Strange Attractions by Emma Holly

Charity Wills dropped out of High School, but that didn't stop her from getting a job in the tech industry. Her current bosses love her, even though she has a habit of being late, because of her bright, friendly, cheerful attitude and because of her strong people skills.

One day, Charity is offered a job by Eric Berne, a devastatingly attractive man who makes her heart, not to mention other parts of her, go "zing!" The job is to work for Eric's boss, the reclusive physicist B.G. or Benjamin Grantham. B.G. spends a lot of time working on stuff that confuses most people, and in his downtime, he likes to explore the nature of desire. If Charity comes to work for him for a year, he will pay her way through college at Cambridge, which despite her less than stellar school record, he is convinced she can pull off. In return, she must take part in a little "game" that he plays with his guests and employees. She must cede him control of her sexuality, only coming when he allows her to come. She can break the rules, but must be aware that there will be consequences for doing so.

And, to keep her at a fever pitch of sexuality, Eric Berne will be her "keeper", ensuring that she stays at a fever pitch of readiness. She doesn't have a problem with that, and even though the offer sounds a bit shady, she decides to accept. Eric at first feels that she perhaps isn't attracted to him, but she sets him straight with a single kiss that leaves him feeling singed. Then, during the trip to her apartment for her to pack, Eric reveals that he is attracted to both men and women, and that he and his boss have been lovers. Charity can't resist asking Eric how he does it with his boss, and though he doesn't penetrate her, he gives her an exhibition while telling her how they met and the first time he and B.G. made love.

Afterwards, she gets dressed in a prim and demure outfit Eric picks out for her and it's off to Mosswood, Eric's home in the Pacific Northwest woodlands. B.G.'s chauffer is an ex-pro wrestler, who tells Charity on the drive that Eric had decreed that no one in the house could come until Charity arrived, and so everyone has been three weeks without. Charity decides to take pity on Maurice, and Eric persuades B.G. to let her break the rules, but with a penalty to be paid afterwards.

Further, Maurice will be able to orgasm, but she is forbidden to. With very little persuasion, they are soon doing it over the car on the side of the road. One of the punishments that Eric inflicts on Charity is to wear a leather bustier and pants that prevent any of her erogenous zones from being stimulated. When they get to the house, Charity realizes that she is also attracted to B.G., who allows her to help him set up the punishment for Maurice, which is to watch an hour's worth of sex scenes that turn him on, but not being able to do anything about it.

Charity is allowed to go upstairs and remove the corset, and then she goes to explore the house. She meets Sylvia, the Danish massage therapist, who convinces Charity to spank her, saying the men in the house are too gentle towards women to do it properly. Sylvia gets into it strongly enough to orgasm, and thanks Charity with a hot kiss.

From there, B.G. begins to test Charity, first making her wineglass jump four inches away from where it was last. When she gets weirded out, she goes back to her room to rest, but feels as though someone is watching her everywhere inside the house. She gets really frightened, and Eric stays with her for a while, making love to her until she comes three times and feels more relaxed. The next day, B.G. decides to punish them both for the breaking of the rules, and has her suspended in a harness that leaves her floating off the ground and unable to move, while he has her watch himself making love to Eric on a videoscreen. In the room Eric and B.G. are in, they can see Charity getting turned on by watching them.

Eric makes B.G. lose control by telling him that he and Charity will break into B.G.'s room and screw him senseless between them. The idea affects B.G. strongly enough that he comes first. He rewards Eric with an hour alone with Charity, unobserved by any cameras and unheard by any microphones, but their time is interrupted by a call from Eric's sister, who has had a visit from the CIA asking her about B.G. Though she thinks her brother is a slacker, and she thinks B.G. is a freak, Eric's sister warns him to take care and to warn B.G.

Eric does but that doesn't prevent Eric and Charity from living up to Eric's promise and taking over B.G.'s bedroom and body for the night. In reality, B.G. wanted Charity for Eric because he realized Eric needed to settle down, that he wasn't happy with the kind of nomad existence B.G. favored. But now, with both of them in his bedroom, he realizes he could fall just as badly for Charity as she has done for Eric and as Eric is doing for her. B.G. thought that once Eric and Charity hooked up, he would be shunted to the side, and now he thinks that maybe he was wrong, and they could all find happiness together.

The next day, Eric, Charity, B.G., and Maurice go bowling and have a great time. Afterwards, B.G. listens in on Eric and Charity together, and overhears them talking. Eric says it was good that B.G. got out, and Charity asks how often B.G. stays in his compound. B.G. is stunned to think that they invited him out for reasons of pity, not love or friendship, and resolves to put them together even sooner. He also does away with all the rules, saying that anyone can do anything with anyone else without fear of being monitored or recorded.

Charity discovers the head of security jerking off to past tapes of sexual encounters that happened in the house, and during their short conversation, that he is obsessed with Sylvia, and that he has been showing her the tapes as well. She agrees not to tell B.G., knowing it could mean the man's job, but takes the key to the security office and tells him she'll be checking up on him, just to keep him on the straight and narrow. Sylvia has also tried to cozy up to Charity, but something about her strikes Charity as off, like how she wants to serve everyone, yet seems to have something against men, her employers specifically. Later that night, Charity is frightened by seeing a ghost in one of the house's many rooms. Eric stays to comfort her, but B.G. tells her it must be a squirrel that had gotten into the house. Eric also finds out that B.G. overheard the conversation between him and Charity and reassures his friend that they both care for him. Eric, B.G. and Charity end up in bed together.

