Seduction

She laughed that she liked sleeping spooning, pressed her body against mine, and in the darkness of that borrowed room I understood it wasn’t a game.

I had been away from her for a week and, the moment I stepped through her front door, I knew that lesson wasn’t going to be about any exam.

I thought I had her cornered against the wall. It took me one second to understand that the only one trapped in that empty house was me.

She agreed to the shoot hoping for elegant photos for her profile. She didn’t expect that old camera to strip away much more than her clothes.

She had spent months greeting her in the entrance hall, holding back her desire. That afternoon, the shopping bags spilled, and at last I had an excuse to go upstairs.

The panties were still warm when she took them off the door handle. She had no idea that curiosity would lead her to a stranger’s bed.

I hadn’t felt anything for months. Then she came in behind me in the stall, locked the door, and everything I thought I knew about myself came crashing down.

Her father was speaking in my ear over the phone while she silently slid my thong down. We knew a single moan could give us away, and that made it hotter.

They shared the same class three days a week and secretly watched each other—until one of them grew tired of pretending nothing was happening.

For months I’d imagined that scene in her office, but I never thought it would be her who made the first move, with the lock clicked shut and her perfume filling everything.

Since I was fifteen, I’d kept quiet about how badly I wanted to kiss her. Now, sitting across from me with that same smile, I wasn’t going to let the chance slip away again.

I’d been stuck in a cast for weeks and bored out of my mind when a TV series stirred something in me. Then she appeared in the doorway with a smile that wasn’t entirely innocent.

When I passed the half-open bathroom door and saw her naked from behind, I knew that night at my place wouldn’t end with two old acquaintances drinking tea.

It wasn’t sale season and the store was empty. The blonde saleswoman followed me into the fitting room with an excuse, and I left the curtain open on purpose.

When I got into her car that Friday, I knew we were no longer going to talk about my future. There was something else between us, and we’d both spent weeks pretending it wasn’t there.

I felt a hand on my hip and a mouth in my ear: “You smell incredible.” When I turned around, it was her—the girl my friend had come to flirt with.

When she took off her sweat-soaked T-shirt in front of that girl, she knew she was no longer sweating just from the heat of the barn.

I had adored her in silence since childhood. The night before she left, she asked me to help her undress, and my hands trembled as they finally brushed her skin.

I had spent ten years resigned to the lukewarm sex of my marriage. Then Lorena locked the shower door from inside and kissed me without asking.

We three met on the last Thursday in December, under the pretext of seeing the year out. None of us said aloud what we were really going to do.