Chapter Nineteen
Nineteen
“You slacked off,” Ethan teased. Lying under the faded quilt in her room, he looked far too content about it.
Priya laughed. “I was dealing with some very important matters.”
He tucked her hair behind her ear, lips grazing the sensitive spot just beneath it. Then he paused, his mouth still close. “Huh,” he murmured, his voice low and thoughtful.
“What?”
“You’ve got a little beauty mark here, tucked away behind your ear,” he said, fingertips brushing her skin.
“You’re cataloguing me now?” Priya replied playfully.
“Every detail.”
Stretched out beside Ethan, legs entangled in her small bed, Priya felt as if she were peering over the edge of a dream.
No figment of her imagination could have prepared her for the sight before her—Ethan Knight sprawled out on her bed, his presence clashing with the floral pillowcases and lavender walls.
“So, this is your room.” Ethan adjusted his pillow and leaned back.
Priya shifted, resting her head on his chest. “Until I get back on my feet.”
“And there’s your window,” he declared.
Priya gave him a puzzled look.
“The morning after my going-away party, right before I left for New York, I stood out there,” he said.
“I had my backpack on, and my escape route planned, but as I rolled my motorcycle out of Knight Estates, I found myself turning into Moksha.” A wistful smile formed on Ethan’s lips.
“I found a twig and thought I’d tap on your window.
But I couldn’t figure out which one was yours, and I didn’t want to get you into trouble, so I turned around and left. ”
“Really?” Priya asked, looking up at him. “Why did you want to see me?”
“I wanted to say goodbye.”
“So romantic. Except for the part where you gave up and left,” she joked. “But now here you are. In my room. I still can’t believe it.”
“It’s a very scholarly room.” Ethan gestured at the pile of textbooks on her desk.
“I’m taking some courses online. App development. Stuff like that,” Priya explained.
“Don’t tell me you’re trying to design your dream guy, line by line.”
“Why in the world would I do that when I’ve got the ultimate prototype right here?
” she said, giving his bicep an appreciative squeeze.
“Premium model…” Her hand glided over his chest. “Impressive specs…” She traced the contours of his abs.
“Just need to run some live performance tests…” As her fingers inched lower, Ethan grabbed her wrist.
“Easy now,” Ethan said, his voice a dark murmur. “You’re about to initiate a full launch sequence.”
Before Priya could go any further, Ethan’s phone buzzed yet again. “You should check that.” She sighed, propping herself up on her elbow. “Someone’s been trying to reach you all afternoon.”
“Right.” Ethan dragged his attention to his phone. “It’s my social media manager asking for a new photo,” he said, scrolling through his messages. “Apparently, my absence is starting to fuel rumors.”
He began typing, reading his response out loud. “I’ll…send…one…soon.” Then he set the phone down, his focus shifting fully to Priya. “Now, let’s pick up where we left off.”
Stretched out on his side, the quilt barely clinging to his hips, Ethan looked like a Renaissance sculpture carved from light and shadow—sun-warmed skin stretched over chiseled muscle, every inch of him gloriously bare.
The light from the window skimmed his jaw, poured over his chest and dipped into the valleys of his abs.
His hair was a tousled mess, his jaw dusted with stubble, and that lazy, knowing smile? Yeah, she was done for.
“You’re ridiculous,” Priya murmured with a shaky laugh. “No one should look this good without a filter.” She grabbed Ethan’s phone, swiped the camera open, and pointed the lens at him.
Ethan’s smile curled at the edges, slow and sinful.
Then his gaze shifted—darker, hungrier—and Priya forgot to breathe.
She felt the heat of his stare straight through the lens, in her chest, in her pulse, curling between her thighs.
That look didn’t flirt. It claimed. There was no softness, no sweetness.
Just a raw, consuming need that promised he’d take her apart with his hands, his mouth, his body, and take his sweet, dirty time doing it.
“Holy hell,” Priya whispered, her breath catching as she took the photo. “Do you even know what you’re doing to me right now?”
Ethan didn’t answer. He grabbed the phone and tossed it aside.
Reality slipped away as they kissed, leaving only the electrifying graze of lips and the tangled burn of desire.
Ethan’s phone buzzed again, but neither of them paid attention.
It was only when the notifications came flooding in, one after the other, that they pulled apart.
“What the hell is going on?” Ethan muttered, grabbing his phone and scrolling through the messages. “Fuck,” he said, his brow furrowing. “The photo you took auto-synced to my cloud storage. My social media manager saw it, thought it was the photo I said I’d send him, and posted it everywhere.”
