As his enviable deep-tanned body slid along hers, she couldn’t help but shudder. Every glorious, muscled inch cried out he was all man. In his grasp her body tingled, his thumbs thrilling her nipples, his moist tongue following the same path. Between gasps, Minx revisited how surreal it was that a man she’d fantasized about for years now lay in her bed, seducing her body and whispering sweet nothings into the darkness.

“I never thought you’d be here with me,” she moaned as his lips encased her nipples, suckling, driving her mad. “This is...unexpected.”

In silence, his gaze searched her face, his warm breath exotic and spicy with a hint of oregano. “Are you complaining?”

Minx shook her head, surprised the movement didn’t give her whiplash. “Not at all.”

“Good. Now let me finish what I’ve started.”

She melted into the mattress, her arms and legs spread eagle, manipulated solely by him...like a submissive marionette. The throb of his cock beat faintly against her thigh. Slow. Hypnotic. A reverberation jacking her adrenaline, and making her ribs feel too small for her lungs. Excitement scoured through her veins, leaving every nerve on edge, aroused. If he moved, she imagined her body would catapult to the other side of the room.

His hand moved along her skin, the pads of his fingers lightly calloused, working their magic over her tummy and circling her bellybutton, careful of the silver charm piercing. His fingers slipped between her thighs and down, lightly stroking her swollen clit. He tilted his face to her, eyes wide and appreciative. “Ah, my wet angel, you are ready for me.”

“I’ve been ready.”

“I can’t wait to feel my cock inside you. It’s been a long time coming.”

The words turned her mind to mush. “A long time.”

His erection pulsed hard and fast now, a split second after the thudding of her heartbeat. Sweat pooled along her hairline, coating her forehead with tiny beads. Warmth nestled around her chin and cheeks, burning like a fever, the kind of fever she’d never want a cure for. Through her blurred gaze, his lips morphed from coy to seductive, and then back to coy.

“I love to watch you writhe beneath me while my fingers sink inside your pussy.”

Her lips trembled, voice obstructed by a hundred sighs as he fondled her clit. Thighs parted wide, Minx rocked her pelvis up, craving contact, begging for it.

He blew a strand of hair from over his eye, narrowing his gaze seductively. “Patience.”

Her lips set to a pout, she exhaled and bit her lip. The word patience didn’t exist in her vocabulary. Not around him, not now, not ever. “Please.” Her voice dragged between a whine and demand.

The tip of his cock blazed across her pubic bone and teased her nubbin. His length startled her every time, smooth and thick, an embodiment of pleasure with a single stroke. On his knees, he scooped his hands beneath her ass and dragged her closer. Her breath stalled. An absolute quiet hung in the air as he wrapped her legs around his waist and steadied his cock against her pussy. Thud, thud, thud. The vein in her neck pulsated, her lips open, ready to release a groan as he sank inside her center.

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. Minx sat upright, trembling, damp sheets coiled around her body like a snake. With her fist she shut the intrusive sound off, cursing her clock and the morning that always came too soon. Breath jagged, lips dry, she rested her head back on the pillow and stared at the miniature bits of dust illuminated by the sunrise at her window. The blur between her dreams and reality came to an unfair point in the early morning hours. Always close to penetration, but never achieving it. She wasn’t getting any in her real life, and she wasn’t getting any in her dreams.

Legs shaky and mind in an aroused haze, Minx would be operating on a near orgasm all day if she didn’t take care of it. Inside her nightstand lay a treasure trove of toys to pacify her current desires. With the dream clear in her mind, she chose the suction cupped dildo and small silver vibrator, “the sure thing” she liked to call it. In the living room, she suctioned the makeshift cock onto a glass table and readied the vibrator. Still wet from her dream, she easily slid over the thick makeshift cock and eased herself up and down its hearty length until she’d found a rhythm.

