I always thought our family was a typical mix of old grudges and new habits, especially after my father married Helen. She was in her late thirties, with those curvaceous figures she didn't hesitate to accentuate with tight dresses, and eyes that I sometimes caught looking at myself when she thought I wasn't paying attention. I, a twenty-two-year-old guy, had just graduated from college, returned home for the summer, and there we were, all in the country house—my father, my mother, and I. Vacation, supposedly. My father would disappear all day fishing or into the garage with the car, leaving the two of us to hang around the house, and Helen would flirt with me so subtly that I couldn't believe it—she'd brush my hip as she passed, or smile out of the corner of her mouth when I helped with the dishes. That evening, after dinner, when my father was already snoring in front of the TV in the living room, she approached me in the kitchen. "Listen, Alex," she said q... continue reading

The scent of pine and steam hung in the air, mingling with the aroma of chilled beer. The sauna was dizzyingly hot. I sat on the bottom bunk, my back against the rough wooden wall, watching drops of water roll down my husband, Igor's, bare chest. His friends, Sergey and Anton, lounged nearby. We were all naked, covered only by small towels that had long since ceased to conceal anything. The idea of coming here, to this male citadel, had seemed daring and piquant at first. Now I realized it was a trap I'd fallen into. My friends' gazes, heavy and gliding like oil, lingered on my hips, my breasts, and between my legs. I tried to cover myself, but it was useless, and it seemed to only inflame them—and me—even more. "So, Lerka, isn't it too hot?" Sergei, the most brazen of them, asked hoarsely, his eyes fixed on my chest. I felt my nipples swell under his gaze, hardening treacherously. "It's okay, bearable," I managed to say, taking a sip of beer. T... continue reading