Forbidden

I crossed my legs to distract him, not knowing that two days later I’d be on my knees among his books while the other kids left school without suspecting a thing.

I knew it was wrong, but every message from him left me wetter. The Saturday my parents went out, I opened the door to him without a bra.

When I walked into the empty club room that afternoon, I already knew we weren’t going to talk about books. What I didn’t know was how long I’d been waiting for this—or how completely I’d lose myself.

The candle went out and in the dark a hand slid up my thigh. It took me too long to realize that hand wasn’t Marco’s.

I woke up tied up in a basement, naked and at the mercy of the woman I was investigating. I had no idea that in a few hours I’d be the one holding the whip.

When she was assigned to my cabin, I thought it would be awkward. I never imagined I’d end up counting the hours until she came back to the bunk beside mine.

When Marco told her he had a surprise, Carmela chose her green dress. She didn’t expect to meet Diego’s dark eyes fixed on her.

When I stepped into the living room, she was waiting on the sofa with that smile no one could mistake anymore. And upstairs, on the stairs, someone listened in silence.

I was fifteen when I opened my mother’s drawer. What I found inside wasn’t just lingerie: it was the first clue to who I really was.

When I read his first poem, I felt as if someone had entered my mind without permission. The worst part was realizing I wanted him to do it again.

When his message lit up my phone, I’d been burning with desire for hours. I dressed in lingerie, slipped on heels, and waited. That night, I wasn’t sleeping alone.

I went down to help him wearing what I had on. I hadn’t guessed what would happen when I sat beside him in that room.

It all began the night I discovered that my mother had been sleeping with the man I was in love with for months.

The commander’s voice froze them both. They’d only been alone in the ship’s infirmary for a few minutes, and the time they had left was no longer enough for anything.

At three in the morning, I went to the park in the shortest nightgown I owned. With nothing underneath. What happened next was something I’ll never forget.

I crossed the dark hallway expecting to give him a hug and ended up pressed to the crack of his bedroom door, watching what two mature women had arranged.

The envelope arrived on a Tuesday night. Thick paper, my name written by hand, an offer that should never have tempted me as much as it did.

I heard her moans through the wall on our first night. I couldn’t have known that the older couple would end up at my dinner table asking for much more.