I made it home around 9 last night. That was midnight for those of us who woke up on the east coast. I wasn’t particularly sleepy, but I was tired. Between being on my feet a lot at the wedding and walking most of the length of the airport (each airport actually), my legs were sore. I’d snoozed maybe 30 minutes total on the plane. It might have been more, but it wasn’t continuous, so it hadn’t really helped.

We stayed up until midnight west coast time. Lion had the audacity to snooze in-between eye drops. The nerve! It was 3 AM for me, but he was snoozing. Humph! And then the dog woke me up at 5 AM Pacific Time. What the hell? I did manage to sleep until 8, but I still feel the effects of 2000+ miles twice in three days.

Had I had better internet service on the plane last night, I was thinking about commenting on Lion’s post. The title asked if Julie is his lover and if their spouses mind. The answer to the first question is… possibly. The answer to the second question, and I can only speak for myself, is… a little bit. I’ve been searching for the word that fits. Is it jealousy? I don’t think so. Am I petty? And then I thought of something: what if I was sexting with a guy? Lion wouldn’t like that at all. He’d be jealous. He’d be hurt. When I asked him about it, he said it’s not the same thing. Sexting is interactive. The stories he and Julie wrote were not. Hmm… that seems like a distinction without a difference.

As I’m writing this, I remember Lion saying that some guy would come along and figure out how to turn me on, and I’d run off with him. I’m sure when he says it, he’s looking for reassurance. He thinks he’s the reason I don’t get turned on anymore. Clearly, it bothers him more than it bothers me. When I counter the idea that he might find someone who can still get turned on and run away with her, he tells me I’m silly. However, to some extent, isn’t that what he’s doing? He’s going to someone else to get turned on. Sure, it’s just a story, but it gets his motor running. And, he’s gotten hers running. Strange. That seems interactive to me.

I still haven’t figured out what word fits what I’m feeling. I’m just wondering if the tables were turned, how would Lion feel? I don’t think my reaction is as strong as his would be.

[Lion — Mrs. Lion is right. My reaction would be stronger. The reason is that I know what’s inside me. I know that I am with Mrs. Lion for life. It has nothing to do with sex. I would worry that she might be lured away. That’s my insecurity. I know she can’t be.]

I hope you had a chance to read Julie’s wonderful story (link here). If you haven’t, I suggest you do before you read further. Some spoilers follow. She and I are very different people. At least we appear to be if you read our blogs. She has a long history of being a strict spanker. She doesn’t pursue a lifestyle dominant role. She and David enact scenes that include very painful, discipline-level spankings. She also has a very exciting submissive side that is super sexy.

As you must know by the very name of this blog, my role is submissive to my wife. She makes rules and punishes me for breaking them. That doesn’t mean she is a dominatrix by nature. She isn’t. In almost all respects, she is a traditional wife. She takes care of me and is happy to let me make most of the domestic decisions. She indeed gives me Julie-level spankings. It’s also true that I am punished when necessary.

The simple fact is that Julie and I are both switches. I have decades of experience as a top. I am absolute;y comfortable, even turned on by doing all the things in the story I wrote her. In fact, I’ve done them in real life. Many people don’t get it. Topping is a service. It’s wish-fulfillment. Most of my activity as a top was not with women who were my lovers. They may have suffered public orgasms at my hand, but we had never had actual sex.

The stories we write each other are absolutely sexy and designed to arouse. I want Julie to have lots of orgasms and think of my stories when she and David have sex. She wants me to think of her stories when Mrs. Lion is getting me off. It’s a sort of intellectual threesome. This isn’t a new idea. Before the advent of telecommunications, many men and women wrote to one another to arouse each other.

We wrote to each other without intending to share. Our stories are aimed at an audience of one. Julie and I know more about the deep, sometimes scary fantasies buried in our unconscious. We’ve never met or even talked on the phone. We haven’t seen each other’s faces. We have seen the rest of our bodies. You have too. Every image of her that I’ve seen has been on her blog. The same is true of her.  We may end up privately sharing face shots. I hope so. But as you can see, it isn’t necessary to be intimate.

