THE ORIGINAL NOVEL WAS WRITTEN IN SPANISH, I APOLOGIZE FOR THE TRANSLATION. IF YOU WANT TO READ IT IN SPANISH LOOK FOR IT UNDER THE SAME PSEUDONYM AND BY NAME "GIRO DEL DESTINO"

Shit! He was right. Ana, as you thought of having sex in his office while the rest of the staff was on the other side of the wall. I rebuked myself as I walked to my work station. The best thing was to stop thinking about it and invent a pretext for when Mia came to ask me. I sat in front of the painting and a few minutes later Mia approached me.

— Ana are you okay? What happened? —she asked me and, and from the look on her face at the time I could tell that she was very worried.

—I'm fine. —what else was I going to tell her, that was the truth.

— And what did he say? Did he fire you? Do you have to make up for the time you were late? Did he scold you a lot? —she asked me staring at me.

And now that I was answering. Shit!

—No, he didn't fire me, or do I have to make up for the time I was late. —I answered very quietly while trying to make up a convincing excuse.

— Do he scold you a lot?

—A little bit, he gave me a tremendous speech about the schedules and if he had a lot of rules he liked us to follow, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, I didn't really pay much attention to just the important stuff. — I answered her trying to get her to leave me alone. — Why are you asking so much? —I saw her worried.

—I was worried about you, you spent almost an hour in his office. —she said to me while I was trying to hide it.

—I knew the speech had been long and boring. — I replied thoughtfully.

What I really wanted most was to kill Christian. An hour in his office, if Mia knew what I was doing in his office, she would never speak to me again in his life.

—I told you he was very strict about the schedule. —she told make me get out of my indecent thoughts.

—Yes, I see, I'd better get to work. —and Mia went to her job, leaving me alone with Rembrandt and my thoughts.

In fact, I wasn't far from finishing the restoration of the painting, just a few retouches of the varnishes. But I had spent most of the afternoon thinking about what had happened in Christian's office. The sex, his caresses, his kisses, so who could concentrate on something.

— Are you planning on doing overtime?

Mia startled me when she stood next to me. I had spent the whole afternoon at work, except when I looked towards Christian's office, remembered what had happened and was distracted for a moment from what I had to do.

—I want to finish it today, it won't be long now. —I replied as I continued to work.

—Ok, we're leaving then, see you tomorrow. —she said goodbye to me.

—See you tomorrow. —I answered without even turning around.

I took out my cell phone and texted Kate that we would be a little late and then continued to focus on the work until I finished the whole picture. As soon as I finished it I sat there admiring my completed work.

—You plan to work all night.

— Oh, shit!

I jumped on the bench and lost my balance. I closed my eyes to the inevitable fall. But instead, strong, warm arms welcomed me. I opened my eyes and found myself with deep, piercing gray eyes.

— Are you all right? —he asking a little worried.

—Idiot, you scared me. —I told him as I hit him in the arm.

—I didn't mean to. —he said as he helped me to get on the sidewalk. — I've been watching you at work for a while and you haven't noticed. —he said, sitting next to me on another sidewalk.

—I'm sorry I was so focused, I finished the painting. — I said smiling.

—It's finished then. —he asked me as he examined the painting.

—Yes. —I answered him as he looked at the picture in every possible way by examining my work. He finally looked at me with a smile.

—You did an excellent job. —he said to me while I smiled like an idiot.

—Thank you. —I replied enthusiastically.

—We can leave then, it's almost 7:00 pm. —he said looking at his watch and getting up from the sidewalk.

— What! So late now. —I said looking quickly at my watch and getting up from the sidewalk too.

—You must be starving. —he said looking at me while I finished getting my things.

—I'm hungry and you should be too, come on, Kate must be waiting for us for dinner. —I replied with a smile as we walked towards the elevator.

As we left the museum I remembered that we had not come by car and Christian was apparently thinking what I was thinking. After walking down the stairs of the entrance we walked to the wax where Christian whistled loudly and waved to a taxi that stopped immediately in front of us. He opened the door smiling at me to get me in and came in behind me. We both stared at each other smiling. I was really impressed with the way he stopped a cab in Manhattan.

—Where. —the taxi driver's voice made me stop smiling at him like an idiot.

—Yes, at 10019 308 West 58th. —I told him as Christian took my hand between his and I smiled at him again.

A few minutes later, we got out of the taxi in front of the apartment and Christian quickly paid the taxi driver without even giving me time to take out my wallet and pay at least half.

—Sometime you'll let me pay something in half. — I asked him frowning as we entered the building.

—No. —he answered flatly.

—By the way, there's something I've been meaning to ask you for a long time. —I told him as we got to the elevator.

—Question. —he replied, hesitating and this time looking at me seriously.

—Not that I mind, but if you own the restaurant why you pay. —I told him as I watched his face change and smiled slightly.

—I always ask to be treated like another customer, I don't like to be treated differently. —he answered me sincerely with his eyes fixed on mine.

