The house felt different when everyone left.

  Too quiet. Too intimate.

  Ravi's voice still echoed in Zayn’s head as he backed out the driveway that morning to spend the night at his girlfriend's Bianca house.

  “Just keep an eye on her, bro. Kay’s responsible, but she’s still my little sister.”

  Zayn had nodded. “I’m not babysitting.”

  Ravi had laughed. “That’s exactly what you're doing.”

  But he had no idea the fire he’d left Zayn to contain.

  By nightfall, the house was bathed in soft amber light. The living room smelled like popcorn and Kay’s coconut hair oil. She wore a loose crop top and pajama shorts that exposed long, toned legs he had no business looking at.

  They started a movie on Netflix—some silly romantic comedy she picked.

  He pretended not to care.

  He sat far from her on the couch. Legs stretched. Arms folded.

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  She sat curled up, a blanket over her knees.

  They didn’t speak for a while.

  Until she laughed. That soft, throaty laugh he secretly liked.

  “You hate this movie, don’t you?”

  Zayn glanced over. “It’s dumb.”

  She grinned. “You’re so hard to please.”

  “Good.”

  She snorted. “Must be lonely in that perfect little tower of yours.”

  He looked at her, eyes unreadable. “You think I’m perfect?”

  She held his gaze. “No. I think you pretend to be.”

  Silence.

  The tension shifted.

  Zayn leaned forward slowly, elbows on knees. “You don’t know anything about me, Kay.”

  “Then tell me something real,” she whispered.

  He looked at her—really looked. Her skin glowing in the low light, lips parted slightly, eyes full of something soft and dangerous. She wasn’t a child anymore. She hadn’t been for a while. And he’d been too damn blind to see it.

  “I’ve been trying to hate you for years,” he said quietly. “Because I knew if I didn’t...”

  She swallowed. “You’d what?”

  I’d want you.”

  She didn’t move.

  Neither did he.

  The movie kept playing.

  The air was thick with everything they weren’t saying.

  Then her voice, soft: “What if I said I wanted you too?”

  Zayn’s control cracked.

  He moved fast. One hand on the couch, the other curling around her waist as he pulled her toward him. The blanket fell to the floor.

  Their lips hovered.

  Breath met breath.

  But he didn’t kiss her.

  He just stared into her eyes like she was the answer to every question he never asked.

  He just stared into her eyes like she was the answer to every question he never asked.

  “You’re Ravi’s little sister,” he said hoarsely.

  “I’m not little anymore,” she whispered.

  That broke him.

  He kissed her.

  Hard.

  Hungry.

  A kiss filled with years of denial, confusion, frustration.

  And Kay kissed him back like she’d been waiting forever.