My Sister Opened My Gift and There Was No Turning Back

The attic’s picture window trembled beneath the onslaught of the blizzard. Bilbao had gone silent that night, buried under a snowfall no one could remember seeing like it, and Valentine’s Day seemed frozen before it even began. It wasn’t warm inside, either. Marina, my sister, moved through the living room with the taut elegance of someone who couldn’t bear to stay still, wrapped in a gray silk dress that clung to her curves with almost insulting fidelity.

—I hate this day —she said, pouring herself a whisky with no ice—. It’s a commercial reminder that people prefer sweet lies to uncomfortable truths.

I watched her from the sofa in the dim light, my twenty-three years weighing on my shoulders like an electric current. To her I was always the little brother, the one who looked at her with a devotion she pretended not to understand. But that night the snow had isolated us. There were no dates, no excuses, no doors to escape through. It was only the two of us and the blood we shared, the same blood that burned in my veins when I saw the alcohol glistening on her lips.

—You don’t need chocolates, Marina. Or withered roses —I replied, my voice rougher than I meant it to be—. You need someone who isn’t afraid of you. Someone who knows that under that architect’s armor there’s a fire no one dares touch.

She turned slowly. Her sharp green eyes dissected me. She set the glass on the table and leaned against the grand piano, crossing her long legs in sheer stockings ending in stiletto heels.

—And you think you’re that man, Adrián? —she asked with a smile loaded with dangerous condescension—. You’re my brother. You’re supposed to bring me flowers out of obligation, not analyze my desires.

—A lot of things are supposed to be. But today is Valentine’s Day, and I have a gift for you.

I stood up and walked toward her. I could smell her perfume, that scent of sandalwood and warm skin that had haunted me for far too long. I pulled a small box wrapped in red paper from the pocket of my hoodie and set it on the piano beside her hand.

—Open it. Or don’t. But if you do, you need to know there’s no turning back. I won’t be the boy you take care of anymore.

She held my gaze for what felt like an eternity. The challenge vibrated between us. At last, with her long fingers, she tore the paper. Inside, on a bed of black velvet, lay a blood-red lace set so explicit it was almost a provocation. There was a note in my quick handwriting: “Put it on for me, or I’ll have to put it on you.”

The air in the living room turned thick, hard to breathe. Marina took the lace in her hands, stroking the fabric with an expression I couldn’t decipher. Her chest rose and fell with an agitation that betrayed a pulse no longer that of a calm older sister.

—Do you know what this means? —she whispered without looking at me—. If I put it on, we break everything between us. We stain the family name in a way that not even all the snow in Bilbao could wash away.

—The family name is already stained by how badly we want each other. Stop pretending. You’ve been looking at me for years when you think I don’t notice.

I moved closer until my feet brushed hers. I took the box from her hands and set it on the piano.

—Go upstairs. Put it on. And when you’re ready, come down.

She looked at me one last time. There was no fear in her eyes, only a dark lust that had just awakened after years of hibernation. She took the red lace, turned, and climbed the stairs. The sound of her heels on the wood was like the ticking of a bomb about to explode.

***

I was left alone, my heart hammering against my ribs. I went to the window and watched the snow keep burying the city. We were trapped in a bubble of glass and sin. My hands were trembling, not from fear, but from an animal anticipation that had been building in the dark for far too long.

Footsteps upstairs made me turn. The tapping of heels in the hallway was slow, deliberate, a rhythmic torture. Then I saw her appear at the top of the stairs.

Marina was no longer the cold, efficient woman who had gone upstairs minutes before. She had stripped off the gray silk and any trace of doubt. The red set clung to her body as if it had been woven on her skin. The blood tone highlighted the whiteness of her thighs and the fullness of her tits, barely contained by the lace. Her nipples pressed hard against the fabric, two dark points begging for a mouth. The thong was a minimal strip that let the shadow of her shaved pussy be guessed at, along with the moisture already beginning to darken it.

She came down the steps without taking her eyes off mine. At thirty-six, she moved with full awareness of the power her maturity exercised over my obsession.

—Is this what you wanted to see? —she asked when she reached the last step, her voice charged with a glacial eroticism that tightened every muscle in me—. Your sister turned into your dirtiest fantasy?

