It was a warm sunny day in October. Sophie and I spent a perfect afternoon together, walking in the park, sitting by the river, talking about everything and nothing. We’d only been dating three months, and the excitement of being together was still fresh. She’d come out in tight black jeans and a thick orange sweater, but with the unexpected autumn heat, she was overdressed, and when we sat down on a bench by the river, s...

I had never been publicly humiliated by a girl until I met Rachel. And that night changed my life forever. When I was fresh out of college, I waited tables for a couple of years at a swanky central London club called Enricos. The place attracted some high-rollers, a few gangsters and a lot of very beautiful girls. It was a regular club with dancing, live DJs and on some nights a band. But once a month they ran an XXX nigh...

Lucy slept late on Saturday morning and it wasn’t until after nine that she was awoken by knocking on her bedroom door. “Honey, are you up yet?” “No Dad,” she called out sleepily. The door opened, and his head appeared. “We’re off now sweetheart. Back tomorrow evening. The number of the hotel is on the kitchen table.” “Okay Daddy. Have a nice time.” “You be a good girl while we’re away.” “When am I not?” she asked innocen...

When I was twenty-one, I worked as a waiter in an upmarket bar that often hosted bachelorette parties and had a contract with a couple of male strippers. I was just serving drinks of course, running table service, but the waiter’s uniform wasn’t that different from what the strippers wore and after a few drinks, a lot of the girls didn’t notice the difference, or didn’t care. They saw a good looking young guy with muscles...

Miss Chastain’s office was a spacious room on the first floor, with windows on three sides overlooking the playing fields. The afternoon had become blisteringly hot, and she had the wooden blinds pulled down over the open windows. Four o’clock was the hour set aside for discipline, and as we waited for Rachel to arrive, the French teacher explained the school policy. When I took the job, I knew that St Mary’s used corpora...

My wife is Thai, and before we came to settle permanently in the UK, we lived for a few years on the island of Ko Lanta, where she worked as a medic, in a traditional wooden house near the sea. When we had been married for six months, her younger sister Kanda came to live with us. She had just finished college and was looking for a job. She was 23 years old. Kanda was similar to her older sister in many ways. She had the...

It was a bright, warm morning early in September, and the playing fields of St Mary’s sparkled in the autumn sunlight. In the distance, a class of girls was playing hockey. As we turned the corner of the main building, heading for Miss Chastaine’s room for a French class, we stopped for a moment to enjoy the scene. “Are you an athlete, Mr Johnson?” my colleague asked. “Oh, I dabbled in tennis a bit at college. I was never...

I Only a few of use knew the place. Behind the music room, past the tennis courts, then a snaking, furtive path under the apple trees, where the short grass of the sports fields gave way to untended meadow. To the far side of the school grounds, a hundred yards from any watching eyes. Then down the slope, and through a barbed wire fence that your boyfriend had to hold for you as you squeezed through, hoping you didn't cat...

Friday morning. The store was quiet. A couple of people looking at kitchens. Furniture deserted. I was busy in beds, plumping the pillows when I heard a gentle cough. “Can I help you?” “I’m looking for a bed," she replied. “Queen size. Brass frame. For me and my boyfriend.” I smiled at this unnecessary detail, but she did seem rather young to be shopping for furniture. She had a pretty face with large dark eyes, but her l...

I followed Martina into the living room of her small basement flat. "Take a seat," she said. "Be with you in mo."  She flung her gym bag in the corner and disappeared though a bead curtain into the next room, apparently the bedroom. I caught a glimpse of an unmade bed, clothes on the floor. The living room was no better: books, magazines and clothes lay about on every available surface. There was a tennis racket lying on...

The first time I noticed Martina, she was kneeling on a yoga mat waiting for class to begin. It was a small group, mostly middle-aged ladies, and she stood out straight away as the only other young person in the room. As I rolled out my mat, I noticed her tying back her long brown hair. The second time I noticed her, she was kneeling on all fours with her head arched upward, her back curved. She had on expensive-looking y...