ABSOLUTE INSANITY: A forbidden bond-Chapter 193: Intense

Chapter 193

KATYA POV

The room was quiet now. The credits rolled in slow, colorful letters across the massive screen, but I couldn’t look at them. My mind refused to let go of the scene I had just watched.

I shifted in the seat, hugging my arms around myself, trying to steady the strange flutter in my chest.

What if it were me?

The thought slipped out before I could stop it. "What did you say?" Nonna’s calm voice cut through the haze, eyes narrowing slightly as she turned toward me.

I froze immediately, realizing I’d said it aloud, my cheeks heating violently. "N-nothing," I stammered, words tumbling over themselves. "I didn’t—"

But Nonna didn’t let me off that easily. Her gaze was patient but sharp, the kind that could see right through hesitation.

"Katya... what if it were you?" she pressed gently, leaning forward a little. "What do you mean by that?"

My stomach knotted. My hands fidgeted in my lap. I didn’t even know how to answer. It wasn’t about anyone—it wasn’t about romance, exactly.

It was curiosity. Wonder. A tiny spark of something new that I had never felt before. "I... I don’t know," I admitted finally, voice barely above a whisper.

"It’s just... the way they looked at each other... the closeness... it made me—" I swallowed, face burning hotter. "It made me wonder what that would feel like."

Nonna’s expression softened immediately. She didn’t judge, didn’t lecture. Instead, she gave a little nod, as if she understood perfectly.

"Hmph," she said lightly, almost teasing. "Curiosity, huh? That’s a dangerous thing, ragazza... but it’s also... natural. You can’t help the questions your heart asks."

I turned my face to the screen, desperate to hide the heat rising in my cheeks. "I wasn’t—It’s nothing,"

I muttered, though I knew it wasn’t nothing. It was everything I had never dared to think about.

Nonna didn’t push further. She reclined slightly, letting me have my space as she reached for the control panel and muted the end credits completely.

The screen went dark, reflecting faint shadows of the room back at us. After a beat, she spoke again, casual but observant.

"Do you want to watch another one?" she asked.

The question surprised me. I looked at the dark screen, then at my hands folded in my lap. Part of me expected the moment to be over—expected Nonna to tell me it was enough for one night, that I should rest, that curiosity had its limits.

But another part of me... didn’t want to leave this feeling yet.

The warmth. The quiet. The safety of sitting beside someone who didn’t demand explanations.

"Yes," I said before I could overthink it.

The word came out softly, but it was certain.

Nonna’s lips curved, slow and satisfied. "Good," she said simply. "I was hoping you would."

She adjusted herself in her seat and began scrolling again, her fingers moving with confidence across the panel. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Titles slid by too quickly for me to read, flashes of color and unfamiliar names. "This one is intense" she murmured, more to herself than to me.

Intense? "Still funny. Still sweet. No unnecessary drama." I nodded, though my heart was already beating a little faster again.

The screen brightened once more, soft music filling the room as the opening scene began. Different setting this time. Different faces. But the same gentle promise of laughter and something warm unfolding.

I settled deeper into my seat, careful of my back, but comfortable enough to let myself relax. The leather cradled me again, familiar now.

As the characters appeared on-screen—arguing playfully, exchanging glances I was starting to recognize, I realized something quietly unsettling.

I wasn’t just watching anymore. I was learning.

Learning how people teased without cruelty.

How smiles could linger without danger.

How closeness didn’t always mean pain.

I glanced sideways at Nonna. She was watching the screen, serene, hands folded, completely at ease—as if she’d known all along this was exactly what I needed.

I turned my attention back to the movie, a small, shy smile forming before I could stop it.

Maybe this was what rest looked like. Not sleep. Not silence. But stories.

And warmth.

And the slow discovery that there were feelings in me that had been waiting—quietly, patiently—to be seen.

The screen, which had been so full of light and gentle laughter moments ago, suddenly shifted.

The music deepened, turning from a playful melody into a low, rhythmic thrum that seemed to vibrate right through the floorboards and into my bones.

The couple on the screen weren’t laughing anymore. They were standing in a darkened hallway, the only light coming from a street lamp outside the window.

The man’s hands weren’t hovering hesitantly this time; they were buried in her hair, pulling her toward him with a desperate, hungry intensity I didn’t know humans were capable of.

"Oh... ohhh," the sound escaped my lips before I could catch it. I felt my eyes go wide, my breath hitching in a throat that suddenly felt far too tight.

On the screen, the woman was leaning back against the door, her own hands frantic as she tugged at the buttons of his shirt.

It wasn’t the clumsy, accidental touching of the first movie. This was... burning. I felt a wave of heat wash over me that had nothing to do with the room’s temperature.

My skin prickled, and a strange, heavy ache settled deep in my stomach—a pull I couldn’t explain.

My body language betrayed me; I was leaning forward, my fingers digging into the soft velvet of the armrest, my heart thudding a frantic rhythm against my ribs.

I was terrified, yes, because this looked like a loss of control but I was also... mesmerized.

They weren’t hurting each other. Even as he pressed her against the wood, even as their clothes were cast aside in shadows, their faces were full of a raw, beautiful worship.

I watched the way his lips moved against her neck, and for a split second, the image blurred, and my mind—unbidden and treacherous—flashed back to the feeling of a large, warm hand on my bandaged forehead.

I jerked my gaze away, my face feeling like it was on fire. I looked toward Nonna, expecting her to be scandalized, expecting her to turn it off or cover my eyes.

Instead, I saw a little smirk playing on her lips.

She wasn’t even looking at the screen. She was watching me.

In the flickering blue light of the cinema, her eyes were knowing, and entirely unbothered. She looked like she was witnessing a flower bloom for the very first time.