In Public

We were alone in the mountains, or so I thought, until I felt eyes on us from the cabin next door and I didn’t want them to stop.

Diego touched himself thinking of Nadia when his desire opened a door that had been sealed for eighteen hundred years. What came through was hungry, and the city would be its feast.

No one knew why I always parked on the same deserted stretch. That afternoon, a runner turned his head toward my window and realized everything.

I was pregnant, alone, and hotter than I’d ever been; when those two men offered to walk me home, I already knew what I was going to let happen between the three of us.

He was in his twenties, had a thin wife swimming below, and hungry eyes that begged me without knowing it. That afternoon I taught him who was in charge.

In the bathroom, a makeup bag was waiting for me with a note: “put everything on and turn it on.” From that moment on, I stopped deciding what happened to my own body.

I left home with my thong folded in my pocket and three phrases I didn’t choose written on my skin. Each class hour drove me closer to the edge, with no permission to finish.

I was given a choice between three years in prison or becoming my wife’s obedient dog. I chose wrong, and that night at The Reserved I understood it completely.

She was only going to advise him about an apron. She never imagined that, in front of the salesman, he would point to her as if she were the maid they had come to dress.

I got into the car wearing every piece he chose, and I knew that afternoon my only job would be to obey while people passed by, unsuspecting.

The taxi rolled through the dark when Lena pulled out a blindfold and covered her eyes. Bruna trusted her best friend, never imagining where that night would lead.

When Bárbara let the sandal dangle from her fingertips, I knew I’d obey her right there in the entrance hall, no matter who walked in.

Three days of putting up with her whims were enough: this time Renata wasn’t going to let a single thing slide, and Daniela was about to find out just how far her patience went.

Renata had been putting up with the second-floor neighbor’s looks for weeks. That afternoon she decided he and his wife would finally learn who ruled the building.

I asked her to meet me at six with one condition: a short skirt and the lingerie I chose. The rest I would decide when she walked through the door.

I went up in a robe, barefoot and furious, ready to yell at him. He opened the door, looked me up and down, and I knew I was the one in trouble.

Four purplish marks on my hips were the exact shape of his fingers. I dressed like an impeccable executive, but we both knew who my body already belonged to.

We’d been connecting for weeks through a screen, but what if there was nothing left of that spark in person? Then I saw him cross the bar and my body reacted before my mind did.

I was the serious guy in the suit and SUV. All it took was for a woman to challenge me with her eyes for the animal inside me to wake up, and that village fair set him loose for good.

I sat in the center of the classroom pretending to be an unconscious patient. No one knew that, with every hand pinning me down, I was falling apart inside thinking of him.