, “You shouldn’t say things like that.”
“Why not?” His hand finally moved, fingertips brushing a stray lock of her hair behind her ear. The touch was light, careful, reverent even. “You feel this too, Ava. Stop pretending you don’t.”
Her defenses cracked under the weight of his voice, the rawness of his confession. She wanted to run. She wanted to stay. She wanted—God, she didn’t even know.
“Jace…” she breathed, but it was barely a warning.
He leaned closer, his lips hovering near her ear, his breath hot against her skin. “Tell me to stop, and I will.”
Her heartbeat roared in her ears. She should say it. She should pull away. Instead, her silence became permission.
And then his mouth was on hers.
The kiss wasn’t gentle. It was hungry, desperate, like he had been holding back for far too long. Ava melted against him, her hands fisting into his shirt as if anchoring herself from freefall. The taste of him, the heat of him, it unraveled her in seconds.
Jace groaned against her lips, pulling her closer until she was flush against him. Every inch of her body burned, every nerve alive with want. She gasped as his mouth trailed to her jaw, her throat, leaving fire in its wake.
Her voice trembled when she whispered his name, “Jace…”
He pulled back slightly, breathing hard, his forehead pressed to hers. “You drive me insane.”
Her eyes fluttered open, meeting his. What she saw there, desire, yes, but also vulnerability, made her chest ache.
But before she could answer, before she could make sense of what they had just done, a sharp knock shattered the moment.
They froze.
“Ava? Sweetheart? Are you still awake?”
Her entire body went cold. That was her mother’s voice. Refined, composed, and dangerously close.
Jace stiffened instantly, his hand still pressed against her waist. His eyes met hers, sharp with warning. She could see it in the set of his jaw, the wrong person catching them like this could burn everything to the ground.
Another knock, firmer this time. “Ava?”
Panic surged through her chest. She could feel the heat of Jace’s breath still clinging to her lips, the ghost of his touch on her skin. Her heart thundered, torn between the fire of what just happened and the ice of being discovered.
Jace leaned in, his mouth brushing her ear as he whispered, low and rough, “Don’t make a sound.”
Her breath caught. She nodded, though her hands trembled as she clutched the hem of her nightdress.
“Ava, darling?” Her mother’s voice drifted through the door again, softer this time but no less sharp. “I thought I heard voices.”
Her blood turned to ice. Voices. She had heard them.
Jace’s gaze burned into hers, urgent, almost feral. He glanced toward the window, then back to her, as if calculating escape routes in seconds.
“Do you want me gone?” he mouthed.
Ava’s chest rose and fell rapidly. She should nod. She should send him away, end this madness before it unraveled her carefully protected world. But her lips wouldn’t form the words.
Another knock. Louder. “Ava. Open the door.”
Her mother’s voice carried the steel edge that meant she wasn’t asking anymore.
Jace’s hand tightened briefly at her waist before he let go. His voice was a whisper, threaded with danger and something else, something softer. “Your choice, princess.”
Ava’s pulse hammered as she stood there caught between two worlds: the safe one her mother guarded with locked doors and watchful eyes… and the dangerous one Jace had just pulled her into with a kiss she couldn’t forget.
And with her mother just one door away, the walls of her carefully built innocence felt like they were seconds from crumbling.
- Writer
