Seduction

I woke up unscarred in a bed that wasn’t mine, healed by a stranger of impossible beauty. What he didn’t tell me was what that cure had done to my body... and my desire.

He was in his chair, oblivious to everything, wearing his headphones. And I was on his bed, with a silly idea I finally dared to act on that afternoon.

When the attic window gave way to the wind, he no longer saw the servant who served his coffee: he saw the soaked woman who held his whole world together.

She arrives at ten-thirty, leans against the shelter, and crosses her legs. She doesn’t know it, but in my head we’ve already done everything we’d never dare.

My friend thought we’d just come for some fresh air. I’d already picked my prey: the dark-haired man playing with his son ten meters from us.

I’d spent hours searching for a spark in other people’s eyes and found nothing. Until I decided to cross the room and put the whole game in his hands.

When the train left without me, I thought the night was lost. Then I saw him across the platform, motionless, looking at me as if he’d been waiting forever.

The paper robe barely covered me. When his hot hands slid down my back, I knew that session wasn’t going to end the way I’d imagined.

Three hours under the sun, soaked in sweat, and from the shade of the tree he saw something on the terrace that took his breath away: they knew he was watching them.

I left the house wearing a sweater that made everything see-through and nothing underneath. My boyfriend walked behind me, watching me, while strangers’ eyes ran over my body.

—You don’t have to believe you can —he whispered in her ear—. I do. Your only job tonight is to surrender and let your body obey.

I poured him tea to help him relax, but I knew work wasn’t the only thing making him tense. That night, I decided to do something about it.

I put on my shortest miniskirt just to see if I could make him nervous. I never imagined that night he’d show up again, this time inside my head.

The steam erased faces and names. Only the heat remained, his fixed gaze on mine, and the certainty that neither of us was going to stop.

She stood up from the table, turned around, and looked at me in a way that left no room for doubt. I followed her without thinking, my heart pounding in my chest.

I placed my hands on the cold wall, took a deep breath, and understood that on the other side someone was waiting for the invisible permission to start touching me.

We’d spent years brushing our hands against each other without saying a word. That night, in my dim living room, looks were no longer enough—and none of us wanted to pretend anymore.

He told me to spread my legs and put my hands behind my head. What he thought was a routine pat-down was really the start of my game.

I saw her among hundreds of people and knew I was going to look for her. What happened next, by the sea, was the most vivid dream I’ve ever had.

For a year she dreamed of the day she could give back every lie. On Día de Muertos, an obsidian amulet offered exactly that.