The Night I Slept in My Father’s Wife’s Arms

Four days. Four days to find the words and gather enough courage to tell my father that his wife and I had slept together, that it hadn’t been an accident, and that we were going to tell him the moment he set foot in the airport. Adriana held the glass of wine in both hands without drinking, watching me from the far end of the dining room. Another button of her blouse had come undone since we’d sat down, and I could see beneath the lace edge of her bra the rise of those tits that two nights earlier I’d had in my mouth until I left her nipples red and hard as stones between my teeth. It was hard to focus on her face when the memory of her cunt soaked around my cock was still so recent I could still feel it in my fingertips.

—What matters most to him in the world, besides you? —she asked at last, biting her lower lip with that habit of hers whenever she was thinking something serious.

I took barely a second to answer. I knew my father better than anyone.

—Money. Power. That’s the only thing that moves him, Adriana. You get married and instead of going on a honeymoon with you, he takes off for six weeks to close a deal on the other side of the ocean. That’s my father. He’s always been ambitious above everything else.

She lowered her eyes to the glass and turned it with two fingers. The warm light of the lamp made the ruby liquid gleam in her palm. She was still wearing the silk blouse she’d come home from work in, the first two buttons undone, her hair gathered into a loose bun that had come apart as the afternoon wore on. I kept thinking about how that same silk clung to her nipples when she got them wet with saliva.

—There’s something I can’t stop thinking about, Damián —she said—. If your father decides to cut you off from university, if mine decides to kick me off the board, what are we going to do? I have savings, but just keeping this house costs what it costs. And your studies…

—We can’t let fear decide for us —I answered, and hearing myself, I thought my voice sounded firmer than I expected—. You’ve got an entire company behind you. I can work. If it comes to it, we sell this house and start from zero. What we can’t do is keep lying to everyone.

She looked at me for a long moment. Then she reached across the table and entwined her fingers with mine. Her skin felt a little hot, as if she’d been drinking more than she admitted.

—The shareholders’ board meets in three weeks —she said softly—. My father has votes, but not an absolute majority. Some of the younger ones owe me favors. I opened up the northern markets. I planned this last trip. Not everyone is blind.

—Call them —I told her—. Tomorrow. Meet them one by one. Don’t pressure them. Pretend you’re worried about your mother’s health, say there’s been a personal episode at home and that you’re afraid of reprisals.

Adriana smiled. It was a tired smile and, at the same time, a new one, unlike any I’d seen on her before. For the first time, we were planning together, like a real couple.

—I want to fight it with you —she said, squeezing my fingers—. Even if it scares me. Even if I know it’s going to hurt.

—What happened today was the first battle —I replied—. It’s not the end of hostilities.

She fell silent, looking at me, and I thought about asking for something that had been turning over in my head since lunch. But it wasn’t the moment. Today had already been too much emotion. I only asked her one thing.

—Tomorrow afternoon, could you come somewhere with me?

—Where?

—I’ll tell you there. I need to show you before my father comes back. I can’t tell you more.

Adriana tilted her head, intrigued, but she didn’t insist. She was learning fast to trust me. That was one of the things that surprised me most in those days: how she had stopped treating me like her husband’s son and started treating me like someone to build with. And like someone she fucked with her mouth open and her eyes closed, whispering filthy things in my ear.

—Of course —she said simply—. I’ll go wherever you want.

***

We went up the stairs hand in hand, slowly, without turning on the hallway lights. The girls had been asleep for a while. Before pushing open the door to her room —their room, my father’s and hers, although until that night I’d avoided thinking about it— Adriana turned and looked at me with a mischievous glint.

—But first… a really tight hug? —she said, opening her arms wide and making a little girl face.

—I can’t believe it —I said, stepping closer—. Are you trying to steal my position as the family’s official clown?

