Strangers

I chose the spot closest to the water, dropped my bikini, and before lying down, searched for the one who hadn’t been able to take his eyes off me.

No one dared move, but she knew that one gesture from her would be enough to make the whole beach hold its breath and the circle cease to be only sand.

I only wanted to sit in the dim light and touch myself for a while. I didn’t expect a complete stranger three seats away to make me lose my mind.

I hated her with all my strength, and yet with her body tied over mine and the gag swallowing her insults, my body betrayed me in the worst possible way.

No one dared move, until she lifted the bottle of oil toward the strangers and, without saying a word, invited them into the game.

When the sun began to sink, neither woman needed words to lead: a single glance was enough for every hand to know where it belonged.

Four hands lifted her above the sand while the whole circle held its breath, waiting to see how far she would dare to go that afternoon.

Behind every mask was an invitation no one dared say out loud, and that night you chose to accept it without asking me.

She had never crossed the threshold of a circle like that, but that afternoon, with her skin covered in oil and salt, Daniela understood that certain desires only exist when shared.

I booked two seats in an almost empty theater and gave one to a stranger who read me. I didn’t know if she’d come until I saw her find her seat in the dark.

I walked into the room blindfolded, nearly naked under my coat, not knowing who was waiting for me on the other side of the music. Only my husband’s voice guided me.

When we got back to the room, we couldn’t wait any longer. Then there was a knock: the gift I’d prepared for her had just arrived, and you knew nothing.

“There’s only one way to find out,” he said as he moved toward the examining horse. I had come to have the carrot removed, not to orgasm in front of a stranger in a lab coat.

I know I shouldn’t, but every time I walk home alone in the early hours I look for him: that stranger who’ll pin me to the wall and not ask permission.

She crossed half the kingdom for a legendary relic; what she didn’t expect was to kneel before those guarding it, or to desire it with every fiber of her body.

“I live inside the lake,” she told him without blinking. Damián took her for an eccentric and followed her anyway. What he found at the bottom was no heaven.

That night I went down for a glass of water and he was awake on the sofa. What happened next in my bed, with my stepfather breathing on the other side of the door, still burns me.

I followed a trail of blood to a clearing where something was waiting for me, hanging among the trees. I never imagined the forest creature would choose me as its prey.

Clinging to the handrail in the car, all I could do was glance at him and imagine everything that would never happen between us.

When I got the final dare of the night, I knew I could say no. What no one expected was for me to say yes with that smile on my lips.