It wasn’t just sex anymore.
Ava knew it the morning she woke up craving him like a drug — not just his body, but him. His laugh. The way he watched her when he thought she wasn’t looking. The way he said her name like a secret he couldn’t help spilling.
She tried to stay away.
But every wall in that house was too thin. Every glance too loaded.
Noah didn’t make it easier. He’d text her at midnight from across the hall.
You awake?
Always followed by:
Door’s unlocked.
She always went.
One night, he left her bruised and breathless against his bedroom door, her panties shoved in his pocket like a trophy. Another, she straddled him in the bathtub, his hand over her mouth as they heard her mother’s footsteps pass by outside.
It wasn’t sustainable.
And someone noticed.
It started with a glance from her stepdad over dinner — a quiet narrowing of his eyes when Noah touched her shoulder for too long. Then a comment.
“You two getting along better than I expected.”
Too casual.
Too aware.
Panic twisted in Ava’s gut, but it only made the next time worse — or better, depending on how you looked at it.
They were supposed to be watching a movie downstairs. Everyone else was asleep. She was curled under the blanket, and his hand was already between her thighs before the opening credits ended.
“I think about you all the time,” he whispered, voice raw in her ear. “Even when I’m not supposed to.”
“You never were,” she breathed.
They didn’t even pause the movie. She rode him slow, buried in the couch cushions, the flicker of the screen casting them in shadows. They came seconds apart, trembling, lips locked, too far gone to stop.
When she slipped back upstairs, flushed and wrecked, her mother was standing at the top of the stairs.
Ava froze.
“Everything okay?” her mom asked, eyes sharp.
A long beat.
“Yeah,” Ava lied, heart pounding in her throat.
Her mother watched her a moment longer — then nodded, walked away.
Ava stood there in the dark for a full minute before going to her room. When her phone buzzed a second later, she already knew who it was.
I want you again.
Tomorrow.
Anywhere.
She didn’t reply.
But she didn’t say no.