The silence was too heavy, too charged. I thought maybe he'd fall asleep, that maybe I'd imagined it, but then-
Another groan. Low. Rough. Like he was dragging it out of the very bottom of his chest.
"Jinx..." His voice came through deeper now, slow and raw, like velvet over gravel. "You don't get it. I'm laying here, wishing it was you beside me instead of this damn pillow."
I clutched my blanket tighter, pulse thundering so loud i was sure he could hear it through the line. "Ash..." My name for him came out cracked, breaking under the weight of everything i wasn't saying.
He groaned again, softer this time, like frustration curling into longing. "You drive me insane, love. You sit there acting like you don't notice what you do to me, and I'm supposed to just... sleep?"
Every inch of me burned. My brain screamed at me to shut it down, to laugh it off, to shove it back into the safety of sarcasm-but my body betrayed me. My breath hitched, loud enough that he caught it.
"You feel it too," he murmered, voice low and certain, the kind of tone that stripped me bare. "Don't lie to me, Jinx."
I pressed the phone harder against my ear, wishing i could crawl inside the sound of him and never come out. My lips parted-words hovering on the tip of my tongue. Words I'd sworn I'd never say out loud.
But all that came out was a whisper.
"You're not fair."
Ash laughed softly, another groan hidden under it, like he was holding back more than i could even imagine. "Love, i was never playing fair with you."