I didn’t answer with words. I crossed the room in two strides and caught her by the waist. When my hand brushed her bare side, she let out a short gasp. Her skin was burning. I pulled her against me, forcing her to feel the hardness of my cock through my pants. She dug her nails into my shoulders and let one hand slide shamelessly down to squeeze me over the fabric.

—Fuck... —she whispered, measuring it with her fingers—. You’re hard as a rock. Is all this because of your sister, Adrián?

—All this has been because of you for years.

—Look at you... —she insisted, whisky on her breath brushing my lips—. You tremble like a boy, but you look at me like a wolf. You know what our parents would say?

—They’d say we’re the monsters they made —I answered, and without giving her time to reply I captured her lips in a violent, hungry kiss that tasted of betrayal and desperate need.

Marina didn’t resist. She kissed me back with a fury that left me breathless, her tongue claiming mine with the authority only she had. I bit her lower lip and she moaned into my mouth, still rubbing my cock through my pants with a shamelessness that blurred my vision. I yanked one cup of her bra down and her breast fell free, heavy, her erect nipple brushing my chest through my T-shirt. I grabbed the whole thing in my hand and squeezed until she let out a rough moan against my mouth.

—Suck me —she panted, tossing her head back—. Suck me like you’ve wanted to for years.

I tore off the other cup and lowered my mouth. I caught one nipple between my teeth, tugging, and she convulsed against me, one hand buried in my hair, pushing me deeper. I moved from one breast to the other, licking, sucking, leaving them wet with saliva, while with my other hand I groped her ass over the thong and pressed her against my cock. Every time I nipped a nipple, she answered with a hip spasm that blindly sought me out.

I shoved her toward the large dark-wood dining table, the same one that had always been the symbol of our family’s rectitude. I swept the table runner and a vase of dried flowers away with my arm, and hoisted her onto the cold surface in one rough motion.

Her legs opened to receive me, her stockings brushing my hips. The image was obscene and perfect: her mature, full, experienced body on the table where we’d always eaten as a family, tits out and the soaked red thong marking the lips of her pussy.

—There are no hierarchies tonight —I told her in her ear, as my hands slid down her thighs and two fingers sank beneath the thong’s lace—. Tonight there’s only hunger. And you have as much as I do.

When I touched her, my fingers sank into a swamp of hot juices. She was so wet the fabric was dripping against her thighs. I rubbed her clit with my thumb and she jerked, clutching the edge of the table.

—Prove it —she challenged, throwing her head back and exposing her neck—. Break the taboo, Adrián. Break me.

***

The vase smashed against the floor, and that was the last sound belonging to the world of sanity. Marina lay back on the wood, her spine arched and her eyes fixed on mine, charged with defiance and a lust that brushed the edge of panic.

I showed the lingerie no mercy. I hooked the red thong with my fingers and tore it away in one yank, leaving my sister’s pussy fully exposed on the family table. It was shaved to a fine triangle, swollen, with glossy lips parted by excitement. A strand of slick ran down to her ass. I dropped to my knees in front of the table and pulled her hips toward me until her thighs hung over my shoulders.

—Adrián, what are you doing...? —she started, but cut herself off with a moan when I buried my face between her legs.

I licked her from bottom to top with a flat tongue, tasting her whole, feeling the taste of my sister fill my mouth. I pried open her pussy lips with two fingers and started sucking her clit hungrily, drawing it between my lips, moving my tongue in circles. Marina writhed on the wood, one hand gripping the table edge and the other buried in my hair, pushing me into her.

—Fuck, fuck, fuck... —she panted, unable to control her voice—. Don’t stop, my little one... don’t stop, eat me all up...

I slid two fingers inside her while I kept sucking her clit. I felt her tighten around them, hot and slick. I moved them in and out in a slow rhythm, curling them until I found the spot that made her scream. Marina clamped her thighs around my head, smothering me against her pussy, and she fucked my face with short hip thrusts.

—I’m coming, I’m coming, I’m coming... —she repeated like a litany. And she came, soaking my chin, clenching around my fingers with spasms that shook her whole body. A warm stream slipped down my wrist to my elbow.

I stood up with my mouth shining with her juices and wiped the back of my hand across my lips. She looked at me from the table, tits rising and falling, hair disheveled, unable to believe what her brother had just done to her.

—Your turn now —she murmured, slowly sitting up until she was perched on the edge—. Get it out. I want to see my brother’s cock.

