Seduction

She was cleaning the terrace in a thong and little else, not knowing two men were spying on her from across the building. And me, seeing her desired, drove me insane.

I went into the third fitting room, left the curtain exactly how I like it, and when I looked up I caught her looking inside. One of mine, I thought.

I looked in the mirror, bit my lip, and knew that photo would have consequences. It didn’t take three minutes for the key to turn in my lock.

I told her I wanted something stronger than her, much stronger. She wasn’t shocked. She smiled and said she knew a place where that was possible.

Adrián thought he was just going up to a friend’s place. He didn’t count on Lucas being awake in the living room, or on the need he’d spent all night holding back.

He climbed into my boat thinking he owned the river. By the time we touched land, he was ours: she was laughing beside me and he had no idea what was waiting for him.

I went back to the reunion for one unfinished high-school kiss. I never imagined that night, with the bottle spinning, would end with three of us in the same bed.

She always sat in the back, untouchable, until a kiss on the cheek cracked her armor. I never imagined the most reserved girl in class would end up trembling in my arms.

We’d spent years summering together, seeing each other topless without thinking anything of it. Until that first day at the beach, when her hand slipped inside my bikini and everything changed.

Drunk and heartbroken after losing my job, I said yes to her flirting. “Just five minutes in the bathroom,” she promised. I had no idea how far she meant to go.

She went down to reception just to ask about a trail, but she kept staring too long at the green eyes of the girl behind the desk. And the girl noticed.

I arrived in the city knowing no one, and that very afternoon a stranger offered me a slice of pizza. Neither of us knew where that gesture would lead.

Widowed, out of date, and alone, Rodrigo just wanted to blow off steam on a Saturday night. He never expected the stranger at the bar to offer him something he’d never considered.

As a teenager I used to lock myself away and imagine her breasts and jet-black hair. Thirty years later, her voice on the phone lit me up just like before.

I thought it would be a little innocent peck, just to laugh. But her mouth stayed on mine longer than it should have, and I knew that night we weren’t going to sleep as friends.

She laughed at my jokes, touched my arm, and I thought I had her in the bag. I never imagined she’d be the one taking control that night in the hotel room.

Two weeks had passed since the defeat, and she still couldn’t figure out how a skinny, provocative rival had brought her to her knees. Her sister did want to find out.

My aunt lowered her voice as she told me that afternoon at Pilar’s house: the door had been left open on purpose, and she couldn’t look away from what was happening inside.

I hadn’t touched anyone in two years when she answered my message with one question: “when are we meeting?” I never imagined how that night would end.

The Rio girl sat between them like the night belonged to her. “Soft or the kind that break things?” she asked. Neither of them knew what was still waiting to be discovered.