Priya stared at him, mouth slightly open. “Are you serious? That was a private moment between us. And now it’s up for everyone to see?” A wave of disbelief rolled through her, followed by the urge to see it with her own eyes.
As Ethan worked through the avalanche of notifications, Priya unlocked her phone and pulled up his Instagram profile.
Among the carefully curated posts, there it was—the photo she’d taken, raw and unfiltered, a glimpse of something they hadn’t meant to share.
There was no caption, but it didn’t matter.
It was crystal clear that Ethan Knight was enjoying a very personal, intimate afternoon.
Scrolling through the comments, Priya felt like she was witnessing the epicenter of a digital earthquake:
“Too much sauce, Ethan. Too much.”
“I’ve never wanted to be a quilt so badly in my life.”
“That’s a whole meal right there.”
“I feel personally victimized by Ethan Knight’s hotness.”
“Whoever took this pic, you’re doing God’s work.”
“Ethan Knight breaking the internet yet again.”
She hit refresh and saw that the photo was being shared at an equally astonishing pace.
Every gossip magazine, fan page, and entertainment account had reposted it.
Hell, it was even popping up in her friends’ stories.
Priya couldn’t believe it. The fascination aimed at Ethan was unreal, unlike anything she’d ever seen or experienced herself.
A swirl of emotions hit Priya: awe, pride, disbelief…
and a gnawing sense of invasion. Her private moment with Ethan was splashed all over the internet for the world to analyze.
Deleting the photo was not an option. It would only spark more curiosity.
“This is insane,” she whispered, looking up at Ethan.
“Welcome to my world.” His half smile hinted at the resilience that came with years of living under the microscope. “I’m sorry our afternoon took an unexpected turn. Let me handle this really quick.” Switching to his social media accounts, he scrolled through to assess the damage.
Priya turned her attention back to her phone and refreshed the page again. It was then that she noticed a new comment by Sienna Deville: “Whoa, Ethan, didn’t know you were casting for your next love scene. Auditions still open?”
Priya rolled her eyes so hard she saw the back of her head. Without thinking, she clicked Follow.
“Okay…this just got crazy,” Ethan said, his voice low with disbelief.
Priya’s stomach dropped. “What now?”
“Priya Solanki just followed me,” Ethan declared with a grin. “Took her long enough.”
A new notification popped up on Priya’s phone. Ethan Knight was now following her. She looked up, but Ethan was still on his phone. “And now to follow a bunch of random people to throw off the gossip-hunters.” He looked up and winked at her.
Despite the crisis, Priya felt giddy.
A moment later, Ethan tossed his phone aside and leaned in. “Enough of that. Remind me. Where were we before we got interrupted?”
“About to clean out the fridge,” Priya quipped.
“Oh right, the fridge,” Ethan drawled. “I’m going to have to veto that plan for now.”
“It’s getting dark, Ethan. We have to do it now or we won’t be able to see anything.”
His lips brushed her earlobe. “Sometimes it’s just better to feel your way through things.”
As his tongue blazed a trail to her stomach, Priya lost all sense of the world beyond her bedroom. The fridge, the fire, the photo, the fans…everything faded into sweet oblivion.
Tucked away in the coach house, Priya let herself play house—setting the table, arranging the plates, lighting a candle.
With time still on her side, she stepped outside and returned with a sprig of lilac from the garden for her centerpiece.
As she adjusted the flower, her gaze drifted to her phone.
Despite her best efforts, the temptation to check in was too strong.
Settling on the couch, Priya opened Ethan’s profile and homed in on Sienna’s comment like a heat-seeking missile. A happy grin spread across her face when she saw that Ethan hadn’t replied. Just as she was about to log out, her phone buzzed with a call from Brooke.
“What the hell are you doing, Priya?” Brooke’s voice exploded through the phone, so sharp that Priya whipped around, half expecting to find Brooke peering over her shoulder as she stalked Ethan online.
“Huh?” Priya fumbled.
“Don’t you ‘huh’ me. What’s going on with you and Ethan?”
“I…uh…we…”
“That’s right. My brother and bestie are playing tonsil hockey, and I had to find out from Instagram?”
Priya froze, caught completely off guard. “How did you…I was going to…Everything happened so quickly—”
“Oh, I bet it did.” Brooke let out a sharp breath, her voice tight. “As quickly as the snapshot you took of him in bed?”
Priya opened her mouth, but no words came out. She hated that Brooke had found out like this—through a screen, like a stranger.