❤️🔥Apartment 304🥵: chapter 5
519 Words
Dangerous chemistry .
The moment Ethan pulled me into his arms, everything inside me went still.
Not fear.
Something else.
Something warmer.
His chest was solid against mine, his hand steady at my waist like he already knew exactly where I fit.
“Ava,” he said again, softer this time. “Are you hurt?”
I shook my head, but I couldn’t speak properly.
Not because I was scared anymore…
Because I was too aware of him.
The warmth of his body.
The scent of rain and something faintly masculine and addictive.
The way his hand hadn’t let go yet.
“I’m fine,” I finally managed.
But my voice came out weaker than I wanted.
His eyes searched mine in the dim light, unreadable at first… then slowly shifting into something more intense.
Something personal.
“You shouldn’t have seen that side of my apartment,” he said quietly.
My brows furrowed slightly.
“That ‘side’?” I repeated.
Ethan hesitated.
For the first time, he looked unsure.
Like someone deciding how much truth was too dangerous to share.
Then he stepped closer.
The space between us disappeared completely.
My breath caught.
“You shouldn’t be here, Ava,” he murmured.
“But I am,” I whispered back before I could stop myself.
His gaze dropped briefly to my lips.
That small movement changed everything in the air.
The tension snapped tight between us—heavy, electric, unavoidable.
“You’re not safe with me,” he said.
But his hand tightened slightly at my waist as he said it.
Like he didn’t mean it fully.
Or like he was trying not to.
“Then why don’t you let me go?” I asked softly.
Silence.
Too long.
Too loaded.
His thumb brushed lightly against my side—barely there, but enough to make my skin react instantly.
“I should,” he admitted.
But he didn’t move.
Neither did I.
Thunder rolled faintly outside the window again, but this time I didn’t flinch.
I couldn’t.
Because Ethan was looking at me like he was fighting something inside himself.
Something he was losing.
“Ava…” he said my name slowly, like he was testing it on his tongue.
“Hmm?”
“If I cross this line…” he paused, breathing slightly uneven now, “…there’s no going back.”
My heart beat harder.
“I didn’t ask you to protect me,” I whispered.
That was a lie.
I did.
But not the way he meant.
His eyes darkened slightly at my words.
And then—
He leaned in just a little closer.
Close enough that I could feel his breath against my lips.
Close enough that the world outside the two of us stopped mattering completely.
“You’re going to regret this apartment,” he murmured.
My fingers curled slightly into his shirt.
“Or maybe,” I whispered back, “I already don’t.”
That was the moment everything changed.
Not horror.
Not fear.
Just the beginning of something dangerously intimate.
And Ethan finally stopped pretending he didn’t want to kiss me.
- Writer
