Coming Together Presents
M. Christian
Lisabet Sarai
editor
Coming Together Presents: M. Christian
Lisabet Sarai, editor
Copyright © 2010 Coming Together
All digital rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.
Cover art © 2010 Alessia Brio
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
A Coming Together Production
Smashwords edition
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/comingtogether
License Notes
Piracy robs authors of the income they need to be able to continue to write books for readers to enjoy. This ebook is licensed for the personal enjoyment of ONE reader only. This ebook may not be re-sold or copied. To do so is not only unethical, it's illegal. This ebook may not be forwarded via email, posted on personal websites, uploaded to file sharing sites, or printed and distributed. To share this book, please purchase an additional copy for each intended recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for you, please notify the author immediately. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this—and every—author.
to Margaret Sanger
TABLE of CONTENTS
Introduction
About Coming Together
Introduction
During my last decade as a reader, reviewer, and editor, I've probably read at least five hundred erotic stories. Out of that vast number, a mere dozen or two have stayed with me―stories whose originality, emotional intensity and consummate craft kept them fresh and memorable long after the other tales had faded from my mind.
Quite a few of these outstanding tales were authored by M. Christian. He knows how to write stories that haunt you, stories that make you laugh and make you yearn, stories that create new worlds populated with exotic and surprising creatures. Stories that you remember. Whether he is penning cyber-punk or satire, gay romance or lesbian smut, his vivid characters hang around after the covers are closed and the lights are out.
I was delighted when Chris agreed to assemble a collection of his stories for the Coming Together Presents series. As I worked on this book, I was reminded yet again what a creative and versatile writer he is. Coming Together Presents: M. Christian ranges from the leather bars of San Francisco to the deserts of Mars. The characters include rock-and-rollers, dykes with attitude, horny office workers, tortured artists, inter-galactic lawyers, even Mona Lisa. The atmosphere is tough and gritty in one tale, lyrical in the next, and teasingly tongue-in-cheek in a third.
One of the things I like best about M. Christian's erotica is his expansive view of sexuality. His characters are not prisoners of their labels. They grow and change in the course of the story, and that change might involve crossing the artificial lines between straight and gay, femme and butch, dominant and submissive. Although he's straight, Chris writes remarkably convincing gay and lesbian erotica. I suspect that, like me, he believes that sexual orientation is a continuum and that most individuals, regardless of their genitalia, have both male and female components in their sexual make-up.
The other aspect of his fiction that always impresses me is his emphasis on the experience of desire in contrast to the activity of sex. Don't misunderstand me―this book offers lots of steamy, satisfying sexual encounters. However, it is not primarily a book about people fucking. Rather, M. Christian's stories tend to be about what people want―or think they want. A recurring theme is the character who discovers unexpected desires focused on unusual objects.
If you are reading this at all, you are probably eager to get into the stories themselves. I won't delay you much longer. I do want to say a word about the charity M. Christian selected to receive the proceeds from this volume: Planned Parenthood. For close to a century, Planned Parenthood has offered a commonsense approach to women's health and well-being, based on respect for each individual's right to make informed, independent decisions about health, sex, and family planning. PPFA is a health care provider, a source of in-depth, factual information and an advocate for women's reproductive rights.
PPFA is controversial because of its defense of abortion rights. As M. Christian wrote on my blog last December:
Yes, Planned Parenthood has become a kind of pariah, a pretend-it-doesn't exist organization, but this is why it needs as much financial and emotional support as it can get: they are fighting for everyone to have access to sexual information and reproductive health but also for women to be in control of their own bodies.
But more importantly they are the resource for those who need them most, those who must face the truth of who they are, and if they truly can either have, or give someone else, a worthwhile life.
I wholeheartedly agree, and I'm honored to be able to make my own small contribution to the organization by presenting the work of M. Christian.
~ Lisabet Sarai
2 January 2010
For more information about Planned Parenthood, visit http://www.plannedparenthood.org
Services Rendered
Seventy miles beyond Phoenix the rental car just died. No warning, no coughing, hiccup, hesitation or grinding—one minute 65 MPH, window down, wind streaming through her hair, something pounding and brassy on the radio and the next, just the sound of tires on asphalt, slowly winding down to a dead crawl.
