#bags for women bags under 300

[iandarling]

Lip Gallagher was five when his dad first taught him how to pickpocket

He learned how to steal wallets and watches on the L, how to outrun the mall cops, and avoid the (few working) security cameras

Lip Gallagher can tell the real deal from a knockoff at first glance- the stitching on a bag, the specific colour on a watch, and the feel of the leather on a wallet.

He would jump the turnstiles, move carefully about the train, get off and on again on random stops, never staying long in one place at a time.

Lip is no idiot, he knows his size and blond hair makes him look more innocent and gullible. He doesn’t look threatening, meaning he can stand and sit closer to people than necessary, without raising eyebrows

At age 9 he had already established a routine. After school he would get on the L, not caring about the direction or route - he would get off at the next stop anyway. He would sit next to a white collar man, usually in a nice suit, with a fancy watch or heavy wallet.

Small nimble fingers are difficult to spot when you’re busy reading the newspaper. The watch is one gone in less than ten seconds. Lip gets off at the next stop. The man won’t notice it’s missing ‘til he gets home.

Frank once showed him which Pawn Shops will accept items no questions asked. Lip hands the owner the watch and he’s offered 300 dollars. They both know the watch is worth 500. Neither of them mention it.

Lip hands Fiona the money, she doesn’t ask where it came from. It means she can afford diapers and formula this month. Ian needs a new jacket and the heating was turned off last week.

He doesn’t think it’s wrong; after all, the men he steals from are already rich and can easily replace the wallet or watch they lost. However he does however feels a little guilty when he steals from women; mostly because he has seen first hand from Fiona the amount of stress she is under just existing as a woman in the world…Still, if their wallet is poking out of their handbag or jacket, he will take it.

As he grows older Lip moves on to more complex and rewarding scams. High risk = high reward. He ends up in a few scrapes with the law, but overall he gets away with it. Besides, Fiona is old enough to get real jobs now. But even though they don’t rely on him pickpocketing anymore, he still does it.

A credit card here, and a loose 20 there; it adds up. At the mall, the library, and even at school he will strike if the opportunity arises. After all;

“When you’re poor, the only way to make money is to steal it or scam it”

[trishyeves]

Transfemme kaladin/transfemme Adolin 14 or 16

Ooooh, excellent request! Trish, as could be guessed by looking at her library of fics, is always down to trans some genders!

(If you want to request one of these, the prompts are here)

Adolyn/Kal, rated Teen, 300 words

"Babe? You ready for our date?"

Squinting the darkness, clad in a fashionable crop top and shorts that may as well have been painted on, Adolyn tried to spy more of her girlfriend than just a lump under blankets.

The lump squirmed, and a groan emerged. "That's... today?"

Frowning, Adolyn crossed the room, stepping around discarded takeout containers and dirty clothing, and sat down on the edge of the bed. Choosing her words carefully, she finally asked, "Dysphoria?" Adolyn did voice training, and the time she'd put into made her voice smooth and traditionally feminine.

Dark eyes peaked out from the edge of the blanket, paired with the sort of wavy black curls that Adolyn knew many women would kill for. There were bags beneath Kal's eyes, but no signs she'd been crying. "No... or at least, not just that..." The girl's husky voice sounded empty, hollow. "I can't get up. Can't shave. Wasn't... wasn't transitioning supposed to help?" By the end, her voice was almost a whimper.

"..." Unsure what to say, Adolyn felt her hands moving before she'd thought it through. She peeled back Kal's black comforter, revealing the whole of her severe, frowning face. Sure enough, as she'd said, Kal's face was covered in rough whiskers, and she flinched under Adolyn's gaze.

"Sorry..." Her voice croaked, and only now did tears start to well up in the corners of her eyes. "I'm such a mess. Don't know how you put up with it."

Then, as though it was the easiest thing in the world, Adolyn leaned in and kissed her girlfriend.

Nothing long or deep or passionate, though she was certainly tempted to make it any of those things. No, Adolyn kissed her with lazy satisfaction, before whispering, "I don't 'put up' with anything. I love you. Now make some room, let's have our date."

Maybe an afternoon spend cuddling and talking and crying wasn't most people's idea of a perfect date, but Adolyn didn't care.

She was by Kal's side. That was enough.

[apoemaday]

What Women Deserve

by Sonya Renee Taylor

Culturally-diversified biracial girl with a small diamond nose ring and a pretty smile poses besides the words “Women Deserve Better”. and I almost let her non-threatening grin begin to infiltrate my psyche until I read the unlikely small print at the bottom of the ad: Sponsored by the US Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities and the Knights of Columbus On a bus in a city with a population of 553,000, 4 teenage mothers on the bus with me, 1 Latina woman with 3 children under 3 and no signs of a daddy. One sixteen-year-old black girl standing in 22-degree weather with only a sweater a book bag and a bassinet, with an infant that ain’t even four weeks yet tell me that Yes… Women do deserve better. Women deserve better than public transportation rhetoric from the same people who won’t give that teenage mother a ride to the next transit. Won’t let you talk to their kids about safer sex Have never had to listen as the door SLAMS behind the man who adamantly says, “That shit” ain’t his leaving her to wonder how she’ll raise this kid. Women deserve better than the 300 dollars TANF and AFC will provide that family of three or the 6 dollar an hour job at KFC with no benefits for her new baby or the college degree she may never see because you can’t have infants at the university Women deserve better than lip service paid for by politicians who have no alternatives to abortion though I am sure right this moment one of their seventeen-year-old daughters is sitting in a clinic lobby sobbing quietly and anonymously praying parents don’t find out or will be waiting for mom to pick her up because research shows that out-of-wedlock childbirth doesn’t look good on political polls and Daddy ain’t having that. Women deserve better than backwards governmental policies that don’t want to pay for welfare for kids or healthcare for kids or childcare for kids Don’t want to pay living wages to working mothers, Don’t want to make men who only want to be last night’s lovers responsible for the semen they lay. Flat out don’t want to pay for SHIT but want to control the woman who’s having it. Acting outraged at abortion. Well I’m outraged that they want us to believe that they believe that women deserve better. The Vatican won’t prosecute pedophile priests But I decide I’m not ready for motherhood and it’s condemnation for me These are the same people who won’t support national condom distribution to prevent teenage pregnancy. But women deserve better. Women deserve better than back-alley surgeries that leave our wombs barren and empty. Deserve better than organizations bearing the name of land-stealing racist rapists funding million dollar campaigns on subway trains with no money to give these women while balding middle-aged white men tell us what to do with our bodies while they wage wars and kill other people’s babies So maybe women deserve better than propaganda and lies to get into office Propaganda and lies to get into panties to get out of court to get out of paying child support Get the hell out of our decisions and give us back our voice Women do deserve better Women deserve choice

[godesssiri]

I wanted to give some advice to people who are near enough to help areas affected by the recent hurricanes and haven't been affected themselves. I live in New Zealand and last year my home town was devastated by Cyclone Gabrielle, I live 4 hours away and was organizing to get things in to people who needed them.

Look on Facebook. Groups will be organizing and sharing information about what donations are needed and where to bring them to. A determined middle-aged woman will be helping hundreds of people out of her garage or whatever empty space she's been able to sweet-talk or brow-beat some business man into loaning her.

Donate material goods that are actually needed right now. It's tempting to go 'I've got no money but I can clean out my wardrobe and give stuff'. Please don't. I saw several charities turning stuff away because SO MUCH had been dumped on them.

Right now things that you can actually give from your own homes if you have them to give or if you can appeal to your community:

Big and tall men's clothing, they'll get loads of women's and kids stuff but there will be a shortage of larger men's clothes so if you are a larger man or know one you can hit up, they'll be grateful.

Sturdy footwear, particularly rubber boots - they've got a lot of mud to slog through and they need to protect their feet.

Protective clothing, work gloves, hard hats, high vis gear.

Camping lights, head-lights, solar-lights. If they're without power these are all much safer than candles.

Monitor local Facebook groups and see if they're appealing for anything in particular.

In a few months to a year or so they're going to need everything else so if you want to help but all you've got to give is your old fridge or a pile of blankets then just hold off until people are asking for those things. Once they have a safe place to live they'll need help filling it. Keep following any Facebook groups that form and be prepared to help later.

If you can buy things to take in or get local businesses to donate or however you go about providing new things, stuff that's gonna be really helpful right now:

Prepacked food that's easy to heat up on a barbeque or camp stove. Pouches, meals in a can, just add boiling water, anything you'd take camping. Ingredients aren't really helpful right now for people who are using all their energy to survive and don't have extra to make a meal.

Milk powder. You can make up just as much as you need and don't need to worry about refrigerating it.

Bottled water.

Baby formula.

Diapers

Toilet-paper

Baby wipes. The wastewater systems will be a mess so they're probably being advised to avoid showering even if they have running water. Baby wipes are a good way to keep reasonably clean.

Clorox wipes or similar products. Just as they're having trouble keeping themselves clean it's also a challenge to keep their environment clean.

Heavy duty garbage bags. There's a lot of spoiled food, soaked/rotting paper/fabric/building materials, that need to be contained until they can be gotten rid of. Landfill is likely affected so the best they'll be able to do is seal it up in heavy duty plastic until there's somewhere they can dump it.

Camp stove gas canisters

Batteries

Pet food

Tortillas. They keep longer than leavened bread, there's a million things you can do with them, and they're way more compact for transport. (When we had the car full to the roof with stuff we were taking in to our family, I was so proud when I realized we could transport 300 tortillas in the spaces under the driver's and passenger's seats.)

Over the counter meds - there'll be lots of people doing work that's making them very sore. Also basic first aid stuff, it'd be a bitch if you survived the hurricane uninjured only to end up with an infection that you got from a splinter while cleaning up.

If you're delivering things yourself then avoid staying in the area for too long unless you're actually taking part in the clean up. Take everything that you'll need while you're there. When you leave offer to take trash out with you.

People who've been through a disaster like this will need help long term so if you can't help right now don't feel bad, keep an eye on the situation and eventually something will come up that you can help with.

[kahluamystery97]

Satellite Part Three (HS X OC)

Harry punched the address to Maggie's house into his navigation system in the Range Rover.  He literally accomplished nothing today. Unless you counted stalking Maggie Dunne on the internet an accomplishment.

He was nervous. Harry didn't get too nervous with women. It felt natural to speak to them.  So used to their company between his Mum, his sister, his friends and his fans.  Maggie had him a little on edge though. She either didn't know who he was or barely knew him and he weirdly liked that. Maybe Maggie was on the internet today too. That made his stomach tight. 

Harry was so busy worrying about which Daily Mail headlines Maggie might have read about him that he passed her house. No one was behind him so he hit the brakes and reversed the little yellow sports car. He texted her, "Here." like she asked him to. 

A minute or so later the garage door opened. Maggie stood fresh faced, long blonde hair loose, short frayed denim cutoffs and a white button down shirt, cuffed and French tucked.  She stood against the wall and waved his car in. Harry worked on focusing on driving and not Maggie's tan legs that seemingly went on forever.

He parked and pulled a canvas tote from the passenger side as he stepped out. "Hello." He grinned. The deadly sexy dimples popping. 

"Hi." Maggie returned the smile. Then she couldn't think of a single thing to say. Not one. She wondered what his full pink lips tasted like though.

“I love this neighborhood. You are so tucked in here.” 

Right, yes. This is small talk. Please get with it Maggie, she scolded herself.  "It is. I love it here. Come on upstairs. I set us up on the deck."

"Wow. This view." He whistled.

"The house is only like 1700 square feet. I solely bought it for the deck and the views. Downtown obviously." Maggie pointed. She pointed up, "Hollywood sign. Then over that way, Griffith Observatory." She legitimately loved her house, her little piece of heaven and safety in L.A.

"Killer views. Nice size house for one person. I honestly have too much space."

"It discourages long term visitors. Works for me. I like my own space. Liza and Alex have big houses so they host the family." Maggie noticed the canvas bag. "Can I take that for you?"

"I brought some wine and some Gatorade.  Wasn't sure which you were up for."  He cocked his head looking for an answer.

Maggie took him in. He was wearing tan trousers, white vans, a ribbed white tank with a colorful short sleeve shirt unbuttoned over it all. His muscles rippled beneath the cotton. The black ink she saw in photos was just barely visible under the thin tank. His hair was perfectly tousled. Like he had the window open on the way over. A single curl sat on his forehead.  Her fingers tingled as she fought the urge to brush it back.

Maggie felt slightly crazy. I think I want to fuck this guy because he brought over gatorade. Am I that easy? Oh my God I am such a loser.   

"Wine it is." She made a decision. "So I realized I never asked you for your dietary restrictions.  I got sushi and salads. I was hoping it was a safe bet."

"Perfect. I really don't eat any meat besides fish and seafood." Harry shrugged. 

Maggie nodded. She hated talking about food, food allergies, diets, trainers. These topics consumed everyone she knew. They consumed Maggie too but she would never let another soul know that. Maggie knew her brand was big white, happy smile, carefree, body positive. The world knew she was nearly 300 lbs at 5'6 in high school and it actually almost destroyed her career. She had to take many bikini photos for magazine covers. Maggie learned to surf so the paparazzi could take pictures of her shredding the waves and then walking around with her toned, golden abs on display. No one wanted to know she had been hungry for more than a decade. No one wanted to know that the loose skin had been cut and pinned. A long painful recovery followed. No one wanted to know that she was watched by studios and producers and directors and costumers like a hawk. Like at any minute she would balloon up and ruin it all. Everyone around her just wanted her to smile and pretend a well balanced diet and lots of activity kept her so trim. Lies. Maggie mostly subsisted on coffee, black market diet pills aka light speed/amphetamines and exercise. Yoga, pilates, rowing, running, biking, hiking, weight training, hiit classes. Her church was Barry’s Bootcamp followed up by Barre classes.  

Maggie motioned to the bar cart. "I’m pretty sure it’s your turn to serve me a drink. I'll bring the food out."

"I'm on it." Harry busied himself opening the safe bottle of white he brought.  His ears perked up at the music. He hadn't noticed it before. What was this? He liked it. So she listened to music. Just not his music. Jesus Styles. Get over it, he chastised himself. This is not the time for your narcissism. 

Maggie reappeared with a tray that she placed on the long table. Harry put the wine down. Maggie took a seat next to the head of the table and pushed the seat next to her out with her foot. She put out plates, flatware and chopsticks. They helped themselves to some food and clinked their wine glasses.

"So do anything today?" Maggie asked. "It doesn't seem like you nursed a massive hangover."

"No hangover. I had some business to take care of. Nothing exciting. You?"

"Went for a run. Googled you.  Downloaded your album. Totally normal pre- hangout stalking." She admitted freely as a blush spread across her cheeks.

Harry laughed and raised his hand. "OK. Guilty. Same.." He appreciated her honesty.  They clinked glasses again this time to celebrate their awkward honesty. 