For the next two weeks they are amazingly happy together. One morning, Charity finds B.G. in the Romance Room, having tea and biscotti. He invites her to join him, and they end up making love together. That's when B.G. realizes that he has fallen in love with Charity himself. But can the three of them find happiness together forever?

This book was hot, in a "set your eyebrows on fire" way. Emma Holly's strength is in writing really hot erotic love scenes in such a way that even if you aren't turned on by the particular kink she's exploring, you can understand *why* people get off on it. And you might even get attracted to it yourself.

I also found time to read three more manga novels, Naruto 27 and 28, and Saiyuki Reload 7. In Naruto, Naruto was tracking down Uchiha Sasuke, who had been taken over by a curse mark and was running away to the Akatsuki. Sasuke's brother Itachi had betrayed his family and village, and Sasuke thought that the only way to grow stronger was to learn from the Akatsuki, a gang of renegade Shinobi. Naruto had promised Sakura that he'd stop Sasuke and bring him back, because the leader of the Akatsuki really only wanted Sasuke's body to replace his own, but Naruto failed and nearly died battling his former friend. He was rescued and brought back to the Leaf village. Sakura asks the new Hokage, Tsunade, to be her student, and Tsunade agrees. Naruto goes off with the "pervy Sage" Jiraiya to be his student. They have time to train because it will take the leader of the Akatsuki three years to regain the power to switch bodies again, and he had done so before Sasuke left.

in Issue 28, it is now two years later. Sakura has become a medical ninja under Tsunade's teaching, and Naruto, too, has finished training. Both are older and taller. Gaara has become the Kazukage of the Sand village, and Sand and Leaf are now allies and at peace. Kakashi takes over again, not as their mentor or teacher, but as their partner and comrade. He sets Naruto and Sakura a task to steal bells from his belt. He manages to hold them off until Naruto tricks him by threatening to tell him the ending to his favorite series, "Make Out Tactics". To forestall him, Kakashi raises his hands and blocks his ears, but he can still read Naruto's lips, and this pose makes it easy for them to liberate the bells from his belt.

Meanwhile, in the village of sand, Gaara, now Kazukage, is attacked and captured by the Akatsuki. Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi are sent to the village to find out what happened, and to aid the village in any way possible. Gaara's second in command, Kanguro, is injured and lies near death by poisoning. None of the sand Ninja can help him. Jiraiya tells Naruto not to use that technique and to keep his temper if he faces the Akatsuki. If he is killed, he cannot help his friend Sasuke. Naruto agrees, but reveals on the trip to the village of sand that he has his own plan for dealing with the Akatsuki.

When they get to the village, Sakura saves Kanguro's life by forcing the poison from his system, but still has to deal with the small bits of poison his body has already absorbed. Kakashi is mistaken for his father, the White Fang of Konoha, and nearly challenged to a duel by the elders of the Sand Village, but they soon realize their mistake. Naruto realizes that the reason why Gaara was taken is because the Akatsuki want the demon spirit imprisoned in his body for its power, and they will want Naruto as well for the Nine-Tailed Fox Demon Spirit in his own body. Meanwhile, more Shinobi are sent from Konoha and the other villages, including Rock Lee and Might Guy. But will they be enough to help save the day?

In Saiyuki Reload, Sanzo and Goku are attacked by an unknown assailant, and Goku is almost fatally injured. Sanzo takes off in pursuit of the attacker, leaving Goku bleeding on the ground. Hakkai and Gyojo attempt to save Goku, but the bleeding is too bad. It gives them no choice but to take off Goku's power limiter and let the energies of the earth heal him. Doing so, however, makes Goku go wild and he begins attacking the town, putting everyone around them in danger. Hakkai is forced to take off his own power limiters and deal with Goku, but even he is no match for Youkai Goku, and it requires the aid of Bishop Hazel and his companion, Gat, to subdue Goku and put his limiter back on. Even so, it takes Goku three days to wake up afterwards. Sanzo returns at the end of the battle, but Gyojo hates Sanzo for abandoning Goku when he was dying and tells him to leave. Sanzo goes, with Hazel and Gat accompanying him.

Gyojo has cause to regret Sanzo's leaving, as he was carrying the credit card that paid for their travels. With no money, they try to take jobs, but even fail at that, and then try to move on to a bigger town, only to collapse in the desert of no food and no water. They are rescued, where they find themselves in a Youkai town. Realizing that Goku, Gyojo and Hakkai have not yet fallen victim to the "minus wave" that is making the Youkai see humans as meat, the Youkai give the three jobs in town, hoping to soon see the three's "real selves", which the minus wave brings out. Sanzo, meanwhile, has found out that Bishop Hazel knows about Goku's real self of the Seiten Taisei, "The Great Sage Equalling Heaven", and Sanzo wants to know who told Hazel about this. Hazel tries to put Sanzo off, but Sanzo persists. They come to a human town built around a lake, an oasis deep in the desert, and once again, Sanzo asks Hazel who told him about the Seiten Taisei. Hazel tries to describe him... but can only say that his aura was like the color of the desert sky at night. In reality, it was another Sanzo, Ukoku Sanzo, also known as the main scientist who machinations created the minus wave in the first place.