She started the vibrator on slow speed, gently tapping her over-sensitive clit before burrowing it to the right side, her most sensitive place. Minx closed her eyes, pretending she rode his cock, as if he sat in a chair behind her, his hands following the curve of her lower back, knuckles brushing against her flesh. She imagined his hands gripping her hips tightly, propelling her faster over his cock, the friction addictive, seductive. Minx groaned at the beautiful agony flowing through her. Blood swirled through her body, her thighs tensing as she went down on the dildo, its ridged texture pushing her slit open and closed.

Her eyes watered the moment she sped up the vibrator, her clit responding, sending chills throughout her body. With the vibrator tight alongside her clit, she prodded it around, circling the taut nub, imagining his fingers, his tongue, as if clones of him surrounded her with no other thought than to satisfy her needs.

Harder, faster, she pumped, ignoring the burn in her leg muscles. Minx shimmied her pussy up and down the dildo, driven by the sheer need to climax, freeing her up to think clearly later on. She turned the vibrator up a notch and let it do the rest of the work as she pulsed steadily, the dildo shoved far up inside her, straining to ignore the sharp spasm of pain shooting through her quads. Closing her eyes, it didn’t take much to imagine his firm hands helping her momentum along. She flipped the switch up again and let the vibrations steal her away into the beginnings of an orgasm. Muscles clenched, she squatted up and down, moving in a frenzied state. Her vision blurred as her breathing hitched.

With a boisterous roar, she cried out as the festering orgasm came free, dispelling her juices along her inner thighs and all over the dildo. Minx raised herself off the toy and flopped to the easy chair smiling, breathless, satisfied. She laughed, unbelieving how riled up she became whenever she thought about him. Desperation ran through her blood, as if she would never get enough. Her fantasies stretched beyond the imagination, filling her with visions. She’d feel him around her all day, his memory an embrace, voice quiet in her ear, full lips against her earlobe. In her mind she would be without inhibitions, daring and ready for anything, but she feared if they were ever together that she’d hightail it right out of there, tail between her legs.

A glance to the clock reminded her that the day wasn’t going to wait for her spasms to finish.

Minx hurried through a cool shower, trying her best to let go of the agonizing torment. The pulsing water against her nipples only fueled the fire again, stoking it, making her dizzy. Minx closed her eyes and imagined him staring, open-mouthed, appreciating her curvaceous figure. Two seconds into thinking about him and her body raged with fire again, a tumultuous itch needing a rough scratch. God, how he seduced her body and mind.

She reached her fingers down and rubbed her clit furiously, her heavy pants fogging up the shower door, until another orgasm burst forth, this time knocking her off balance. As she lay on the shower floor, the water spiked along her body, washing her juices down the drain. Somehow she couldn’t get enough. Spent and shaky, Minx stood, lathered up the body wash, and smoothed it all over, the sandalwood and patchouli calming her mind.

It had been weeks since she’d been able to sleep in and cling to such vivid dreams. Since classes were cancelled for the day, she didn’t have to rush. Clean and rinsed, she shut off the water and wrapped a towel around her body, stepping onto the plush blue rug. From the medicine cabinet she grabbed her moisturizer and worked it into her skin. Her cheeks burned a jeweled pink, eyes sparkling. The orgasms had done her good.

She took her time applying makeup, easy on the eye shadow and blush as her boss requested, and streaked on two coats of sheer lip-gloss. She fished around a straw basket for a blue hair tie and set her hair in a sleek ponytail. Minx slipped her feet into a pair of shoes and gave the thumbs up to her reflection; for work it would do. Hurriedly, she hopped into her blue VW Bug and drove to work, munching a granola bar on the way.

The second she pushed the backdoor of the pizzeria open, she was hit with the scrumptious aromas of Tony’s Italian cooking. The scents of sweet basil, oregano, tomatoes, olives, mozzarella cheese, and fresh dough filled the air, making her mouth water. She fixed her short black apron around her waist and tied it first in back, and then again in the front, looping the excess into a bow. Tony had a habit of buying things in extra large, mindful of expanding girths in a pasta place.

Minx rummaged around in a small metal box on the counter for her nametag and clipped it onto her shirt. Her fifty-something mobster-looking boss nearly collided with her as she headed out to the front.