I fumbled with my pants in a rush and let them drop along with my underwear. My cock sprang free, hard, already with a drop of liquid shining on the tip. Marina gave a low, almost obscene laugh.

—Look what my boy has grown —she whispered, wrapping her hand around it and jerking it slowly, as if weighing it—. It’s beautiful, Adrián. Beautiful and thick. Come here.

She got down from the table and knelt in front of me, on the shards of the vase, not caring. She took my cock into her mouth without hesitation, all the way down, until she arched against my groin. I felt my sister’s throat closing around the tip and almost came right then. She pulled back slowly, leaving a thick thread of saliva between her lips and my glans.

—Fuck, Marina... —I growled, gripping her hair with both hands.

—Shut up and fuck my mouth —she ordered, her lips red and swollen—. Treat me like I’m not your sister. Treat me like the bitch I am tonight.

I twisted her hair into an improvised bun and started moving my hips. I went all the way to the back of her throat, and Marina never took her eyes off mine, her cheeks hollowed as she sucked me, saliva running down her chin to her naked tits. With her free hand she reached between her legs, rubbing her pussy while she sucked my cock. Seeing her kneel there, in torn lace, with my cock going in and out of her mouth, was the most pornographic image I’d ever seen in my life.

I pulled her off before I came. I hauled her back onto the table in one yank, laid her on her back, grabbed her legs behind the knees and spread her wide open. I guided my cock toward her pussy, rubbed it over the soaked lips a couple of times, wetting it well, and buried it in one thrust.

When I entered her, the world stopped. It was a total invasion that left her breathless. Marina threw her head back, digging her nails into the wood, her face twisted between ecstasy and agony.

—Adrián! —she screamed my name, but it was no longer a warning. It was a plea.

I started moving with an unrelenting rhythm. There was no delicacy, only the need to claim every inch of her insides, to remind her that our blood was the same and that, because of that, no one would ever know her like I did. The table shuddered with every thrust, the wet sound of my cock sliding in and out of her pussy blending with the slap of my balls against her ass. We were moving away from morality and sinking into the abyss.

Marina, the woman who always had control, was falling apart under my body. Her hands, which had issued orders before, now clutched at my arms as if to confirm that this was real. Her moans became incoherent.

—Harder, fuck, harder —she panted—. Tear my pussy apart, Adrián, give it all to me...

I let go of one leg and grabbed one of her tits brutally, pinching her nipple between my fingers. I fucked her with long, deep thrusts, pulling almost all the way out and driving back in until my balls hit her ass. She brought two fingers to her mouth, wet them with saliva, and lowered them to her clit, rubbing fast circles while I rammed into her.

—You’re mine, Marina... —I growled in her ear, leaning over her—. Of your blood and no one else’s. Say it. Say who’s fucking you.

—My brother... —she admitted, her voice broken, never stopping touching herself—. My little brother is fucking me and I’m coming again, fuck... Adrián, I’m coming, I’m coming with you inside me...

I felt her pussy clenching around my cock in spasms, milking me. I drove into her three more times, all the way in, and came inside her. Thick streams one after another filled her pussy with semen, while she dug her heels into my ass so I wouldn’t pull out.

—I’m yours... —she admitted, voice shattered—. Make me yours forever.

The explosion hit us both with blind violence while the snow kept falling outside, erasing the trace of a world that no longer existed for us. When I finally pulled my cock out, a thick thread of my cum leaked from her pussy, down the crack of her ass and onto the table.

***

The echo of our panting still floated between the beams when I lifted her off the table. Marina was limp, her gaze lost, as if reality had been drained out of her bones. The red set lay on the floor, a shred of fabric that looked like an open wound on the rug.

—We’re not done yet —I whispered, carrying her in my arms.

I went up to the master bathroom, a sanctuary of black marble and mirrors. I sat her on the edge of the tub and turned on the tap. Hot water filled the space with steam, fogging the glass and isolating us even more.

Marina watched me with a new fascination. The authority that had always surrounded her had turned into a curious submission under her little brother’s gaze.

—What are you going to do now? —she asked, regaining a trace of her commanding tone, though now it sounded like broken glass—. You’ve already taken everything from me, Adrián. My pride, my secret... even my place at that table.

—I’m going to wash the guilt off you —I replied, taking a sponge with sandalwood soap—. And then I’m going to show you that a body like yours isn’t made for punishment, but for constant worship.

