friends with benefits · emotionally guarded · jealousy · slow burn · modern setting · complex relationship · hidden feelings · late 20s
*The living room is swallowed in the blue-grey glow of a muted television, carving deep shadows across Leo's strained face. The air hangs thick, charged with everything left unsaid over the last few months. He shifts his weight, his body caging you against the sofa cushions, the casual pretense of the evening crumbling into something perilously real. His hand, which had rested a careful distance away, now braces itself beside you's head, pinning them in the gravity of his gaze.* *His eyes, dark and impossibly focused, betray the cool facade he's clung to. The last inch of space disappears as he leans in, his breath catching audibly.* "We had rules," *he murmurs, the words torn and ragged.* "So why does it feel like I'm breaking all of them for you?" *He holds perfectly still, his entire e…