"I'm super embarrassed that I didn't recognize you lasst night. I do actually know who you are. You have different hair now. I’m also pretty certain we met at an SNL after party? And I really love your song.”

So she did know who he was. His stomach was flooded with warmness. He couldn't resist asking, " Which song?"

"Sign of the Times. First time I heard it I was in traffic and literally burst into tears. Which maybe isn't what you intended but it hit me here." She put her hand to heart. "And you should know I don't cry. I am just not a crier. Well, unless you pay me to cry on film."

"Wow so that’s a big compliment."

"You take pride in making ladies cry do you, Styles?" She noticed how quickly his lips turned down. Shit. She wasn't trying to be insulting. Quick change the subject. "So clearly you aren't from LA?"

"What gave it away?" He asked as he bit into a piece of sushi. "Grew up a few hours North of London.  I split my time now between here and there. You?"

"From New York. Upstate. A small suburban city. Mostly blue collar." She sipped her wine. “I do not split my time. I’m all in on LA.”

"And your sisters live here now too." He said, prompting her for more.

"So we totally googled each other and here we are still doing this part. Aren't we cute?" She smiled as she chewed her cucumber slowly. Always chewing everything at least one hundred times. 

"I think this is what normal people without a Wikipedia page do." He raised an eyebrow shoveling California roll into his mouth. 

Fuck it. She was going to expedite the getting to know you before I bed you portion of the evening.

"But we do have Wikipedia pages. Ok so I know you were in a singing competition.  You were in a wildly successful boy band for a few years. You are on hiatus?" She said unsure and searched his face.

"Oh do go on..." He wanted to hear more. Harry sat back with a big toothy grin and sipped his wine.

"Well the gossip is you date models exclusively. Seems like underwear models which you know good on you. Oh and of course your debut album was brilliant. That isn't gossip of course. I told you I downloaded it. I really liked it." She admitted.

"Really? Because generally only underwear models dig it." His eyes sparkled as he joked with her. "Speaking of music - what are we listening to? I like it but I'm unfamiliar. " Harry asked.

Maggie excitedly clapped her hands. "Houndmouth. I am obsessed with these guys lately. I find something I love and then I play the shit out of it."

"Guilty. Same here. Ok my turn. I know you and your two sisters have a production company. You seem to enjoy surfing, volleyball and just generally being in a swimsuit. Or at least that is what the paparazzi photos would have me believe.  Oh and maybe you are a nun or really good at that whole discreet thing? Not many pictures of you out with guys."

"You’re so on to me. I'm a nun. I have invited you here to see if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your savior." She said with a straight face and sipped her wine.

Harry nearly choked. "Now that would not even be close to the weirdest thing that has happened to me in LA." 

"Oh I believe it. Maybe we can trade horror stories later." Maggie looked down to the dishes around them. "Are you finished? I'll clear and we can have some more wine."

"Let me help."

Harry stacked some plates and followed her in the house. He was impressed.  It wasn't overly decorated.  It looked like a well curated collection of art and things Maggie loved.

As if reading his mind she said, "All the cool kids have decorators. I'm cheap so it is literally just me buying shit on the internet or on days off I'm scouring HomeGoods. It's home though and I love it."

"No, it’s great. Your art is interesting. " He laid the plates down on the counter and looked out the kitchen door at the walls.

"Nothing too crazy. I know very little about art except what I like. I have a friend who works in a gallery and he keeps me from getting taken."

"Wise. I'm a bit of a collector myself." A bit of a collector was probably an understatement. Harry loved art and spent a lot of time collecting to fill his London, LA and NYC homes. 

She quickly rinsed the dishes off and loaded them into the dishwasher. Seeing remnants of old food or meals made her anxious the next day. All remains of any meal or snack had to be tossed or stowed. Maggie didn’t keep fruit artfully stacked in bowls or glass canisters of painstakingly placed oreos or the like. If she didn’t have to see the food then she didn’t have to think of it. 

Maggie held up the wine bottle. "Split the last of it?" Harry nodded.

Maggie hauled herself up into a sitting position on the counter. She poured a little of the wine in her own glass. She shook the bottle in Harry's direction. He approached and she poured the cool liquid into his glass.

Harry didn't move away from her. They clinked glasses and never broke eye contact. The room was silent except for Houndmouth belting out 'Darlin'.

Maggie drained the wine from her glass and sat it down on the counter.  Harry watched her catch her bottom lip between her teeth. Her blue eyes narrowed in on him.

Harry's pulse quickened and his pants got tighter. Was it this easy? Wasn't this what he came here for?  A nice night in the company of a beautiful woman. He drank his wine and set his glass beside hers. Maggie put a long tan leg out and hooked it around his middle.  She sat up straight and Harry closed the small amount of distance between them. His hands moved to her waist and pulled her to the edge of the marble counter until she was pressed firmly against him.

Maggie leaned in and pushed her lips against his. The sweet of the white wine, the softness of her tongue taking over his mouth was intoxicating.  He pushed harder against her as she wrapped both legs around him. Her hands raked through the back of his hair. 

When the kiss broke Maggie pulled her head back a bit to look at his beautiful face. "Too forward?" She asked, biting her lip again.

"Not at all." Harry traced the corner of her mouth with his thumb.

"Let me give you the tour." She slid down from the marble now pressed fully against him. His six foot tall frame casting a shadow over her.. Maggie took his hand and led him out of the kitchen, back through the living room.

"My office," she pointed to a room. "2nd bathroom and this is," This was clearly Maggie's bedroom.

They stood at the doorway for a beat. Maggie dropped Harry's hand and began to unbutton her white shirt. She walked backwards toward the bed. 

Harry stood back a minute to watch her. The shirt dropped to the floor. A plain white cotton bra showcased her toned, tan body.  He dropped his shirt where he stood. Maggie was working on her shorts as Harry lost the tank and his belt. She pulled him closer and started to unbutton his pants while hungrily kissing him.  Harry grabbed a handful of magnificent ass that was peeking out from the cheeky white boy shorts.

Maggie ran her hands over every inch of his muscled back she could reach. She could feel Harry's hands travel up from her ass to roll over her back and finally worked on taking her bra off.  Maggie was particularly proud of her breasts.  They stood erect braless. Harry groaned when he saw that little bounce once they were free from the flimsy fabric.

When Maggie stood back from Harry to crawl onto the bed she got a better look at his body. The palm fronds she had seen in photos earlier were even more magnificent in person. She reached a hand out to trace one. A low groan escaped his lips.

From there it was a haze. Clothes on the floor. Warm bodies tangled together. Maggie found his facial hair was pleasantly soft against her thighs as his tongue delved into her. After he brought her to her first orgasm she had expertly wrapped him up in a condom. Harry hadn't been this turned on in ages and was scared he wouldn't make a good showing. He pressed into Maggie's wetness. Both of them sighing approval.

After their orgasms they lay quiet. Maggie spoke first. "I'm glad you came over."

Harry was smiling. "I'm glad you invited me after I was a bit of a desperate creep this morning."

"Quite a charming desperate creep though."  He laughed and kissed her bare shoulder. Her toe ran up his leg. "I'm going to use the ladies." He nodded.

When she returned she was in a white waffle robe and carrying a glass of water. She offered it to Harry as he sat up. He took a few sips and handed it back. Maggie took a long sip and pressed her lips together.

"Should I go?" He asked. He couldn’t quite read the room. 

 "Only if you want to. And if you want to I won't take offense. Honestly."

He believed it. She seemed cool. Maybe too cool. He liked her though. She was a bit of a mystery. Was mystery the right word? She intrigued him.

He settled in clearly not leaving. He reached an arm out. Maggie pulled the robe off and slid under the covers. Quickly she had a leg over him and pulled herself up and over him. Looking down she smiled, "I mean if you're staying we might as well."

When Harry woke up he was alone in Maggie's bed. He looked at his phone. It was just before 8am. They had been up past 2am talking and well not talking.

Harry noticed his clothes were neatly laid out on a chair in the corner. He pulled them on and then went to use the toilet.  Maggie had thoughtfully left a new toothbrush on her sink. 

  Once he finally emerged from her room he spotted Maggie out on the deck. She was on a rowing machine, her form perfect. Her skin glistened in the sun with the finest sheen of sweat. She was in a hot pink sports bra and black cropped sport leggings. 

Maggie heard the door open and slowed her pace so she could stop. "Good morning." She called.

"Morning. Did you even sleep?" Harry asked.

 "I did. Thought I would get a workout in. Let you rest."

"From my workout last night." He sighed as he stretched.

A smile danced on Maggie's lips. "Exactly.”

She got up off the rower and Harry leaned in to kiss her. He had clearly gotten the toothbrush because he was minty fresh. "Careful I'm a bit sweaty."

Harry looked her up and down unashamed. "Mmm, I like it."  His deep voice growled. He pulled her flush against him and kneaded his fingers into her supple backside. 

While Harry felt exhausted from the night before he also felt that familiar twinge in his pants at the sight of her.

Maggie felt the heat pool between her legs. However she knew she had a meeting in two hours she absolutely had to get ready for. Harry leaned in for another kiss. His tongue warmly licking into her mouth reminding her how it felt to have his mouth on her last night. 

She sighed disappointed with the clock running out on this rendezvous. "So this isn't me uninterested but I absolutely have to be at this meeting about a new film in like two hours. This is a big deal sorta thing, my dream project.”

"Oh hey no problem.  I get it."  And he did. Harry’s work was important to him. He had meetings to keep and a packed schedule. He was certainly not one to judge. He did hope it wasn’t just a tactic to get rid of him though. 

"I made coffee though and you shouldn't feel like you have to rush out or anything." Maggie said not wanting Harry to think she was forcing him out. 

"You’re excited for this meeting?" He could feel the energy she was giving off.

"Excited and nervous. I just know this project has amazing potential. " She admitted. 

Harry smiled. "I'm going to get out of your hair so you can do whatever it is you need to get done today. I had a really great time last night with you."  He pulled her in closer if that was possible. Their foreheads are now touching. His arms moved from her ass and now settled on her waist. 

"I really enjoyed last night too."  She breathed him in.

"Good luck today." He kissed her nose.

"OK now you have to leave because I feel compelled to take all of my clothes off and cancel on my sisters." She said willing herself to be a sane woman.

Harry broke their embrace. He made his way over to the stairs to the garage. "We can’t have that now. Goodbye Maggie." He laughed.

"Goodbye Harry." Maggie exhaled a deep breath watching both his curls and fine ass bounce down the stairs.

Maggie was unsure she would see him again but she was sure the memory of last night could get her through whatever droughts may come.

“Look at this smug bastard. What is up with you today?” Ben Winston asked Harry as he piled a mixed green salad on his plate. 

Before Harry could answer Jeff cut him off. “Date with Maggie Dunne last night.” 

“Ooooohhhh Maggie Dunne. You stud.” James Corden laughed loudly. “Not gonna share the horny details with your old married mates?”

Harry was having lunch over at CBS Studios in the offices for The Late Late Show. Ben Winston and James Corden being two of his best friends.

“It wasn’t really a date. We hung out. She’s cool.”

“Oh he is really tight lipped. Totally shagged her.” Ben cocked his eyebrow in Harry’s direction.

“Imagine if I went around asking about your sex life?” Harry sighed and sipped at this black iced coffee. 

“Oh fuck off will you mate. Just giving you a bit of a hard time. Maggie is lovely. Also, can you get her to do the show? She has some crazy hard on for Conan. He isn’t even on network tv.”James complained. 

“Call her agent or hire a hitman to take care of Conan. I dunno. No help from me though.” 

Jeff snorted. “Well now that is all sorted. Are you going to see her again?”

Harry sat back thoughtfully. He ran his fingers through his curls and then shrugged. “So we didn’t really establish if we had planned on seeing each other again.” 

“How did you leave things?” Ben asked. 

 “I mean on a good note. We kissed. I said goodbye.” Harry revealed a little more than he wanted. At that moment his phone pinged with a text. 

“I bet that is her now. Couldn’t get enough of Young Harold over here.” Corden nudged his arm. 

Harry looked at the text and put the phone back on the conference table. 

“Bad news?” Jeff asked. 

“No. Just Collette.”  

“Sort of feels like bad news.” Jeff groaned dramatically. “I thought you were done with that.”

“We’re friends.”

Ben chimed in. “Seems like a bad idea. It has been hard enough for you to move on. Keeping in touch, texting that seems like it is only going to make it harder.”

“Exactly what I’ve been saying.” Jeff offered. “Harry thinks he has to stay ‘friends’ with every girl he ever dated or shagged. Why isn’t your therapist addressing that?”

Harry threw a balled up napkin at Jeff and flipped him off. He knew his friends weren’t wrong. He just didn’t know how to give up his friendship, his ties to her. “Ok you old married sages. What do I do then?”

Corden stood up and slapped his hands down on the table. “You need me to tell you to nut the fuck up and call Maggie?”

"That was really fucking promising." Liza said, throwing her purse into her Infiniti QX80. She was a tall commanding woman. She decided her car should be the same.

'I don't want to jinx it but I think they loved the project." Alex sighed relieved. She leaned her back against Liza's beast of an SUV.

"I mean if we can get this movie made I can die happy." Maggie said and tossed her own purse into her Mercedes convertible.  This film was her baby. Making a movie about an iconic plastic doll seemed like a hard sell and an easy sell. However, getting the right team in place, a good script and now financing had not been easy. 

"Let's not die for it yet." Liza laughed. "Yet."

"I vote we blow off the rest of the day, drink margs and gorge on Mexican." Alex volunteered. It was very un-Alex like of her.

"Are you feeling okay?" Maggie asked, raising an eyebrow surprised at her sister. The mom of two never suggested getting wild or blowing off the day. If she wasn’t working she was home with her husband and kids. 

Liza chimed in, "Pod people got her. I knew it."

“Oh you two are just hysterical. Real comedians.” Alex proceeded to flip them off. “ I just don't feel like working or being a mom just now. I would like to be irresponsible at," Alex looked down at her Rolex, "at 1pm."

"Wait for it because it isn't pod people, it’s Freaky Friday. I'm the tired one." Maggie covered her mouth as a yawn escaped.

Her sister's both looked at her. Alex said,  "Probably because you are up at the ass crack of dawn working out. Let me guess running?"

"Rowing." Maggie shrugged.  "Also, I was sort of up all night fucking that guy I met at that party."

Liza's eyes shot up. "Which guy? The bartender?"

"What party?" Alex asked.

"That shitty party at Martin Graves house that Liza dragged me to. I was bored out of my mind so I decided to drink five whiskeys apparently."

“You took her to a Martin Graves party? Alex gave Liza an accusatory look. “You have heard what happens to pretty young things there?”

“Al nothing like that happened. I was okay. I agreed to go. Making a move for some last minute funding in case this didn’t pan out.” 

Liza narrowed her eyes at Alex. “I would never let anything happen to her.”

