Life After Sexual Assault

"So I didn't say anything, because there was nothing to say and no one to say it to. He raped me twice more over the next month, before I got the nerve to run away again. Of course, they caught me. Maybe I'd wanted them to that time. I stayed in the home until I was eighteen. And when I got out, I knew no one was ever going to have that kind of control over me again. No one was ever going to make me feel like I was nothing ever again."

Unsure what to do, Colt reached up tentatively to brush a tear from her cheek. "You made your life into something, Althea."

"I made it into mine." She let out a breath, then briskly rubbed the tears from her cheeks. "I don't like to dwell on before, Colt."

"But it's there."

"It's there," she agreed. "Trying to make it go away only brings it closer to the surface. I learned that, too. Once you accept it's simply a part of what makes you what you are, it doesn't become as vital. It didn't make me hate men, it didn't make me hate myself. It did make me understand what it is to be a victim."

Nightshade 

_________________

By Jason clendenen - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76284275

What It's Like to Reclaim Your Sex Life After Sexual Assault

That focus on a better future, many survivors say, is part of what helps them form bonds with potential partners with whom they can have healthy relationships—and repair their relationships with themselves. “There is hope,” says Lindsay. “The physical pain, the emotional pain—all that stuff is passing clouds. Joy is the sky. It’s always there.”

YAHOO!

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He plunged his hand into her hair, got a good grip to jerk her face up to his. “Pay up,” he

demanded, then closed his mouth over hers.

There it was, she thought, outrageously grateful. There was the instant thrill, the response, 

the need. It had taken nothing from her. His body moved wet and hard 

against hers, his mouth took from hers, and there was nothing, nothing but pleasure.

“Touch me.” She demanded it, using her teeth, her nails. Nothing fragile here, 

nothing damaged or in need of tending. Touch me, she thought, take me. 

Make me feel utterly, utterly human.

The Pagan Stone

The 1-minute sex fix

When he drew away, she fought off a shudder, forced a
smile to her lips. "Well, now, good morning to you."
"Just shut up a minute." He pulled her back, but this time
simply rested his cheek on top of her head.
She wanted to step back.
 This embrace was more
intimate than the kiss, 
and just as stirring. Just, she
realized as she relaxed 
against him, as irresistible.


Heart of the Sea

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By Christiana Rivers christiana - https://unsplash.com/photos/itQV5w_Ishw, CC0,
 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61708510

It's 7:30 a.m. and a man is about to leave the house to go to work. Kissing his wife goodbye, he buries his face in her hair to inhale her scent. His arms circle her waist to pull her closer. Her body molds to his and they breathe together for a moment, both feeling excited. Then he looks at his watch and hurries off, waving goodbye.

What is this couple doing?

MSN

Sex After 60

“I’ve wondered since you called if we’d take each other to bed tonight, then I had to do thirty minutes of yoga to stop being nervous.”

“Nervous? You?”

“I’m not a kid,” she reminded him as she drew him into her bedroom, where the light through the windows glowed soft. “Men your age often look at thirty-somethings, not fifty-somethings.

That’s twenty years of gravity against me.”

“What would I want with someone young enough to be my kid?”

When she laughed at that, he grinned. “Hell. It’d just make me feel old. I’m already worried I’ll mess this up. I’m out of practice, Ella.”

“I’m pretty rusty myself. I guess we’ll see if we tune up as we go. You could start by kissing me again. We both seemed to have that part down.”

He reached for her, and this time her arms went around his neck. He felt her rise up to her toes again as their lips met, as they parted for the slow, seductive slide of tongues.

He let himself stop thinking, stop worrying what if. Just act. His hands stroked down her back, over her hips, up her sides, then up again to pull the pins out of her hair.

It tumbled over his hands, slid through his fingers while she tipped back her head so his lips could find the line of her throat.

Nerves floated away on an indescribable mix of comfort and excitement. She shivered when he eased back to unbutton her shirt. As he did when she did the same for him.

She slipped out of her sandals; he toed off his shoes.

“So far . . .”

“So good,” he finished, and kissed her again.

And, oh, yes, she thought, he definitely had that part down.

Chasing Fire

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By Ian MacKenzie (Flickr: Old Couple) [CC BY 2.0 
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

5 Things Nobody Tells You About Sex After 60

Here's what to know as you go into your golden years of lovemaking.

MSN

OxytoGod

“See, this is the part, on my scale of normal, where we tell each other how amazing we were. You especially tell me.”

“Because a man’s ego is often correlated with his sexual prowess.”

“That’s one way of putting it. Things like you saw God or the earth moved are clichés for a reason.”

“The earth is in constant motion, so it’s not a good compliment. A better one would be the earth stopped moving, even though that would be

impossible, and a disaster if it were possible.”

“I’ll still take it as a compliment.”

The Witness

____________

By No machine-readable author provided. Pufacz assumed (based on copyright claims). - 

No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims)., 

Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=369795

Having sex increases spirituality and 'makes people more likely to believe in God'

Middle-aged men report greater levels of spirituality after exposure to the hormone oxytocin

INDEPENDENT

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She heard music. Angels singing? she thought, dizzy. 

It seemed odd for angels to sing after table sex.

She managed to swallow on a throat wildly dry.

“Music,” she murmured.

“My phone. In my pants. Don’t care.”

“Oh. Not angels.”

“No. Def Leppard.”

The Search

"Veritas"

She gave him a steady look from half-closed eyes. "You left quite a reputation behind you at Harvard, Caine," she said mildly. "Not all of it in the lecture halls."

"Is that so?" Apparently amused, he gave her hair a quick tug before he released it. "You'll have to tell me about it sometime."

"Some things are best left unsaid." When the doors opened, Diana stepped out, then glanced over her shoulder. "Though I've often wondered if the… incident in the law library was based on fact."

"Hmm." Rubbing a hand over his chin, he joined her. "Suppose I plead the Fifth on that, counselor."

"Coward."

"Oh, yeah." He started to stick the key Serena had given him into the lock of the penthouse door, then stopped. "Are they still talking about that?"

Diana struggled with a smile as she studied his face. He wasn't particularly embarrassed, she mused, more curious. "It's become the stuff legends are made of," she told him. "Champagne and passion between Massachusetts Criminal Law and Divorce Proceedings."

Caine gave a shrug as he turned the lock. "It was beer, actually. These things get blown out of proportion with time." He gave her a very charming smile. "You don't believe everything you hear, do you?"

Diana paused long enough to return the smile. "Yes."

Tempting Fate

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"Oldbooks-01" by Liam Quin - Quin, Liam: 

“Pictures of old books” (2003). Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

These Are the Safest Colleges for Having Sex

Condom brand Trojan and researcher Bert Sperling, who is known for charting the best places to live in the U.S., have released what they call a “Sexual Health Report Card,” a ranking of universities based on factors like “condom availability, student health center hours of operation and the usability and quality of their sexual health website,” according to a statement.

TIME