Even though we’ve never been within a thousand miles of one another, it’s fair to say that she and I are lovers in the sense that we create strong feelings in one another. Words are powerful. She is a sensitive, intuitive lover and uses words with the same skill that I’m sure she uses her body to bring pain and pleasure.

visiting julie at her cottage

This is the first story Julie wrote for me. It isn’t all below. Please read it in its entirety here. You can read my first story and her reactions here.  Julie’s words are in blue. Mine are in red.

A few days later, and the day before he was scheduled to leave, Lion asked his wife, “But what if Julie or David get a spanking and I’m invited to watch? Is that hanky-panky?” She smiled at him and said, of course, it was. He should say he was not allowed to watch and excuse himself to a different room. “Yes, Ma’am,” Lion replied, quite forlorn. He would no doubt hear such a spanking, but that would do him little good. He could not even masturbate, given his wife kept his cock tightly caged and held the key around her neck, which would be hundreds of miles away. Lion sighed.

Julie sets up the situation. She makes it clear that if I had any idea of sex with Julie, it wouldn’t be happening. When I read that, I wondered where this could go. What happened next was a total surprise.

Lion was ashamed that he drove off feeling a little resentful. This was maybe his one chance to meet the blog-famous “Strict Julie” in person, and any opportunity to do anything fun at all was cut off at the knees by his wife. Lion was faithful and understood, but he was still feeling resentful despite himself.

About an hour into his drive, his cell phone rang. It was his wife. He picked up hands-free. She told him to pull over as she needed him to do something. Lion was concerned. Was everything all right? He pulled over. She told him to go into the glove compartment and pull out an envelope she had placed there before he left. Lion did so. It was sealed and addressed simply to “Julie.” His wife told him to feel the envelope and tell her what he thought was in there. Lion did so. He felt around and felt a small metal object. He held it up to the light. It was a small key. The spare key to his cock cage???

Wait a minute!! Maybe all isn’t lost after all. The key to my chastity device is in an envelope along with a note from Mrs. Lion. Maybe all isn’t lost. Great setup. It’s not cheating if your wife gives you a “hall pass.”

I arrive at the cottage and finally meet Julie and David. Julie makes a point that we knew exactly what was underneath our clothing.

The door opened, and Lion was staring at a slim, well proportioned blonde woman whose figure he recognized instantly. Lion blushed a bit at the moment, given what he had already seen of Julie from her photos and facially blurred videos and the photos of his bare spanked bottom and caged penis that he had himself posted.

“Lion?” Julie asked.

“Julie?” Lion asked.

They both laughed.

The scene is set. Julie reads the note and takes the key.

“What’s that in your hand?” Julie asked Lion.

Lion blushed a little. It was the envelope. He felt foolish handing this over to Julie now. Like a pervert almost. Julie and David were perfectly hospitable hosts, making him feel welcome. With her blonde-haired, blue-eyed innocence, Julie dressed just as you’d expect any upper-middle-class married woman summer cottager to dress, the perfect little hostess, her husband the gracious and gregarious host.

He wanted to say it was nothing and not hand it over at all. It was so inappropriate. But his wife had made him promise to hand it over. He had no choice.

“It’s, ummm, a little note from my wife to you.”

“What? Really? A note from the famous Mrs. Lion? How delightful! Give it here.”

Lion reluctantly handed over the note. “I didn’t know anything about it. It was her idea totally…” as Lion said it, he knew that, while technically true, the note did, contain all his fondest wishes and aspirations for this possibly once in a lifetime meeting with Strict Julie.

“Look, David,” Julie said, snatching the note from Lion’s hand and waving it in the air, “Lion has a note for me from his wife.”

“Oh, sweet. Let me see,” said David as both he and Julie went to sit side by side at the patio table, and Julie began opening the envelope.

There it is! The first bit of humiliation. Julie is sharing Mrs. Lion’s note with David. I got a sort of sinking feeling in my stomach when I read this part. Of course, she doesn’t stop there.

“What’s this?” Julie asked exaggeratedly, holding up the little key.

“Well, I can’t imagine what that is,” David said with a big smile. “Lion, do you know where that key fits?”

“It’s, Ummm, explained in the letter,” Lion said, wishing for the ground to just open up and drag him down out of his embarrassing misery.

Julie opened the letter, and she and David both began reading it to themselves simultaneously. “Well, well,” Julie said, speaking to David, “a full hall pass from his wife. The whole nine yards. And the little key is to his cock cage that he’s wearing right this instant.”

Despite himself, Lion blushed anew. This was not how he imagined things going down!