Alex reached out and touched Liza’s arm. “I know that, I do, I’m sorry.” 

Liza gave her a smile accepting her apology. 

"Ok so moving on. You met a hot bartender? Oh Margaret we need all the dirty deets. See, let's go have drinks and you can tell me everything." Alex pleaded.

"He's not a bartender. Dirty deets? Seriously, who are you?" Maggie asked with a shake of her head.

"El Coyote. We are going - now.  I'm driving over with Maggie. Sail the yacht over by yourself." Alex mocked Liza's SUV.

Liza rolled her eyes. " Jesus Christ Al."

Maggie and Alex got into the convertible and drove out of the parking garage. 

"Why does it kill Liza to be fun now? Remember fun? " Alex sighed.

"Al are you having some weird mid-life crisis?" Maggie asked as she turned right.

"Perhaps. Just feeling like an old woman. Maybe I'm a little jealous you’re picking up hot bartenders or not bartenders and having late nights. If my night is late it is because one of the kids won't sleep. I love my life but some days I want to be young and carefree again. I want to have sex without having to plan it like a mission to Mars."

Maggie reached over and squeezed her sister's hand. "Get Perry to take you out or better yet take you away. Me and Liza got the girls you know that."

Alex smiled. "I know. You guy -"

The phone ringing through the Bluetooth cut her off and startled them both. The screen flashed 'H - Hills Party'. Maggie put her fingers to her lips to shush Alex.

She may have been giddy but Maggie cooly answered, "Hello."

"So..." Harry asked.

"So?" Maggie asked.

"You were quite excited about your very important meeting today.  So how did it go? "

"Good, really good." She said enthusiastically. "I'm not saying another word though because I'm a bit superstitious."

"Would you like to celebrate or is that bad luck?" He asked.

Alex was staring hard at her. She started nodding her head and giving her a thumbs up.

"Actually I'm headed out with my sisters to El Coyote."

"No shit?" He asked. "I'm over at the CBS Studios. Maybe I could meet you afterwards?" CBS was conveniently right around the corner from the famed Mexican restaurant. 

Maggie was afraid Alex was going to sprain her neck. She was nodding so hard.

"Sure. I'll text you." Maggie offered. Alex silently cheered and then began to make some crude gestures. Maggie nearly burst into laughter watching her grown ass sister act like a twelve year old boy. 

"I'll be here." He said. 

Maggie disconnected the call before finally giving into the hysterics she was holding in.

"What the fuck?" Alex screeched laughing now too. "I don't care what he looks like. I nearly just nearly made a mess of my pants - that voice. Tell me you have a photo of him? But don't show me if he isn't good looking. In my mind he is amazing.”

Maggie was laughing so hard now. "Oh my God girl you are a disaster. He is very hot actually."

“So wait. Sexy British accent. He is hot. No way you had a fucking orgasm? God doesn’t give with both hands Mags.”

“Try three orgasms.” She looked over the top of her sunglasses at Alex who had her mouth wide open in shock. 

“Three? I’m not even sure that is physically possible . Three?”

“Three. Do you think I’m making it up?”

“Course not. Fuck me. I think I need a cigarette.”

“You gave up smoking in the nineties.” 

“Yeah well if I had three orgasms in one night I would pick it back up quick. Three. My mind is blown.”

“Mine too.”

Before they could go on she pulled the car into the parking lot and got her valet ticket. Liza was directly behind them.

The three walked into the storied Mexican restaurant.  The Dunne sisters were a stunning trio. Maggie the youngest was also the shortest. All three had piercing blue eyes. Liza, the oldest, had long dark hair, plush eyelashes and high cheekbones. Alex, the middle child was as tall as Liza, full figured, long legs. Blonde and blue eyed like Maggie.

“Booth in the back?" The hostess asked them. They were regulars here. 

"If you have one." Maggie smiled brightly.

"Of course. Follow me.”

Once the sisters were settled and margaritas ordered Alex piped up. "Maggie is meeting the guy from last night after this. He is some sort of British sex wizard.” 

Liza looked up from her phone distracted. "The bartender is a wizard? Only in LA.”

"Oh my God he isn't a bartender. I swear I have said that multiple times. Are you deaf or senile?”

Liza shot her a look. "Maybe a little bit of both. Or maybe I don't care who you bang as long as you don't end up all over social media and gossip rags because he can't keep his mouth shut."

"He's a singer. He’s very well known and he doesn't want to be all over the tabloids either. "

"A singer?" Alex asked. "That makes so much sense. That voice. Wait, what’s his name? I have to Google him."

"What are you going on about?" Liza asked.

"He called while I was in the car with Mags. Super sexy British voice. Maggie had THREE orgasms last night!" Alex announced a bit too loudly.

Maggie flushed bright red as she looked around. “Louder so the staff in the kitchen can hear it. This is totally going to be on Deuxmoi. Anon pls  Maggie Dunne had three orgasms with a wizard.”

Alex rolled her eyes and waved her hands, “Oh get over yourself.”

"I know I met this person but I literally have no memory of him." Liza shrugged. “Seriously, three?”

Maggie nodded. Liza smiled and looked down at the menu. 

"Ok, give me his name." Alex was poised to type into her phone. Maggie took a beat longer than what Alex was expecting. "What is his name Maggie?!" She yelped even more loudly than before. Some patrons nearby looked over.

The waitress appeared with their margaritas at that moment. "Can I get her a second one right away? Sorry it is sort of a margarita emergency.” Maggie flashed the pearly whites at the waitress and nodded toward Alex.

"Sure. I'll be right back."

“What constitutes a margarita emergency?” Liza asked sipping at her drink and trying not to spill.

Maggie only raised her eyebrows and gestured at Alex as if to say, “This. Her.”

"Sorry I'm really excitable today." Alex said flushed.

"No bullshit here - kid are you okay? Need an edible?” Liza asked as she motioned toward her gigantic Prada bag which always had an edible or ten in it. 

"I have no clue what is going on with me. Sorry. Mags diagnosed me with a mid-life crisis earlier."

"Her initials are MD, not her profession." Liza offered with a smile as she sipped the frozen concoction. 

"She's not wrong. I haven't even played a doctor yet." They all laughed.

The waitress brought another margarita for Alex and took their order. Unsurprisingly they all ordered the chicken fajita plate. Maggie could pick at the chicken and veggies and not get asked too many questions about what she was and was not eating. 

"OK so I'm going to ask you one more time, calmly. What is his name?" Alex gulped the last of her first margarita.

Maggie lowered her voice and moved in closer,  "Harry Styles."

"God that sounds familiar. Isn't he in a boy band? How old is this kid? We don’t need that sort of press" Liza asked as she tapped away at an email on her phone. 

"He was. He’s a fully grown adult." Maggie said, sipping her margarita. 

Alex had her head down scrolling through her iPhone. "Oh he sure grew up. Yum that mouth.”

Maggie looked over with flushed cheeks. “Yeah that mouth.”

“Full service?” Alex questioned. 

“Mmm hmmm.”

Alex offered the phone to Liza. She shrugged. “Oh that guy.”

They rolled their eyes at Liza. "So do you like him?" Al asked.

"He's really nice, seems down to earth but I don't really know him. Didn't know if we'd talk again after he left this morning."

Liza looked Maggie in the eye. "So now he's called you. Are you interested?"

"You guys know I don't have a lot of time in my life for that. Casual has always worked better for me. I’m not in the market for a relationship."

Alex was deep into that second margarita. "Can't be casual forever Margaret. Eventually you need your teammate. You deserve some happiness."

"I have my teammates and you both make me mostly happy. Except you with the judgy eyes." Maggie smiled at Liza. 

"You know what she's saying though." Liza ignored the rib and doubled down on what Alex was expressing. 

"I do. I don't feel lonely and I'm not planning on living a life of solitude or anything.  I just happen to like my life right now." 

Maggie wasn't lying. She did like her life. She answered to no one. She felt safe behind her walls. She felt like she couldn't be hurt or exploited. Feeling safe was everything to her after some of the dark shit that happened in her past. She understood why her sisters might want her to couple up. Liza and Alex married two of the best men ever created. Maggie was so lucky to have them as her brothers. Along with the girls they took such good care of her. 

"I like all of our lives right now. Look at us. We have come a long fucking way." Alex laughed hard. She was definitely on her way to drunk.  "Can we get three more of these?"  She pointed to the empty glasses. 

Liza motioned for two not three. The waitress nodded. 

"He dated Taylor Swift." Alex said seriously looking up from her phone.  "Oh no." 

"Which album? What did he do?" Liza asked seriously.  

Maggie said. "1989. Style. Wildest Dreams.”

Liza and Alex looked at each other. "Okay 1989 isn't that bad." Alex said. "I mean it could be worse. Though there is always Clean and Out of the Woods. He is a bad driver! Be careful.” 

"At least it’s not Dear John. Remember the time I 'accidentally' spilled red wine on John Mayer. That piece of shit." Liza spat angrily. 

"How could I forget?" Maggie cringed remembering John Mayer pulling out all his best lines and Liza dousing him in red wine and pulling Maggie away to a ‘very important call at 11pm’.

"Fine but if you go near John Mayer I will have you put down." Liza said. 

Maggie held her palms up. "I am fairly certain he wouldn’t let any of the Dunne’s within a ten mile radius of him after that.”

When the last fajita was eaten Alex looked up and announced. "I'm totally shitfaced. It is 3 in the afternoon and I'm shitfaced." Then she began to laugh and laid down in the round booth. 

Liza and Maggie exchanged a look, their eyebrows high on their foreheads. "Holy shit." Liza mouthed. 

Maggie was definitely not going to be driving but she wasn't drunk. She should probably let Harry know she was just going to let Liza take her home. When she made that announcement at the table Alex began laughing again even harder.

"What’s so funny?" Liza asked, pulling her upright.  “Get it together woman.”

Alex put Maggie’s phone down in front of her.  "I texted him. He’s on his way over to pick you up." 

Maggie looked stricken. "You texted who? What? Harry? What? What did you say? What did you do?" She opened her phone quickly.

'Had a three margarita lunch. Now is probably a good time for you to pick me up.' 

Harry responded, 'On my way now.' 

"I am going to murder you." Maggie said through gritted teeth. This only made Alex laugh harder with a snort. 

Liza looked around to make sure no one was listening. "Christ the two of you. I know you were joking about Deuxmoi earlier but I am definitely going to get a call on Sunday.” 

A few minutes later all three of them looked up to see Harry walking toward them. He was in a plain white t-shirt which displayed all his black ink and rippling muscles. Jeans and black Vans to round his look out.  His sunglasses were perched on top of his head keeping his unruly curls back. He smiled a perfectly white, dimpled smile. 

Alex took a sharp breath. Maggie took a sip of water. All the blood in her body rushed directly between her legs. She slid out of the booth.  "Hi. I didn't expect you to come all the way in." 

"Felt sort of rude sitting in the parking lot and texting." He smiled and then looked over to her sisters.  

Alex drunkenly struggled to navigate her way out of the circular booth. Harry offered her his hand. She smiled up, dazed and took it. "I'm Harry," He introduced himself as he helped her up. 

"I'm married." Alex said with a hiccup. "To Perry. He is very tall. Even taller than you." She looked Harry up and down a few times. "Harry rhymes with Perry." Another hiccup. 

Harry looked puzzled but smiled wider. Maggie was flushed red and worried her armpits might start sweating anytime now. 

Liza stepped in. "This is Alex. She doesn't normally consume four margaritas midday so if you'll excuse her. I'm Liza." She offered Harry her hand.  They shook. Liza then looked him up and down with immediate disapproval just as she had done the first time they met.

Harry felt her dislike for him. Liza wasn't subtle. He was so used to charming people right away. Liza made him uncomfortable and awkward. That people pleaser in him wanted to win her over. 

"Nice to meet you both. Can I offer you ladies a ride?" 

Alex got a big grin on her face. Maggie gave her a death stare. She knew there was definitely a sex joke about to fly out of her sister's mouth. Alex clamped her lips together. 

"I'm the sober sister. Since this one is married to Perry I think I'll take her. I guess you take that blonde one." Liza offered.

"Only seems appropriate." Harry said. 

Liza led them out. Alex swayed unsure on her Manolos. Harry offered his arm to her. She wrapped her hand around his bicep. Maggie trailed them. 

"I mentioned I'm married to Perry, right?" She asked him. 

"You did mention that. Perry is a very lucky man."  He said amused by Alex's drunk antics. 

"Oh good. He would want me to remember that. And I'm a mom. And I don't really drink. And I'm old." 

"Old? No way." He said. 

"I mean I'm Hollywood old. I'm 39. Tell him Maggie." Alex turned around to her sister. 

"Yes you are Hollywood old. When I'm 39 I'll be playing George Clooney’s mother." Maggie repeated a line she had said many times before. 

"Well I'm not from Hollywood. In the real world you are young. Old people aren't this beautiful day drunk on margaritas." He smiled over at Al as they walked down the few steps and out into the parking lot. 

"I like you even if you aren't a bartender and are likely a terrible driver. Please be careful with my baby sister." Al slurred.  Harry was totally confused. He just continued to smile. 

The valet saw Liza and ran for her SUV. Liza spoke to the other valet about leaving Maggie's car. Liza told Maggie she would make sure the car got to her house. 

"This is me." Harry motioned to the black Range Rover near the front door. "It was so nice to meet you. Both of you." 

"We should do this again sometime." Alex said. "This was so fun. You are fun Harry." Alex gave him a hug. He was laughing now and hugging her back. “Remember what I said about driving safely.”

Liza's SUV pulled up. "Get in the car Drunkerella." Liza said to Alex. 

"Bye Bubs. I love you. Drink lots of water ok." Maggie hugged Alex and kissed her cheek.

"Aww I love you my baby. My first baby." Alex kissed her forehead and pulled her in close looking weepy. "Do you know when you were little  -" 

"Fucking hell Al get in the goddamn car before you start crying." Liza yelled from the driver's seat. Maggie helped Alex in. 

"You aren't the boss of me, Liza.  I'm not scared of you. I'll kick your ass." 

"Goodbye you two. Have a pleasant drive all that way together. Sad I'm going to miss it." Maggie laughed as she shut the door. 

Now both Maggie and Alex turned to flip her off.  Then they were pulling out onto Beverly.  

Harry had tears in his eyes from laughing.  "What the hell was that? Your sisters are fantastic. What does she know about my driving? Did she talk to my mother?”

Maggie lightly shoved his arm. He led her to his SUV and opened the passenger door. Harry waved a thank you to the valets and then got in the driver's side. 

"So Maggie Dunne, what do you feel like doing?" He asked as he pulled out of the lot. 

"Well Harry Styles I have eaten. I have had margaritas. Not sure there is anything better than that." 

"More margaritas?" 

"And just like that you figured it all out." She smiled over to him. 

"A frozen Casamigos margarita by the pool?"  Harry raised an eyebrow. 

