The First Crack of Desire

The library was empty, save for the low hum of the storm outside and the dim glow of the overhead lamps. Shadows stretched across the rows of books, long and heavy, as though even the walls were holding their breath.

William sat across from Chinno, his notes scattered across the table, pages filled with half-finished sentences. He wasn’t paying attention. He couldn’t. His eyes betrayed him over and over again.

They traced the curve of her profile, the way her hair slipped forward to curtain her face when she bent over her notebook. They lingered on the small crease in her brows when she grew frustrated. On the deliberate way she avoided looking back at him, even though she could feel his gaze burning through the silence.

Chinno lasted ten more minutes before slamming her pen onto the desk. The sharp sound echoed.

“Stop looking at me like that.”

William leaned back slowly in his chair, smirk tugging at his lips. “Like what?”

Her jaw tightened. Her voice wavered, betraying her in the smallest way. “Like I’m… something to you.”

The silence that followed wasn’t empty it buzzed. Thick. Electric. The kind of silence that pressed against the skin and made breathing harder.

William’s smirk faded, replaced with something more dangerous. He rose from his chair, each step deliberate, slow, echoing against the floor. He rounded the table until he stood beside her, leaning just close enough for the heat of his presence to wrap around her. His breath brushed her ear when he spoke.

“You already are something to me,” he whispered, low and unflinching.

Her heart betrayed her, hammering painfully against her chest. She hated it. Hated the way her skin tingled where his presence lingered. Hated that she wanted this tension, this storm he pulled her into. When his fingers grazed hers as he reached for her pen, lightning shot through her, wild and uncontrollable.

She shoved him back, eyes flashing. “You think this little game works on me?”

But his expression shifted sharp, yes, but softer at the edges. Something no one else ever saw. Something reserved only for her.

“This isn’t a game, Chinno,” William said quietly. “Games end. This… won’t.”

Her chest tightened. She wanted to laugh in his face, to call him arrogant. But his words slipped under her armor with precision. They struck places she didn’t want touched.

Memories clawed up her past, her toxic ex, the pain that had carved her into stone. She had promised herself never again. Never let anyone close. Never trust the warmth of hands that might turn cold.

And yet William’s voice, his intensity, his rawness it chipped away at her walls. Every word, every stare, every unguarded truth cracked what she thought was unbreakable.

Before she could reply, the storm made its next move.

The power cut out.

Darkness swallowed the library whole.

The lamps flickered once, then died, leaving only the drum of rain against glass and the thrum of thunder rolling in the distance.

Her breath caught, quick and uneven. In the pitch black, she couldn’t see him. But she felt him. The weight of his presence. The heat lingering in the narrow space between them.

Then his hand found hers.

Not cocky. Not demanding. Just firm enough to ground her, trembling ever so slightly, as though he was fighting the same war she was.

Neither of them spoke. Words would have broken it.

Instead, they stood in the dark, thunder crashing, lightning flashing faintly through the windows. Her pulse pounded in her ears, his touch anchoring her in the storm.

And in that suffocating silence, both of them knew.

The war between them wasn’t just hate anymore.

It was something far more dangerous.

Something that, once unleashed, neither of them would be able to control.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***