A Stranger Dominated Me the Night I Invited Her In

It was Saturday night, and all week I’d been dragging around a tension that nothing could shake loose. Exams, deadlines, sleepless nights staring at the screen. I needed to switch my head off, so I decided to walk to the bar a few blocks from my building, the one I went to when I didn’t want to think about anyone or anything.

I sat at the counter and ordered a very cold beer. It arrived quickly, beading with condensation against the glass, and the first sip slid down my throat like relief. The place was quiet, with that low music that doesn’t force you to talk. Exactly what I was looking for.

I was already on my third beer when someone settled onto the stool next to me. I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye. She was a dark-haired woman with her hair carelessly tied back, wearing a shirt left partly unbuttoned and moving in a way that took up space without asking permission. I gave her a short, almost automatic smile, and she returned it with one that had something more behind it.

For a while we didn’t say anything. We both drank in silence, looking at the bottles lined up behind the bar, and there was something comforting about sharing that silence with a stranger. She was the one who spoke first.

“Heartbreak?” she asked, turning slightly toward me.

I shook my head.

“College stress,” I said. “And you? Heartbreak?”

She let out a low laugh and shook her head too.

“No. I came because I needed a drink, and this was the first bar I ran into. From what I can see, it’s quiet.”

“It is. That’s why I like it. That and it’s close to home.”

“Makes sense.” She took a sip and kept looking at me a second longer than necessary. “Renata.”

“Mariana,” I replied, holding out my hand. She shook it without rushing, letting the contact linger. “So we’ll be bar buddies tonight.”

“We could do it again,” she said. “It never hurts to have someone to talk to while you’re having a drink.”

I smiled back at her, and we kept talking for a good while. She told me she worked in real estate, that she hated Mondays, and that she’d recently moved out on her own. I told her about my degree, how little I slept, how badly I wanted to be done already. The conversation flowed effortlessly, and every so often I caught her watching my mouth when I spoke.

The bar slowly emptied out. By midnight, it was almost just the two of us and the bartender drying glasses. I don’t really know where the impulse came from, but I heard myself inviting her to continue the conversation at my apartment, which was just around the corner. She accepted without hesitation, as if she’d been waiting for me to say it.

We paid and stepped out into the street. The cool air cleared my head a little. We walked slowly, still talking, her shoulders brushing mine on the narrow sidewalk. When we got there, we went up the stairs and I opened the door, trying not to show the slight tremble in my hand.

“It’s a very nice place,” she said, looking around. “And very comfortable for living alone.”

“I know. But I mostly chose it because it’s close to the university.”

I took two beers out of the fridge, opened them, and handed her one. We toasted without saying anything and sat down on the couch, facing each other, with that distance that really wasn’t distance anymore.

“I recently signed the deed to my own house,” she said. “At thirty-two, finally something of my own.” She gave a crooked smile. “Better late than never, I guess.”

“That deserves celebrating,” I said, edging a little closer on the couch. “Don’t you think?”

She nodded while drinking. When she set the bottle down on the coffee table, she did it slowly, never taking her eyes off me. And then I felt her lips on mine. I took a second to react, surprised, but I kissed her back. It was a short kiss, almost a question, and she pulled away right away.

“Sorry,” she murmured. “I felt the urge and didn’t think.”

“It’s okay,” I said softly. “It’s nothing.”

I smiled at her and shifted on the couch, because the truth was that such a brief kiss had turned me on completely. I didn’t wait any longer. I was the one who went for her this time, before she could say anything else. I kissed her deeper, tasting beer on her mouth, and let my hand slide to the nape of her neck.

Almost without realizing it, I ended up on top of her, one knee on each side of her hips. Renata grabbed my waist and slid her hands down to my ass, squeezing, setting the rhythm. Every squeeze lit me up a little more. I ran my hands over her chest through her shirt and felt her draw in a deep breath, a rough sound escaping between her teeth.

Then she pulled back a few inches, just enough to look me in the eyes. Her gaze was different now, firmer, as if something between us had shifted.

“Take your clothes off,” she said. It wasn’t a request.

I froze for a second, my heart pounding in my throat. Then I got up from the couch and stood in front of her. I started undressing slowly, not out of shyness but because her stare demanded it, slow and attentive to every inch of skin being exposed. I saw her bite her lower lip when I let the last piece fall to the floor.

“You’re beautiful, Mariana,” she said in a low voice that made the hair at the nape of my neck stand on end. She sat up and came closer until she was only a hand’s breadth away from me. “Stay still. I want to keep looking at you.”

She said it almost against my ear, and her warm breath slid down my neck like a shiver. I felt my nipples harden, the skin on my arms breaking out in gooseflesh.

“Thank you,” I managed to whisper.

Her hand came down hard on my ass, a sharp slap that made me close my eyes and let out a short moan. Before I could recover, she pushed me gently but without room for argument until I was bent over the back of the couch, exposed for her.

Her fingers slowly traced the inner side of my thighs and moved up to brush between my legs. The first touch tore another moan from me. She knew perfectly well how wet I was; I didn’t need to say a word.

“You’re soaked,” she said, and I heard the smile in her voice. “My fingers would go in without any effort. But that’s not happening yet. Straighten up.”

I obeyed, trembling a little, and turned around when she told me to. I found her unbuttoning her shirt calmly, unhurriedly, enjoying the fact that I could do nothing but watch. I bit my lip as her body was gradually laid bare, pale skin under the lamp’s dim light. When she was naked, she sat back down on the couch and spread her legs without taking her eyes off me.

“Come here. On your knees,” she ordered.

I walked the few steps separating us and knelt between her thighs. She didn’t need to explain anything; my body already knew what she wanted. I lowered my head and started licking her, slowly at first, feeling how she tensed under my mouth. Her moans weren’t long in coming, growing less restrained by the second, and one of her hands tangled in my hair, pushing me toward her, asking for more.

I could feel how wet and hot she was against my mouth. I closed my lips around her most sensitive spot and sucked carefully while I slid one finger inside her. Renata arched her back and let out a long, rough sound that made me clamp my thighs together by instinct.

I was so aroused I felt like I could come without anyone touching me. The need was almost unbearable. Without thinking, I brought a hand down between my own legs, looking for some relief, but she noticed immediately and stopped me, speaking in broken breaths between moans.

“I never gave you permission to touch yourself.”

The words landed on me like another slap. I stopped what I was doing for just a second, just long enough to put both hands on her thighs, clearly in view, where she could control them. Renata looked down at me with a half smile of approval and pushed me back against her again.

“That’s it,” she whispered. “Still, and at my pace. The night’s only just beginning.”

I plunged my face back between her legs, obedient, desire burning inside me and the certainty that this stranger who had sat down beside me a little while earlier was going to have me exactly where she wanted me. And the truth was, there was nothing in the world I wanted more at that moment.