"Yes please." 

"Is my place okay?" Maggie nodded her approval. "So your sisters are hysterical.  Oh my God I might love Alex." 

"Everyone loves Alex. She's the mom. She's not whoever that lady was. I mean not normally. She is going to be mortified tomorrow but I'm glad she had fun today. You have a sister, right? What’s she like?" 

"Really smart. She's sarcastic. Reminds me a lot of Alex when she has had too much to drink. Whiskey not tequila. Like your sisters, she's my best friend." 

"Teller of truths? An ass kicker? And she is in England?" 

"Yes, exactly.  She does live in London. She comes quite a bit to visit me here which is nice. I mean I have to annoy her into it but she gives in." 

"It is nice to have that. You know I moved here alone. Broke. I had this dream that I would be on my favorite soap opera. Maybe go to college. I got my role on the soap and then a few months later I got a part in a Scorcese movie. Once my dreams started to become a reality it was hard to enjoy it without them. So they gave up their lives at home and moved here. All six of us lived in my little house." 

"No way! Your house you live in now?" 

"Yup. It was crazy but still some of my happiest memories were made together there." 

Maggie looked around. "You live near the Strip?" They were on Sunset. 

"Above." Harry pointed up. 

She smiled "Have to be close to the excitement?" 

"I did when I bought it. Now it feels a little silly." He said as he pulled at his bottom lip. 

Maggie pressed her thighs together feeling aroused just by that simple move. He was effortlessly sexy. 

The Range Rover climbed the hills. Harry hit the clicker and a large gate opened. A white three story house with massive windows and glass railed terraces stood before them. He parked just outside of the garage. 

They let themselves out of the car. Harry looked Maggie up and down for what was probably the millionth time in the thirty minutes since he had picked her up. She was in a white lightweight tweed Chanel dress with drop waist and black ribbon trim, black tights and black patent heels. The dress had a Chanel signature brooch pinned over Maggie's heart. Her blonde hair was loose and her lips painted perfectly red. 

He closed the distance between them. "You look really beautiful today." Harry said. 

A small smile danced on Maggie's lips. Harry wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her into him. 

"Thank you. This is my ladylike business meeting look. Hoped I could seal the deal in it." 

Now it was Harry's turn to smile. "Oh you've sealed the deal Miss Dunne." 

She rolled her eyes. "Lame Styles, real lame." They laughed. 

Harry took Maggie's hand and led her into the house. She looked around at all the dark furniture and tall ceilings. This was an LA bachelor pad for sure. There was seemingly nothing personal on the walls or surrounding shelves. 

"I feel you judging me. I was 20 when I bought this place." He said a little self-consciously. "And I know it isn’t homey and warm like your place. I just don’t spend enough time here for that.”

"I'm not judging you. Stop being such a weirdo." She laughed. 

"How about I make us those drinks? Then we can go out by the pool?" 

"I'm in." Maggie followed Harry to the kitchen. 

Harry fussed around making drinks in an oversized frozen margarita maker. Maggie stepped out of her heels. She laid her Chanel bag on the stool of the kitchen island.  

"Salted rim?" He asked, looking over as she shimmied out of her black tights. 

Maggie sighed relief as she was freed. "Yes please. Sorry I have been dying to take those off." 

"Get comfortable. No worries." Harry salted both glasses and poured the drinks. 

Maggie slipped her dress off and put it on the back of the chair. She stood clad in her white boy shorts and matching bra. "I mean I can't wear tweed by the pool." She shrugged accepting the drink. 

Harry swallowed hard. Then he pulled his t-shirt off and then quickly shucked off his jeans. Now he stood in his black boxer briefs. His palms itched with want to touch her.  Maggie let her eyes wander freely. 

"You lead the way."  Her tongue slowly licked a spot of the salt and then sipped the cold margarita. His memory of her tongue on him last night still fresh. His pulse quickened. 

He turned and pushed the large wall of glass doors open. 

They made themselves comfortable on a double wide chaise. Maggie leaned back facing the pool. Harry faced her with his legs crossed in front of him pretzel style.

'What sort of torture devices were you wearing?" He asked, looking at the red angry creases in her feet. 

She smiled looking down.  "Very expensive ones. They're ok."  Harry pulled her foot into his lap and began to gently massage. Maggie's eyes fluttered and she bit down on her bottom lip. 

"Better?" He asked. 

"Are you bad at anything?" 

He thought. 'So many things.’ Instead he laughed and kissed the pad of her foot. Then he started on the second foot. 

Maggie slowly sipped the margarita and watched Harry. Her body was on fire. Normally she wouldn't see someone twice and even so never two days in a row. 

Once Harry kissed the second foot she put her drink down. Then rolled off the chaise and onto her feet. His eyes followed her as she walked to the pool and gracefully dove in. 

He took that as his cue to follow her. Harry was not quite as graceful but he launched his long body in.  Making a splash he heard Maggie laugh. It was a lovely sound.  Before he had blinked all the water from his eyes he felt her legs wrap around his middle. 

Maggie pressed her lips to his. He parted them to allow her tongue entry. He had wanted to kiss her from the moment he picked her up today.  He wrapped an arm around her waist and gently pulled her in by the back of her neck. She smiled against his lips. 

Looking down at her now sheer bra and seeing her pink nipples stand at attention made him instantly hard.  Maggie pushed his wet hair back. Her hands slipped down and laid loosely around his neck. 

"Thank you for coming to pick me up." 

"Well thank you for coming over. If I'm honest I was nervous to call. We didn't really establish any ground rules this morning." 

"Ground rules? I think you should know I'm not incredibly fond of rules. I like organization and order. Rules not so much."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Oh a bad girl, a rule breaker." He let his hands run down her back and squeeze her perfect ass. 

Maggie let out a surprised squeal. "I'm not sure I'm quite a badass. Just not a fan of rules. What sort of ground rules are we talking about?" 

"I guess I just meant when I left this morning we didn't establish if that was a one time thing,  if I should call you or you should call me." 

"Yeah that. This morning I was so focused on the meeting I was going to. I'm happy you called.  I had fun last night." She smiled as she tangled her fingers in the back of his hair. 

"You are very easy to have fun with." 

"So are you. So let's not overthink it."  Maggie leaned back into the water to get her hair wet. Harry quietly groaned at the sight of her nipples straining against the sheer white bra. "How about one ground rule?"  

"I'm listening." 

"We can call or text whenever we want but no pressure. Busy? Not feeling it? No problems. Keep it casual." 

"You have yourself a deal. Should we shake on it?" 

Maggie shook her head. "I don't want to shake your hand. I want you to take me inside and fuck me." She said boldly in his ear thanks to tequila. 

Harry moved swiftly with Maggie still around him to get to the pool stairs. He kissed her one last time before they untangled themselves. Maggie took the hand he offered her as they rushed toward the house. 

More than three orgasms later Harry was letting his hands freely roam Maggie’s body in his post-coital bliss. 

“What happened here? Appendix?” Harry asked. He let his finger linger over a small white scar on her lower pelvis as he kissed her shoulder.  He was propped up on his elbow, legs tangled with hers. Maggie gave him a small smile. 

“Uh no. I had a tummy tuck and up here if you look close enough you can see where my arms were done. After I lost all of that weight I just had too much loose skin. Needed a little surgical help.” She shrugged it off.

“I’m sorry that was rude of me. I wasn’t thinking. I didn’t know.” He stuttered, turning a bit red with embarrassment. 

“It’s ok. You didn’t know I was fat or I had cosmetic surgery? Everyone knows I used to be fat. You are a shit google searcher if you completely missed my fat pictures. I mean no matter how many photos are taken of you and your abs in your bikini people will always put them side by side with your fat photos.” 

Maggie reached for the sheets and pulled them up a bit self conscious. Harry pulled her in closer by the waist. He leaned in and kissed her mouth as he gently pulled the sheet back. 

“Don’t do that. I’m sorry I didn’t know. I’m not trying to embarass or hurt you.”

“Honestly it’s who I am. It’s part of my story.  I just thought you knew.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Harry asked unsure if he should drop the topic or not. 

“Not much to talk about. I used to be fat and now I’m not. It isn’t that deep.” Lies. Liar. It’s deep. Really fucking deep. You are never getting close enough for that buddy. 

He nodded sensing he should leave this alone for now. “Would you object to a shower together and a snack?”

Maggie leaned up and captured his lips between hers. She cocked an eyebrow when she asked, “What sort of snack are we talking about?”

Harry’s tongue trailed down her body until it reached the scar. He marked her there and then soothed it with his tongue. He made his short descent down between her thighs. “Well I actually know what I want first.” 

[pocketvenuslux]

Fine Fragrances Are Getting a New Gourmet Twist

Distinct from “gourmand” fragrances that favour food notes of vanilla or almond, “neo-gourmand” fragrances are more sophisticated and sculptural.

As fragrance enjoys a post-pandemic boom, mass retailers and niche brands are hopping on the trend producing new and experimental olfactive takes on milks, fruits, nuts and other pantry staples.

Founders and fragranciers say neo-gourmands are both nostalgic and novel, able to evoke the pleasure of food and the comfort of memory while also having an “addictive” quality.

Read the rest of the article under the cut

Beauty shoppers have never been more ravenous for foodlike fragrances. Generally sweet and historically marketed to young women or adolescents, scents that feature edible notes like vanilla, chocolate or coconut are lately one of the most popular categories in the fragrance industry, where they’re known as “gourmands.” But a new batch of scents, referred to by perfumers and retailers as “neo-gourmands,” are taking the concept into more sophisticated and offbeat territory. Some are built around unexpected notes, like sesame or sea salt, while others add woody, smoky or contrasting notes to produce new and unusual scent cocktails.

Neo-gourmands are “hitting everywhere, from a trickle-up, trickle-down perspective,” said Mary Testa-Gough, associate vice president of product and fragrance development at Bath and Body Works. The mall brand recently launched a new scent for the holidays called Perfect in Pink, with a signature note based on a fictional fruit — the Yum-Yum cherry — created with the Swiss flavour and fragrance corporation Givaudan and nosed by Louise Turner, whose portfolio also includes Carolina Herrera’s Good Girl.

Neo-gourmands are helping to drive the red-hot fragrance market, one of the fastest-growing segments in beauty this year with sales up 14 percent in the third quarter, according to data from Circana, driven in large part by a tilt toward the luxury market. In its most recent earnings report, Bath and Body Works upped its sales expectations for the fourth quarter of 2024, driven in part by holiday demand for its premiumised scents like Perfect in Pink.

The food-focused fragrances also offer a way into a more mainstream category for niche brands like D.S. & Durga and By Kilian. Gourmand scents can be thought of as twee or unsophisticated, and for brands that market themselves to connoisseurs, a super-sweet, cherry-laden perfume might not fit the bill. On the other hand, an accord of red fruit, leather and salt just might.

Upmarket retailer Bluemercury has a dedicated assortment of neo-gourmands centred on “dark vanilla,” combined with leathers or ambers. Best-sellers include BDK Parfums Velvet Tonka ($230) and Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille ($300). While vanilla is far and away the most popular hook, Gatlin Chambers, a merchant assistant with the retailer, has also noticed marked interest in fruits, marshmallows and pistachios.

The resurgence of gourmand fragrances relies on the earthly magic of nostalgia. Just as trends from the 1990s and 2000s like low-rise jeans and pochette It-bags have reappeared in fashion, similar ripples are moving through the beauty industry. Some of the most enduring gourmands, like Thierry Mugler’s Angel, a blend of fruit, chocolate and vanilla, were minted in that era.

For Rosie Johnston, a makeup artist turned perfumer, the current popularity of gourmands reminds her of the Los Angeles she moved to in the ‘90s. “Even though there was that grunge era, and the whole Nirvana movement, all of that, people were wearing vanilla essential oil,” Johnston said. “It was, like, a sweet kind of dirty.”

Johnston founded a clean fine-fragrance label, called By Rosie Jane, in 2012, and released a scent called Dulce in 2022. “I think we were all craving the same thing. We all went through Covid.” She wanted Dulce “to be reminiscent of a time that felt a little easier, a little more close and connected.”

The minimalist label Commodity’s best-seller is called Milk, but made with sesame oil. The result “gives a sense of familiarity without being precisely identifiable,” according to Vicken Arslanian, the founder and chief executive of Europarfums, the US-based fragrance portfolio that acquired Commodity in 2019. Arslanian added that the scent accounts for about 60 percent of the brand’s sales. “You’re getting the clarity of the classic singular gourmand notes with the esoteric experimentation of the artistic fragrances,” Arslanian said.

Tapping into the trend doesn’t necessarily mean entirely new formulations. Legacy brands like Lancôme and Dolce & Gabbana have been reworking their hero scents with a neo-gourmand twist. Lancôme’s Idôle Nectar, introduced in 2022, features notes of vanilla, caramel and popcorn, while Dolce & Gabbana launched an intense version of its Devotion fragrance this year that opens with a hazelnut pop (and is based in vanilla). Mugler recently expanded its decades-old Angel line with Fantasm, which blends the original with dollops of creamy piña colada.

In September, Glossier released the first two extensions of its best-selling scent You, one made with musk and wood and the other with plum and buttercream. The latter, You Rêve, has polarised fans of the original scent. “The warm plum scent is lipsticky — almost plasticky — in a super cool, nostalgic way,” one Fragrantica user wrote. Another likened it to “cherry chapstick.”

“A lot of times we’re using these notes to create something addictive,” said Frank Voelkl, the perfumer at fragrance house DSM-Firmenich responsible for the new You. The term comes up constantly in describing neo-gourmands, which “still want to be sweet and addictive, but also want to be a bit more elevated,” Moda Operandi’s beauty director Jessica Matlin recently told Allure. They want customers coming back for repeat sniffs.

More experiments in foodie scents are coming down the pipeline. In January, Shiseido will officially unveil Le Sel d’Issey, Issey Miyake’s interpretation of a sea-salt fragrance, and the last one the Japanese designer worked on before his passing in 2022. The brand hopes to capture the hearts and noses of young male customers. Also in January, Parfums Christian will introduce Bois Talisman, a vanilla-forward scent inspired by sugar cubes and cedarwood that “invents its own expressive realm, of immediate and universal addiction,” wrote Francis Kurkdjian, Dior’s nose and “Creation Director.”

“I think these flavourful, tasty textures are probably a little bit what you call the ‘new gourmand.’” Voelkl added. “It’s more complex, it’s more faceted. It goes way beyond being just sweet.”

