Seduction

When I got off the plane at two in the morning, I had no idea I’d be sleeping under the same roof as her. I only knew my brother had died and that I was far too alone.

I’d been married to her for eleven years and thought I knew her completely. That night, with my best friend still in the house, I discovered a side of her I’d never imagined.

One of them pushed me against the wall while the other knelt without saying a word; I knew right away that I wasn’t leaving that apartment in one piece.

We’d spent years looking for the right woman for our bed, until the girl across the hall came to clean the house and started eyeing my magazines with too much curiosity.

I always fell in love; she only wanted to have fun. But that night, behind a club door, I discovered something about myself I never imagined.

We grew up together, studied together, and kept the same secret for years. The night we buried their parents, we finally said everything out loud.

He told me I was free to leave when I paid my debt. There were no chains on that door, and yet my feet didn’t move.

I work alone on the night shift and nothing ever happens. Until a red sports car stopped at the pump and out stepped the longest legs I’d ever seen.

Five minutes trapped between a wall and a throne bearer who smelled of rosemary and wood. I didn’t know his name, but I knew I’d look for him again that night.

She had spent years convincing herself that desire belonged to the past, until she accepted an invitation she shouldn’t have and unfamiliar hands reminded her who she was.

I’d spent the whole morning imagining being caught. I didn’t expect it to be the professor I’d been thinking forbidden things about for months.

I lowered the phone screen thinking we’d only chat, but what I saw in her bed that night changed everything I thought I wanted.

excerpt

He had known for a month that he wanted her more than a friend should. When she opened her apartment door, he realized he could no longer keep pretending.

Every night I stayed until closing just to watch him move behind the bar. I had no idea the shy boy held the woman who would change my life.

No one had ever taught me to desire myself. That morning, with the house empty and the light coming in through the window, I taught myself.

She got up angry because he was watching soccer and didn’t even notice her. She had no idea that bumping the table would ignite the whole afternoon.

I spent all day imagining the exact moment the key would turn in the lock. I wasn’t going to say a word—just let him find me like that, waiting.

The first night he slept at home, my mom’s moans came through the wall. At nineteen, I knew nothing would ever be the same.

The taxi disappeared in the dust and, on the porch, the grandparents waited with open arms. No one imagined that welcome embrace would change everything.