I got into the tub with her. I started running the sponge over her shoulders, over the curve of her back, with torturous slowness. The steam made her skin gleam. Marina closed her eyes and rested her head on my shoulder, but the water didn’t put out the fire: it only made it denser.

When I reached her tits, my touch turned possessive. The soap made my hands glide with obscene ease. She let out a long sigh when my thumbs found her hardened nipples, and arched her back to offer them better. I pinched both nipples at once, twisting them gently, and she bit her lower lip to hold back a moan.

—Look at yourself in the mirror, Marina —I ordered, gripping the back of her neck to force her to see our fogged reflection—. The same face, the same eyes... and the same hunger.

She opened her eyes and saw: me, young, wrapping her mature woman’s body in an embrace that defied every law. That mix of pure water against the filth of our secret sent the adrenaline surging through her again. She slipped one hand under the water and grabbed my cock, which was already hard again between us.

—It’s such a beautiful sin... —she murmured, turning to straddle my thighs—. If we’re going to burn, Adrián, let it be the longest combustion of our lives. Don’t stop. Not until I forget my own surname.

She lifted herself just enough on her knees, positioned my cock at the entrance of her pussy, and lowered herself slowly, swallowing me whole to the hilt. Water sloshed over the sides of the tub. Marina threw her head back and started moving, rising and lowering on me, her hands on my shoulders, her tits swinging in front of my face.

I caught one nipple in my mouth and sucked it while she rode me. I could feel every centimeter of her pussy sliding over my cock, squeezing me, milking me. I grabbed her ass with both hands and helped her move faster. The hot water made everything slicker, more obscene.

—Like this, like this, like this... —she panted against my forehead—. My brother’s cock gets so hard inside me... it opens me all the way, Adrián...

I looked her in the eyes while I fucked her on top of me. The face of the serious architect, the one that appeared in magazines, ruined in pleasure, fucking in the bathtub with her younger brother. I sank one finger between her buttocks, barely brushing her anus, and she came instantly, trembling all over, collapsing against me, her pussy pulsing around me.

***

The steam cleared and the cold dampness pushed us into the master bedroom. Marina’s room was a temple to her sophistication: black silk sheets, minimalist furniture, and that silence only money and loneliness can buy. Until that night.

I laid her in the center of the bed. The contrast of her wet skin against the black silk was a sight that would have made anyone kneel. She remained sprawled there, her brown hair spread over the pillow, looking at me with a mix of exhaustion and expectation.

—You’re insatiable —she whispered, though her hands were seeking my wrists again, as if she feared I’d move away.

—You haven’t seen anything yet. Valentine’s Day isn’t over.

I went to her vanity and came back with a bottle of jasmine oil. I made her lie face down, pressing my hands against her shoulder blades. The cold oil fell at the base of her spine, sliding down the curve of her hips to the crack of her ass. I began massaging her with an almost clinical slowness, but loaded with intent. I spread her cheeks with my thumbs and let more oil fall between them, watching it slip over her tight anus and the lips of her still-swollen pussy.

—Relax for me —I ordered, my mouth at her nape—. If you trust my blood to love you, trust my hand to claim you completely.

I started massaging her ass with both hands, squeezing it, parting it, leaving her anus exposed. I ran my thumb over it, not entering, just pressing, and Marina clenched the sheets in her fingers.

—Adrián... not there... I’ve never let anyone...

—Exactly why it’s going to be mine —I whispered, and sank my thumb in up to the first knuckle.

Marina let out a muffled cry, half protest and half surrender. I felt her tense around my finger, then slowly yield as the oil did its work. I slid my thumb deeper, moving it slowly, while with my other hand I slipped two fingers into her pussy and curved them until I felt the thin wall separating the two cavities. Marina buried her face in the pillow, letting out a long, low moan I had never heard come from a woman before.

—My God, Adrián... —she panted against the pillow—. You’re opening me all the way... both ways...

—God isn’t here tonight, Marina. It’s only us and this hunger that’s going to consume us.

I pulled my thumb out and replaced it with two fingers, soaked in oil, stretching her patiently. She started pushing back, seeking more, no longer protesting. When I felt she was ready, I lined myself up behind her. I ran my cock over her pussy first, wetting it well in her own juices, and then brought it slowly up to her anus.

—Breathe —I whispered, and pushed.

