Vivian paced her bedroom, gripping her phone so tightly her knuckles turned white. She shouldn’t have called Ethan last night. She shouldn’t have allowed herself to hear the raw pain in his voice, the desperation laced between his words. But she had. And now, she couldn’t stop thinking about him.
Her body ached with the weight of guilt, but underneath it, something darker simmered—an unshakable craving, a longing she didn’t dare name.
The next morning, she walked into the classroom, determined to keep things professional, to maintain the boundaries she had already shattered too many times. But when she saw Ethan sitting in the back, his eyes darker than usual, something inside her cracked.
He didn’t smirk. He didn’t flirt. He just watched her.
And that was so much worse.
The Tension B
