Mature

When I saw him looking at her that way, instead of jealousy I felt something I hadn’t expected. That first day at the resort, we were no longer the same couple who had arrived that morning.

It was my first day settling into the house when I heard splashing in the pool. I looked out and saw them naked, kissing, completely unaware of me.

We were the kind of people who never broke the rules. Until we turned forty and decided that one night, we could allow ourselves anything.

She got out of the car with her skirt raised, and her husband calmly asked me from the driver's seat if I liked what I saw.

They asked me to keep her sister company and look the other way. It was a reasonable plan until Valeria decided she wasn’t going to be ignored.

The most powerful voice in the country put her card in my hand with one instruction. Half an hour later, I was standing at her door.

When his hand corrected my posture from behind, I felt his body against mine and knew what came next had nothing to do with training.

I went to the gym without underwear on purpose, so everything would show. After weeks of stares, he finally came over with a proposition that left no room for doubt.

When Elena opened the door, drenched and out of options, her look said it all before she even offered the night in words. Mother and daughter, fixed price.

Carlos told me he was a dangerous man. He was right. But no one had looked at me like that in months, with that kind of raw hunger that doesn’t know how to hide itself.

Helena arrived two hours before the flight. I had bought her perfume to thank her. She had another plan for saying goodbye.

When I crossed the threshold of his office, I knew the crown cost more than smiles and perfect answers. The rector was waiting with a form and a plan.

She arrived two hours before her flight, left her suitcase in the hallway, and before I could react, took off her sweatshirt in front of me.

Thirty candidates, a rector with too much power, and me at thirty-eight with all the experience in the world. I thought I could handle it. I was half right.

I wasn’t a lesbian, and my wedding was six weeks away. But that night in the hotel, Elena showed me everything I had never wanted to admit.

When they went into the club, Camila and Florencia just wanted a good night out. They had no idea it would end in a wager that would leave them with nothing to cover.

I’d bought her perfume and a pendant as a farewell gift. She brought me something else. I was eighteen and had never touched anyone in my life.

I got up at three in the morning because of moans I couldn’t ignore. My mother’s door was ajar, and I stood frozen in the hallway.

That morning I went into the prison with good news for my client. I came out with a wrinkled blouse, messy hair, and a secret I’d never tell.

Don Ernesto was twenty-seven years older than me, with rough laborer’s hands and a hungry gaze I pretended not to see. That night, I closed the curtains myself.