#Harshness 1

Alone, during the quiet and empty hours of the night, Odile faces up to what it will mean for her to be with Andrew. It tears her apart. And she lets it. [Read More]

Estimated reading time: 13 minutes; 2700 words

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Awkward, not good at small-talk, Lauren is both uncomfortable and unaccountably happy to have bumped into an older man at the gallery private view. Both feelings are intensified when he casually makes a surprising request. But it becomes too much for her, and she runs away. [Read More]

Estimated reading time: 18 minutes; 3700 words

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He grins at her on the tube, looks at her very directly, then gets off; fascinated, she follows, and discovers him to be charming company. When he has to leave, she finds she doesn't want him to.. [Read More]

Estimated reading time: 24 minutes; 5000 words

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Nimue, needing a change, ends up in a bookstore, and finds 'The Story of O', which fascinates her. When a fascinating and effortlessly 'in charge' woman insists on buying the book for her, Nimue finds herself taken for a ride. [Read More]

Estimated reading time: 15 minutes; 3100 words

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A junior lawyer introduces us to Peter Strachey, author of the first 'full-service' contract, the test case that established it, and recounts her first meeting with him. [Read More]

Estimated reading time: 15 minutes; 3200 words

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Of course, the VIP party were late - these things always run over time. And Natalie and I had gotten bored, so we began horsing about a little - pretending we were working up a welcome dance for the founder - just filling in the time, really, although both of us, I suspect, didn't mind an opportunity to show off a little to the rest of the office. But as luck would have it, we were gee-ing each other on to do sexy little shimmies when the VIP party walked in. [Read More]

Estimated reading time: 13 minutes; 2800 words

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I had said that simple 'Yes', less than 24 hours ago, knowing that I had agreed to an outrage, and saying yes anyway. Was I more alive, now, because of having made that choice— done something that took me away from the deathly routine of the only kind of a job that a girl with multiple drug felonies was ever likely to get? Or, much more disturbing, was it the wildness of the outrages that had woken me up? [Read More]

Estimated reading time: 19 minutes; 4100 words

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Like a small miracle, she was rewarded for this abject surrender to her depair with a realisation. It wasn't Andrew who had made her into this shameful thing, this weak, dirty whore; she had been like this all along, underneath; it was not possible that Andrew should have degraded her in such a short time if she was not already what He had seen in her. [Read More]

Estimated reading time: 16 minutes; 3300 words

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The unacceptable reality, the truth which she cannot hide from herself, but also cannot endure, is that it was her who had asked the questions. Her who had driven it— at least at the start. That as soon as she had stopped responding, they had suggested a change of subject. [Read More]

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes; 1800 words

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Stefan had made his decision, and this conversation only reinforced it. She was suitable. Her chances of having a meaningful life were better his way. Even if it would be the sort of meaning that he appreciated, and very different indeed to the kind of 'special' that Ulya had hoped for her child. [Read More]

Estimated reading time: 12 minutes; 2400 words

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