#Harshness 1

He wasn't even a proper boyfriend. I mean, I saw him fairly often, had sex with him, occasionally went to places with him -- but there was no real relationship, no depth to it, no thought in my mind that it could ever go anywhere. Which just makes what happened even stranger. Not that it matters now, of course. Nothing matters any more. But it intrigues me, going over it, how one step led to another, how improbable and -- well wrong, it all was. Is. And yet when I think about each decision point, each place where I could have changed the way things went -- changed them for the better, for the saner, for the healthier -- I cannot imagine myself, at that moment, making any other choice than the one that I did make. [Read More]

Estimated reading time: 19 minutes; 3900 words

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Only one girl - that anyone knew of, at least - had ever come close to disturbing Anne-Marie's aura of imperturbable control and omniscience. Liana. [Read More]

Estimated reading time: 13 minutes; 2700 words

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'You have enormous capacity for intensity, desire, extremity – but this is either deeply suppressed, or perhaps, you are simply unaware of it – it having never been awakened.' [Read More]

Estimated reading time: 27 minutes; 5800 words

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Tiffany had always considered herself a sensible, intelligent girl - not one to go too far, or forget her dignity. But she is getting bored. At 22, she has a decent job in an office, with some sort of prospects, she supposes, but nothing that excites her. The men that surround her, attracted by her lovely face, her elegant bearing, her frankly gorgeous body, her dress sense, her pretty smile, are nice enough, but again, none of them really excite her. [Read More]

Estimated reading time: 16 minutes; 3300 words

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Chloe is awakened by the door closing; it's morning, and someone has delivered her a little breakfast—croissants, hot chocolate, orange juice, on a pretty, ornate little metal tray with its own stand. She looks up, still mostly asleep, understands, slowly, that she is naked, in a strange bed, in a strange room; a luxurious, soft bed, in a beautiful, sun-filled room, well furnished with subdued antiques, overlooking lush greenery, countryside. But grand as all this is, she is aware, as she awakes more fully, of something, something huge … and then the memory of the previous night rushes over her, and she is gradually overtaken by a slow, powerful, suffocating panic attack, which has her clutching at the bedclothes around her convulsively as her heart rate accelerates, her breathing gets wilder and deeper, her belly begins to try to turn itself inside out, her legs rigid, cramping, her mind in turmoil. It can't be. It just cannot be! That … that she … that they … that he … [Read More]

Estimated reading time: 62 minutes; 13200 words

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She knew she wanted to do this. Well, almost … probably… She just didn’t know why. She knew why not, of course. She’d done that exercise the self-help books tell you to do; make two headings - WHY TO DO IT and WHY NOT TO DO IT. The second list went on forever, and made all the sense. The first list just said; ‘I think I want to’. Then she had crossed out ‘think’ and replaced it with ‘almost certainly’. [Read More]

Estimated reading time: 16 minutes; 3400 words

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Odile, left in turmoil after a torrid night, spends days in confusion, unable to process what has happened. Meeting him again, he meets her self sabotage with brutal honesty, and Odile is overwhelmed. [Read More]

Estimated reading time: 35 minutes; 7300 words

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He asks her to consent. But he won't say what to. [Read More]

Estimated reading time: 22 minutes; 4700 words

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Her consent is tested - and intensified.. [Read More]

Estimated reading time: 39 minutes; 8200 words

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SENTENCED: convicted of lascivious behaviour in a corrupt theocracy, she is identified as a tasty morsel and carefully suborned. OUT OF THE BLUE: Her employer abruptly requires a new level of service - and she finds herself complying. WHAT HE WANTS: Her lover has become increasingly instrumental in his use of her. She's appalled - but also transfixed. [Read More]

Estimated reading time: 12 minutes; 2500 words

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