In a raspy foreign grumble, he cursed, and then stopped a moment. “Sorry, in a hurry. Nature calls.”

Horrified by the visual, she scrunched up her nose and smoothed out her denim skirt. “Too much information, Tony. Way too much information.”

Ignoring the muffled retort, she tucked a notepad into her apron and made sure the pen worked. With everything in order, Minx headed out to the front and waited for the first customers to shuffle in. It was show time.

Pesto’s Pizzeria was her home away from home. It was known for serving the best pizza in the small city of Corvallis, Oregon. Tony Pesto, her gigantic but kind boss, refused to share the secret of his infamous sauce. He was a joy to work with and very generous with a raise two to three times a year. She most admired his lack of an ego. His sauce was the best, but he remained humble. He wore generosity well, helping out where needed in the community and offering moneysaving specials to the university students. Even though his spaghetti and lasagna were equally delicious, nearly everyone came for the best pizza in town.

Pesto’s was also the only job she’d found that catered to her oddball university schedule and selfish request for evenings off. Monday through Friday and occasional weekends, she worked from eleven to seven, allowing the early morning for her classes. Mythology and Journalism 101 were on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Business Mathematics and Aromatherapy took up her Tuesdays and Thursdays. Next year would be a huge juggle of handling full-time classes and work, but she hoped it would all pay off. For now she was taking advantage of her free evenings.

While she waited for people to come in, she jotted down notes for her next column, trying to decide which aphrodisiac to write about. Anchovies, maybe she’d write about anchovies. Oysters had been popular the week before, so she figured it was a safe bet. Pleased to have a head start on things, she outlined what else she’d add.

Her evenings were spent working on a webzine she’d creatively named Love Stinks. The name worked well in garnering people’s attention, and enticed them to keep reading to figure out what the website was about. Love Stinks partnered together the relationship between various scents and the way they affected people through columns and non-fiction articles she researched and wrote. She’d always been partial to how vanilla and chocolate affected her in different ways.

When she’d first started the webzine, it had been based on research she’d done for a candle-making class. Minx envisioned opening a shop, being an artsy kind of gal, selling candles and other homemade crafts. With all her business courses, she hoped to see her dream come alive. Until then she absorbed all aspects of owning and running a business, and figured Love Stinks would prove useful in networking and possibly loyal customers.

After only a month, the webzine became its own entity. People from all over the world, as far away as Pakistan, Spain, and Norway, wrote to her asking for more information. Soon she was putting together articles and columns, doing contests and trivia questions, moderating a public forum, and dishing out advice left and right. It suited her fine and filled up her otherwise uneventful evenings.

With a tray of Parmesan cheese, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper, she busily stocked the tables. Napkins were folded in the shape of a triangle and set in the middle atop a tablecloth of sandy brown paper. Eating utensils sat at the right in a mesh basket, with a cup of crayons to the left.

When she seated customers, she wrote her name on the tablecloth to seem more personable and to help break the ice. People didn’t mind waiting as much for their pizza when they could pass the time doodling. After they left, she loved to look over the tablecloths, especially when children drew on them. Imaginative drawings of dragons and unicorns, games of tic-tac-toe and hangman, and an array of smiley faces made her job less daunting. There were many regulars, like Joe from the furniture store down the block, and Shelly, the kind florist who insisted Minx give her a call when the time came to be married, offering fantastic discounts on all floral arrangements. Somehow, Minx didn’t think a wedding was in her future, or at least anytime soon, but thanked her all the same.

Anxious for it to be noon, she kept glancing at her watch, willing time to go faster. Like clockwork, he always arrived at noon. While she busied herself wiping down the register, the first customers of the day bounded in, each wrapped up in a loud conversation on separate cell phones. Minx hated the things with a passion. After being made to wait one time too many due to a customer’s incessant rambling on their portable phone, she refused to ever own one herself. With an oh, so fake but polite smile, she seated them at a booth far in the back.