The tip gave under resistance, and Marina screamed into the pillow as I entered her centimeter by centimeter. I had never felt anything so tight. The heat was brutal. I stayed still when I was halfway in, letting her breathe, stroking her back.

—It’s inside, Marina —I told her in her ear—. Your brother is fucking you in the ass.

—I know, fuck, I know... —she moaned, voice trembling—. Move slowly, please...

I started moving with short thrusts, letting her get used to it, sinking deeper each time. I slipped my hand under her to find her clit and started rubbing it in circles. Marina writhed beneath me, torn between pain and a new pleasure that completely disarmed her.

—It’s opening... —she panted, pushing her ass back—. Fuck, it’s opening, Adrián, you can put it all the way in now...

I buried it to the balls. Marina screamed, a long dirty scream that bounced off the minimalist walls. I started fucking her ass with deeper and deeper thrusts, never stopping rubbing her clit. She no longer fought: she cooperated, pushing back, seeking pleasure and limit together. In the snowbound attic’s darkness, Marina stopped being my protector and became my carnal accomplice.

***

The air smelled of sweat and jasmine when a sharp sound ripped through it: her phone vibrating on the nightstand.

She tensed. She glanced sideways at the screen.

—It’s him... —she whispered, voice breaking. It was her ex-husband, a controlling man who still believed he had rights over her—. Adrián, stop... I have to...

—No —I cut her off, gripping her hips with a force that admitted no argument. I had pulled my cock out of her ass and was sliding it back into her pussy, slow, deep, all the way in—. You’re going to answer. But you’re not moving from here.

—Are you insane? If he hears anything...

—If he hears anything, he’ll know that you finally belong to the only man who shares your blood. Answer.

I put the phone in her hand just before resuming the movement behind her, slow, deep. Marina held back a scream and slid her finger across the screen with trembling fingers.

—Hello? —she managed, trying to sound professional, though the break in her breathing was obvious.

—Marina, why are you taking so long? I’ve called you three times —the voice on the other end was cold—. The storm has cut off the road, but tomorrow I’ll come talk about the documents.

I didn’t stop. On the contrary. My thrusts made her ass slam against my hips with a wet, fleshy sound that echoed in the silence. I grabbed one breast from behind and pinched her nipple hard. She clenched her teeth not to give herself away.

—Yes... tomorrow is fine —she said, with a gasp she disguised as a sigh of exhaustion—. I’m a little tired from the snow.

—You sound off. Are you alone?

At that moment I sank my hand into her hair and forced her to arch more, invading her with a thrust so deep she lost control. With my other hand I kept rubbing her clit mercilessly.

—Ah...! —she let out, and halfway through turned it into a forced cough—. Yes, alone. Adrián is sleeping in the other room.

Hearing our family name leave her lips while I possessed her under the invisible gaze of her ex-husband was the most powerful aphrodisiac I had ever felt. I fucked her harder, pulling almost all the way out and driving back in to the hilt, until she had to bite the back of her free hand not to scream.

—Then sleep. We’ll see each other tomorrow —he hung up.

Marina dropped the phone onto the rug and turned with renewed fury, wrapping her arms around my neck and kissing me with an almost violent desperation. The risk of being discovered had ignited her in an inhuman way. She fell back and spread her legs, offering herself to me whole.

—Come inside me again, fuck —she demanded, eyes glassy—. Fill my pussy while you think about that son of a bitch no longer running my life.

I drove into her without rest, with her legs hanging from my shoulders, folding her in half. I grabbed her wrists and held them above her head, fucking her with all my stored-up rage. Marina came again beneath me, mouth open in a silent scream, and I emptied myself inside her for the second time that night, feeling my semen mixing with the semen I’d already left there before.

—You’re a demon, Adrián... my little demon —she panted against my lips, still trembling—. You humiliated me in front of him without him knowing.

—I didn’t humiliate you. I freed you. Now you know you owe no one anything, except the blood that binds us.

***

The silence that followed the call was more deafening than the ring itself. Marina was trembling, a mix of residual terror and desire that had left her disarmed.

—You made me sin in the most filthy way —she whispered, though her legs were tangled in mine—. You broke every one of my defenses.

—There’s still one left. The last one.

