Hungry for you

Chapter Ten – Can’t Pretend Anymore

The night air was heavy, thick with the smell of rain that hadn’t fallen yet. My apartment window was cracked open, and the city hum filtered in — a faint reminder that life outside kept moving, even as mine felt stuck in a loop. Eli’s name still sat unanswered in my inbox. Nate’s messages blinked steady and insistent. And Ian… Ian’s last words from earlier kept replaying in my head.

“Don’t let him in.”

It wasn’t a suggestion. It wasn’t even jealousy, not entirely. It sounded like a dare.

I hated that it thrilled me.

The knock at the door startled me. My chest tightened before I even stood. My body knew it wasn’t Eli. He was too far away, always too far. And Nate wouldn’t bother with knocking so lightly — he always entered like he belonged.

It was Ian.

I knew it before I turned the knob.

He stood there, his shirt damp at the shoulders from mist, hair slightly tousled like the night had touched him roughly. His jaw was tight, eyes darker than usual. He looked like a man on the edge of either saying something that would ruin us or doing something that would.

“Reese.” Just my name. But the way he said it — low, raw — made me feel like the world tilted under my feet.

“Ian, what are you—”

“Don’t ask me why I’m here.” He cut me off, stepping inside before I could stop him. His presence filled the space, sucking all the air out of the room. “You know why.”

My heartbeat stuttered. “You can’t just—”

“I can.” He moved closer, not touching, but so near I felt the heat radiating from him. “Because I can’t watch you keep giving pieces of yourself away to someone who isn’t even here. Someone who doesn’t see you anymore.”

He didn’t say Eli’s name, but it was there. A ghost between us.

“Ian…” My voice broke. “This isn’t fair. To him. To me. To you.”

He smiled, but it wasn’t amusement. It was hunger restrained. “Fair doesn’t matter when the truth is staring us in the face.” His hand lifted — slow, deliberate — brushing against my jaw. The touch was soft, reverent, and it stole every word I thought I had.

Before I could respond, another knock shattered the moment. Louder. Sharper.

Nate.

Ian’s hand froze mid-air. His eyes flicked toward the door, jaw tightening. “Of course.”

My body snapped into panic. “Don’t—don’t make this worse.”

The knocking grew more insistent. “Reese? It’s me. Open up.”

Nate’s voice, steady but carrying something heavier underneath.

Ian stepped back, his chest rising and falling like he was holding in a storm. “You going to let him in?”

I swallowed hard. “He’s my friend.”

“He’s not your friend,” Ian shot back, voice sharp but controlled. “He’s waiting. Always waiting. And the second you crack, he’ll take more than you realize.”

The doorknob rattled. Nate wasn’t waiting anymore. “Reese?”

I turned, frozen between them — the door and the man behind me, the safe and the dangerous, the predictable and the one I couldn’t stop craving.

Ian leaned in, his breath brushing my ear, his words so low they felt like they burrowed into me. “If you open that door, he wins. If you don’t… we burn.”

My pulse thundered. My hand reached for the knob.

And that’s where I stayed, caught between fire and ash, knowing whatever choice I made, nothing would ever be the same again.