You Sexy Thing!. Tori Carrington

car-perusing behavior allowed. Rather, the patient is encouraged to act on urges society has taught us to ignore or suppress in the name of pseudomorality and human decency.” She smiled. “In essence, I tell these particular patients to act with their hearts rather than their heads.”

      The host emitted a low whistle. “Baby, let me go get my camouflage underwear and oil my elephant gun.”

      Dylan ignored him, instead locking gazes with the woman next to him. “So you counsel your patients to have one-night stands. Promote promiscuity. Is that what you’re saying, Dr. Mattias?”

      “No. I encourage these particular patients to cut loose at least once in their lives so there are no relationship-ruining ‘what ifs’ and ‘what could have beens’ later on in life. I counsel them to connect with their sexual selves, learn what pleases them without the heavy complications serious relationships entail. You know, the whole, ‘will he think I’m too fat,’ ‘am I pleasing her’ scenario. If you set out to please yourself and yourself alone, then you’re in a much better position to know what pleases others, either in that relationship, or in the one that will stand the test of ‘until death do you part.’ And even you have to admit, Dr. Dylan, that sexual satisfaction is an important element in any healthy marriage.”

      “Yes, but only within the bonds of matrimony. As for the other, growing sexually aware of yourself, there are better, more…principled ways to go about achieving that goal. And abstinence, or delaying acting on that purely physical, animal attraction makes for an even sweeter, more satisfying experience, wouldn’t you agree…Gracie?”

      The host fanned himself with Grace’s book. “And tell me, Dr. Hottie, do you go…man-hunting often?”

      For a long moment Grace held Dylan’s gaze as if she was unable to look away. He noticed the lick of pure, undiluted sensuality in the velvety brown depths of her eyes. The telling dilation of her pupils. Finally she smiled, then slowly looked toward their host. “I think I’ll follow my colleague’s lead and answer a demure ‘no comment.”’

      “Oh, don’t go coy on me now, baby,” Baxter crowed. “We have a caller on line four. John, you’re on. Do you have a question you’d like to ask one of our guests?”

      “Am I on the air?”

      “Yes, sir, you are. Shoot away.”

      “Okay, um…I’m having a problem and I was, you know, hoping one or both of your guests might be able to help me with it.”

      The host sighed heavily into the mic. “John, if it takes you this long to get to the point, no wonder you’re having problems.”

      Dylan leaned toward his own mic. “Go ahead, John.”

      “Yes, well, um, my wife and I have been married for five years now and…”

      A long silence ensued.

      “And,” the host prompted.

      “And, well, I’m lucky if we have sex once a month. There, I said it. What can I do about it?”

      Dylan opened his mouth to ask for more details, but Gracie’s voice, sounding infinitely less like a porn star’s and more like a professional, filled his ears. “Were you two sexually active before you were married, John?”

      Dylan grimaced. “With all due respect, Dr. Mattias, I don’t see what that’s got to do with anything. The fact is that they are married, and they’re currently experiencing…marital difficulties.”

      The host laughed. “Yeah, I’d say not getting any is a marital difficulty.”

      Grace looked at him, a flash of something he couldn’t identify lighting her eyes. “I wasn’t going to suggest that the couple regress back to the time before their marriage, Dr. Dylan. I was merely trying to ascertain whether or not they’d found themselves individually, sexually, before they took their business in front of a priest or a pastor or a rabbi.” She turned her head away from him. “John, do you and your wife have any kids?”

      “Um, no.”

      “So there’s no reason you can’t turn your entire house into a sexual playground then, is there?”

      “Sexual playground?”

      “Yes, John. This is what I suggest you do. First of all, you’ll want to talk to your wife. Find out what her secret fantasy is. If she hasn’t shared it with you in the five years you’ve been married, this may take some time. But once you do find out, act on it. Transform your house to reflect this fantasy. Cater to her every whim. Let her know that her emotional and sexual happiness mean as much to you as your own desire to, in our honorable host’s words, get some.”

      Chuckles filled Dylan’s ears as he sat back, grudgingly impressed with the advice, though her immediate rejection of his own opinion stung like a son of a bitch. While he wouldn’t have suggested the construction of a “playground,” sexual communication was always important, making her basic advice sound.

      Baxter came back, “Sounds like good advice to me. Thanks for calling, John. And good luck with the old lady.” There was a tiny click. “We’re going to break for a minute or two to let the sex doctor’s advice sink in. We’ll be right back to ask our guests where they stand on masturbation. You won’t want to miss that. I sure don’t.”

      The sound of commercials filtered through the headphones and Dylan followed everyone’s lead in taking his off. The host, so tuned in to him and Grace only moments before, was conversing with the producer, leading him to believe his entire interplay with Grace was for entertainment purposes only.

      “So where do you stand on the topic of masturbation, Dr. Dylan?”

      He shifted to find Grace Mattias crossing her long, long legs and smiling at him suggestively.

      Despite his best intentions, Dylan couldn’t help grinning at her. He pushed the microphone away to make sure this little encounter wasn’t used for ammunition when the commercials were over. “Oh, beyond a doubt, it leads to blindness.”

      Her instant laughter was spontaneous, warm and contagious. He laughed along with her, his muscles relaxing at the release of some of the tension between them. But he recognized that a whole different kind of tension had just shot up a notch.

      “You probably already know where I stand, anyway, seeing as you read my book.”

      She nodded. “So long as it’s not used instead of sex, your marital partner doesn’t know about your extracurricular activities and it doesn’t involve sex toys, you’re all for it.”

      “In moderation,” he added.

      “And with the ultimate amount of discretion.”

      “Very important.”

      “So you don’t think the act of, um, watching…your significant other bring herself to climax can be…sexual stimulating?”

      Dylan stared at her. An image of one amazingly sexy and gloriously naked Gracie Mattias stretched across a king-size bed, her thighs open, her engorged womanhood clearly in view, flashed across his mind. Her pink-tipped fingers first cupped her breasts, plucking at her erect nipples, then slid down the toned length of her stomach, toward—

      He shook his head, banishing the erotic thought from his mind. “I think masturbation is an intimate matter best kept between one’s hands…and oneself.”

      “Okay, guys, we’re back in ten seconds,” the producer said, indicating their headphones.

      Dylan carefully readied himself and repositioned the mic in front of his mouth, wondering if he’d be able to even think of the word masturbation again without connecting it to one wildly sexy Gracie Mattias.

      GRACIE STEPPED OUTSIDE and took a deep, satisfying breath of the polluted New York City air. The smell of car exhaust mingled with the scents emanating from a nearby diner and the crisp scent of fallen leaves. If she tried hard enough, she imagined