He built his life around control. Then a man with paint on his knuckles changed the temperature of the room.
Neil Ashworth teaches English, raises his five-year-old son alone, and keeps everything in its correct place. His classroom is immaculate. His routines are airtight. His hands haven’t shaken in years.
Not since he stopped wanting anything. Rory Cavanaugh paints the things people don’t want seen.
He’s loud, generous, covered in charcoal by nine in the morning — and he swore he’d never again be someone’s secret. Not after the married man.
Not after two years of being furniture in public and wanted only in the dark.
When Rory arrives at Neil’s school for a cross-curricular art project, Neil gives him a handshake and a surname. Rory gives him a card with his address on it. The card lives in Neil’s wallet.
He checks it every night. He tells himself this is not devotion. It isn’t a question of if. It never was.
Since a man with paint on his knuckles said Rory and extended his hand — and everything shifted. It’s a question of when — and what it will cost. Because Rory is painting something.
Behind a locked studio door. And when Neil finally sees it, everything he’s built will have to come down.
BARE is a slow-burn MM romance set in England — featuring a single dad, teacher colleagues, an artist who sees too much, found family, and explicit heat. Standalone with HEA.
For readers who love Alexis Hall’s emotional precision and M.A. Wardell’s school-world warmth.
