“The pink dress becomes my weekend and after-work favorite. I mow the lawn in it, cook meals, take the dogs for walks, and sit out on the deck after sundown catching the breeze while listening to late summer frogs. My husband reaches out and touches me often.”

“The pink dress becomes my weekend and after-work favorite. I mow the lawn in it, cook meals, take the dogs for walks, and sit out on the deck after sundown catching the breeze while listening to late summer frogs. My husband reaches out and touches me often.”

“‘Roll,’ I ordered, and suddenly I was on top of him, and the jasmine was crushed under us, wafting tendrils of scent between us. I looked at the vines crawling in the window and lifted Dov’s hands above his head, sliding each carefully into several loops amidst the tangle. ‘If you don’t behave,’ I said, ‘You’ll break the vine.'”

“If you’ve ever cuddled a furry little kitten, paced the floor with a sick horse or taken pity on the smiling face of a stray puppy — and of course, if you like your men hot, your couplings explicit and your writing top-notch —

“Jesus put his head down and tasted skin, a good heart, the best intentions, sorrow and joy. “You’re beautiful on my tongue, Michael.” He moved down, and Michael’s cock nudged his cheek, bright pink and weeping a single tear.”

“Love…that word neither of us had used because we’re both too cool for that.”

“He kisses it. The sweaty flesh of her ass cheeks smells faintly and deliciously of coffee, in counterpoint to the intimate fragrance of alcohol on her breath. This is a well-balanced woman, Wendell thinks.”

“Jesus Christ! Jesus fucking Christ, in all the years I’d been having sex, I never put it together. I took those stupid, useless pills every month like clockwork because my brain knew it, but I never made the connection. Now I understood. I finally understood the Magnificat.”

“Let me take you / Utterly make you / Understand / What it truly means / To be a man”

“Think of it as a challenge in which the reward will be all the sweeter. Just imagine them on the end of your tongue if you start thinking it’s all too much work.”