Going Down!

"Do you speak French?"

No, I don't.  Well, not much.  But that's the title of the story I contributed to Rachel Kramer Bussel's latest anthology, Going Down, and when you read it you'll know why.

It's a wonderful collection, and I say that after reading only a handful of the other stories... because I know the rest will be just as much fun.  So, without further ado - here's the contents page, and Rachel's introduction.  or you could just jump over to Amazon and buy it right now.

And we can all speak French together.

Introduction: Intense Intimacy and Erotic Power

Pretty Dull Charlotte Stein
Milk Moustache Jacqueline Applebee
Lavender Cynthia Hamilton
Etiquette Sylvia Lowry
Stacked Logan Zachary
Sucking Casey’s Cock Shanna Germain
Getting Something Out of It Annabeth Leong
Bubble Dance Jeremy Edwards
Seriously Jeanette Grey
Shuck It Dusty Horn
Dover to Victoria Station Roxy Rogers
Blush Mary Borsellino
Clean/Dirty Lucy Felthouse
Trimming Tenille Brown
Your Body Is a Temple Neil Gavriel
New Additions Rachel Kramer Bussel
Do You Speak French? Chrissie Bentley
Close Your Eyes Viktoria Michaelis
Snow Job A. M. Hartnett
The Perfect Shade Elizabeth Coldwell
The Thousand and One Ways Graydancer

Introduction: Intense Intimacy and Erotic Power

I thought I knew, if not everything, quite a bit about the fine art of oral sex until I started to read the stories that came in for Going Down. In them, giving and receiving head became its own, if you’ll pardon the pun, head trip, and showed me that there is plenty for even the most seasoned connoisseur to learn and enjoy about an act that brings pleasure to so many.

If you’re reading this and thinking, But I’m not really sure I like it… or some variation thereof, I encourage you to keep reading. You just may surprise yourself when you thrill to the risky, risque and exciting ways these men and women find to get off while giving and getting head. There is the thrill of the chase, along with the thrill of being the taster and tastee, but there is also a lot more going on here. Perhaps because oral sex can bring up our uncertainties, there is a depth to these stories as the characters boldly go where many of us would like to go, if only we had the courage⎯or the kind of partner who can push us over that particular hurdle into the bliss that awaits.

While these tales aren’t necessarily ones I’d encourage you to emulate, they are ones that will capture your erotic imagination and, perhaps, make you think about things you’d like to try, or just give you a few minutes of delight.

So just what will you find in Going Down? There’s a woman who knows “The Thousand and One Ways” to show her lover her devotion. There’s the couple who wind up watching an erotic scene on the big screen so scandalous, plenty of people walk out⎯but not them. You’ll find oysters given the lusty honor they deserve in Dusty Horn’s “Shuck It” as two lovers dine on a sumptuous meal before discovering all the power play they can share by giving themselves over to each other.

The intimacy of climbing between someone else’s legs, of discovering what happens when you peel them open and utterly expose them, leaving them aching, trembling, willing to do anything to have you keep going, is a theme that is repeated here. Lovers get off on the thrill of being in command, in control, giving and taking joy in ways that leave the other person breathless. “There’s no rush of power quite like it in the world, that knowledge that you can make another person come, can release her desire and expose her most secret and vulnerable parts. That’s my favorite part of sex,” writes Mary Borsellino in “Blush.”

For some of these characters, oral sex leads them into new territory that brings revelations about much more than sex: Paige in “Getting Something Out of It,” by Annabeth Leong, lets go of the memory of a selfish lover and finds that when she takes control and owns what she’s doing when she goes down with a new lover, the act is special for both of them. Characters facing gender transitions, and their lovers, discover what remains and what is gloriously new about this most personal of changes.

Going Down covers a range of ways you can serve up oral pleasure, as well as reaons you just might enjoy it. I hope it will inspire you to think about the tongue as a tool of echantment, a center of excitement at least as powerful as the one between your legs.

Rachel Kramer Bussel
New York City