$10.00
ISBN 0940208288
available through
Amazon
Reviewed by Shanna Germain
(07/06/05)
I first read Kate Dominic's work in an anthology a few years ago. I can't remember which anthology it was, but I do remember the story: two people who participated in bondage and fisting just before they went on to do a live Nativity scene. It wasn't just the unusual scenario that made the story hard to forget; it was the combination of desire and discipline, both in the characters and in the story, which kept the images in my mind years later.
It was only recently that I realized that this is typical Dominic style: take something you thought you knew -- be it a religious celebration, addiction, marriage, or sex -- throw it down on the bed and make it wiggle with want until it turns into the exact opposite of what you expect.
Take, for instance, the stories in Dominic's first erotic collection, Any 2 People, Kissing. When I opened the book at random, I read lines like "Alec fucked like a man possessed" and "Valentine's day sucks." My first reaction was, "Damn, another collection of clichéd sexual thoughts and actions. Nothing new here."
But it didn't take long for Dominic to tie my opinion down on the bed and get it all twisted up in the sheets. Dominic understands human emotions -- the wonder, the worry, the desire, and the fear -- and brings them to the page with such bravery, sexuality, and, yes, originality that by the end of the first story, I no longer gave a damn what words she used to tell her tales, as long as she kept on telling them.
Case in point: In "Alec's Birthday," the narrator, Sarah, helps her husband explore anal sex, his bi-curiosity and their friend, Brett, in a way that is so sweet and sexy it makes you wish you knew her. Or that you could be her. Or that you could be her husband.
Alec fucked like a man possessed. He grunted and groaned while I kneaded his strong, hard and oh-so-sensitive butt muscles. The first time I slid my finger down and touched the sweet little pucker between his cheeks, he shot on the spot. So, of course, I did it again. Same reaction.
Dominic covers a lot of sexual ground in this collection. In just 13 stories, she manages to pull a Kinsey, offering up narrators who are bi, hetero, gay, lesbian, and everywhere in between. She touches on masturbation, BDSM, anal sex, erotic enemas, sex among the gods, and just about anything else you could think of that has the potential to turn you on and get you off.
In "Party Dogs," Cody's boy shows off his "pet" skills for his master and then gets his own chance to play:
Of course, puppies don't have a lot of self-control. They get spanked for misbehaving, but sometimes, they just can't help coming. My dick was in heaven in the warm, soft suction of the curly-haired puppy's mouth. Pretty soon I was yelping and whining and growling. My nuts tightened. I threw my head back, howling with pure joy as I shot into the heat of my pleasure puppy's mouth.
There's no beating around the bush in this collection (although there's plenty of beatings and at least a handful of bushes). The sex is hot and the emotions are right there on the page. And, best of all, Dominic's characters don't know it all. Sex for them is a learning experience, something to be approached with both heart and body wide open, even if they're afraid of what they might uncover.
Arianna's breasts were hard with milk. She made so much more than Calvin needed. A drop slid onto my finger, over my wrist, down my arm towards the water. I closed my eyes and tried not to think, tried not to let her see my guilt and confusion and need...I was so overwhelmed with shame that I wanted to bury my face in her heavy, motherly breasts and suckle the milk from her swollen nipples. I wanted to nurse until my greedy mouth was sated and her warm milk trickled down my throat and her hands pulled shattered orgasms from me.
Story after story, Dominic manages to delight and arouse me, all the while shattering my expectations and beliefs about sexuality. It makes me want to give this collection to every teenager, every politician, every naysayer who thinks they possess the definition of sex and desire. Or, better yet, I want to tie them to the bed and read these stories to them until, as Dominic says, they're "hooked on exploring other people's erotic skin from the inside out -- sliding up and down the Kinsey scale in male and female voices, blurring the lines where genders and orientations blend and cross."
And, oh yeah, they'd have to climax too. But with this collection, I expect that neither a change in perception nor an orgasm would be a long time coming.