[ruffaloon]

.

those of you who have been following me for a long time may remember that for a solid few years, i was a one direction blog. my url was liampayny. as you might guess, liam was my favorite. there are well over 300 pages worth of posts about him on this blog. they're all still there. my last post about him was two years ago.

i never expected that i would one day look back on these posts in mourning. these past few days have felt completely unreal. i don't think i'll ever be able to fully comprehend it.

in the days leading up to his passing, i recieved several notifications alerting me that liam was posting on snapchat. i ignored these notifications. the truth is that in recent years, looking at liam did nothing for me except make me sad. even before he was gone, i missed the chubby cheeks i had fallen in love with that he had permanently gotten rid of. i missed when i could engage with his posts without worrying if he was doing alright, if he was eating enough, if the rehab he was open about going through had stuck.

he wasn't doing well. and even now, i can't help but feel a kind of twisted vindication as a self-described member of the original liam payne defense squad. i was right. i always feared something like this would happen. liam was always the least favorite, always the fandom punching bag, hated back then for reasons i still to this day do not understand. after the band it only got worse. the general public latched onto him as one direction's clear loser, the biggest failure. a pathetic untalented clout chaser. i'll never forget when people scoffed at liam's claim that he was originally the leader of the group, when everyone called him a liar and a narcissist, only for him to be proven right when the footage of their creation was released. liam carried that band on his back for the first year of their existence, and no one ever acknowledged it.

i can't help but wonder if this contributed to his passing. i can't help but wonder if one direction had never come to be, if he had never gotten the fame and the spotlight he thought he wanted - if he would still be alive. he almost certainly would be. the liam that was put under immense pressure and never thanked for it, who was fed to the relentless industrial pop star machine as a literal child, struggled with substance abuse and maintaining healthy relationships. he made bad choices and hurt a lot of people. this is true. i don't deny it and i'm not defending his actions.

it's also true that the fourteen year old liam who auditioned for the x factor was none of those things. it's him that i'm mourning. who would he have grown into, if simon cowell hadn't plucked him out of the crowd? we'll never know.

it's tragic. and it makes me angry. and scared for others in the industry.

i can't imagine the kind of fucked up survivor's guilt the other boys must be going through right now. my heart breaks for louis in particular, who has already lost so many people close to him. i hope they have good support systems. i hope the women affected by liam's actions are safe and can focus on healing in peace.

i wonder if i'll ever be able to listen to one direction again. i will, i think. but it will never be the same.

i wonder if one day i'll look back on this and cringe at how melodramatic it all is.

this is a much longer post than i ever expected to write, yet i feel like i've only scratched the surface. 300 pages worth of feelings condensed into one farewell.

goodbye, liam. goodbye, the sunshine of my life.

[mint-moon25]

Tomorrow - Hub Locker

N Miami Ave - Ross

Again - Daily

One Door - Jammed

Of course - Them Hispanics

Their Ross Swat Team

Wearing - BLACK

2 or 1 - Pimpled - Face

Hispanics - Mean has Acne

Ross Dress for Less

Hub Locker

Tomorrow - Free Ship

$15.95

Add - 7% - Tax

Why?

Amazon has Physical

Locations in USA

If they didn't what it

Was before - Tax Free

Me Dropship Online

Store - No - Physical

Location - then - Wix

Online Store - Tax Free

Forever says cutely little

'Excluding Sales Tax'

I have no choice

Wix and Shopify

Threatens - All

Tax Evasion

Your Ferrari

Monetary Fine

Their Tax Weirdos

Over - $100

Your online store

No earnings

They've been illegally

Charging Tax and they

Are Dropshippers

No Inventory

No Store in USA

Your Online Store - Tax Free

Wix - Your Save

On the Top

Bookmark Bar

Like Bottom - Taskbar

Wix - Memory

Like Payments

There's a Note there

Time for a Test Purchase

No warning - you have to

Click from there

Brings you 2 your Wix

Online Store

Mine though - Expensive

How? Takes long

Bookmark Bar - Top

Wix - A1 - Chat

Fastest 2 Call

They always - Super Fast

Business Plan - $43

Monthly

You can do cheap products

They require - $1.00

Not $0.01 - Never read that

Shopify has Fabulous App

And Free for Downloads

It opens page at your

Website a Better View of

Downloads

Wix has better Free Themes

Canada - Shopify

Greedy Expense No earnings

Wix - Themes - Free

Digital Downloads

Doesn't work

Wix & Shopify

Shutterstock

$29 - maybe - 3 downloads

They're So So - Spam

They rejected - Free Pixabay

Also rejected theirs

Free Wix Media - Images

Rejected - MP3 - Outlook

As usual - considers

7MB - Huge Piano playing

Bill Gates - No longer

World's richest

So talked to - Pinoy - Wix

2 complain - He said

More than 300 MB - mp3

Well - deleted all - as usual

As - So So - Transferring

Call - Where they will call

Me - Thief

I Downloaded My Favorite

Pixabay - Skincare - Female

Showed - Dark Pink - Box

Ordered it

Again - Wix

What is - 'Thank You - Page'

Your Customers Receipt

Mine - All Dark Pink

So Made White - How?

There's - like - Degrees

With Icon - Made 88%

Became - White

So Pinoy with Me

As I Test Purchased

App - removed of $1.00

Mint & Moon

Immediately like Walmart

Obeyed Download Prompt

My Digital Print

Printables

Worked - Hooray

Got - PNG - Download

Even - Lightshot - PNG

And - Magic

Sign became 'Approved'

Business Plan - $43

Pinoy and Me - Together

Then - Siempre

We've observed your Online

Store - They want Redesign

Their Words - Not Auto

Aligned - Mouse Up and

Down - 15 min

Make Website as Gift

You will Go Crazy

Wix copying Google Ads

But Affiliate Websites

Commissions Made

They call Malicious

Spam Websites

They don't advertise

Google - Wix - Shopify

How dare you make

Commission?

Why not Employees until

You're Fired?

Wix - Hides sublines

Occasions

Under

From - Memory

Christmas

New Year

Valentine's Day

Haven't - Slept

Over 5 years

Graveyard Shift

Midnight - 5A

As usual like that

Hispanic Fatso

Janet Rivera

Blk Female was Raping

Me with Boxing my face

And - Breasts

SSI - $967

It's all mine

I'll kill you if you tell I was

Raping you - As Miami

Homeless Black American

Women - Your money is

Mine - your smartphone

Is mine

Age 6 Blond

Dora - World Explorer

Same Age

Strangled 2 Death

Bludgeoned - after

Blk suspects

American Blk did it

She wanted to destroy

My Face - I wear make up

Male Midget Police

Asking my SSN

Told Prune Bag

'Don't come near me'

They think they're

Free from Citizen's

Arrest and Tickets

Blk Male Haiti Miami

Police - Their Hands

They use

'Don't come near me'

Both were Raping me

With Battery

Both wanted my $$$

And - Smartphones

They're - Americans

Jesus is Hebrew

Jesus is Lord KR

[coyotehummingbird]

apartment

i’d live in a studio apartment with high ceilings and an open-concept floor plan in one of those historic downtown buildings if i had money

with the trust fund babies whose parents kinda hate them and the artsy millennials that dress like andy warhol (frequently one and the same)

the first floor would always smell like piss and weed and i would keep mace in my bag (or maybe not because i think that buying such a thing would only invite into my life the opportunity to use it)

i would live high enough that robbers would feel deterred but low enough that i could still use the stairs when the elevator broke or if an earthquake were to occur

my eyes would scan the faces of the people i happened past on my morning commute

they would frequently dart to the ground at the sight of any seedier characters

there would be the occasional hello or smile of acknowledgement (few and therefore more poignant)

my house would be filled with a wonderful collection of things:

innumerable in both quantity and magnitude of meaning

i would bike to the train station and take long walks around faded buildings and avoid the feces on the ground and keep a notebook on me because my eyes are bad from using my phone too much and i’d grow flowers in a pot hanging off the windowsill

and i’d keep a bucket of vermiculture compost under the sink (but i guess i’d have money so maybe even one of those on-the-counter automated composting machines that cost upwards of $300 dollars)

and i’d take my little dog on little walks past giant buildings and tiny people

and i’d host dinner parties where i’d invite kind strangers like the mom in 20th century women because hopefully i will have learned to cook well for large quantities of people by then

and i’d hear the sounds of people angry and screaming and wonder if they are alright but i would be high enough that they would be deterred to harm me and low enough that i could escape if needed

and i’d love to feel happy and safe but sometimes just happy will do

[driftwooddestiel]

transcript of video:

Hey everyone, let me tell you a story. So, there are 300 thousand people in the north of Gaza, it’s not empty. 300 thousand people are in the norh of Gaza, and they are for weeks facing a real famine, facing a forced starvation, and they don’t have anything to eat. So, they ate everything, no other options. They ate the grass, they ate the [unsure of word], the animals’ food, they ate the leaves, they ate everything, and they are dying because of hunger. During the past week, I’ve heard and read about 10 people at least who died because of hunger and the families are warning because they are still suffering, the starvation is continuous. It’s now a tool of genocide. The Israeli army is preventing the institutions to enter any humanitarian aid, or not allowing them simply to enter any humanitarian aid to the north of the Gaza strip. It’s— The Israeli army is intentionally starving and killing people by starvation, by starving them! I mean, the day before yesterday, 8 to 10– 8 trucks, carrying flour into the north of Gaza strip, each 8 truck contained a hundred packs of flour, each bag is 25 kilograms of flour— how can that be enough for 300 thousand people? Can you just tell me how can that be enough? And the WFP reported that they will temporarily stop their operations and food distributions in the north of Gaza strip until the conditions “get better”. Because the Israeli army is threatening and not allowing the institutions to enter the food to the north of Gaza strip. Last week, an [unsure of word] strike targeted an [unsure of word] truck, so how can the conditions “get better” in a genocide? Just tell me, if the conditions would ever “get better”, would we prefer to wait and plant our food or to grab the food from here, from the south, for friends and families in the north of Gaza strip? This is insane. This is madness. You can simply drop the food over north of Gaza, hand the food through warplanes, through your helicopters, through— I don’t know, any country in the whole world, any institute in the whole world, and drop the food over the north of Gaza strip. Don’t wait for their permission, because we don’t have, we don’t need, we don’t have to ask for permission to rescue people. There are innocent civilians, people, children, women, elderly, sick people, injuries, they are under bombing and starvation together. They don’t have any food to eat. Now, you can rescue them by drop the food over Gaza, feed the north of Gaza, drop the food over Gaza. Any country can do this, any organisation can do this. Just do it, don’t wait for anything. They are innocent people and they are dying. We cannot just let them down, right? We cannot. Can we?

end transcript.

please let me know if i messed up any words or if you know what’s being said in the [unsure of word] parts

For the sake of humanity rescue 300,000 dying!

[redfoxwritesstuff]

The Offering (Part 1- Offered and taken)

AKA: The Merdicking as my friends have known it

AN: Look- This is @dangertoozmanykids101‘s fault, okay? And this is a two part, very late, Christmas gift to one of my favorite readers and a all around pretty fucking awesome friend. Also, shout out to @just-the-hiddles who was a surprising resource for merdicks. Part two will include smut

I don’t hold my writing hostage for comments, reblogs or believe in guilt tripping readers for interaction. I’m a work from home mother and author, currently working on my first proper books and selling my crafts. Feel free to support the insanity by buying me a ko-fi or reaching out to make sure I’ve eaten today (I have food, I just tend to forget to feed myself…)

Pairing: Merman Tom Hiddleston x OFC Rated: Mature, XxX, Adults only

Chapter Summary: Selena was a good girl whom minded her spirituality well. She studied the holy texts, she attended the holy meetings and bent her life to the will of the Gods and their priests. If women could be chosen to work within the God's organization, she would have dedicated her life to them. But for as good as she was, for as much as she minded where her eye and mind traveled, she was unwed. Dedicated though she was to protecting her purity, even from her own hand, she had not wed a man to give herself to. And now she was to be punished as a sinner.

Series Warnings: Merdicks (physically and a bit in personality), MermanTom, Nonconsensual touching of female reproductive bits, purity culture, intended human sacrifice aka planned murder, Kidnapping, human/merman sexual intercourse, nonconsensual sexual touching, nonconsensual nudity, nonconsensual kissing moving into dubious consent. Dubious consent to sex.

Look, she’s having a religious crisis of morals- her consent flip flops, not that the merdick gives a fuck. In reality, this would be rape but this isn’t reality because in reality none of us horny fuckers are fucking mermen.

Funding Kit!

Kofi and Cashtag: $leeanneduyn (please never call me Leeanne- I hate my name)-

All donations and Kofi purchased and sent my way will go toward paying down my student loan debt. If every follower were to donate even just 75 cents, I could make my monthly payment when it resumes. I don’t expect nor hope for every follower to donate. But as the USA government won’t follow through on student loan forgiveness, I’m not above asking for help as this is a debt I was forced to take on by my abusive ex-husband. Personally, I just paid off my AC unit and dropped $300 on my credit cards so know that I’m not begging without doing things myself.

Current balance as of 1/15/22:   $45,639.83

The Offering

Selena was one of five unwed women standing in the center of the village. The men and women she had spent the whole of her life with new looked on. The dirt under her bare feet was too warm with the heat of an unrelenting summer.

The priest stood in front of the temple, looking down upon the women he had tried and failed to pair up over the years. The men within the village and from outside had failed to wed these women for years.

The oldest of the women was well into her forties and the youngest was just stepping out of her teens. Selena was nearly between the two, gracing the twenty-seventh summer of her life.

Unwed women were looked at with mistrust within the village. Like other villages, her neighbors feared that she was willingly unwed and housed the demon of sexuality. They feared that the unwed women would and were luring men, often married to their beds.

Now they stood in the center of the village while the priest passed judgment on them. Their list of supposed sins was long and full of crimes Selena know she was innocent of. She’d not laid with any man, married or not. For all of her adult life, she kept herself pure for her future husband.

“The sinners have driven away the rain!” The priest bellowed, holding a bag within his hands. “Now, we must identify the one or ones who have brought shame and drought upon our people. Within this bag are stones. Many stones marked white for the purity of a virgin. Each woman will prove her purity by drawing a white stone. Should be black in her hands, her sin will be exposed!”

Selena sighed and relaxed a fraction. She was innocent. She was pure. She’d not even touched herself, let alone been touched by another. She observed to commandments of modesty and did not defile her eyes by gazing upon the bodies of men, even when they wore shirts.

Each of the women before her pulled a white stone. Even the women Selena knew to let their eyes linger upon the forms of men and had shared kisses with some pulled out white stones.

When the bag was in front of her, she confidently reached in and wrapped her thin fingers around a cold stone. Wind gusted, blowing her dark brown waves around her. Dust wafted around in clouds and beat small pebbles against the wooden buildings around them.

The wind felt wrong, like an omen. The thought was out of her mind as quick as it had entered. She didn’t believe in omens for men or women. Omens belonged to the gods and their priests.

“Show us your stone.” He commanded, as he had for each woman before her.

Palm up, she uncurled her hand confidently with her head held high. She knew she was pure. She new she was innocent.

A hush settled over the clearing. The priest remained in front of her rather than moving on. Something wasn’t right. Looking at her palm, she found why.

