Page 81 of When We Ignite

I rubbed my face again, staring at his name to make sure I wasn’t imagining it. My heart thudded as my thumb hovered over the green button. I hesitated for a moment before answering.

Clearing my throat, I mumbled, “It’s two in the morning.”

“Were you asleep?” His voice was deep, smooth, and entirely too intimate at this hour.

“Yeah, I was.”

A soft sound came through the line, contemplative. “Sorry, I thought you usually went to bed late.”

“I do. I just had a little too much to drink at the party and passed out as soon as I got home.”

The party. The frustrating, underwhelming evening replayed in my mind. Sebastian had barely acknowledged me after our chat, keeping his focus on Oliver and pretending I didn’t exist. Henry had tried to cheer me up the only way he knew how—by handing me drink after drink. When Sebastian left early, he barely gave me a nod goodbye. And now here he was, calling me in the middle of the night.

“I noticed,” he said. “Did Henry get you back home?”

“No. Char sent me with Oli’s driver.”

Another soft sound—acknowledgment, maybe—and then silence. We stayed like that, breathing quietly on opposite ends of the line, the unspoken tension stretching between us.

“Are you going to tell me why you called?” I finally asked.

“I miss you,” he whispered.

I turned onto my side, pressing my face into the pillow. “I miss you too,” I admitted softly.

Another silence, heavier this time.

“What did you want to talk to me about?” he asked, breaking the quiet.

“Can we talk about it in person?”

“No,” he said, the word almost a sigh.

“Why not?”

“Because I’m hanging on to my last shreds of self-control staying away from you.”

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” I said quietly.

“Tell me.” His voice was gentle, but there was no mistaking the command behind it.

“Don’t you think we need more time?”

He exhaled, the sound weary. “I know. I’m sorry I called.”

I shook my head into the pillow, frustration bubbling up. “More time together, not apart,” I muttered.

He didn’t answer right away. “Ethan…”

“I need more time,” I said, my voice faltering but insistent. “You put all these ideas in my head, and then you left. I just need a little more time. I know you don’t want a relationship, and I know that’s not going to change, but I still want it.”

“What do you still want?”

“For you to do all the things you said you wanted to do.”

“Like what?”

My face burned as I forced myself to answer. “T-touch me.”