“Show us, Lion,” said Julie, staring Lion right in the eyes.

While the words were simple and clear, at first, Lion could not process them. Show them… show them… show them what?

“Show us your cock cage, Lion,” Julie repeated a bit more sternly this time.

See? She knows exactly what pushes my buttons. I wouldn’t have minded undressing for Julie. We know each other’s naked bodies. But in front of David? David! A man! Worse yet, both of them are fully clothed. Wow. She knows. I’ve had fantasies like that.

“Stand up, pull down your pants, and show us your cock cage,” Julie repeated, a distinct edge to her voice.

Lion stood up, unfastened his pants, and let them drop to the floor. Both Julie and David looked at him impassively. He reached for the waistband of his underpants and lowered them to his ankles as well.

“Lift your shirt. Let us get a good look,” Julie said.

Lion lifted the tails of his shirt above his waist and held them there.

“My gosh, that looks tiny!” David said.

“It does look a bit… confining,” Julie said, standing and going over to Lion for a closer look. She reached her soft hand out and started manipulating his caged cock, moving it side to side and up and down to see it from all angles. Reaching down and cupping his testicles, asking rhetorically, “when was the last time you came, sweetheart?”

Julie returned to her seat and just stared at Lion’s caged cock and balls. David smiled, shook his head, and went back to his BBQ, putting the steaks on.

At this point, Lion’s cock was trying desperately to harden and was pushing up against his cage in such a way that his penis tip bulged out to the extent it could and began leaking a small stream of pre-cum.

“Oh, Lion,” Julie said, feigning disappointment at his state.

His hardening penis pulled his cage away from his body, making the ring tug painfully at his testicles. Lion doubled over slightly and groaned.

“Balls sore?” Julie asked. “Serves you right.”

“Yes, Ma’am. Sorry, Ma’am.”

I blushed when I read that. I also started to get hard. David going back to cooking firmly establishes that he is straight. Important information for later in her story. My arousal is embarrassing. Exposed and obviously turned on. 

I’m skipping ahead in this post. Read the full story if you haven’t already. Later, after dinner, things get worse, much worse.

“Undress, sweetheart, I can’t unlock you with your pants on, silly,” Julie said as she loaded the last few dishes.

Lion looked around. David was right there. Oh well. Lion stripped off his shoes, socks, pants, and underpants, leaving his shirt on.

“Shirt too, sweetheart, so it’s out of the way.”

Lion took his shirt off, leaving himself fully naked except for his cock cage.

“Hop up here,” Julie said, indicating the kitchen island. Lion backed his bare butt against the island and hauled himself up, so he was sitting at its edge with his feet dangling. “Spread your legs.” Lion spread them.

Julie positioned herself directly in front of Lion, between his spread legs, with his key in her hand. “Mmmmmm,” went Julie. Lion’s cage became tighter again. Julie looked straight into Lion’s eyes and said, “David! Would you please come over here and unlock poor Lion.”

Lion sputtered and recoiled a bit, saying, “no, I thought, you, I mean, please.”

“Awwwww, Lion, did you think I was going to unlock your cock myself? I’m a married woman. I can’t just go handling other men’s dicks like that, unlocking them willy nilly.”

“No, of course, I just meant… I mean, I can do it myself.”

“Nonsense, you’re our guest. And besides, I’m sure your wife doesn’t want you getting into the habit of unlocking yourself. No, David will do it, I insist.”

Lion groaned and closed his eyes as Julie stepped back and dropped the key into David’s hand.  David roughly handled Lion’s cage and genitals, unlocking the ring, pulling the cage off, spreading the ring around his testicles, and pulling that off. “Sorry, Buddy,” said David, “She who must be obeyed has spoken.”

“Oh, you!” Julie said, laughing at David’s classic joke. “You’d think you’d never unlocked another man’s cock before.”

“First time for me, how about you, Lion?”

“First time…” Lion said, squeaking a little.

Julie gathered up the apparatus, kept it all together, and put it carefully aside. “Don’t want to lose any of the pieces, now do we?”

As Lion continued sitting there, his penis began erecting despite getting bigger and bigger in pulsating stages until it was fully erect.

“I think Lion likes you, David,” kidded Julie.

“As cute as I am, I suspect Lion only has eyes for you, Baby!”

