Passionate Pleasures Read Free Page A

that they were superior just because they had an appendage dangling between their legs. They weren’t. She knew she was beautiful, and she knew she was smart. She could do anything, and she could do it without a man.
    Kathryn St. John wasn’t against men. Indeed, she liked them very much. While her father and grandfather were didactic, they were extremely clever and charming. So were many of the male friends who surrounded them. At sixteen Kathy found she had a serious crush on one of those men. He was fascinating in a mysterious way that appealed to her intellect. No one really knew a great deal about him except that he was quite wealthy and seemed to make a success out of everything he did.
    “You may call me Nicholas, my dear Kathy,” he told her one summer’s afternoon when the garden was full of men and women laughing and drinking.
    “You intrigue me, Nicholas,” she had told him, surprised by her own daring.
    He laughed. “And you enchant me,” he replied with a small amused smile. “However, you are much too young for me to seduce, Kathy.”
    “When will I be old enough?” she asked him seriously.
    He laughed again. “We shall see, my dear,” he responded. “You will know when the time is right. In the meantime, we shall become friends.” And they had. She looked forward to his visits to Egret Pointe.
    There was nothing she couldn’t ask him, be it serious or silly. He always answered her, and he didn’t scold or criticize as her male relations were wont to do when she asked a question they thought foolish. Kathryn St. John’s curiosity was endless. In time she began to query him about sex, because Mavis’s mother had only given her daughter and her daughter’s best friend the barest knowledge. There had to be more, Kathryn thought. While the girls at school had giggled and gossiped about their adventures with boys, Kathryn could hardly believe some of the things they said. So she asked Nicholas.
    Sometimes he had laughed, then explained the misconceptions. Other times he had been most serious and thoughtful in his answers. Kathryn St. John had become more and more curious about what it was like to experience the mysteries of sex.
    “You must not allow some careless boy to have your virtue,” he had said to her one day. “I want that first time to be special and memorable for you.”
    “What would my father and grandfather think if they heard you speaking with me like this?” she queried teasingly. Dear heaven, this man excited her passions!
    He laughed. “Your grandfather and father trust me to do the right thing,” he said.
    “Do they mean for you to marry me?” Kathryn asked, curious.
    “I’m not a man for marriage, my dear,” he admitted. “I enjoy women. I enjoy conversing with them. I enjoy possessing them sexually. Your male relations know that. They know whatever I do I will cause you no harm, nor will I cause a scandal.”
    “What will you give me for graduation next week?” she asked, turning the subject.
    “What do you want, my dear?” he replied.
    “Don’t you know?” she teased him, moving so close to him that the tips of her breasts brushed against the fabric of his beautifully cut suit jacket.
    He took her upturned face between his two elegant hands. Looking into her face, his black eyes seemed to be filled with flames. “Yes, I know,” he said softly against her ripe lips. “You shall have exactly what you desire, Kathy. You shall have as much of it as you want, and you will not be disappointed, I promise you.”
    And once Nicholas had relieved her of her virginity, Kathryn St. John had set about to indulge her lusts. But because she wanted no scandal attached to her family’s name, she kept her active sex life to her adventures in The Channel. The single men in Egret Pointe were always available for a dance at the country club or dinner and a movie; however, the pool of men her age grew smaller as the years passed. By the time she was thirty-five, the town