‘For God’s sake, Lenny, you should be off book by now.’ Eleanor Ingram was directing a play I’d written. I was standing in the wings watching the cast slowly destroy it despite Eleanor’s best efforts. With a sigh I turned away and poured myself a huge glass of red wine. ‘Drinking your way through a crisis?’ This was Emily Tibbett. Emily is the leading lady. She played the part of a ruthless, driven politician and could ha...

Tabitha had changed. When we first got together she’d been funny, light of heart, devil may care. She’d enjoyed adventure, taking chances. Sometimes it had been hard to keep up with her. But she’d changed. I was sitting in our bed. It was 3 in the morning and she was sleeping peacefully, occasional light snores drifting from her pretty mouth; or do snores come from the nose? Her dark, short hair was visible against the wh...

My target was to be a woman, possibly two women if I could arrange it. I cannot explain why but somehow I was more comfortable with that than had it been a man. There is a vast trade in substandard drugs, even substances like chalk sold as real drugs, packaged as if they were the genuine article. Millions suffer or die as a consequence of this vile trade. Katherine Eleanor Porter-Haynes had been the product of a woman of...

My Dad taught me to shoot when I was about 14 years old. He was a lovely man, gentle and popular. He had learned to shoot during a long and highly decorated career in the army and it was a passion of his, one he could not share with my mother who was always unkind to me, mainly I think, because she resented my relationship with him. I was good at shooting pistols and long guns and he encouraged me a lot. At University I j...

Ten minutes. Time passes at different rates. When something you are hoping for is awaited, time drags. When you’re in the dentist’s waiting room, time drags then too because you want the ordeal over. But when you are trying to formulate an answer to a question, the allotted period flies past. I watched the clock’s hands and I swear they moved faster than normal. I could think of nothing but what was on the other side of t...

It must have been about 9 in the evening. I woke up slowly, not sure exactly where I was. I opened my eyes and there was Eva, Greta’s girl, standing beside the bed. She smiled down at me and I realised I was alone in the bed. ‘Miss Greta would like me to help you prepare for the evening, Miss Kitty. I have chosen clothes for you that I think will fit and which will be prefect for your evening.’ She slowly, almost lovingly...

At 11 the next morning I stepped out of a taxi and entered Lise’s bar again. I’d worn a knee length dress in mid-blue – a summer dress because the weather was warm. I had on silk, white knickers but otherwise I was naked beneath the dress. Lise was sitting in a corner of the bar reading a newspaper. ‘Kitty, welcome! I know Greta will be here soon – she is looking forward to showing you our lovely City. You will have a won...

I had found the bar by searching the Internet. ‘A lesbian bar that caters for a mature, sophisticated clientele.’ At least that was how I had translated the German. If I was right it sounded less seedy than some and would therefore be safer for me. I’d been working in Berlin for two weeks and although my colleagues were friendly enough I’d had no society outside the office and evenings alone in an hotel, no matter how god...

Wednesday In the garden of the house we share there is a small bower of trees which encloses a seat. When she needs to think it is to that seat that she goes; for the quiet and the lack of diversion. I am not allowed there unless she takes me with her. It is her space. I sat in the room overlooking the garden and watched as she walked to her seat in the late evening sun. She is tall, lithe and graceful. Her dark hair is t...

Saturday morning arrived bright and clear and it was decided over breakfast that we’d go to the coast. It seemed only natural for Sophie and me to sit in the back of Lana’s Jaguar while the identical twins sat in the front. They were not identically dressed this morning. Both wore jeans, it’s true but Lana’s were black and Lyn’s blue. We’d gone up to our rooms after breakfast and dressed. ‘Wear a skirt, Em, I want to be a...

Lana went into the bathroom. It took me a few minutes to trust myself to get off the bed. Her suitcase was on a stand across the room so I walked over to it and found a small black velvet bag which felt quite heavy when I lifted it. I opened it and almost gasped in surprise. Nestling inside the soft velvet bag was a steel butt plug, not large but with a small jewel in the base. The plug had a long, slender stem and a bulb...

‘What are you doing on Saturday?’ Lana hadn’t spoken to me since that last weekend. Her work was high-powered stuff, corporate bollocks she called it but I suspected it was far more complex than she suggested. Certainly she seemed to be a very high earner and my friend Gina said she was something special. As if I didn’t know that already but perhaps that was not what Gina had meant. ‘I am disturbingly available.’ I could...

I don’t believe in the culture of ‘orgasm for orgasm.’ I suppose it is the sub in me that is happy to give a lover that pleasure and enjoy her climax for itself. I reveled in Lana’s satisfaction. Her breathing slowed and her eyes closed almost as if she were asleep. I watched her from between her knees, occasionally kissing her pale triangle of hair and the wet lips beneath. Lana slowly recovered from what had clearly bee...

The Gods’ tears fell in streams, bouncing of the street and soaking my boots. Even the short distance from the taxi to the front door of the large Georgian house left their leather dull and wet. I was glad I’d worn them and had my court shoes in my bag. The door was answered almost as I banged the huge brass knocker shaped like a ship’s anchor. Gina opened it. ‘My God, Emma, what a night. Come on in before you drown.’ I w...

‘Do you fancy a drink?’ It was the end of another art class, the last of that term in fact. Isobel had made her apologies for a quick getaway and I had been hoping she might take me home with her. Perhaps I looked crestfallen. Teri, the model, tapped me on the shoulder. ‘I said, do you fancy a drink?’ ‘I’m really sorry, I didn’t realise you were talking to me.’ She smiled, ‘There’s nobody else here.’ I said that, yes, I’d...