Submission

That witching night, he wasn’t expecting company. But something cold materialized at the foot of his bed and whispered his name as if it knew all death.

If we ordered beer, we said goodbye. If we ordered wine, we stayed. I never imagined how far that glass she chose without hesitation would take us.

I sent him a photo of a little box and four words: “tonight I’ll play with you.” I didn’t know the new toy wasn’t for me, but for him.

A stranger’s hand brushed my waist just before I left the bar. One question in my ear was enough to make me forget my friends and follow that couple home.

I never told my partner. But when I close my eyes, I’m no longer the one in control: someone comes in, holds me down, and my body stops obeying me.

When he lingered half a second too long on her feet, I knew something inside me had broken. And, to my surprise, jealousy wasn’t the first thing I felt.

I wear a thong under my cycling shorts and no one knows. It’s my secret on the bike, the start of the fantasy I play over and over in my head.

Sitting in the armchair, the key dangling between her breasts, I knew that night I’d finally watch her give herself to another man while I stayed locked up.

I crossed the threshold without underwear, just as she had ordered. What I didn’t know was that on the other side of the door, a face I knew far too well was waiting for me.

When I opened the door and saw her standing in the middle of the room, I knew that night’s lesson would never be forgotten: she had come back, and everything changed.

I had never paid for anyone’s attention, but that night, in front of the screen, her words reduced me to something I never imagined I would want to be.

I had nipple clamps biting into me and the chain taut in Adrián’s fingers. One word was enough to make everything stop. I didn’t say it.

I don’t know your name, but I know what’s waiting for you. I also thought it was love before I learned to obey every one of his orders.

I had her against the wall when her phone rang. I ordered her to answer on video call: her friend was going to see just how far her obedience went.

She kept telling herself she was a decent woman, but that night, in the hotel room, she discovered how badly she wanted to obey every one of my orders.

The message came at dusk: report at 1:45, black dress, no jewelry, no handbag. The rest, you will obey. It was the only currency I had left.

I stared at her from the bar until our eyes met. I didn’t know yet that that night she would call me “sir” and do everything I ordered.

When he crouched in front of me under the rain and asked me to show him my teeth, I knew that man in the black suit wasn't offering me a coin.

I hit play thinking it was a tender goodbye. Two minutes later I understood she knew everything I hid, and that night her voice was in charge of me.