Luckily, out in the middle of nowhere, there was something: rust-pocked, grease-smeared, dirt-encrusted, "GARAGE" was nevertheless a blessed sight. Luckily, the rental had just enough momentum to carry Lisa off the endless stretch of highway and up to one of the antique pumps.
"Hello?" she said, slamming the door in frustration. "Anyone here?"
The only thing that responded was the sad squeaking of a propane sign.
"Great," she said, leaning back against the warm metal of the car. "Just great."
The funny part was that the day had started out well enough—her flight into Phoenix hadn't been delayed, her luggage hadn't gone on a whirlwind tour of Europe, and the deal waiting for her in Taos had looked mighty tasty.
That, and the drive had been pleasant—the highway narrowing towards the vanishing point, dry desert air, a vast blue sky had been almost ... well, she felt more like a spry twenty one than a respectable thirty. Life had been looking sweet, profitable and—yeah—even fun.
Then the car had died. Then she was stuck in the middle of a hot, dry nowhere. Then she realized that she was completely, utterly alone.
"Hey there—having a little engine trouble?"
She was startled to discover that after spending so much time trying to outthink her business competition, she could still be shocked, but the feeling was right there, fresh and electric. Spinning around, she tried to gulp back the frightened little squeal that had started in her belly.
But then, seeing him, she let it out anyway. "Um, er—yeah. It just conked out on me."
He was someone she totally didn't expect to run across in a dusty little corner of nowhere: tall, with broad shoulders that showed a great deal of poise and strength; a handsome, windblown face; gray eyes dancing with a kind of deep, internal laughter. He walked out of the garage office, wiping his powerful-looking hands with a bright red rag. Dressed simply, in jeans and blue denim shirt, he looked much more alive than the tired, almost-dead, garage.
Against her will, Lisa felt her body respond. Her nipples hardened in her no-nonsense bra and her pussy give a sympathetic little twinge. Almost instantly, she tried to get her mind off him—the randy college kid she used to be might have come onto him, might have tried to think of someplace private where they could get more comfortable, but this wasn't her—this was the more respectable, more disciplined, more collected Lisa.
Still, he was damned hot.
"Could be anything I guess," he said, walking towards her, smiling broadly. "Weather like this can totally screw up an engine."
"It just cut out on me. Luckily I was able to coast in here."
Closer, she was surprised even more by his face—tanned, with a sexy play of laugh lines—and by how much her body continued to react to his closeness.
"I could take a look at it, but frankly these new cars with all their microchips ..." he shrugged. Lisa would normally have found the gesture irritating for its vagueness, but in him it was even sexier.
"I'd really appreciate it. I have a meeting to get to—" The meeting was actually three days away, but his being so close was driving her nuts.
He smiled again. "Roger—" he said, extending his hand. "If I'm going be prowling around under your hood we should at least be formally introduced."
Warm, dry—his hand in hers sent an electric shiver up Lisa's spine. Despite herself, she started to think about how his lips might feel. "Like I said, it's very important. I'll do whatever it takes—" The instant she said it, she bit her lips, shocked at her bravado.
He never stopped smiling. "From a beautiful woman like you that's quite an offer. How could I refuse?"
In a blur, his sleeves were rolled, and he had his head under her hood. Standing in the shade by the pumps, Lisa watched him work. The jeans and his denim shirt showed a very strong back and—she could not help but notice—a very tight ass. It was all Lisa could do to not just walk up and put her hands on him.
"I think it's something with your electrical system," he said, getting out from under the rental car's hood and turning to face her. "I could try jumping it from another car, but I really think you need an expert."
"Damn. Like I said, I really have to get going."
"Like I said, I can give it a shot. Shouldn't take that long to get hooked up, I guess."
"Thanks—this means a lot to me. Just let me know what you need to get the job done. Like I said, I do need to get going."
Roger looked at her, and she felt his sight like a warm hand flowing over her body. Normally she would have been shocked, maybe even insulted but there—in the hot afternoon sun, miles from anywhere—she had to admit that she liked it.