Deceit

She came home every morning smelling of American tobacco and new perfume. I kept silent and hid my suspicions—until the night I followed her.

When the four guys came into the apartment at five in the morning, I knew I was about to live through something I’ve never told anyone.

He didn’t do much for me physically, but the idea of being wanted was intoxicating. When he climbed onto the stool to fix the fan, I knew exactly how I’d pay him back.

For months he forced her to kneel in the darkness. He never imagined that one day his own wife would be the one begging for mercy before the camera.

At forty-nine, my mother was still the woman everyone watched on the street. I, meanwhile, learned very early what it meant to feel invisible beside her.

Bruno thought he had control over everything: his girlfriend, his lover, and his pride between his legs. He had no idea that night would cost him all three.

Damián accepted the challenge thinking of the thousand dollars. He never imagined he’d end up tied in the sand, watching his wife ride five strangers while he took electric shocks.

When Mariana came downstairs changed, followed by her friends, I knew that office gathering wasn’t going to end like any other evening among acquaintances.

Damián slipped into the wrong bed that night, and knew neither couple would look at each other the same way after what happened.

I let my guard down for a second and Renata had already locked the door. She knew my secret, and she intended to use it to get exactly what she wanted from me.

I went down to the kitchen practically naked, with three strangers kneeling in my living room and my partner on the other side of the wall. What I didn’t know was that he was recording everything.

I thought it would just be another photo shoot. I had no idea the three of them would end up touching me at once—or that I’d let myself go without thinking of my husband.

She arrived on my friend’s arm, with that mouth and those full lips, and I knew right away that on my birthday she was going to be mine, even if she was another man’s girlfriend.

She laughed that she liked sleeping spooning, pressed her body against mine, and in the darkness of that borrowed room I understood it wasn’t a game.

Her father was speaking in my ear over the phone while she silently slid my thong down. We knew a single moan could give us away, and that made it hotter.

The plan was perfect: in my friend’s costume, my wife would never know the stranger dancing with her among the masks was me.

Identical down to the last gesture, that night each one seduced her sister’s boyfriend. They never noticed, and the thrill of the deception changed them forever.

“Come at eleven to the north area of the parking lot. No words.” An anonymous note, a nun’s mask, and a woman who may not have been his waiting against the car.

I came to that dinner expecting a glass of wine and an escape to the countryside afterward. I ended up kneeling in front of a stranger while my lover watched.

I accepted the dinner knowing how it would end. What he didn’t know was that every touch in the dim light was part of a plan I made before I took my clothes off.