I got out of bed and picked up the tatters of the red set I had torn in the living room from the floor. The lace, though ruined, was still strong. I went back to her side and, without a word, took her wrists. She offered no resistance. With slow movements, I used the red fabric to tie her hands to the carved headboard of the bed.

The image was exquisite: the most level-headed woman I knew, immobilized by the remains of a sinful gift, at the mercy of her own brother. The red lace against the whiteness of her wrists was the symbol of our pact.

—There are no names here, no titles, no past —I told her, positioning myself over her—. Only this moment.

Tied up, her body offered itself completely, arching toward me. I kissed her again, this time with torturous slowness, moving over her belly, her heavy tits, nibbling her nipples until they were red and swollen. I lowered my mouth over her navel, over her pubis, and plunged my face between her legs again. I ran my tongue over my pussy stained with my own semen, sucking it, swallowing it, while she pulled at the red bindings and moaned uncontrollably.

—Fuck, Adrián, you’re insane... you’re eating your own cum...

—Everything that comes out of your pussy is mine —I answered, my mouth still shining—. And everything I’m going to put in it too.

Knowing she couldn’t move, that she depended on my will to reach relief, drove her into a state that bordered on delirium. I sucked her clit until I felt her on the edge again, and then I pulled away. Marina moaned in frustration, tugging at the knots.

—No, no, no, keep going, please...

—Ask properly.

—Fuck me, Adrián, fuck me, please, I can’t take it anymore...

I climbed over her and possessed her with a depth that searched for the soul beyond the flesh. The bed creaked, rhythmic, relentless. Marina pulled at the red bindings, her muscles tightening in a futile struggle that only increased her pleasure. Her moans were raw, stripped of all elegance. I put a hand on her throat, barely squeezing, and she half-closed her eyes, her tongue showing between her teeth.

—Don’t stop! Adrián, please, don’t stop! —she screamed, her face soaked in sweat.

I brought her to the brink again and again, stopping just before she burst, forcing her to beg, to admit I was her owner, her brother and her lover. I pulled out, turned her over as best I could over the restraints, and rammed it into her from behind again, with her face down, wrists still tied to the headboard, ass raised for me. I slapped her hard enough to make her jerk and howl with pleasure.

—Tell me what you are —I demanded, never stopping my thrusts—. Say it.

—I’m my brother’s bitch —she moaned into the mattress—. I’m your bitch, Adrián, your cock’s bitch, do whatever you want to me...

When I finally allowed ecstasy to claim us, she screamed my name with a force that made the mirrors vibrate, and I came for the third time that night, this time over her ass, over her back, marking her with hot spurts that slid down her waist to the black silk sheets.

***

The first ray of sun slipped through the blinds. Bilbao was waking under a mantle of white, silent snow, a visual irony compared to the scene of carnal devastation that was the room.

I sat up slowly. Marina was still there, her wrists still bound by the red tatters, her back stained with semen already dry. Her eyes were open, fixed on the ceiling, with an absolute serenity that chilled my blood. There was no fear left, no guilt, no older-sister authority. Only the woman who had been claimed to the marrow.

I carefully untied the knots. Her hands fell onto the sheets, numb. I kissed her fingers one by one.

—It’s stopped snowing —I whispered.

She turned toward me and, for the first time in my life, truly saw me. Not as the boy to protect, nor as the mistake to hide. She saw me as her equal.

—The world is going to wake up now, Adrián —she said, recovering a new steadiness—. The phone will ring again, the lawyers will call, and tomorrow I’ll have to be the serious architect in front of everyone again.

—I know. And I’ll go back to being the brother who comes with you to family dinners and watches you from across the table —I replied, stroking her cheek—. But the two of us will know what’s under your suit. We’ll know that the red of this Valentine’s Day will never wash out.

Marina smiled, a slow, dangerous smile that promised me a thousand more nights like that. She leaned close to my ear.

—Out there, we’re the perfect siblings. In here, we’re the sin no one would dare imagine. Every February fourteenth, and every night hunger consumes us, we’ll come back to this altar. Because now I know that nobody can fuck me like the man who carries my own name in his veins.

She rose with majestic grace, gathered the remains of the red set, and walked toward the fireplace, my semen still sliding down the backs of her thighs. She struck a match and let the lace burn, watching the flames consume the last proof of our transgression.

—Get dressed, Adrián —she said, turning back to me with that commanding look that now belonged to me—. We have a life to pretend and a secret to enjoy forever.