“Awww, that’s so sweet, honeybunch,” and Julie kissed David, a peck on the lips like two newlyweds in love.

“I do feel bad for Lion, though, all hot and bothered. Look at that thing and no relief in sight.”

“He can jerk it at bedtime,” David suggested.

“No, he can’t, silly. Mrs. Lion wouldn’t be pleased with that at all. No, sweetheart, we need to find another way. Maybe just a teensy tiny vow-breaking, honey? A little blowy for Lion? Would you like that Lion, would you like a nice wet blowjob and cum that way? I think we can bend the rules a little just this once.” As Julie said this, she positioned herself between Lion’s legs, spread his knees, and licked her lips seductively. “What do, you think, David, just this once?”

“Up to you, honey, you know you make the rules for things like that around here.”

“Ok, then, for Lion, just this once. Is that ok, Lion? Would you like a nice wet blowjob?”

Lion could not believe his good fortune after being teased by Julie before about the married woman unlocking thing. “Oh yes, Ma’am!” Said Lion, eager to exercise his hall pass in this way, with Julie’s soft lips and hands curled around his engorged manhood, coaxing an ejaculation right into his dirty friend’s famously slutty mouth, husband present or not, damn the torpedoes!

“It’s settled then,” said Julie, stepping away from Lion. Speaking to David, she said, “I absolve you of your vows just this once for Lion’s sake. Go ahead and give him a blowy, Baby, make it a good one!”

“Awwww, honey, no, please,” said David, “you know I don’t go for that gay stuff.”

“I know, sweetie, and that’s why you have to do it. It’s not breaking our vows very much if you do it kind of against your will, you know? If I did it, I’d enjoy it too much. You know that.”

“Awwwww… honey!”

“Get busy. Now!”

“Yes, dear,” David said.

“Wait!” Lion exclaimed, “how about me? I mean, I’d rather not!!!!”

“Your words say no, no, but that big cock says yes, yes, yes! Besides, it’s not your choice Lion. I know what’s best for you, and your wife has made pretty clear I’m in charge. Would you like to get her on the phone to double-check?”

“No, Ma’am,” Lion said, resigned to having a man’s mouth going down on his cock.

“Get busy, David, chop, chop.”

David had a distasteful look on his face but nonetheless bent over and gingerly took Lion’s still erect cock into his mouth and began sucking it. He almost gagged right away.

Her husband is sucking my cock. I’m very hard. I can’t deny that it feels good. Julie keeps giving David instructions. It’s impossible to imagine she is sucking me. I have to accept the humiliating truth that I like having David suck my cock. In real life, this scene got me hard. Dark, Julie; very dark.

In addition to giving David advice, she spanked him while he sucked me. He had his pants and underpants down. When I almost ejaculated, Julie stopped him. She reported the further humiliation of that moment.

Then suddenly, Julie pulled David’s head right away from Lion by the hair and watched Lion’s cock twitch helplessly in the air.

“Point of no return?” wondered Julie aloud, staring at Lion’s cock. It was close, but not quite the point of no return, and after a dicey dozen seconds or so, Lion’s immediate urge to climax diminished.

“Oh Lion, your expression is priceless. The two of you, in fact. I wasn’t going to end your fantasy evening with ‘Strict Julie’ with a gay-blowjob, Lion. How cruel do you think I am? Ha ha ha ha! I think you need to experience a real, honest, to goodness, no holds barred, Strict Julie spanking. What do you think, Lion?”

You can imagine my situation. Edged almost to the point of no return—my wet penis twitching up and down as if it had a life of its own. I imagined the look on David’s face. He’s imagined sucking another man. Suddenly, his fantasy became real. I’m sitting on the kitchen counter bare-assed and panting from the denied orgasm. Julie and David are enjoying my discomfort.

Next, we get to the Strict Julie spanking. I’ll let you read that in context. She spanks me with the fierceness of a lioness. I nearly safeword more than once. She leaves me red, bruised, and with tears in my eyes. David took a picture of my wrecked bottom.

“I am so horny now!” declared Julie. “Baby,” Julie asked David, “is it ok if I break my vows just one more time? I need Lion’s wet face eating out my pussy. And I mean now!”

“Of course, baby,” said David. “You have my blessing.”

“Lion, go to your bedroom, young man, you have work to do! David, you come with us. Take your clothes off.”

