This work contains themes and scenes intended for mature readers (18+). It explores intimacy, emotional complexity, and adult relationships through contemporary romance and erotic realism. Reader discretion is advised.
The Fundraiser
A Touch Across Lines
At Bay View's loud and crowded fundraiser, Eve notices Janet Rotham standing isolated by the bleachers. She approaches her, shares praise for Connor, and grips her arm in a moment of personal connection that is noticed by the PTA president and his wife.
An Excerpt from this Chapter...
Janet stared at her. Her lips parted, but no sound came out. She looked like someone who had been holding her breath for a year.
“He’s brilliant,” Eve said. She reached out and squeezed Janet’s forearm.
It wasn’t a brush. It was a grip. Eve’s fingers pressed into the soft wool of Janet’s sweater, finding the solid muscle beneath. She held on for two seconds—one, two—feeling the heat of Janet’s skin, the sudden stillness of her body.
Janet looked down at Eve’s hand, then up at her eyes. The pupil was blown wide, swallowing the iris.
Eve pulled her hand back. Her palm tingled.
Over Janet’s shoulder, thirty feet away, Mark stopped drinking his beer.
He was standing by the silent auction table, a Yeti tumbler in one hand. He wasn’t talking to the other dads anymore. He was watching them. His eyes narrowed, ticking from Eve’s face to Janet’s, then down to the space between them where Eve’s hand had just been.
He leaned down and said something to Lisa. Lisa turned. Her gaze was surgical. She looked at Janet, then at Eve, and her mouth flattened into a thin, pale line.
The temperature in the corner seemed to drop ten degrees.
Eve took a step back. The noise of the gym rushed back in—the shrieks of children, the bass, the roar of conversation. She had exposed them. She had stepped out of the safe zone of “teacher” and into something undefined and dangerous.
“I have to go,” Eve said. Her voice sounded thin. “I have to check the auction sheets.”
Janet nodded, dazed. “Right. Of course. Thank you, Eve.”