Once she took the family’s order, she tucked the slip of paper into the revolving silver trolley that hung in the middle of the kitchen and service area, and positioned it around so the workers in the back could see. Tony had a small staff and kept them busy chopping up fresh ingredients and mincing garlic. Minx was about to check her watch again when the door opened and her vivacious co-worker slash best friend slunk in wearing sunglasses and a mischievous grin. Right away she knew something was up.

“So nice of you to make it in.”

Melanie slid off her shades, and Minx instantly recognized the remnants of a hefty hangover. She gave her friend a sly smile as she filled the drink order for the yappy customers and walked their tray over, careful to not spill anything.

While their pizza was baking in the large cast iron oven, she snuck into the backroom and crossed her arms, tapping her foot impatiently.

The petite blonde turned to her with a sheepish look in her aquamarine eyes and bowed her head. “I’m sorry. I’m late. Forgive me?”

Minx bit her cheeks to fake being mad, but she couldn’t hold the expression for long. Her friend’s pathetic look was priceless.

“Yes, of course. Just get yourself together and come out. It sucks to be alone out there.”

“Looks like you only have one customer anyway. You can handle them all by yourself.”

“That’s not the point. Besides, I want to hear all about your night. It would appear you had a good time. Come out as soon as you can.”

She went back out to the front just in time as a slew of people came in at once.

Melanie padded out and went straight to work making sure people had what they needed.

When they had a moment alone together, Minx slipped back behind the counter and started filling canisters with Parmesan cheese.

“So, spill. Was it Josh?”

A deep burgundy color swept across her friend’s features. “Oh, yeah. We went to a party and got totally sloshed.”

She frowned. “Who the hell parties on a Sunday night?”

Her friend snorted and gave her a nasty look. “You sound like we’re in high school or something. Hello? We’re twenty-one. We can party whenever we have the energy to stay awake all night.”

“I guess you’re right.”

“Duh. If you’d ever tear yourself away from the computer long enough to have a social life, you’d know what I’m talking about. Honestly. Sometimes you scare me.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. So, go on about your night. What did you do after the party?”

“Well, I went back with Josh to his place, and he showed me his amazing record collection. I wish my parents hadn’t sold all my old albums. The covers were freakin’ amazing! I mean come on, Deep Purple, The Who; it was all about the cover back then.”

“Which ones did he have?”

Melanie’s face turned bright red again, and she chewed at her lip. “Umm. That part is a little fuzzy right now. I bet I’ll remember later, though.”

She loved her friend dearly, all one hundred and twenty pounds of free-spirited love. “You’re one in a million. Tell me what you do remember.”

Her friend’s eyelashes fluttered, and a goofy grin spread across her face. “It would be impossible to forget how good his lips felt all over my body. Josh kisses like nobody’s business. I think his tongue knows the inside of my mouth better than my dentist.”

Minx laughed and shook her head. Leave it to her friend to be explicit when it came to matters of the opposite sex.

Melanie grabbed her arm and gave it a squeeze. “Want to know what we tried for the first time?”

“I’m afraid that if I say yes, I’ll be sorry.”

“Anal beads.”

Minx almost dropped one of the canisters she was filling. “Oh god, I didn’t need to hear that.”

Her friend clutched her hands to her chest and pouted. “I’m wounded that my best friend of like, fifteen years wouldn’t care to know when I had something up my ass.”

“Since I’ve known you there has always been something up your ass,” Minx joked.

“Bite your tongue. You just wait for the day when you want to divulge to me about what kinky toys you’ve used. I’ll mock you as you did me.” She stuck out her tongue for added emphasis.

“I promise to not tell you about the sordid details of my sex life.”

“Do you want to know how the beads felt?”

“Not really, no.” She wasn’t about to say she’d been secretly wondering about them. It would only egg Melanie on more.

“Oh, come on. You’re not even a little bit curious?”

Minx bit the insides of her cheeks. “Nope.”

“They were real pretty. Looked like a strand of elegant pearls. Bet they were sexy as hell to watch. I’m going to have to get Josh to put a mirror on the ceiling so I can watch too. That kind of stuff always turns me on. I swear I nearly climaxed the second he tugged on them.”

“Melanie!”