Desire

When Renata went barefoot into the kitchen at dawn, she never imagined her husband would watch from the doorway, or that morning would change everything between the four of them.

When we crossed the door of that dimly lit club, I knew that night we would share something neither of us would ever forget.

I came out of the bathroom wrapped in nothing but a towel and crossed the living room slowly, knowing both men’s eyes would follow me to the bedroom.

When I asked what really turned her on, she straddled me and began telling me about a night she’d never confessed to anyone.

I arrived at that apartment thinking about a glass of wine and a conversation. I had no idea that afternoon would end with me giving myself to three men at once.

For years I'd been chasing something harder than one man. That weekend, at my mountain house, thirty of them were waiting by the pool.

When he blindfolded me in the doorway, all I felt was a drop slowly running between my thighs and my heart about to burst out of my chest.

I went downstairs naked, smiled at them, and only set one rule: come up without clothes. There were eleven, sweaty and needy; I’d been widowed far too long.

I was only there as company, I swear. But when the two of them came onto the terrace, identical and smiling the same way, I knew I wasn’t going to behave that night.

She came to buy my book and sat on my lap with her back to me. “Read it slowly, out loud,” I asked, as my fingers began moving down her belly.

One look in the supermarket was enough for me to drop my bags and follow her upstairs. I didn’t know her name, but I already wanted her.

Every time Noa looked away, Marina watched her in silence, convincing herself that staring at her best friend’s legs meant nothing.

When she told me she’d been on her period for three days, I didn’t pull my hand away: I drew her closer, because her honesty was the beginning of everything that came after.

“Be careful what you wish for,” they say. I wanted it so badly that one night, in the darkness of an empty theater, a stranger showed me what I’d pretended for years not to want.

When she moved into the apartment across from mine, I never imagined that one afternoon, while her son slept, her hand would climb up my thigh and I’d spread my legs without thinking.

Every morning she watched her come out of the kitchen in a nightgown clinging to her body and settled for crumbs. Until the coffee grove left them alone all day.

She had spent years going to that club alone, waiting for a glance that would stay on her. That night, unknown fingers took her hand and dragged her into the dark.

When she took her feet in her hands and started massaging them, she knew that night, with enough wine, her uncle’s wife would end up surrendering to her.

I was soaping myself when the curtain opened and there she was, smiling, not a stitch on, determined not to leave even when I told her to.

“Normally, you’d have to kneel and wait in silence,” she said as she fitted the collar around my neck. She didn’t know I’d be the one ending up in charge.