Forbidden

I set just one rule: I decided what would happen and how far it would go. Neither of them had any idea how far I intended to take that night.

I thought I had only gone to open the door, but that night she came into my room with me and whispered that she was going to make me lose my mind.

When I opened the box and found the black lace and the feathered mask, I thought it was Andrés’s whim. It would be months before I understood who had really chosen it.

When I got off the plane at two in the morning, I had no idea I’d be sleeping under the same roof as her. I only knew my brother had died and that I was far too alone.

We grew up together, studied together, and kept the same secret for years. The night we buried their parents, we finally said everything out loud.

He told me I was free to leave when I paid my debt. There were no chains on that door, and yet my feet didn’t move.

Five minutes trapped between a wall and a throne bearer who smelled of rosemary and wood. I didn’t know his name, but I knew I’d look for him again that night.

The taxi disappeared in the dust and, on the porch, the grandparents waited with open arms. No one imagined that welcome embrace would change everything.

The fire burned low in the cabin when the young orphan arrived with nothing but her ragged dress. Marisol, a widow alone with her child, had no idea how hard she would find it to look at her.

The suitcases still unpacked and, under one of the beds, a stack of old magazines that none of the three siblings could stop staring at that hot afternoon.

When the cool air hit my naked skin, I understood we weren’t in the bedroom: he had taken me out to the garden, tied up and in the dark, where anyone could have seen me.

I thought I had the whole house to myself for four days. I didn’t count on him having keys, cameras, and a curiosity he’d never confessed.

We agreed that whoever arrived first would wait in the car. I got there first. Fifteen minutes later, two taps on the window awakened every nerve I thought I had under control.

I always say I’m shy, but the truth is nothing turns me on more than the possibility that someone will open the door at the worst possible moment.

Each mark the ropes leave on my skin brings me a little closer to the abyss. But it’s the only thing that silences his voice... the voice of the man I let die.

A hallway bulb gave out and went dark. In the dimness, her hands circled my waist and I knew she’d been waiting years for that moment without daring to name it.

I took the job for the money. I never expected the silence of that house to push us both toward something neither of us could name.

I was nineteen and thought I was untouchable, until the night a man twice my age showed me how wrong I was.

One look from Renata was enough for me to understand: she’d seen everything the previous afternoon and now wanted her share, with no chance to refuse.

All he had to do was watch. No touching, no talking. But when she slid her panties to the floor of the carriage, he no longer knew where to look.