Wau didn't expect this answer. The elevator doors opened and we walked to my apartment.

—Let's hope Kate made us some dinner. — I told him while I was looking for the keys to open the door.

—If not, we'll go somewhere for dinner. — he said with a smile.

—Yes, somewhere you're sure to own it, too. —I told him as he opened the door and we entered the apartment.

The apartment was completely quiet, no one seemed to be there. But Kate was sitting on the couch in the living room very seriously. What had happened? Christian and I exchanged a glance without understanding anything at all. Kate kept looking at us very seriously, she seemed furious at the time.

—You. —she said pointing to Christian. —Go away. she said strongly. —You and I need to talk seriously. —she said pointing to me this time.

—You'd better listen to her. — I told him very quietly, hitting him.

—All right, I'll be back in an hour, if you don't open the door I can break it down. —he said to me, looking at me seriously.

I nodded my head as Christian walked to the door and left the apartment leaving me alone with Kate, who looked like a caged animal at the time. I could see that she was very angry but had no idea why she was. I sat carefully on the sofa next to her but left a slow space between us. She turned to me and stared at me for what seemed like an eternity and from the way she looked at me I didn't know why but, I felt like I had unknowingly gotten into a lot of trouble.

— Everything all right with Christian? — she asked me after a scrutinizing look.

—Yes, everything's fine. —I answered nervously and very quietly.

She stared at me again. He was breathing heavily. What had happened?

— How was the sex with him? —Shit! What was that question about?

I couldn't help but blush. Was I supposed to answer the question? Well, from his face, I figured he was waiting for my answer. But what did I tell her.

—Great. —I think that sums it all up.

I smiled inwardly because it was true what I was saying. The sex with Christian was amazingly cool, but I don't think she would like to hear the word awesome at the time. I turned my gaze to her who continued to look at me seriously.

— Can you explain to me what this means then? — At that moment he reached behind the sofa cushions and took the handcuffs off.

I stared at her without knowing what to say at the time. I was just staring at her.

— Where did you find them? — good for you Ana, who asked the stupidest question you just asked, I scolded myself.

—From your room, I came to get you as soon as I arrived and found this on the floor. Well? —she said as she continued to hold the handcuffs in front of me.

—It's not what you're imagining. — I answered even though I didn't really know what she was thinking at the time.

—Ana is the first man you've slept with, but you don't have to let him tie you up to fuck you. — she said loudly.

Or she wasn't very angry and didn't understand anything at all. I was going to have to explain everything in detail and try to unravel this misunderstanding. Besides, why Christian would have to tie me up to fuck me. She said tie up to fuck. Oh, God! Now I understood where she was coming from. Did she think that after I reading that book I was going to become a masochist.

—It's not like that, you've got it all wrong. —I answered calmly, I didn't really have to get upset.

— What did I misunderstand? Didn't you read those novels enough?

— What novels. —I asked her, playing dumb for a moment even though I already knew what she would say next.

—S&M ones. — bingo. I knew she'd say that.

— Shit, Kate! It has nothing to do with that, I am not a masochist and Christian is far from being a sadist. —I told her as she opened her eyes wide.

—I don't understand then why the handcuffs. —she said to me in confusion.

—You didn't let me explain it to you. —I said, grimacing and rolling my eyes.

—Speak at once to see if I can understand this mess.

I took a deep breath to relax and organize my ideas a little. I didn't want to worry her, but now I had no choice but to tell her what happened with Christian, only then would this problem be solved.

—He suffers from sleepwalking and night terrors. — Kate was looking at me without understanding anything yet.

—I don't see where the handcuffs come into this. —she answered me very thoughtfully and in his best interrogation tone.

—They're for tying him to the bed and keeping him awake in bed, I have the keys. —I told her, taking the chain out of my shirt and showing it to her.

—But I still don't understand why handcuffs couldn't tie themselves to anything else. — she asked now with concern and curiosity.

—Believe me, I asked him the same question, as he always got away with it, the only thing that worked were the handcuffs. I had asked myself the same question at first.

— Can't it be as bad as he paints it? —she told me as I looked at her very seriously.

—Believe me, it's bad. — I replied recalling the night before when I first witnessed one of his sleepwalking crises.

—You've had the experience. —she said to me as I stared at her.

—Remember at breakfast Elliot asked him how we slept and Christian said we didn't.

—I do remember that one among all his jokes. —she said with a smile.

—Well, we didn't sleep because we spent the night, as you said a moment ago, fucking each other. —I answered very seriously as Kate stopped smiling.

—Don't tell me that... —but I didn't let her finish her sentence.

—Yeah, I couldn't sleep much after that and I don't think he could either. I imagined that he was afraid of falling asleep and that it would happen to him again. —I replied.

And I gave her a brief summary of what had happened, though without going into too much detail, just the slap and the part about not waking up. The fear I felt when I found myself in that situation. The thought of not waking him up.