What do women want in their deepest, darkest dreams?
This book will give you a few clues. And you might be surprised at some of the answers. The world has moved on since Nancy Friday’s groundbreaking Secret Garden; and women’s fantasies have moved on, too.
Women fantasize about all sorts of things. Many start with the familiar – going shopping, having lunch with a friend, sitting at your desk at work on a dull day – and one tiny change will suddenly spin life into the exotic. In It’s All in the Mind, a hen night with your girlfriends turns into seduction by a sexy stranger. The simple act of making breakfast, in Breakfast With Tiffany, showcases the erotic potential of food. Visiting a good friend for the weekend, in Lessons Learned, turns into erotic revelation.
Some themes are exactly what men might expect: women thinking about sex with a powerful man such as their tutor (Poetic Licentiousness) or their boss (A Holiday Treat). Thinking about how to spice up a jaded marriage (Butterfield 8 for 5), having sex with a stranger (The Watcher) and initiation into new and perhaps forbidden pleasures are also common women’s fantasies.
The taboo or forbidden plays its part. Women fantasize about different sorts of couplings – making your husband watch you have sex with his best friend, as in Cuckold Heaven, letting your boyfriend and his best friend pleasure you, as in Jessie’s Girl, or even watching your boyfriend have sex with his best (male) friend, as in Three-Way Play. Women think about their female friends, their colleagues and bosses, and wonder: what would it be like to seduce or be seduced by them? Find out, in Thursdays at McKinney’s. Or maybe they’d take it a step further and try a threesome, as in Happy Birthday, Mr President. Some take it further still, into areas they might not explore in real life but fascinate them in fantasy, such as S&M in Puppet and fetishes in Tell-Tale Toes.
Power play is another common theme. There’s the man who tells you what to do, in Dirty Girl: perhaps because more women are working in senior positions and supervising staff, being told what to do by a man becomes an erotic possibility instead of something to fight against. Then there’s seeing the power you can have over someone else, in At the Window as He Watches – though who’s the one who really has the power, there?
Women fantasize about sex at work – with a colleague, a customer, a friend, the gorgeous hunk who makes your heart turn over. They think about sex at parties: strangers can turn into lovers, and maybe after a drink or two you’ll hear a friend whisper something you didn’t expect or show you a secret side you’d only ever dreamed about. They think about sex when they’re driving in a car, or riding on a bus or train: perhaps the modern equivalent of being swept away by a muscular man on horseback (and who hasn’t fantasized about the knight on the white charger, and wondered what exactly is under that armour?). They think about sex and shopping – check out Skirts and Shoes. And technology definitely isn’t a male preserve any more – Toothin’ It is as up-to-date as it gets!
Some see their sexual fantasies in the form of a movie, as in Unicorn’s Ravine. Others are well aware that there’s a huge gap between their real lives and their imaginations, and they know exactly what flicks the erotic switch:
When it comes to real-life sex, I’m about as straight-laced as my Minister’s untied running shoes. But when it comes to fantasy sex, I’m a girl gone wild! I see a guy or gal that turns me on, and right away he or she becomes a character in one of my wicked sexual imaginings.
Work is Play (Karen – Albuquerque, USA)
I’ve spoken to women throughout the UK, Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia and beyond. They gave me glimpses of their deepest fantasies – and, after a little persuasion, wrote them down for me in the form of a story. Some may surprise you, some may make you laugh – women definitely like their sex spiced with a dash of humour – and some may shock you. But within these pages you’ll find women like you and me, you’ll eavesdrop on their dreams – and maybe see some of your own reflected in their imagination.
Sonia Florens