I grabbed her by the waist and tickled her sides. She squealed, tried to get away, and we ended up both against the doorframe, laughing softly so we wouldn’t wake the girls. When she stopped laughing, she lifted her face and kissed me. It was a slow kiss at first, without urgency, different from the ones the first time. But then her mouth parted against mine and her tongue slipped in slowly to tangle with mine, and I felt her pressing against my body, how her hip sought my cock already starting to harden against the fabric of my trousers. I put my hand at the base of her back, slid it down until I was cupping one ass cheek over her skirt and squeezed with my whole palm. She let out a muffled little moan against my lips and opened her thighs just enough to let my knee slide between her legs, letting me feel the heat she was carrying under her panties.

—Damián —she whispered against my mouth, breathing softly—, if we keep this up we’re going to wake half the house.

—Shut up and kiss me —I told her, grabbing the back of her neck to drive my tongue into her again, deep, until a purr escaped her throat.

It was the kiss of someone who no longer needed to apologize for anything.

We brushed our teeth in front of the same bathroom mirror. Me in pajamas, her in a white cotton nightgown two sizes too big, a hand-me-down from some badly chosen birthday gift. We watched each other in the reflection and laughed with our mouths full of foam. It was the most domestic, most banal, and most intimate moment I had ever shared with anyone. And at the same time, in every gesture of hers there was a different awareness, a way of moving that seemed to say to me: I know, I know you’re looking at me, don’t look away. When she bent over to spit into the sink, the nightgown opened in front and her tits hung free beneath the fabric, her nipples hardening against the cotton. I was half-hard again and she knew it perfectly well. Passing behind me to hang up the towel, she brushed my crotch with an open hand and squeezed me over my trousers, once, long, then kept walking as if nothing had happened.

When we got into bed, she turned off the lamp and lay on her side. I settled behind her, slipped an arm around her waist, and felt her make herself comfortable against me with a long sigh. The nightgown had ridden up to her hips. Under my palm I felt the warm curve of her thigh, the cotton of her panties tightening over the soft flesh of her ass, her breathing gradually matching mine. Without realizing it I started stroking her bare thigh, up and down, going a little higher each time, until my fingertips brushed the elastic edge of her panties and I felt the wet heat beginning beneath the fabric.

—Tomorrow we’ve got an important day ahead —I murmured against her neck.

—I know —she replied, not moving—. But right now I don’t want to think about that.

I moved the hair off her shoulder and kissed her nape. I ran my tongue behind her ear, slowly, and felt the hairs on her skin rise and her ass press against my crotch in an involuntary movement. My cock grew fully against the fabric of my pajamas, outlining the crease of her ass over the cotton, and she noticed because she parted her lips and let out a short gasp. I slid my hand up and squeezed one breast through the nightgown, my whole palm taking in her chest, the nipple hardening against the line of life in my hand. Adriana turned her face, searching for my mouth, and I gave it to her, biting her lower lip, sucking it in. She wriggled against my cock, just a movement, but enough to make me tremble all over.

I ran my fingers along her arm, slowly, and felt her turn in my arms until she was facing me, a handspan away, her eyes shining in the dimness. She settled against my pelvis with the ease of someone who already knows the fit. My hard cock pressed into her belly beneath the nightgown, and she swayed once, twice, seeking the angle, until a longer sigh escaped her and she buried her face in my neck.

—Not tonight, Damián —she whispered, and at once kissed me with an intensity that contradicted her words—. Tonight I don’t want the desire from the other night. I want this. I want to know what it’s like to fall asleep with you without hiding.

It was hard to breathe.