Sitting in the delicate cup of her palm was a black stone. “No. I- No. I’m innocent.”

“Kneel and wait.” The priest ordered.

Her knees gave out on command, landing hard on the ground. It didn’t make sense. She was innocent. She hadn’t done anything wrong.

Questions swam fleetingly in her mind as one by one, the other women pulled out white stones. Only she had pulled out a black stone. The priest said words, things that she couldn’t comprehend. An offering to the gods of the sea needed to be made. They needed to be pleased to bring back the rains that the sinful one had chased away.

Rough hands grabbed her. Fingers dug into her arms as she was pulled to her feet. Panic ate at her like a caged rat. Though she struggled, she couldn’t free herself. Her feet dragged along the ground. She kicked and scratched. Screams and pleading words fell from her mouth. Again and again, she declared her innocence only to be ignored.

She was walked through the village as the afternoon grew long. The men and women fed on the fever of the priest’s words. The energy within the group grew. They shoved her father aside. The force of it sent him to the ground, head bouncing off the packed dirt. Thank the gods, if there were any, that there wasn’t blood.

He should be okay, that was good. Perhaps there were gods after all.

She didn’t have time to dwell on the blasphemous thoughts as she was roughly pushed and pulled along. The tide was low, near its lowest point. The glittering blue waves in the distance had been a source of comfort.

Now, as she was dragged down the beach, she found no such comfort. Tripping and falling, she was pulled along as if a sack of potatoes. A kick to her ribs sent her rolling down the cool sand. They pulled her to the shell of a boat, haul breached beyond repair and left to rot on the beach.

“Drag that down,” The priest ordered “Below tide line. Use the ropes.”

“What are you doing?” She shrieked as the haul was pulled closer to the water’s edge.

It was a recently discarded boat, still clearly solid. She cried as she watched, fear clawing at her. The panic rat was free and running in her mind. She was innocent. Pure. This couldn’t be happening to her. The gods would not let this happen to her. They couldn’t. If this happened, there were no gods. There couldn’t be.

“We will sacrifice her to the gods of the sea.” The priest’s booming voice called out over the gathered people as she was yanked to her feet and turned to face them.

“I’m innocent.” The wailing plea was ignored even as she cried it over and over.

“She will be claimed by the tide and the sea will wash away the sins. We will have rain and the blessings of the gods once more.”

People watched as men dragged her to the haul of the boat. The priest prayed over her as her hands were bound on either side of the stern of the boat. Her arms were spread wide and her shoulders ached.

The priest ushered the villagers back with orders to ignore her screams and pleas in the night. The people where told that it would be the forces of evil trying to call them to her. They couldn’t leave her there. The tide would come and drown her in the night. They couldn’t. They wouldn’t.

The few men that remained stood back and leered at her, admiring their work. In her struggle, the ties holding the bodice of her dress cinched had come undone. Shame colored her cheeks men gazed upon the flesh that was exposed by the untied neck of her dress. The tie in the back had remained fastened and her breasts were not exposed.

While her modesty was still protected, her chest and the upper swells of her breasts were always covered. She dressed in a way as to keep modest and not defraud the men around her. Her face was to be the source of attention, not her body as he body was god’s gift to her husband when she were to marry.

Now, men were gazing on her exposed upper chest. They admired how her dress had bunched up around her knees from her struggles. Lewd comments passed between them as they expressed their regret that for all the beds she must have shared, she had never visited theirs.

“I’m innocent.” Weeping. Somehow there were still tears to shed. “I’m pure.”

Kneeling down, Chis ran his hand up her leg. She kicked at him, trying to force him away.

Why were they behaving like this? She’d thought she’d perhaps marry one of these men one day and now they where acting darkly. Surely they couldn’t be taken over with sin, they worked with the priest.

“Please.” She begged, “Let me go. Please?”

“Maybe if you make it worth our time.” Matthew said, stepping up close to her.

“What?” She choked on the word, hope flared in her but died out quickly.

Matthew was rubbing the crotch of his pants. There was a bulge as he grew stiff. She knew what it was, she’d cared for babies before. She wasn’t naive of what men had between their legs though she’d never seen a man’s.

Clattering filled the beach as Chris worked his belt free. “Maybe if you suck us off. Use your dirty sinner’s mouth on us, we’ll let you go.”

“No.” The panic clawed at her anew.

“Maybe let us all paint your tits with our cum.” Matthew added, undoing his belt.

“Boys!” The booming voice the priest carried over the sand. “It’s growing late! Leave her lest she draw you to sin.”

“Damn it.” Chris ground his teeth as he refastened his belt.

“He’s not going to leave without us.” Matthew kicked sand in her face as he accepted that he wouldn’t have her lips around his cock.

Kneeling down, Chris hooked a finger in the bodice of her dress and pulled it further open. It hung gaping now, exposing more of the valley between her full breasts. “She’s got great tits, oh well.”

They left her on the beach. Fear kept her from calling out as the sun began its rapid decent in the sky. There was no way to know if whomever answered her calls would save her or hurt her.

Instead, she closed her eyes and prayed. She prayed that her gods would send someone to save her. She prayed that the priest would realize his mistake. While she prayed, she listened to the steady lapping of the waves as the tide crept closer and closer. Lastly, she prayed that god would stop the very tide.

The sun gave up the sky and she gave up her prayers. There was no god, she decided as the waves lapped at her heel. This was how she was to die.

A splash in the distance caught her attention. Perhaps dolphins had come to entertain her? She couldn’t make out what it was in the darkness but she watched as the large figure breached the surface here and there. Was there one or a school of them? She didn’t know.

“I don’t want to die.” She whimpered as the water soaked her skirts and kissed her knees. Closing her eyes, she repeated the phrase again and again as she listened to the splashing of the creature. “I don’t want to die.”

“Why must you die?” A rich baritone asked, jerking her from her chanted attempts at calming herself.

A man with sun kissed sin asked, sitting ten feet beyond where she sat. He wore no shirt and seemed to not be bothered by the cold of the sea.

“Who are you?”

“If you do not wish to die, why must you die?” The man asked again. His voice was melodic and haunting over the waves.

“For sins I did not commit.” It was safer to look at the waves than this shirtless man. She’d been pure until now, she would not defile herself. “Please, untie me? Let me go?”

“Do you regret not committing these sins?” He asked instead, cocking his head. Her eyes darted to him and away, desperately trying to avoid looking at him while not wanting to disrespect the man that could very well save her.

“I don’t know.” It hurt to admit it.

“Why do you not look at me?” He asked. The question made her do so. She watched as he pulled himself further up the beach, exposing his abdomen in greater detail.

“You’ve got no shirt on.” The reason felt dumb on her lips. She couldn’t help taking in the defined muscles of his chest and torso. The pleasure of a man was unknown to her.

“I’ve no need for such things.” The words made no sense in her mind.

“Please, untie me?” She urged again, repeating herself as waves lapped over her knees.

“What did they wish to accomplish, sending you to die?” The questions were maddening and she began to sob anew.

“An offering to the sea gods, for rain.”

“And what are these supposed sea gods?” He was closer now.

“Gods.” She answered, trying to keep her eyes to his handsome face. Moonlight reflected off the water and danced in his eyes. “Bodies of man with the tail of fish. They control the water. Please, let me go?”

“And these humans thought to drown our gift?”

“What?” The man was near her feet now, stretched out in the water, holding his upper torso above the lapping waves with his elbows.

A cold hand caressed her foot under the cover of the water. Long fingers trailed up her calf as choked on sobs.

“You’re pretty when you’re choking.” He remarked as he traced his fingers over a knee.

As she struggled to calm her sobs, there was a splash not far in front of her. Perhaps he was standing up, going to untie her. Perhaps he was just kicking his feet. Her eyes were open when the splash sounded again.

The surface of the water a few feet beyond where she would have expected his feet to be was broken by a wide flat fin. It was dark as night and glittered in the moonlight.

“You’re a god.” She whimpered. What did this mean?

“I am no god.” he pulled himself up higher on the beach. Through the waves, she could see where tan skin transitioned to give way to scales. “But perhaps I can be your god.”

What did that even mean?

“Please untie me.” She tried again, looking over to where he sat to her side. He was nearly looming over her.

“But are you not an offering? Am I not to take you?” He mused, running the hand not supporting his weight from her knee up onto her thigh.

Never had she been touched this way. “I don’t want to die.”

“I never said I’d kill you. But you’ve been offered to me, should I not get to do with you what I wish?”

“What?” Squirming under his hand, she struggled to understand.

Fingers trailed higher up her thigh until the sopping skirts of her dress became an obstruction. Then they moved up to her neck. Tracing the long line of her neck and down he ignored her whimpering pleas as he explored. Cold fingers trailed over her exposed clavicle and where her bodice rested against her breasts.

“I’ve never had a pet human.” He whispered. “Never even been close to one.”

“Let me go.”

“Perhaps when I’m done with you.” He murmured as he leaned into her. She could feel his lips moving against her neck as he spoke.

“You’ve got no gills here.” As he spoke, he peppered soft kisses behind her ear and down below her jaw. “To only be able to breath the air, how fascinating. So similar and yet so different to our women.”

He cupped her breast with a large wet hand and she cried harder in her fear. “These are the same but yours are softer, warmer.”

His hand left her breast but the thin fabric of her summer dress clung to it, revealing the shape she had so tried to hide. The hand moved to her knee and again traced up.

“Your kind wear so much garments. So much to hid your form. It leaves us with many questions. How far do your legs remain split? How do they join? I have many questions.”

“Thomas!” A voice from deeper in the water called out. Another one of him, surely. “You should not linger at the shore.”

“I’ll do as I please.”

“Your curiosity will get you killed.” The fish man said before turning.

“I’ll die satisfied than.” There was a dark promise in those words as the other man left in a splash.

“What are you going to do to me? What does that mean?” She thrashed against the boat, renewing efforts to try and free her hands. “Let me go.”

“I very much crave learning.” The almost man said. “You will teach me much.”

“Thomas,” Perhaps if she used his name, he would let her go. “Please. You don’t want to hurt me. Let me go?”

“Whomever said I would hurt you?” He mused, pushing her skirts up around her thighs.

“You’ll hurt me spiritually.” She tired, “If you keep touching me like this, you’ll hurt my soul.”

“I care not for things that are not real.” He spoke ignorant to the fact that he was a thing many would have said was not real.

“And yet you wear more garments?” He mused as his fingers found her simple panties under her dress. “The female’s legs go just as far as the males. See, you’re already teaching me so much.”

Holding her thighs together, she tried to ignore his probing hand. Careful caresses spread out over her hips and lower stomach.

“I wish to know more.” Fingers hooked under the bands and he sliced the fabric with a sharp nail as if it were nothing at all.

She was scared now, not of drowning but of the sea demon who tormented her. Shaking with fear, she closed her eyes as he caressed the curls at her mound. No one had touched her there since she was a babe unable to clean herself.

“I wish to see it.”

Strong hands yanked her down the beach. Her arms stretched out against the boat. There was a crack as her head hit the wooden surface but Thomas paid it no mind. The position he dragged her into was rather uncomfortable.

The knock to the head left her dazed for a few seconds. That was all the time he needed to bunch her skirts up higher. She was exposed to the world before she could so much as fight back.

He settled his torso between her legs, holding them apart with strength she was unable to fight against. She prayed the darkness would give her some modesty.

“Absolutely fascinating.” Her hope was killed as she realized with great dread that his vision at night was not lacking.

Hands trailed up her thighs as he pushed them apart. Warm breath puffed against her cold wet skin as he spread her wide. Shame burned at her ears as his face drew closer to where her legs met.

Cold sea water lapped against her exposed skin and she wished for nothing more than to drown in that water.

“I wonder.” He said to himself as he traced her lower lips. He ran his fingertip down them and she squirmed. “Be still, you wouldn’t want me to cut you.”

She stilled as he demanded. The pad of his index finger pulled and explored the folds of her lips before moving further down. She felt him poke at her rectum and cried out in shame.

“That must be where waste exits… is that correct?” Looking up to her, he waited for answer.

“Yes.” She mumbled before renewing her whimpering.

“So this…” He trailed off as his finger traced the folds of her lips once again, “is all what, decoration for your mating opening?”

“I-” She cried out as his fingertip rested at her vaginal opening. “I guess.”

“You guess?”

“I don’t- I don’t really know.”

“You do not know how your mating parts function?” He looked truly confused. “Have you not touched them? Used them?”

“No, not really. They’re not mine.”

“Not yours?” He looked down at her folds spread wide. “They appear to belong to your body, do they not?”

“They are for my husband when we marry.”

“You ignore your mating parts until you mate?” He laughed and damned if it wasn’t an alluring sound. “How would one enjoy mating if you’ve not found how to bring yourself pleasure?”

“That’s wrong.” She said, once again trying to close her legs without success. “It’s wrong to look at someone like this. Its wrong to touch your- your parts. It’s only for marriage and to make children.”

“Why?” Thomas asked, eyes remaining on her neither region as he continued to poke around.

“It’s a sin. It goes against God.” She shuddered as his fingertip ran over the sensitive ball of nerves. Sometimes her undergarments would bunch up and brush against it making her aware of it but she had resisted the urge to caress it. Now, he caressed it in his exploration.

“Why would a God give you these things and not let you use them?” He asked, watching her as his fingers caressed over the nub at the top of her folds and circled the mating opening he had found.

It was small and tight. He had seen the human male’s mating appendage and he couldn’t figure out how the two fit together. The male’s dangled limply and was rather small. Did it simply place against the opening and deposit seed that way? He’d heard that like his kind, humans mated for pleasure and he couldn’t imagine that being very pleasurable.

“Do humans get pleasure from the mating act?” He asked, eyes full of questions.

“I- I told you, I’m pure. I’ve never done it… But yes. We’re given by God the privilege of making our children in a bed of pleasure.”

“How?” His eyes went back to her exposed flesh.

“I don’t- I-” She stammered now. For most of her life she had intentionally avoided the thoughts of coupling to keep her mind and body pure. “I- Um. Men put their… thing… inside and that makes the baby.”

“How?” Again he asked, rubbing his fingers over the nub at the top of her folds. “I’ve seen your males. They’re rather flexible and floppy.”

Shifting, she tried to get away from the stroking fingertip. It felt strange and oddly pleasurable but such was sin. “They… Their thing gets… stiff?”

“I see.” Thomas said. “So it goes inside.”

“Please, stop touching me. Let me go. The water’s getting higher.” Her neck was hurting and her shoulders ached. The tears came and went as she tried to keep the panic in check.

“What is this for?” He asked, rubbing the bundle of nerves with more focus.

She gasped at the sensation, trying to scoot away from the hand only to be held in place by a hand on her thigh. “I- I don’t know.”

“Your kind is strange, to not know your own mating functions. It’s amazing you manage to reproduce at all.”

“Please let me go.” The begging had started again.

