“Door’s open! Come in.” Matthew eased himself into the office. No sign of her, other than the jacket hanging on her desk chair. “Hi…” “Take a seat.” Her voice came from the little bathroom. “I’ll be with you in a moment...” “Okay.” He perched himself on the couch, aware of his accelerated heartbeat. She’d closed the blinds, shutting out the late-afternoon sunshine and casting the room into cool shade. The air was sweet ev...

Bang to rights. That’s how Reece had caught her, and she knew it. The ethics of his accessing her bank statement? Those were moot. “I needed the money…” “So you stole my dad’s credit card?” “…for my studies.” “A PhD in Gucci?” he sneered. “I’d have paid it back…” “Oh, you’ll pay…” “Don’t tell him, please!” “…one way or another.” “Sorry?” “Your holes can buy my silence.” “What???” Minutes after Ellie’s flabbergasted choice...

Rick Lovett had no inkling, on arriving at Eastleigh Manor, of how comprehensively his marriage vows would be tested that night. How could he? His wife had accompanied him to the Christmas festivity, and even had she not been by his side, the moments he’d been tempted to stray since their wedding, some six years prior, numbered a paltry handful. Granted such itches tended to crave scratching in December. There was somethi...

Roses are red But fade when they’re plucked. Asses are heart-shaped And this girl’s is… It was the Valentine Celia hadn’t dared dream would happen. As she wrapped herself in red and applied crimson lip gloss, she recalled his welcome in Java Moment only two days prior. His face’s warmth had made her heart sing an aria. What contrast to its gloom one year earlier. “Sorry. It’s just bad timing.” Those words had rendered eve...

“‘To have and to hold’–that's what you said at the altar, right? “Well, this ex-boyfriend still has a hold on you, it seems. Seeing how I'm having you while holding down your quivering flesh in your newly carpeted living-room more firmly than your doting husband ever could. “Remember that when he takes you to dinner tonight. ‘Cos it's going to be the same story next year too. And the next. And the one after that. “Even wh...

"No," said Essie's vocal coach, "just because you greet me at the door in something skimpy and provocative, you don't get to take control of the lesson. “Your parents pay me handsomely to provide you with tuition, and that's what I'm going to do. “Feel that in my pants? That'll have you hitting high C and beyond, for most of the session. “Now go bend over that piano. I'm going to play a fucking concerto on your hot ass–on...

'Mind if my study partner, Stephanie, comes round?' Brian asked his dad. Alec had no problem, especially when he met the sexy bookworm. His son was clearly besotted with the girl, but clueless how to progress from the friend-zone. Encourage and advise his boy-that was Alec's initial intention. But Stephanie was too obviously enamoured with her friend's hot dad, and Alec way too horny following the separation. So, study ni...

It was a sweeter than average Saturday night at the office. Georgi Devereux was wrapped around my girth and sucking like a milkshake addict trying to drain the glass, and I was having a grand time. Then France’s finest, Claude Debussy, interrupted us and damn well spoiled the party. I’ve a rule harder than my dick on a good night–don’t call from a job unless things have gone further south than an Antarctic expedition. Cla...

In her bedroom Neely had done the low-budget equivalent of lowering the lights. Two small lamps were burning, from bookcase and bedside table respectively, and both dresser and headboard had been decked out with strings of multi-coloured Christmas bulbs. Neely leaned into the mirror, swaying her bottom gently as Shakira’s Hips Don’t Lie poured from her amped-up iPod. Her moves were vastly more sultry than she was used to,...

Extract from ‘Don’t Write Off Religion Yet’, a newspaper feature by Raymond Archer. We secularists use caricature to dismiss modern religious faith. We’ve got our list of favourites. The frothing fundamentalists, pronouncing fatwas and shooting abortionists. The pious traditionalists, mouldering in a cloud of incense and liturgy. The grating charismatics, happy clapping their way through a world in pain. Deluded at best a...

Ray walked Neely in reverse, keeping hold, till her calves bumped the bed. Then he was guiding her down onto the covers with his frame still tight to hers, easing her fully onto the bed while staying close on top, the trunk of his body between her parted legs. This was it—the roller coaster car had clack-clack-clacked its tortuous crawl, rising vertiginously high, till it hung on the brink, ready to make that first almigh...

04/07/10 12:58 GMT Well Carlotta— My strategy is about to pay handsome dividends. Come Monday 12th, you’ll be making good on every rash promise you’ve made. I have here a text message from the divine Miss Jordan, suggesting supper at my apartment this evening. My lovely Neely has been strangely moved by our recent interaction and has decided, it seems, to take a monumental step. Oh ye of little faith, Lotta. I’m about to...

Sapphire knelt like a good naked girl before the two quivering and manly fuck-poles. She reached out to caress the throbbing erections in both her palms and … “Oh my Lord …” This was so foolish. To be returning to Odyssey of Lust when Neely knew Ray was on his way, Sapphire’s slutty self-indulgence seeming an ever more enticing opposite to her abstinence. Since the picnic Neely had been downgrading the erotic promise of h...

26/06/10 11:26 GMT Carlotta— Right. Couple of developments since yesterday, both mildly problematic. Work is required on more than one front. Well, it keeps a guy focused. Neely called earlier, trying hard to sound calm and measured, but most definitely frayed underneath. I’m guessing the events of the past twenty-four hours have done much to unsettle her and that’s why she’s just cancelled our date. Oh she’s claiming chu...

Neely forgot Jasmine’s personality-glitch as her own clouds of moral confusion returned to hover over her all the way to the café. She threw herself into work, chattering to customers as distraction from a swarm of thoughts which buzzed like her new toy. Thankfully Leo didn’t ask about the birthday gift. Her other job, her real job was haunting her as well, chiefly the planned lunchtime meet with Jonas. What a frame of mi...