The desire from the other night. The whole image stabbed into me behind my eyelids, so vivid that my stomach clenched and my cock throbbed against her hip. Adriana on her back in this same bed, her legs spread wide over the tangled sheets, her panties hanging from one ankle. Me between her thighs, my mouth pressed to her shaved cunt, sucking her swollen clit while two fingers sank into her to the knuckles. Her writhing, biting the back of her hand so as not to wake the girls, whispering “deeper, fuck, give me all your tongue” in a rough, dirty voice I’d never heard from her at the breakfast table. When she finally came against my mouth, she pressed my head to her sex with both hands, her thighs closed around my ears, and I felt all her hot release spilling over my chin and down my throat. Then she dragged me up, grabbed my cock with her hand and pushed it between her legs herself, without asking permission, guiding me until the tip fit into her soaked entrance and I drove in hard all the way to the hilt. We fucked like that, her on her back and me on top, the flesh of her tits bouncing against my chest with each thrust. Then I put her on all fours at the edge of the mattress and grabbed her bun to yank her head back while I drove my hips against her ass, and she moaned with her elbow over her mouth, “like that, give it to me like that, don’t stop, you son of a bitch, don’t stop,” and when we changed again and she climbed astride me, she rode my cock with her tits bouncing in front of my face and I bit each one until she came a second time, dripping all over me, clenching me so hard inside I nearly blew apart right there. I ended up coming in her mouth when she slid down between my legs at dawn and swallowed everything while looking up at me with wet eyes.

All of that whole night got inside my eyes in a second, and I almost gave in to it. I almost tore off her panties and shoved my tongue in without asking. But when I opened my eyes, she was looking at me with a naked tenderness that stopped me cold.

I held her face with my hand and kissed her slowly. My thumb brushed her cheekbone, her fingers tangled in my hair. We stayed like that for a time I can’t measure, kissing slowly, feeling each other breathe. Beneath the nightgown my cock stayed rock-hard against her belly, and she felt it, and every so often she’d lower her hand and stroke me over the pajama pants with slow tenderness, not taking me out, palming me from top to bottom until she pulled muffled gasps from me into her mouth.

—You’ll have it tomorrow —she whispered against my lips, squeezing my cock one last time—. All of it for you, all day if you want. Now let me sleep with you, baby.

Then she rested her forehead against mine and closed her eyes.

—Let’s dream of easier days, baby —she said—. Tomorrow we’ll see.

It took me a while to fall asleep. I could hear her breathing against my chest and I thought about the four nights separating us from my father’s return. I thought about what we were going to lose and what we had already gained. The house was silent. The hall clock marked the hour more and more slowly. When my eyes finally closed, I felt her hand rise to mine and lace our fingers together, already asleep. Her other hand was still resting against my bulge, forgotten there, motionless, as if even asleep she didn’t want to let me go.

***

I woke first. Adriana was breathing with her mouth slightly open, her hair disheveled on the pillow. Through the slat in the blinds a gray light was coming in, still without sun. During the night, the nightgown had ridden up to her waist and one of her tits had slipped out of the neckline. Her dark nipple was visible, wrinkled by the cold, pointing toward the ceiling. My cock tightened at the sight of her like that, offered up without knowing it. I watched her for a long minute and then brushed a lock of hair aside. She opened her eyes slowly, without starting, as if she had expected to see me there.

—How did you sleep, baby? —she asked in a hoarse voice.

—“Baby” —I repeated, kissing her—. Sounds good in the morning.

—Feels good, yes. Don’t you think?

—It’s because you’re wonderful.

I lowered my mouth to the nipple in view and sucked it slowly, my tongue circling the tip, unhurried. She sighed and buried her fingers in my hair, for a long moment, arching her back. Then she pulled me gently up, smiling with half-lidded eyes.

—If you keep that up, I’m not getting out of this bed today and the girls will be late for school.

—I’ll charge you interest tonight —I said in her ear, and bit her earlobe.

—With interest, yes —she whispered—. And high interest too.

It was Monday, we didn’t have time. We got moving like any ordinary couple. Quick breakfast, backpacks, the older one complaining because she couldn’t find her left shoe, the little one asking for cereal we didn’t have. Adriana ran the kitchen with an efficiency I remembered from before and now saw with different eyes. When she bent over the counter, the skirt suit hugged her hips, the line of her panties showed beneath the fabric, and I had to force myself not to stare and get hard in front of the kids.