Lion shuffled off painfully to the bedroom. His brain could not even process at this stage that he would be required to eat out his blog friend’s pussy!

Julie rushed excitedly to Lion’s bedroom, stripped off all her clothes, and jumped onto his bed like an excited little girl. She settled seated upright towards the head of the bed with her legs splayed out on the bed in front of her. “Right here, bad boy,” Julie said, pointing to her smooth hairless pussy, already engorged with arousal and glistening with excited moisture. Lion painfully made his way onto the bed. His ass was aching, and he was not as young or nimble as he used to be. And this woman seemed insatiable. He crawled between her legs and began lapping at her tangy-tasting pussy.

“Do you like that Lion? Do you like the taste of Strict Julie’s cunt?”

“Yes, Ma’a…,” said Lion between laps, cut short by Julie forcibly pulling his head down into her hot wet snatch and grinding her pelvis into his mouth.

Yum! I wish I could jerk off! I love eating a woman’s pussy. Julie was all worked up from spanking me. Yummy and juicy. I was having fun! But then…

“David, go get some lube and a condom, and fuck Lion’s ass while he licks me.”

“Nooooo….” cried out Lion as Julie pressed him hard into her pussy and said, “Shhhhh, Lion, you have nothing to say about it except for your safeword, and as long as I don’t hear that, you’re getting ass fucked by my husband.”

Lion considered it, but no. He was a purist. The safeword was reserved for a dangerous situation, where injury might occur, physical or psychological. Neither of those could be said to apply here.

“Julie, I don’t want to either…” complained David.

“You shut the fuck up and do as you’re told. Do I need to tie you both up and whip you bloody to get what a girl needs right now? GO! NOW!”

“Yes, Ma’am!” David said, unwilling to anger his famously strict wife any more than he already had.

“And you just keep licking, Lion, that’s it, that’s nice…”

Soon David reappeared, carrying a bottle of lube and a pack of condoms.

“DON’T make me have to tell you again,” Julie said, looking at David’s look of reluctance.

“Yes, Ma’am, but…” David said, indicating his penis, which was soft.

“Lion, you have a wonderfully skilled mouth. Go fluff David for your ass fucking.”

Lion groaned but lifted his head off Julie, turned on the bed, still kneeling there, and took David’s soft member into his mouth and began sucking on it. He was beyond objecting to anything at this point. He had been thoroughly broken.

Julie reached into the bedside drawer, pulled out a dildo, slid a condom on it, lubed it, and then gently inserted it into Lion’s ass as he was sucking David. “You’re starting to feel how big David’s cock is, aren’t you, Lion. This will make it easier for you to take it. Let’s see. Ooooh, look how hard now! Slide a condom on him, and then get your head back where it belongs.” With that, Julie pulled out the dildo she had been stretching Lion’s back passage with and placed it aside.

Lion slid a condom onto blushing David’s now fully erect cock, and turned back around, ass up in the air, head down in Julie’s crotch, and began licking again.

David used more lube, prised Lion’s cheeks apart, and inserted his penis firmly into Lion’s still tight boy hole. He then grabbed Lion’s hips and began rocking in and out. Lion had never been fucked by a man before. He was a virgin in this regard.

Julie became very excited seeing what was going on and almost immediately bucked her hips and orgasmed hard while clamping Lion’s head to her snatch. All the while, David was piston-rodding into Lion’s stretched asshole.

“Keep going!” Julie cried breathlessly as a second and then a third wave of orgasm engulfed her. Julie was highly multi-orgasmic. Her record was eleven, and not just little crests, 11 full-blown toe-curling orgasms one after the other. The excitement of seeing his wife cum so hard was too much for David, who spurted his load into the condom while buried deep as possible up Lion’s ass. After a half dozen or so amazing orgasms, Julie grabbed Lion by the ears and pulled his mouth away from herself.”That was phenomenal, boys.”

David carefully pulled out, making sure to bring the filled-up condom with him. Lion rubbed his jaw, which had become quite sore from the vigorous licking Julie demanded and the repeated pelvic thrusts to the mouth he had endured.

Julie stood and said, “bedtime now, Lion. I’ll go get your cage.”

“What?” thought Lion. No! He had not cum yet. Surely he would be allowed to cum! Julie had, six times, and David had, in his ass!