“But I’m not done learning about you.” Water was pooling around her lower back now. Higher and higher. “It appears that rubbing it gives you pleasure. You react to it different than when I rub elsewhere.”

“Please.” He ignored her and kept rubbing. It felt strange. There was a sharp pleasure to it and she hated herself for noticing it. This was wrong. He was touching what belonged to her future husband.

“This is interesting.”

“What?”

His fingertip left the bundle of nerves and stroked down to her opening. Attempts to move away did her no good with his impossibly strong grip on her thigh. The tip swirled around the opening before he held it up for her to see.

“Your kind produce a slick, were you aware?” He didn’t give her a chance to answer before continuing. He’d largely given up on the thought that she would be able to verbally educate him on her body. “Do your males not slick themselves?”

“I- I don’t-”

“You don’t know.” It was clear that her lack of answers was mildly annoying to him and that scared her.

“It seems rubbing that nub releases your slick.” He brought the fingers closer to his face and examined them. Moonlight shined off the slick. She watched as his tongue darted out and wrapped around the digits. It was longer than a human’s tongue and came to a natural point.

“What are you-” The question was lost to sobs as he moaned.

“The slick is sweet.” He observed, returning his fingers to her nub where he again began rubbing. “It’s a pleasant taste. Rather surprising, actually.”

She gasped and cried as her body betrayed her. The longer he rubbed, the better it felt. She hated herself for it and tried to get away from the tormenting finger. It did no good with him holding one leg up and out of the way.

The finger left the nub when she felt like she couldn’t take and more. He stroked down to the opening and gathered slick upon the tip before returning. That made the sensation all the better and she groaned between her tears.

“That feels good?” Looking up, he watched her face.

“Please, let me go.”

“Of course you won’t answer. Your body tells me it does though. Your kind’s desire to not acknowledge your mating parts is idiotic.”

His finger left her nub and traveled down again. She tensed, remembering how his nails had ripped her underclothes like they were nothing. Now the tip of the finger was pushing against her entrance. There was nearly no resistance as the finger slipped in deeper and deeper.

“How deep is your mating channel?” Thomas asked as his finger sank down to the knuckle. “It’s so wet and warm.”

“Just let me go.” She cried.

“How wide can it go?” He asked himself, pulling the finger out and inserting two.

They scissored inside her and she groaned. It felt good in a way she didn’t know how to explain. She knew why this was a sin now. It felt far too good to have outside of marriage.

Abandoning his finger’s place inside her, he pulled himself up higher on the sand. He loomed over her, an imposing sight of muscles. He was forced to let go of her thigh in order to support himself above her.

She could feel the scales where his waist gave way to hips and transitioned to tail. It was as firm and muscled as the rest of him appeared to be, though she had no desire to touch any of him.

“Let me go. Please? The water is getting higher. You don’t have to do this to me.”

“You’re right, I don’t.” He said simply as he rinsed the sand from his hand. “I wish to. I’ve been fascinated with your kind for my whole life and now I can learn all I wanted to of you.”

He hooked a finger under the top of her bodice and pulled. There was no more give due to the rest of the dress being tied in the back. She was thankful for it keeping at least some of her modesty.

That didn’t last for long as he cut through the fabric with his nail. It ripped with ease and the idea that his nails had been inside her brought fresh terror. He pulled at it, doing away with the last big of modesty she had.

Until that moment, no one had seen her breasts except her. She had maintained her modesty since she was a child. Now, this almost man examined her curiously and he once again stole from her what should have been saved for a husband.

His hand was large as it cupped her breast. Part of her wondered what his assessment of them would be. Most of her wanted his hand off of her and for him to untie her and leave. Part of her wanted him to just leave her to drown if it meant that he stopped chipping away at what was left of her innocence.

Cold fingers caressed the swell of her breasts. Her nipple tightened into a peak under his caresses. She could understand the temptation of a man’s touch now. It felt nice. This was why it was a sin.

“They’re similar to our female’s.” Thomas began vocalizing his analysis. “Ours are smaller though. Firmer and less rounded. Your nipples are larger.”

“Please.”

His fingers worked into the tender swell. Her nipple relaxed with his hand protecting it from the cold sea breeze.

“Interesting.” He drew his face closer to her chest. She again struggled to put distance between them fruitlessly.

“Your nipples relax nearly flat but with stimulation they tighten. Fascinating.” He pinched them, drawing a gasp out of her. “Sensitive too.”

Leaning forward, he licked the swell of her breast in a long lapping stroke from the underside up, caressing over her nipple in the process. It felt good and she knew it was wrong.

“Your skin is salty, like water. Tastes like home.” That strangely long pointed tongue curled around her nipple. She arched into it even as she tried to scoot away. “Your skin tastes good but not as good as your slick.” The words brought the shame back. “Why do you make such a face?”

“This is wrong.”

“Because your imaginary god said so?” He scoffed and pushed himself back.

The tide had come further in, granting him more mobility as the water pooled around him. He slipped down her body, ripping at the length of her dress on his way. As his torso settled again between her thighs, he had the dress ripped open from top to bottom. The sleeves hung from her arms and shoulders.

“From here,” His fingers caressed a point high on her hips before moving down. “you’re different. You’re split where we remain one.”

“Why are you doing this to me?” She was crying again.

“Curiosity.” He answered simply.

Maybe if she kept him talking, he wouldn’t start touching her again. “Are all your kind so fascinated with us?”

He drew closer to her core. It seemed to be where he was most interested in. “No. Your kind are taboo. Forbidden to touch and keep.”

“To keep?”

He didn’t answer her question. Instead, he leaned forward, closer to her core. She squirmed and he grabbed one leg and once again pushed it up and opened her. There was nothing she could to do drive him away with her one free leg.

She was helpless as his nose drew closer to her. “You smell so good.”

“You can untie me. Please, just untie me and let me go.”

Leaning forward, the long tongue darted out. He licked his lips before closing the distance. A deep rumble spilled from him and vibrated through his lips as he took the nub near the top of her slit. He sucked and licked at it.

Waves lapped up his back, rolling down his shoulders and wetting the hair that had been drying to what could have been a honeyed brown. He paid the water no mind when it surged over the crest of his head.

He didn’t react to the water dripping down his face. He didn’t swipe at the water than ran into his eyes. It didn’t bother him in the slightest as his lips worked her body to betrayal.

“Yes,” He murmured as he slipped two fingers carefully inside her. “This appears to bring you great pleasure.”

“Please, the water. It’s getting higher.”

Instead of acknowledging her words, he removed his fingers and ducked his head lower still. The long wetness of his tongue lapped at her from opening to nub. Again, a deep rumble passed from his lips, almost as if a purr.

The point of his tongue warmed into her opening. The feeling was indescribable. His fingertip found her nub and rubbed at it.

Breath caught in her throat as he worked her over. Gasps slipped from between her lips as a pleasure she had never experienced grew inside her. Was this why women sinned?

“You grow slicker the longer I touch.”

“Does your kind do this to each other?” She questioned in hopes of distracting him as the feeling dulled with the interrupted contact as he stopped to speak.

“Not commonly, no.” He lapped at her opening again before continuing. “Our females do not produce slick in this amount and our mating organs do not taste pleasing.”

Deep in the back of her mind, she wondered what theirs tasted like. Instantly, she shut that thought down. That was the thought of a sinner.

“Why are you doing it to me?”

He chuckled, “Because you seem to enjoy it.”

“Why are you doing this?” The water was growing higher, caressing her middle. “Why wont you let me go?”

“You as repetitive questions.” He said as he pulled himself up her body. “Trying to distract yourself from the body’s call for mating pleasure?”

He was right but she wasn’t going to tell him that.

“Tell me, how do your kind show affection?”

“Please, just let me go.”

“Answer my questions.” He demanded and she knew she had no choice if she wanted to live. Even if she did, would he untie her or touch her as she drowned?

“W- We hold hands. We kiss.”

“What is it to kiss?”

“It is- We put our lips together, against the other’s. And when we’ve found our partner, we move them.”

His weight settled against here. She could feel the slick scales press against her core and his hips pressing her into the sand. He lowered himself to her, carefully. Closer and closer his face got to hers before it bumped into the haul of the ship.

With a growl, he reached up and yanked onto the rope around her wrist. With strength that far surpassed a human’s, it snapped near the end.

With one of her arms freed, he pushed the ship out of his way. It felt good to have the pressure off her neck as she straightened it. She drew the freed arm to her but she had no space between them to cradle it. The shoulder joint ached.

“Now, where was I?” He mused, giving her his full attention. “Oh yes, this kiss thing.”

“You want to kiss me?” She tried to scoot away but the wait of him on her pelvis pinned her in place. “Why?”

“To learn.” He said as if it was the simplest thing in the world. “Why? Have you not done this thing either?”

“No… No, I’m pure. I’ve never kissed a man. I- I, please.”

“Affection sharing can be done independent of the mating act, no?”

“Not between grown men and women.” Tears ran down her cheeks but her sobs had calmed for the moment.

“Why?” His face drew closer and she tried not to admire his high cheek bones or stormy blue eyes.

He was hurting her spiritually but he hadn’t hurt her physically and that helped ease her fear slightly. Did hurting her spiritually even matter? She was innocent yet sacrificed as if guilty. If the gods were real, why would they do this to her? Allow it to be done to her?

On the other side of the coin, what if it was a test? What if all of this was a test by the Gods to see if her faith would crack? But wasn’t he everything she was told all her life that the sea gods were? Could she sin with a God? If a God was the one touching her, did it make her unclean?

“Between men and women,” She started, trying to stop her tears “It is a promise of intimacy.”

“But it is just an action of affection?”

“All affection is…” He chuckled.

“It’s amazing humans number the land as they do. By your standards, you’d never make it to the mating act.” His face lowered carefully toward hers’.

Air caught in her throat as his breath washed over her. She expected it to smell fishy but it smelled much like the sea itself. He hesitated as their noses brushed against each other. Tilting his head, he figured out how to fit the faces together.

His lips were warm against hers’ as they brushed. “Like this?”

“I don’t…”

Her words were cut off as he pressed his lips tighter against hers. It felt good and that scared her. She didn’t know what to do with her free arm. It laid against the sand. The water pooled at the small of her back and lapped at the ends of her hair.

She moved her lips against his, surrendering to the chaste kiss. He mumbled a sound that could have been ‘oh’ and followed her lead, pressing his lips to hers and lightly trapping the lower lip between his again and again.

Insanity replaced the panic rat in her mind, at least for the moment and her arm rose. For the first time, she reached out and touched him, running her hand up the arm. It was lean and firm. The skin was soft and felt like it was stretched over steel.

His shoulder was just as firm under her hand. Every part of him felt like smooth steel but his lips were soft against hers. She cupped the back of his neck in her palm as she moved her lips more intently against his, deepening the chaste kiss.

She should have pushed him away. Running her hand down his neck, she tried to convince herself to do so. When her hand rested against his chest, she couldn’t convince herself to actually do so.

Leaning her head up, she darted her tongue out from between her lips. She had intended to lick his kiss of her lips but her mind was clouded and she failed to break contact first.

It shocked her when her tongue made contact with his lip. It tasted of salt as he kissed her. She’d seen her father and mother kiss with their mouths open when she was a child, before her mother died.

“Do your kind taste each other's mouths?” The words were soft against her lips but they broke the spell she had fallen under.

Her head settled against the sand again only to realize the soft waves were reaching up to her neck.

“Sometimes.” His heart thumped under her hand in a steady rhythm. “I’ve never but I know it’s done between husband and wives. The water, it’s getting higher?”

“There is time yet.” He said as if the water wouldn’t eventually drown her. “I wish to experience that kiss. Will you let me taste you?”

She knew he wasn’t really asking. He hadn’t asked before tasting her folds or her juices. There was no thought spared to if she waned him to taste her skin. But as she yielded to him now, he was somehow softer with her.

“If it means you’ll let me free.”

“In good time.” He leaned down to kiss her again but hesitated. “Did I do it right?”

“I think so.” She offered, not knowing what to say. It had felt nice to be kissed by him but if that was how it was to be done or not, she was just as inexperienced as he. “We usually close our eyes.”

He hummed and the sound was soothing. Leaning down, slowly he closed his eyes as his lips connected with hers again. He lead the kiss with more confidence. His weight settled more on her as he moved from supporting himself with his palms to resting on his elbows. It was shocking, having his so human appearing torso lower against her naked skin.

Her hand ran along his chest and sides. If he could explore her, why should she not get to touch him before she died? It was something no one else would have experienced.

“Your caress feels lovely.” He murmured into her lips.

Shifting his weight onto one arm, his large hand gripped her side. She gasped as his thumb swept under the swell of her breast still taught with her arm stretched up by the rope connected to the boat.

Down it moved, indifferent to the water rising along her side as he caressed the soft skin. She gasped when the hand returned to cup her breast and his pointed tongue slipped between his lips and into hers.

His tongue was far more dexterous than hers as he caressed the inside of her mouth. Deeper, he explored until he felt her chest shudder as she suppressed the gagging cough.

“Too much.” He whispered and she nodded. “Your tongues are different, rounded and contained.”

She didn’t have a chance to comment on his observation though. He was quick to return to kissing her deeply. His tongue tasted of salt and moonlight, though if ever asked she would never be able to describe such a taste.

Under her hand, she could feel the slow thump of his heart. It was a struggle to maintain clear thought as his hand massaged her breast. As he breathed, the weight of him against her pelvis and core would shift. It created a sensation that she struggled to ignore.

Water now kissed at the base of her skull, reminding her of the reality of where she was. This wasn’t her wedding bed and it wasn’t just a man plundering her of her fist kiss. She was on a beach, dress in tatters under her and the tide rising to swallow her.

“The water.” She pulled her lips from his, turning her head away to buy distance. She could feel a trail of saliva between maintaining a connection between them for a moment longer.

“The water is home.” He said, nuzzling into her neck. “The water is safety.”

“The water will kill me.” She reminded him. Breath hitched in her chest as he peppered kisses along her neck.

“Do your kind show affection this way?” He asked.

“Yes.”

“You’re enjoying the acts of affection?” He looked up at her. The gentle waves were soaking her hair and pushing their tendrils beyond her head. “Speak true.”

“Yes.” Shame burned at her face and she knew she should cry.

“What of your gods, are they not shamed by that?”

“I- I was taught the sea god would look much like you. Perhaps you are the sea god and just don’t know it.” It was a desperate thing to cling to but she needed to soothe her shame.

“So then, I can give you pleasure and take pleasure from you?” He asked.

“I don’t know what that means.” Tears leaked from her eyes as a sallow wave caused the water to swell over her stomach and lap between her breasts.

“I may give you affection.” He nuzzled her neck and kissed down her chest to the swell of her breasts. “I may touch your breasts.”

With his weight on her pelvis, she was sinking into the sand as the water made it unsteady. Small waves lapped at the underside of her breasts.

“The water is getting too high.” He had a nipple in his mouth, suckling it harshly. “Please.”

