“Miss Conti, please see me after class.” The message delivered, Mr. Desaulniers returned to the seat at his desk as the bell rang. As if a cord had been cut, twenty-seven twelfth graders leapt to their feet, reaching for their coats and their phones, already making plans for what little remained of the afternoon. The twenty-eighth student sat frozen in her seat. Behind her, Mona Abdullah whispered, “Ooh, Mika’s in trouble...

Bertie tugged for the third time at his necktie, then finally unwound it and started over. The motions of a Windsor knot still came clumsily to him, but it wouldn’t do for the new Assistant Manager to look sloppy. No matter how many attempts it took, he was going to look the part. It would just take some getting used to. “Bertie! Can I have one of these?” The refrigerator door blocked most of her from view, but a shock of...

The week before Christmas, Mike discovered a butt plug in his sock drawer. It hadn’t been there before, as far as he knew, and if it hadn’t been for the thump it made when he’d opened the drawer looking for a pair of cotton crews he likely wouldn’t have noticed it at all. He held it between his fingers and stared dumbly in the bedroom’s early morning light. He had no idea how it had ended up among his clothes, but he had...

Sherrie took her seat, crossing her legs. This was new territory for her, and she wanted to ensure she was making the best impression. She’d gone for the ripped jeans over the fishnets, a loose-fitting IME T-shirt instead of the bodice that gave her the illusion of curves. She’d tied back her mane of strawberry blonde curls. The final look was… approachable, just another person on the street. And then she decided she had...

Sunlight peeked through a hole in the canvas above her, and try as she might Alicia couldn’t turn away to avoid it. The strange woman behind her snored loudly, and she finally had to admit that she wasn’t getting back to sleep. The morning air whistled in through the seams in the tent, and she shivered under her blanket. Her second night here, and she was still shocked by how cold the badlands could be. She’d found hersel...

Monday February 14, 2011. 5:51 PM. Verna stared at the screen until the next minute rolled, then set her Blackberry down on the table beside her. What was it that Dean Sheridan had said – five o’clock, five-thirty at the latest? Despite the date, she hadn’t expected their dinner to be anything more than professional – the Dean was a pleasant enough companion for a woman of Verna’s age even if he had ‘gone to seed’ as her...

Shortly before noon, Rachel emerged from bed with a spring in her step. After all, it wasn’t every day she woke up expecting to have a three-way. She’d packed the silky black robe to wear as a housecoat while they were staying over at Mika’s house, but without anything underneath, it was a stunning showcase for her curves – and for her small size, Rachel had a lot of those. She couldn’t find the cord that was supposed to...

The phone screen lit up again, and Bertie thanked his instincts again for putting the device on silent before he’d gone to bed. He rolled over on the unfamiliar mattress, hoping it was just his mother checking in or maybe a work emergency. If you want to catch Up, Mill Rush noon tomorrow Great potato skins He’d traveled over six hours in bad weather to be here, to spend the weekend with a friend he hadn’t seen in over a y...

Rachel had never slept well in somebody else’s bed. She’d managed to get a couple of hours’ rest in the car, but it had done more harm than good – not only was she unable to get back to sleep, but dozing off while seated had left her with an ache in her neck and shoulders that wouldn’t go away. It wasn’t fair. She hadn’t seen Mika in over a year, ever since the younger woman had graduated and moved home to start an intern...

“You know,” said Bertie to no one in particular, “ever since we’ve decided to be openly kinky, I’ve had to do a lot more driving.” Rachel snored in the seat beside him. He’d clocked her nodding off since before they’d left Toronto. The app had told them to expect a three-hour drive, but he’d run that estimate almost a week ago. He hadn’t calibrated it for a Friday preceding a long weekend, nor had he expected the snowfall...

Maybe it’s the posture. She shifts again in the oddly-shaped chair. It still feels wrong, what should be the headrest presses against her breasts, and the back forces her legs apart. She remembers being more comfortable the last time. Beside her he waits patiently, his intent unreadable behind his mask. Nearby is a tray of tools that she saw once when she arrived and from which she has averted her eyes ever since. He clea...

Leanne blinked. When her eyes reopened the little boat was still there, pinned against the wall at the point where her eyes crossed. It faded in and out of focus like it was mocking her. “Daddy…” she pouted, “how much longer do I have to do this?” “How long did I tell you that you had to hold it there?” She remembered. “Eleven minutes and twenty seconds.” “That’s right. And seeing as it’s been—“ the chair creaked behind h...

It had been an oddly calm day at the café. There had been no inexplicable imbalances in the registers, no clueless trainees in need of babysitting, no last-minute sick calls - even the ever-malfunctioning espresso machine had kept its cool. Bertie had spent the latter half of his shift waiting for something to inevitably go wrong, but he clocked out at four p.m. disappointed. Typically by this time of the day he’d be exha...

She didn’t want to hurt Bertie. But it was coming to the point where that pain would be inevitable. Two years, Rachel remembered. It had been two years since they finished couples’ counseling, two years since their therapist of all people had introduced them to a community of kinky people like themselves. Since then, Rachel had seen more red or marked butts – her own included! – than she’d ever thought she’d lay eyes on....

Bertie had been called a number of unpleasant things in his life. An ex-girlfriend had called him spineless years ago. An employee he’d fired for drinking on the job had said he was a narc, and his own mother in a moment of frustration years ago had called him an ungrateful child. But, having his own girlfriend refer to him as a ‘tight-ass’? That particularly hurt. Less than an hour before, in a rare moment of serendipity...