'I watch that Dog Whisperer show,' I confided, putting the photo frame carefully back in place. 'You know. That Cesar Millan guy.'

'Uhuh?' He lifted his hand to stroke the nape of my neck and I luxuriated in the shiver that rippled down my spine.
 
'I've got a bit of a thing for him. I know he's, like, a bit old and stuff, but there's just something about him. The way he just gets all those crazy dogs to do exactly what he wants, so calmly. It's like magic.'
 
'You want to be one of his doggies?' Craig suggested, teasingly. We were both smiling, but at his words something stirred inside me. I looked up at him from under my lashes.
 
'I'd be a good doggy.'
 
'Really?' He tickled me under the chin. 'You wouldn't chase the neighbours' cats? I wouldn't have to smack you with a rolled-up newspaper?'
 
The implied threat made my sex clench and flutter unexpectedly.
 
'Sometimes, maybe,' I admitted. 'I suppose I'd be bound to be naughty occasionally. But I'd try to be good.'
 
Craig put a hand on my waist to draw me to him. He'd forgotten to take off his jacket when we came in; his scarf was still draped about his neck. I nuzzled up to his shoulder, still watching his face, and took the scarf between my teeth. As I started to tug his eyebrows rose, but I grinned slyly and pulled the cloth free, retreating and shaking my head from side to side.
 
'Bad girl,' he said, a grin creeping to his lips.

Plot: Non-supernatural.  Craig and Beth have only recently started going out and exploring their sexual relationship. When Craig invites Beth home for food for the first time, she lets slip a secret little kink that happens to chime with his own sense of erotic play. Together they explore something new and intimate...

Sexual Themes: petplay

Notes: This story was commissioned by a magazine, who gave me the date that it would appear but no contract. It did not appear in the issue as promised. It didn't appear for the next six months. The editor didn't get back to me. Then the magazine folded.
*sigh*
The course of publishing did ne'er run smooth.

Then I saw a call for a new anthology, Nice Girls, Naughty Sex, by Jordan LaRousse and Samantha Sade, owners/editors of respected erotica website Oysters and Chocolate, and I thought  "Perfect!"

They divide their stories into 4 flavours:  "Vanilla" (m/f couple), "Liquorice Whips" (BDSM), "Dirty Martini" (kink, fetishes, threesomes+ etc) and Oysters (lesbian). [They have since added "Banana Split": m/m]  I hesitantly subbed Good Doggy under the Dirty Martini theme (I thought it was too fluffy and sweet to have  a real BDSM vibe), but they decided it belonged in Liquorice Whips, which is entirely their call.

Jordan LaRousse commented on my blog: "Janine's story is DEFINITELY one of my top 5 faves in the book! Woof! :)"

Petplay is an erotic  theme that has has interested me for a while, though I've only just started writing about it. It strikes me as normally at the "nice" end of BDSM because it's - almost by definition - consensual, collaborative and creatively playful. Way less controversial than rape-fantasies, for example. Most people have a good, positive, trusting relationship with their ponies/dogs/kittens don't they? (Goddamn, they better have! The one thing guaranteed to send me into a red rage is cruelty to animals.) And no, I don't think it has any real relationship to genuine bestiality.  I think it's part of the huge drive we humans have to connect imaginatively with the natural animal world and with our own instinctive selves.

There was some discussion about the squick factor of petplay (and other sexual roleplay) on my blog here.

I was asked to answer a few questions for the O&C  website as part of publicity, so here's my mini-interview:

What is the inspiration behind this particular story?