With a sign, he let the pebble of her nipple free. Strong arms pulled him up her torso again and she tried to ignore how the smooth uninterrupted length of his abdomen and tail rubbed against her core.

He kissed her deeply, not waiting long at all to slip his tongue inside her mouth. She returned the kiss but wondered if this was how she was going to die.

Reaching up, he grabbed the rope just above her hand and pulled. The haul of the boat dragged down the sand with a creak before the rope gave out.

She cried in relief. Her arm and shoulder ached from the tension it had been under for so many hours.

She was freed from the boat and just in time. A wave, only slightly bigger than the rest surged over his back and around her. Water dripped down onto her face and panic told her she would still drown.

Pushing against him, she prayed to sit up and feared that he wouldn’t let her.

He pulled back and pushed himself up onto his palms. He watched as her breasts moved, shape changing slightly as her arms were freed from their place over her head. In an effort to ensure she wouldn’t have more water in her face, she pushed herself up onto her elbows.

As she did, he gave her more room. Swiftly, he pulled himself over to her side. Keen eyes watched her body as she sat up. His tail was draped over one leg, heavier than she could have ever guessed.

Selena tried to pull her dress closed around her torso as is eyes crawled over her. “Thank you.”

“If you drown, my learning would end.” He spoke matter-of-factually.

“What?” She tried to pull her leg out from under his tail and couldn’t.

Reaching out, he yanked the cloth from the back of her shoulders. It burned as the wet sleeves caught on her arms. Grabbing her arm, he wrestled the sopping material off while she tried to cover her breasts with the other arm.

His hand, large and strong pushed her efforts aside as if they were nothing and began caressing her breasts.

“They’re softer like this. Heavy too. Do they not pain you without the water to take the weight of them?”

“No, not most of the time.”

“Come into the sea with me?” The question caught her off guard.

“I can’t breath under water, I’d drown.”

“If you stay here, your people will do what? Find a new boat to tie you to?”

She had opened her mouth to protest but his arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her to him as if she weighed nothing at all. He dragged her through the water, deeper into the lapping waves and the panic that she had thought she put behind her ran anew.

“What are you doing?” He didn’t answer.

She kicked and scratched at him though it didn’t even mar his skin. As he completed turning around, she saw the reality she had so easily forgotten as it broke the surface.

Feet beyond where his feet would have stopped if he had been a man, the slimming tail gave way to a large fanned fin. It rose up out of the water, a large and looming reality that though for a moment she had felt safe, she was not.

Crashing down with amazing force, it slapped the water with a loud boom. The water wasn’t very deep but the force of it still assisted him in pushing them deeper.

A scream tore through her very being only to be cut off by a swell of water crashing over their heads. Coughing, sputtering and gasping, she clung to him on reflex alone.

She fought to try and push herself higher above the waves but he held her firmly to him as he pushed along the sand. They were going deeper and deeper by the second. Every time he head was above the water, she gasped and coughed. There wasn’t enough

time to scream or fill her lungs.

He dove forward, launching them through a slightly larger wave as if it was nothing. For him, it was nothing. In what felt like a lifetime and a somehow also just a matter of seconds, the sandy ground fell from under her feet.

~~~~~<3

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[beardedmrbean]

An aspiring Houston rapper who threatened physical harm and violence toward females and their families was sentenced to 27 years in federal prison Tuesday for sex trafficking young girls, including a 14-year-old runaway. 

Aryion Dupree Jackson, 24, was handed the nearly 30-year sentence from U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal. He pleaded guilty Dec. 19, 2022, to sex trafficking of a minor and conspiracy to traffic an adult female by force, fraud or coercion. 

Between August 2019 and July 2020, Jackson, whose rap name is Yung Corleon, made minor and adult females have sex with people for money, according to the  U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas. They were threatened with violence and told to get tattoos of Jackson's brand — a five-point crown and a bag of money. 

A 14-year-old girl, who was reported as a runaway by Baytown police in September 2019, was forced to have sex with people for three months to line Jackon's pockets. When interviewed by Harris County Constable's Office Precinct 5 during a traffic stop, the girl claimed to be 19, showed deputies a fake New Jersey driver's license and told them that she worked at an adult entertainment venue, court records show. 

The runaway told authorities during an interview in October 2019 that she was in a long-term relationship with Jackson, he knew her actual age and she traveled with him out-of-state for rap concerts, according to court records. 

Based on a text sent from the 14-year-old girl, Jackson had 12 women and girls living in a "trap house" at some point, court documents state. He didn't provide food for the women or minors, but he regularly gave them drugs to keep them working for him. 

The Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance officials rescued an adult woman after Jackson trafficked her for a month and a half. During her time with Jackson, she had to earn at least $1,000 a day by charging anywhere from $100 to $300 per sex act, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. The adult woman was told to have sex at a motel near Plainfield and Bissonnet or in nearby parking lots, according to court documents. 

If the victims didn't meet Jackson's quota, he told them to "get back to work or get their a** beat," the adult woman told authorities during an interview. She also said Jackson threatened to kill or harm the victims' families if they left him. He even pointed a handgun at her head and threatened to shoot her if she didn't follow his instructions. 

Jackson, a documented gang member, had various Instagram accounts. One of them had several posts advertising him as a pimp, and the account contained photos of him with money and guns. 

He was initially arrested in November on weapon and drug possession charges by Texas Department of Public Safety troopers. Police realized once he was in custody that he was also wanted for trafficking. Despite being in jail since November, Jackson continued to traffic women through July 2020 from jail through phone calls, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. He was caught with cellphones and drugs.

Jackson will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.  

Once Jackson's sentence is complete, he will have to register as a sex offender and serve 15 years on supervised release, officials with U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas said in a news release. While under supervised release, his access to children and the Internet will be restricted.

“Young women and girls are not commodities to be sold for the financial benefit of gang members,” U.S. Attorney for SDTX Alamdar Hamdani said in the news release. “We must remain vigilant to combat this problem together. To the victims - please know we have your backs. To the traffickers - you might want to watch your back. To all the others - please look for the signs and call the authorities.”

[ukrfeminism]

2 minute read

A new study, seen exclusively by BBC News, reveals the extent of coercive and controlling behaviour in cases where victims are killed by their current or ex-partners. Experts say organisations, including the police, NHS and social services, need to better understand the problem and intervene in abusive relationships earlier.

Gary Price says his mother, Marion, went from being a "bubbly" person to a "shell of a woman" during her abusive and controlling marriage.

"He [her ex-husband] would control what she spent her money on," Gary says. "He gradually ground her down and tried to encourage her to leave work so eventually it would just be her and him and she wouldn't be able to leave."

After the relationship ended, Marion's family came to realise how controlling her ex-husband, Michael Reader, had been.

"We found out he was using a tracking device," Gary says. "She was dropping some shopping off for her mum and he was waiting at the top of the street."

In 2019, Marion was followed her home by her estranged husband, who then shot her dead while she was still in the car. "As she pulled into her drive he pulled up alongside her and shot her through the window," Gary says. "She hadn't even taken her seatbelt off."

Reader was found guilty of her murder and is serving a life sentence.

Homicide link

Coercive and controlling behaviour - which is a pattern of psychological abuse and intimidation used to harm and frighten a victim - has been a criminal offence in the UK since 2015. It often occurs alongside other forms of domestic abuse.

New research, seen exclusively by BBC News, looked at the link between coercive control and murder.

A Manchester Metropolitan University study analysed more than 300 domestic homicide reviews in England and Wales, between 2012 and 2018.

In cases where victims had been killed by their current or ex-partner, academics found more than half had experienced coercive and controlling behaviour in the relationship.

Professor Khatidja Chantler, who led the study, says the research shows authorities need to do more "to identify, recognise and intervene" when there is domestic abuse in a relationship.

And there are concerns coercive control is under reported.

BBC News and YouGov carried out a separate poll of more than 3,300 men and women across the UK. The results suggest a third of women aged 25 to 64 had experienced some form of coercive and controlling behaviour - with 23% of women aged 18-24 saying the same.

Almost half of the women surveyed said they had experienced psychological or emotional abuse.

A 'hideous, bad atmosphere'

Mia, not her real name, says even though her ex-partner was coercive and controlling when they were together, she didn't realise what is happening at the time. She says she didn't piece together all the things he was doing until later.

One of the biggest issues for her was economic abuse, Mia says. Her partner moved into her home and started to carry out significant renovations, which she says he would use as a way to control her life by stopping and starting work depending on how he felt about their relationship.

"If I didn't do what he wanted, there would always be this hideous, bad atmosphere," she says. She says what started as controlling behaviour and verbal abuse escalated after the birth of her child with her ex-partner.

"There was extreme name-calling and death threats. Then one day he attacked me and it was only when my doctor asked how things were at home that the situation changed. They said to pack an emergency bag for me and my baby and put me in touch with a refuge."

Mia now lives alone with her child. And while she says she feels safe, her ex-partner continues to try and exert control over her life. "Before I met this man I had savings, a house and a good job," she told the BBC. "Even though we've split, the abuse continues. It's relentless."

Annual data shows that prosecuting coercive control remains difficult for police forces. Despite 33,954 offences being recorded by police in England and Wales in the year ending March 2021 there were only 373 convictions in the same period.

Farah Nazeer, chief executive of Women's Aid, told the BBC prosecutions remain "disappointingly low" seven years after it first became a criminal offence.

She says BBC News survey reflects the charity's own research and believes coercive control "continues to be a largely misunderstood and underreported crime".

"It is vital that police officers and prosecutors truly understand coercive control as the backbone of domestic abuse and its damaging, life-long impact on survivors and their children," she added.

A government spokesperson told the BBC that "strengthening the multi-agency response" to deal with coercive control "is our priority". "We are supporting frontline services to better identify and respond to domestic abuse, including coercive control and emotional abuse."

Meanwhile, Gary says he hopes his mother's death will highlight the dangers of coercive control.

"If someone sees this and realises there is a pattern in their own relationship, or they can see it happening to [someone else] I want them to realise coercive control is serious and it can end in tragedy."

If you've been affected by domestic abuse or controlling behaviour, help and support is available via the BBC Action Line .

[baoshan-sanren]

Hi, I just finished SV and I Loved it! I have a question though that irks me and I'd love to hear you opinion on it. It's said in the novel that LBH knew no kindness except from his mother and then NYY & SY!SQQ. It seems to me a little like he fell in love with SY's kindness and not really with his personality. He didn't fall in love with NYY's kindness so it could also be an authority thing. My q is, do you think LBH would fall in love w any other Shizun who showed him the slightest kindness?

Okay bear with my nonsense here for a minute because, aside from making fun of everyone and everything, SVSSS is a pretty good study of what happens when reader expectations meet real situations and real flesh and blood people, and just how unrealistic most of them turn out to be. We see PIDW and LBH in SVSSS via mirror of only SY’s perception and his preconceived notions, but we’re also bound to only see SVSSS and SY via mirror of our own perception and with our own preconceived notions (and boy, do a lot of people miss that about SVSSS completely even though SY the judgmental reader and all his baggage are right there). How many chapters does it take for SY to admit that he hasn’t been really viewing LBH as his own person, but a fictional character he had only gotten to know through airplane’s bad writing? I remember how fucking frustrated I kept getting the first time I read SVSSS because SY kept that picture of LBH (the one we never met bc we never read 300+ chapters of airplane’s novel like SY did) firm in his mind despite all evidence that they were not the same person. Who is it that said “compared to the dullest human being actually walking about on the face of the earth and casting his shadow there, the most brilliantly drawn character in a novel is but a bag of bones?" SY’s whole issue with PIDW is that the novel sucked. That most of the characters were one-dimensional and unrealistic, and that even his own scum-villain character had no story/background that would justify his attitude or behavior towards LBH. We only get to see SJ as a person with a history, and grievances, and a boatload of unaddressed trauma because SY digs up and improves all those storylines that airplane had left out. But even knowing that, SY still keeps seeing LBH through the lens of his own preconceived notions, and keeps assigning him motivations that LBH clearly doesn’t have. So I guess my thing is, if it took SY nearly a decade of flesh and blood contact with LBH to figure out that all of his expectations were wrong and inaccurate, can we (the readers of SVSSS) ever view LBH accurately? 

Anyway, not to write an essay (too late) but I guess if I were to speculate on the subject via my own subjective interpretations, I would say that airplane wrote a pretty shitty stallion novel for $$ during which LBH fell for NYY for her “kindness” but right off the bat in SVSSS, we see that NYY does very little except managing to make LBH’s life harder. Still, despite being a character that solely consists of bouncy breasts and questionable life choices in PIDW, she does seem to harbor genuine affection for LBH, and PIDW LBH, who has not gotten affection since his adoptive mother passed, is likely to have latched on to any affection, no matter how destructive it turns out to be, for some self-preservation of his self-esteem and self-worth. Obviously not the healthiest way to obtain either, but hardly unexpected (and we see him doing the same thing with literally every female character in PIDW - Freud would have a field day with just a quarter of this novel). Again, we only know PIDW LBH through SY’s perception, and SY is clearly not the most objective witness, but I find it hard to believe that PIDW LBH ever truly loved any one of the 300+ women in his harem. There is no indication (in what we get from airplane’s writing) that he trusts any of them, and it even seems as if all the harem infighting served as a means to keep them from focusing too hard on LBH as anything other than a prize to be obtained. I mean clearly, PIDW was not meant to be that deep, and we don’t get to read it, so there’s no use speculating much. (I’m sure you noticed my theories are all psychology/trauma centric, which is my bread and butter, and subjective as fuck, so there’s half my point made).

As to whether I think LBH would fall in love with a different shizun who showed him kindness? If kindness is the only factor, I don’t think it’s likely. After all, the 300+ women in his harem in PIDW have all probably showed him some kindness at one time or another. In that respect, SY is certainly not special. There are theories about LBH not actually being sexually attracted to women in PIDW at all, extrapolating on the idea that a more supportive and loving environment during his development years has allowed him to grow up without repressing many things he has clearly repressed in PIDW, his sexuality included. That theory, I suppose, could support the idea that LBH could have just as easily fallen in love with a different man in his immediate vicinity who showed him kindness?

Idk how much I buy into any that; like I said, PIDW was never meant to be that deep, and SVSSS is just full of loose threads I love to yank on (always aware I’ll never see where they lead without an access to MXTX’s brain). I think we’re meant to view PIDW for what it is - a poorly written story for $$ with cardboard cutout characters that, once permeated with “real flesh and blood humans,” turns out to be nothing like the story that the reader (SY) expected to find. And since there’s the same degree of separation between PIDW and SVSSS, as there is between SVSSS and us (the readers), speculating on who LBH might attach himself to if SY was someone else, and how his story might go under any other circumstances, is bound to be as accurate as SY’s predictions concerning PIDW LBH, which turned out to be (as we clearly find out in SVSSS), inaccurate as fuck :)