sj, sending momentarily. Whenever you're up to it is fine. You go rest.
Ahem. For Teppy's challenge, a piece of erotica.
Game
Leather, steel, the soft padding of lambswool.
They both know how to play this game. Today, she's the one spread out and open to him; other days, she calls the plays.
It's never predictable, never the same as any other time. It takes fearlessness, absolute trust, a temporary abandonment of will.
He pushes the cuffs away, reaching instead for lengths of rope. She tastes her own anticipation, rising like a sirocco, as he loops the rope over one ankle, the second ankle, both wrists. He stands back, impassive, testing the tension.
He plays this game well. He knows his knots.
GUH.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, that'll do it.
Huh. Teppy, livejournal won't let me post in Great Write. It keeps saying the journal's temporarily in "read-only" mode. Any idea what's up?
Deb, backflung with comments.
Man, I am in a strange mood tonight. Third Knots drabble; hoping Plei stops by for this one.
Dryad
The man stands, staring.
It's only a tree. The bole is gnarled with age, dark patches of bark peeling like sunburned skin. The root system, a massive twisting as hard as iron, curls above ground, taking in as much water as the tree needs.
The man stares at the bark. Inimical, ironic, a woman's face stares back at him.
It's only a knot, he tells himself, only a knot in the wood.
The knot, if knot it is, leers suddenly, her expression changing. He steps back, swallowing a whimper. Only a knot.
He's afraid to turn his back on it.
I like the dryad drabble. I also like saying "dryad drabble".
Also? Backflung take two.
Still internal erroring at me. Going to try downloading the second version and see if it takes.
GAH.
That is making me crazy. Do you have an older version of Word? I could try saving it in a different format maybe?
Kristin, this time I tried reading it with IE instead of Netscape. After a few convolutions it let me in. Thing is, I'm showing highlighted sections, but no commentary, to tell me why they were highlighted.
