How remarkable to be loved by a man whose hands bring comfort, whose whispered words soothe me to sleep. For years, he dwelled solely in dream. Now, he is a steadfast presence. How remarkable to be loved, when I thought I'd remain alone. No longer do I live half-seen. In his embrace, I take shelter. Beneath his fingers, I'm reborn. How remarkable to be loved in such a sacred, flawless way. We move with worshipful rhythm....

I was in the third week of unbearable heartbreak when Olive showed up at my door, carrying a pillow. "I brought you something special," she said, "to borrow for the night." That Saturday evening, she was dressed up for a date with her boyfriend, Richard. The pillow in her arms looked incongruous, to say the least. Olive and I had worked together for several years, becoming best friends in the meantime, and though I saw he...

With her coven, she chants a love spell. Speaking in an ancient tongue, she easily entrances me. How can I resist her shadowed form drifting through October's chill? Resembling a bride, she wears virginal white. But in my bed, she's far from pure. Her mouth is that of a sullied angel. She takes me deep; her throat, serpent-like, constricts around my flesh. Issuing a cry, I come. I taste my semen in her kiss. "You're now b...

With the school year now behind me, I sat at my desk and organized the contents of each drawer. My transistor radio played at low volume in order to fill the classroom's silence. I was humming along to a song by The Carpenters when a soft knock sounded on the half-open door. Looking up, I smiled to see Bradley lingering just outside. "Bradley, what are you still doing here?" A glance at the wall clock let me know it was a...

When I didn't answer your call at lunchtime, you decided to stop by my place on your way home. And when I didn't answer your knock, you opened the unlocked door and stepped inside. Now, you stand beside my bed, silent as you undress. I'm naked and curled into the tightest ball I can manage; the covers are twisted around my feet. Dusk's shadows give the room a violet tinge. With a faint sigh, you lie down next to me. Your...

I tremble awake, sleep shaken from me all at once. Darkness seeps past curtains, pools upon the floor. You pull me close until we are two ill-fitting spoons, until my quaking subsides. Later I will rise from bed, nerves tattered as a moth-eaten sheet. It's your smile that coaxes me forth, that keeps me on my feet. *** From the mountainside, I study distant ridges hemming in a western county. The sun's warmth is tempered b...

The night's warmth settled over me and Jeremy, soft as the blanket beneath us. To our left was the side of his house, while a stand of trees provided a buffer on our right. This was our favorite spot to spend summer evenings. Though moonlight illuminated the backyard, its glow didn't reach the shadows surrounding me and my boyfriend. Jeremy's parents were more laid back than mine, so they pretended to believe us when we s...

The silence between me and Phil stretched on until I began to squirm in the passenger seat of his car. At the beginning of the drive, I'd tried to strike up a conversation, but Phil just kept his eyes fixed ahead, offering only an occasional grunt of acknowledgment. I'd never had trouble talking to him before. His distance made me anxious, and I had to remind myself that he was the one who offered to give me a lift. I'd s...

Samuel slipped through the trees and headed toward me, just as I knew he would. Since these woods provided a shortcut between his tracts of land, he took this path every day except the Sabbath. It was a routine he'd maintain until the harvest was finished in autumn. These woods also happened to be located behind the house where I lived with my husband. I stood in the cool shade, as if I had a right to be waiting on Samuel...

As I've moved from place to place, from room to room, she has silently accompanied me. Painted by an artist long forgotten, she wears a crown of dark hair, her body sheathed in a scarlet dress. Beneath her watchful eye, I've touched myself countless times. She's privy to my deepest fantasies, those that dampen the sheet below me. Night after night, I grasp at ecstasy. Sprawled naked before her, I bask in her placid gaze....

It was late, well after nine, when I finally rose from my desk. Carrying my bag, I stepped into the corridor and found Lucas waiting for me. All the other offices around us were quiet, their doorways dark. "You should have gone home hours ago," I told my assistant. At some point, he'd removed his tie and rolled up his shirtsleeves. While I was bleary-eyed from exhaustion, Lucas looked as alert as he'd been first thing tha...

I step into the house, your scent still clinging to my skin. Though I'm right on time, my father impatiently waits in the dining room. Taking my seat at the table across from him, I ask, "Where's Mom?" "She's gone up to bed," he replies. "Another migraine." His eyes narrow as he regards me. "You've been with that woman again, haven't you?" Instead of answering, I look down at my hands clasped in my lap. "Son, she's no goo...

Doing my best to be patient, I waited for a sign that Joy was sleepy. A couple of times during the movie, she stifled a yawn, then offered me a guilty smile. I knew my best friend almost as well as I knew myself. As hard as she tried to stay up till eleven, her natural sleep cycle inevitably won the battle. The film still had thirty minutes left when she grudgingly rose from the couch. Turning toward her dad, she leaned t...

I was the pursuer at first. But on that night we found ourselves alone, respective spouses having gone to bed hours before, she needed no coaxing to sit in my lap. Such power in her kiss, in the way she thrust her tongue into my mouth. Her teeth greedily seized my lower lip. Passion granted me the gift of prognostication. For this woman, I would surrender everything: my marriage, my home, my reputation. And my lover? She'...

It was wrong, what I did to Melanie. I understood that. But you see, my obsession had grown to rival hers. I felt I had no option other than trickery. And truth be told, I never dreamed she'd fall for the deception. In the autumn of 1983, Melanie and I were both twenty. We'd grown up together as neighbors in a rural county. Our village barely warranted a name. I always knew Melanie was different. Quiet and dreamy, she did...