She lay down across the length of the bench, the leather shockingly cold against her bare skin, although after a moment it became warm, her skin adhering to it as Ross pressed down on her, the weight of his body a revelation. His height made it necessary to keep one of the passenger doors open and now as she felt him move inside her, distantly she was aware of the night rustlings in the forest beyond, an owl screeching as it took to the wing. And it seemed to Eva as if she was observing their coupling from afar, from a great height. Words went through her head: I’m having an affair with a married man. And if those words should have provoked feelings of guilt or shame, well, Eva didn’t experience them. Instead, she felt a shivery thrill. She had been a good girl for so long. A straight-As student. A star in the pool and on the tennis court. Well groomed, well mannered, the perfect daughter. It felt so tedious sometimes, the burden of perfection. It wore her down. That her act of rebellion should come with Ross, thrilled her. It made her feel reckless and wild in a way she had never imagined. She opened herself up to him, clamping her feet around the backs of his thighs, his jeans around his knees as he thrusted, breath quickening, her body tightening around him so that she pulled him inside her even deeper.

‘Fuck!’ he cried out as he came, and she held him there jacking and bucking for a moment, until he slid down against her, his head resting, exhausted, against her right breast.

Afterwards, they stayed a while in the backseat, Ross slouched against her shoulder, Eva tracing delicate lines over his scalp. He kept a sports bag shoved under the passenger seat and took from it now two bottles of beer, uncapping them with the bottle opener he used as a keyring. The beer was warm and hoppy. It felt just right sliding down her throat with the mild night air coming in through the open door, the giant moon hanging in the sky beyond the tall trees. Eva felt like they were both very far from home.

‘Were you shocked when that happened? What we did in my kitchen that day?’ he asked, and she could tell from his tone that he wanted her to be. That he was pleased with himself for being so daring, so bold. His wife and child upstairs!

‘A little. And yet, part of me knew something was going to happen, you know? Like there was always the possibility of it between us, always threatening to explode whenever we were together.’

‘You’re so fucking sexy,’ he told her, amazement in his tone. ‘It took every last ounce of self-control to keep my hands off you during those lessons.’

She giggled. ‘I bet you feel that way about all your female students.’