“Sorry, bud,” David said, seeing the look of disappointment Lion was unable to hide from his face, “that sucks,” he added, feeling genuinely sorry for the man.

OMG! I had never experienced this. This is so humiliating! I had to suck a cock and then feel it fuck me! I didn’t see this coming. Worse, it was super exciting to read. Two straight guys having sex to entertain a woman. So wrong and so hot! Mean Julie wouldn’t let me get off. She locked me up again and put me to bed.

She isn’t really mean as you can read in the epilogue. I won’t give away the ending.

Are we lovers?

There is no denying that this story is a missile aimed directly at me. Hit me right where it counts! It’s just a little to the right of completely realistic. I can easily see almost all of it happening. Maybe all of it. I wish I could get off now! Mrs. Lion is back from her trip. Maybe she will agree to a nice blow job.

My son’s wedding was wonderful. I was surprised at how emotional I was. I cried a little during the ceremony, but watching the first dance, him dancing with his daughter, and then with me was too much. Blubbering idiot. And it didn’t stop there. Every time I talked to him or my new daughter-in-law, I lost it. Obviously, tears of joy, but I’m not used to having so little control. Does this mean I’ll be a sobbing mess at my mother’s memorial in a month? I’m almost sure I will be.

I got to the airport super early. Five hours early. I had no reason to stay at the hotel once my kids left, so I headed out in search of breakfast. Every drive through, I passed head an enormous line. I kept thinking I could find something along the way, so I headed toward the airport. No dice. Long lines everywhere. I even stopped a few times in grocery stores to search for things that exist in the East but can’t be found in the West. I struck out there too.

‘To kill time, I went through regular security rather than TSA pre-check. And I took a leisurely 20-minute walk from terminal T to terminal D. Between each terminal, they have exhibits. I took a video of one stretch that has leaves on the ceiling and nature sounds. It was a nice distraction.

I still have three hours until the plane takes off. Ugh. Good thing I have my iPad and charger. The worst part about waiting is that it means more time until I get home to Lion. I wish he was here with me—stupid dog. Traveling might have taken a lot out of Lion, but we’d be together. We could be bored together. Of course, we probably wouldn’t be sitting at the airport for five hours if he was here. We either would have stayed at the hotel longer, or we would have found something to do.

I can’t wait to get home to see him

Even sex bloggers need inspiration. Unfortunately, porn doesn’t do much for me. All of the sex in our marriage is one-way. Mrs. Lion doesn’t want sex for herself. She does a great job providing me with stimulation and occasional orgasms. The problem is that I need more than my penis getting sucked to get really revved up.

I had an idea. What if one of my friends who happens to be a sex blogger and author, would write sexy stories designed to push my sexual buttons. I could do the same for her. I bet you don’t have to work very hard to guess who I asked. That’s right, Julie of strictjuliespanks.blogspot.com.

She’s a perfect choice. We read each other’s blogs. We also edit each other’s books. If that isn’t enough, we’ve seen each other naked. Don’t get the wrong idea. We’ve both published naked pictures in our respective blogs. Between reading each other’s writing and our private correspondence, we are experts on what turns each other on. Not only that, I am the older man she fantasizes about, and she is the younger woman any man would want.

If I could, this is what I would have done while reading Julie’s story. This is me about a year before I met Mrs. Lion. Before locking me up the first time, she had me do this while she watched. I had a frenum piercing then.

But wait! There’s more! Julie is a real-life switch who is an expert spanker who likes her own butt red and sore. I am also a switch. Before Mrs. Lion, I spent many years as a top. I was also a teacher who did workshops on spanking and other BDSM activities. I am exclusively a bottom to Mrs. Lion.

We are well qualified to create realistic fiction designed to turn each other on. So, we did. I started with a short story about Julie spanked by her stepfather. The second was Julie visiting daddy’s office. Fictional Julie is the same age as real-life Julie. She liked the stories and reported having some nice orgasms while reading. She wrote me a wonderful story about visiting her at her summer cottage. I can’t jerk off but I got some very nice boners reading and rereading it.

Julie suggested that we share our stories with our readers. I agreed that it sounded like fun. She is publishing the ones I write for her, and I am publishing hers. There is a new section on our top menu for Stories. You can find Julie’s first story there. Here is a link directly to the story, “Visiting Julie at Her Cottage.” It’s incredibly hot reading.