Nina had never liked office parties. The fake smiles, the cheap wine, the forced laughter that echoed off fluorescent walls—it all felt staged, like everyone was auditioning for a role they didn’t even want. At thirty-six, divorced two years, she had mastered the art of pretending. She wore a slim black dress that hugged her body tighter than she was comfortable admitting, and she moved through the room with a glass of chardonnay as her shield.
She didn’t expect anyone to notice. But Daniel did.
He was forty, newly promoted, the kind of man who made spreadsheets sound sexy just by leaning over your desk. His shirts always fit a little too well across his shoulders, his ties never quite tight enough, and he had that unshakable calm men sometimes carried after surviving their own share of failures. He’d noticed Nina before, of course, but tonight she looked less like a coworker and more like a secret waiting to be opened.
Their conversation started simple—about deadlines, clients, the usual small talk that barely touched skin. But the way his eyes lingered on her mouth whenever she spoke told her this wasn’t about business anymore. The tension rose not in words, but in the pauses between them.
The music from a Bluetooth speaker shifted into something slow, accidental maybe, but it gave them an excuse to stay closer than the rules of professionalism should allow. He leaned in to hear her over the noise, his breath grazing her ear. She felt the heat crawl down her neck, her skin prickling with every second he didn’t step back.
And then it happened. Not a hand on her thigh, not fingers sliding down her back. No. He touched her wrist.
The most innocent part of her body. But the timing—the way he did it as she lifted her glass, catching her hand midair, his fingers brushing against the pulse that hammered faster because of him—that was what undid her. The touch froze the moment. Wine trembled in her glass, her breath caught in her chest. She glanced at him, eyes wide, lips parting without a word.
It wasn’t the place he touched. It was the daring, the precise second he chose to do it, when the whole office buzzed with chatter and yet she felt like they were alone in a room that had turned silent.
Her body betrayed her before her mind could stop it. She tilted her wrist, letting his thumb rest against her skin longer than necessary. It was nothing anyone else would notice, but to her, it was everything.
