The Bright Pain
...Pain as Pleasure has many sensory flavors...Anne pressed the thorn into her palm until a bloom of blood pooled like a fallen raindrop in the lined land of her soft, satin-skinned hand. She breathed a small clandestine sigh of exquisite pleasure. This esoteric joy was what she called ‘the bright pain’. It made her sweat in her delicate places. It was her nightly ritual, as she sat on the sofa near the crackling fireplace in her bed chambers. As the night yawned deep...