—Damián —she said, handing me the coffee—, are you taking the girls?

—I’ll take them. And you too.

We dropped the girls at daycare. Then I dropped Adriana at the door of her office, a glass building with revolving doors where her father had more power than he should. Before getting out of the car, she looked at me.

—You really aren’t going to tell me where you’re taking me this afternoon?

—I’ll pick you up at five —I answered—. Trust me.

—I already do.

She leaned in, hesitated for a second, and gave me a chaste kiss on the cheek. Before pulling away completely, she whispered “I love you” so close to my ear I felt the heat of her breath. And then, in the same voice, even lower: “and tonight you fuck me like you fucked me on Saturday, not one thrust less.” Then she got out of the car, tucked the briefcase against her hip, and walked toward the revolving door in those low heels that marked her step and left my cock like a stone in my jeans. Before going in, she turned and smiled at me from a distance. I smiled back and drove off.

***

At the campus I missed her almost from the first minute. I had classes until one and then I stayed a while in the faculty gardens, eating the sandwich she’d made for me in the morning. I thought about her. I thought about the taste of salt her neck skin got after she came, about the way her legs opened when she slept, about how she squeezed my cock with those muscles she had trained in a yoga I used to look down on. I thought about my father, about how I was going to look him in the face when he got off the plane. I thought about the girls and whether they would keep calling me “brother” or whether they’d end up inventing another word for me. I caught myself planning a life that, until two weeks earlier, would have seemed impossible to me.

University no longer seemed like the real world. My classmates crossed the grass talking about exams and parties, and I watched them moving inside a bubble I no longer fit into. I was somewhere else. I was thinking about an older woman who at that very moment, in her office, was calling one by one the shareholders who could save her, choosing her words with the same precision with which the night before she had chosen my new name in the kitchen, with the same precision with which two nights earlier she had whispered “come inside me, don’t pull out, I want to feel it” while she came for the third time strung on my cock.

I balled up the sandwich napkin and found myself thinking about the place I wanted to take her that afternoon. It was a place my mother had wanted to show me before she died and that I had never managed to visit with her. I hadn’t told anyone. I was going to tell Adriana first, before my father. In my head, that changed everything.

***

At five past five, Adriana was standing under the building awning, the briefcase against her leg and the coat folded over her arm. She saw me arrive and walked toward the car with a speed that gave her away. Before getting in she looked up at the upper floors, out of instinct, checking that no one was watching her.

—How did it go? —I asked as soon as she closed the door.

—Better than I expected. I’ve got three in favor. Two who are going to think about it. One who told me yes but who I don’t trust.

—That’s half the board.

—It’s half the board —she repeated, with a restrained smile.

I took her hand over the gearshift. Hers was cold from the office air conditioning. Mine was hot from the steering wheel. We stayed like that for half a minute, silent, double-parked, while the employees leaving at that hour crossed the sidewalk without looking at us. She glanced at me sideways, bit her lip, and lowered her hand for an instant to my thigh, squeezing me inside the leg, very close to the fly.

—I’ve spent the whole day with wet panties thinking about last night —she whispered, very softly, without looking at me—. And about tonight.

—Behave —I told her, laughing under my breath—. Or we won’t make it there.

—And that mysterious place? —she asked at last, her voice low, as if afraid the answer might change the day.

I started the car and glanced at her. I didn’t answer right away. I wanted her to see it for herself.

—It’s something I need to show you before my father comes back —I said—. That’s all. After that, you’ll understand.

Adriana reclined in the seat, let the briefcase drop to the floor, and intertwined her fingers with mine over the gearshift. She didn’t ask anything else for the rest of the trip. Four days, I thought as I drove. Four days to prepare the hardest conversation of my life. Four nights to learn to fall asleep in the arms of my father’s wife without fear beating me. Four nights, too, to fuck her as if each one were the last.