Pleasure for Pleasure

by Jamie Sobrato

• ISBN13: 9780373790883
• ISBN10: 0373790880
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-04-01
• Publisher: Harlequin

Excerpts

 

Dogs ... dolls ... donuts ... but no Dominatrixes? Josie Marcus flipped through the D section of the Yellow Pages again to make sure she hadn't missed anything, maybe a tiny listing that read, "For Dominatrixes, see Erotic Service Professionals." She scanned the pages more carefully. No, nothing. Now she had no idea where else to find a last-minute guest speaker on the topic of Introductory S&M. Her scheduled dominatrix had just canceled, leaving her with twenty-four hours to fill a slot, or face dropping yet another seminar from the already spotty schedule. There had been a Rolodex full of phone numbers for past speakers at the Lovers for Life Center, but last week the center's resident cat, Eros, had decided to use it as his own desktop litter box, and now said Rolodex was in the garbage. Two months running the center and Josie was only driving it deeper into financial ruin. Taking over her mother's business had been a huge mistake. Josie was a marriage counselor, not a sex therapist, and she didn't have her mother's vast experience in the subject, either. She also didn't know squat about running a business, but her mother had begged, and Josie had given in, as usual. She'd been wanting to come back home to San Francisco anyway, and a year of counseling about-to-divorce couples had skewed her perspective enough to believe that leading seminars with titles such as "Fifty Ways to Drive Him Wild" might be fun. Josie stared at her discussion notes and tried not to think about the fact that in a matter of minutes she would have to talk about multiple orgasms like an expert when she'd never even encountered the mythical phenomenon herself. The elderly attendees of the seminar about to start, "Reawakening the Goddess: Great Sex After Sixty," were going to eat her alive. Noise from the busy street outside invaded the lobby as the front door opened, and Josie looked up from the registration counter to see Miriam MacAfee, a long-time attendee of the center's seminars, heading straight for her. She had that purposeful look in her eye that people always get when they're about to scrub the toilet or offer advice. She stopped on the other side of the registration counter and placed one liver-spotted hand on top of Josie's. "Is your mother coming back soon, dear?" "Hi, Mrs. MacAfee. I'm afraid not. She's planning to stay in Prague until next year." "That's a shame. The center just isn't the same without her." "Tell me about it." "You're doing a fine job, though," she said, studying Josie closely. "Thanks." "You just seem a little uptight." She leaned forward and dropped her voice to a whisper. "Having a bit of a drought?" "Excuse me?" "Your sex life, honey. Is it all dried up?" She gave Josie's hand a reassuring squeeze. Josie's face burned. Was Miriam MacAfee, seventy-year-old piano teacher, really asking her about her sex life? Could this get any more bizarre? "Um. Well ..." "It's okay. I understand." "You do?" "Oh, sure. Your professional reputation hinges on your having a frisky sex life." "It does?" Boy, was she ever in trouble. "And it's embarrassing to a young girl like you to admit things aren't happening in bed. But let me tell you, once you get to be my age, you learn there's no shame in needing a good roll in the hay." "Hmm." Josie set aside the phone book and made a show of studying her class roster. Miriam leaned over the counter and peered at the class discussion notes Josie had set aside. "Looks like we'll be having quite a discussion tonight. Have you had any practical experience with multiple orgasms?" "Um, well ..." "Oh, dear, you haven't, have you?" "Actually, I'm very familiar with the subject," she lied. Great, she might as well sew a scarlet L for loser on her chest, if near-strangers were able to look at her and see that it had been far too long since her last sexual encounter. Maybe if she formally announced her problem, some willing male would take pity on her and turn her into a well-sexed woman. She already possessed the intellectual knowledge of sex to talk like a woman of experience, but what she needed was the action to back it up. And now she had no idea how she was going to conduct tonight's seminar wondering if the entire class could tell by looking at her that she desperately needed to get laid. Desperately was the operative word. Josie felt her cheeks redden again just thinking about the outrageous dreams she'd been having ever since she'd started working at the center. All the sex talk was affecting her. Heaven help her if she passed a cute guy on the street. She'd spend the rest of the day fantasizing about him until she had herself worked up into a frenzy of monumental proportions. Miriam finished nosing through the class discussion notes and gave Josie an apologetic grin. "I'm being quite the pest, aren't I?" "Not at all." "I just hate to see a young woman like you not having the time of her life, that's all." She patted Josie's hand and wandered over to a group of women chatting near the window. Several more students filed in the front door and gathered in the reception area, talking and laughing. Josie counted gray and silver heads. Six, seven, eight, nine - that meant all attendees were present and she could begin the seminar anytime now. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. The idea of discussing sensual lubricants and unreliable erections with a group of grandmothers didn't exactly sit well with Josie, but here she was. Too late to back out now. She'd left San Francisco precisely to avoid this kind of humiliation. In fact, the Lovers for Life Center was one of the main reasons Josie had fled the city after college. She'd wanted to establish a life of her own far away from her mother's scandalous reputation in the psychological community, and she'd hoped to distance herself from sex therapy. So much for distance. "Okay, ladies. If you'll find yourselves a seat in the class area, we can get started." Every client present was a regular at the center, so they automatically headed for the comfortable circle of armchairs that made up the formal classroom. For more hands-on classes, or if the students just preferred it, a floor area with mats and pillows was also set up for seminars, but these women weren't interested in getting themselves to and from the floor. Josie shuffled through her class notes, suddenly feeling panicked. They were going to eat her alive. Miriam MacAfee was right; she had no sex life. How could she speak knowledgeably about sex to women who'd already spent a lifetime building their knowledge and experience? Her intellectual understanding of sex would have to be good enough. Her mother had started teaching her about the birds and the bees before most girls had even thought of putting Barbie and Ken dolls in scandalous positions. Josie understood the chemistry of sexual arousal the way some women understood how to throw together a perfect dinner or to match up a great outfit. She knew what made an unforgettable sexual experience. (Continues...)

Excerpted from Pleasure For Pleasure by Jamie Sobrato Copyright © 2003 by Harlequin Enterprises Ltd.
Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.