Analysis - Ilya is not hornier than Shane. He doesn't want sex more than Shane. The thing that Ilya's truly desperate for is attention.
In episode 6, Ilya started blowing Shane in the middle of Shane's phonecall with Hayden.
I think it should be obvious that Ilya wasn't doing that because he was desperate to get laid. Prior to the phonecall, Ilya was perfectly content to play videogames with Shane on the couch. It was only after Shane turned his attention to Hayden that he tried to initiate sex. Ilya wanted Shane completely focused on him, doing things with him, not Hayden.
And, of course, the easiest way for Ilya to draw Shane's focus away from Hayden and back to him was with sex.
Because Shane is so, so horny, and wants sex, so, so, so, so bad.
It's interesting to me how people reverse things in their minds.
They see Ilya aggressively peddling "nine inch" dick like Ea Nasir tryna offload his latest shipment of copper ingots, and somehow they interpret Ilya as the customer who is desperate to buy, rather than the peddler desperate to sell. Ilya's not asking for sex here, he's offering it, in exchange for what he's actually asking for, which is for Shane to payattentiontome payattentiontome pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease payattentiontome.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Ilya doesn't also enjoy sex for his own gratification, or that he isn't also extremely horny, but I'm tired of people "joking" about Shane withholding sex to punish Ilya like Shane is some frigid 1940's housewife stereotype and Ilya is a cartoon wolf. That's not what's happening there. That's not their dynamic at all.
If anyone is using sex as a bargaining chip, it's Ilya.
Book readers know that Shane spends most of the early part of their situationship telling himself that them being together is a terrible idea, constantly trying to talk himself out of going to see Ilya, constantly telling himself that this time has to be the last time and he needs to end things. I think half the reason Ilya's so terrified to have a real conversation with Shane is that Ilya sees how skittish Shane is, and Ilya is afraid that any real conversation will inevitably lead to Shane finally "coming to his senses" and dumping him. He distracts Shane with more amazing sex any time Shane starts to look like he's having doubts.
Ilya knows Shane is extremely easily turned on by Ilya. Ilya knows that Shane can't think about anything else once Ilya presents his dick or his mouth to Shane on a golden platter.
