Best Women''s Erotica 2013 Introduction: Such Great Heights This book is a sex toy. Each story draws a map from where you''re sitting right now, straight along the shortest path, to arousal. Like me, you''ll read these stories and encounter familiar landmarks set like furniture within your sexual psyche - but in the hands of these supremely talented authors, they don''t look quite like you''ve always remembered them. With a one-track mind, Josie ponders human anatomy and what kinky things to do with that anatomy as she sees the players'' balls and bats. She likes to feel the balls of her men slapping her pussy lips repeatedly like last week in the library, bending over the table. But today she wants something a little different. She wants to feel the hard equipment push into her backside while she bends over, pushing backwards, and she wants the guys to enter her in a tight juicy hole a little higher than they''re used to. She wants to bend as if in prayer, as if she were offering her body and for the guys to give her absolution because sex is her religion.

- Rosalia Zizzo, "On the Verge" I took a hard look at the world and business or erotic writing before I started work on this collection of stories. The genre is experiencing seismic shifts. Erotica collections are a dime a dozen these days, and explicit novels of lowered quality become bestsellers. Women want good porn, but many people still think that''s scandalously breaking news - and continue to sell us soft-serve when we want hard candy. When he handed her the ice cream bowl, she purred like Eartha Kitt, "I eat ice cream, you eat me?" "That''s the idea," Jeremy replied before diving at her left thigh. The caramel spread across her flesh was heavy and sweet, and he licked it like an animal, working his way up for chocolate from her belly and marshmallow from her breast. -Giselle Renarde, "The Fattening Room" The stories in Best Women''s Erotica 2013 are designed to do three things: turn you on, show you sex with the lights on, and transport you into a scene so expertly crafted that you''ll revisit it like a hot porn loop in your head long after the book is closed. Each of these scenes hold a promise of delightfully nasty replays for a quick turn-on - just as sure as I can promise you''ll wonder how long you''ve had your thighs clenched as you page to the next story, eager to consume the next riveting fuck.

He can be smooth when he wants to be. Charming, even. Lots of girls liked him, before I got him. But lots of girls probably wouldn''t understand him saying - smoothly, of course - "Would it be such a bad idea if we played that game again? -Charlotte Stein, "Normal" Making this edition of Best Women''s Erotica live up to these promises was no easy feat. But it was the necessary outcome of the problem I was faced with after the last edition was released. Modern erotic writing is struggling for its Anais Nin, its Pauline Reage, its A.N. Rolequare (Anne Rice), its Emmanuelle Arsan.

Looking around at the turbulent landscape of erotic writing in a time when, more than ever before, the most popular erotica was also the most disappointing, it was clear that erotic fiction was having an identity crisis. (.) I followed him inside, through to a room with black walls and bare wooden floorboards, lit only by the light of flickering candles in wrought-iron holders. Masked men in formal wear stood round in twos and threes, chatting and sipping champagne. It struck me this place resembled nothing so much as a miniature version of the gentleman''s clubs where discreet networking took place and business deals were struck. A haven where no women intruded and who you knew was more important than what you knew." -Elizabeth Coldwell, "The Spanking Salon" To become the promise I describe in the first two paragraphs of this introduction, Best Women''s Erotica had to demonstrate what the popular new erotic books can''t quite seem to grasp: that so-called "women''s erotica" is really about superlative writing and believable characters who have hardcore, explicit sex at the dizzying heights of exquisite fantasy with the lights on, and you, the reader, get to see everything. I decided that to find the very best stories of the year, stories that were about women living out their unflinchingly explicit sex fantasies (and not overwrought stories starring stereotypes), I had to go about finding stories differently than had ever been done for any edition of the series.

I''m thinking about Aurora, about her pressing her ass against him, about her whispering in his ear. I''d want her to suck your cock while I lick her pussy," I say, suddenly grateful for the cool air, for the fact that I can close my eyes and hear all the city sounds roaring around me and not think quite as much about how that idea makes me blush, makes me shake, makes me - who thought I was so sophisticated and blasé about strippers - tingle as his fingers slide inside me. -Rachel Kramer Bussel, "Exposing Calvin" Rather than put up a call for submissions for five months and reading through the hundreds of stories that came in, I did this - and much more. Knowing that a number of high-quality erotic anthologies had come out in the beginning of the year, and more were set for release at the end of the year, I reached out to erotica editors around the world. I asked the writers at the top of the genre - of all the stories they''d read through and selected the finest for their collections, which stories had they read that they thought were the best? Which stories were the most memorable, and who was the hottest erotic writer they''d worked with? Now he stood behind Amanda, just as she had done, resting his cock in the crease. He worked the mazes of her ears with his tongue - he had a hand caressing her face and lips, another for her breasts - and every so often rocked her suddenly backwards, so she could feel him getting harder. -Eliani Torres, "Salamander" At the same time I was pestering editrixes far and wide, I looked up erotic authors that were prolific, were favorites online and had loyal fan followings, and whose talent currently cut a swath through the genre. I emailed a selection of these gifted women and asked, which of their stories in the past year did they think were their very best? And, had they read anyone else''s'' erotica that they thought was stunning, arousing? Say you want a guy to tie you up, and you might win a raised eyebrow.

Ask for a spanking, and there''s a pussy type of man who will raise his hand - not to smack your ass, but in protest - and tell you he doesn''t go in for that sort of thing. But confess what you really desire, what keeps you up in the night, is to have a line of men take turns fucking you, and you''ll find out who your friends truly are. -Alison Tyler, "Last Call" My task was set: to track down as much of this erotica as I could find, to hunt and consume all the recommendations my sources offered. I had my work cut out for me. I read outside the lines of my recommendations, too - once people sent me soon-to-be-published manuscripts, it just made sense for me to read all the stories, in fear of missing something hot. I read hundreds and hundreds of stories - and I''ll bet you didn''t know that so much erotica was being produced each year. It is: and I''ll bet you also don''t know - not just yet - that a hell of a lot of it is excellent. It is.

I wanted to picture it; wanted to know how he took off his clothes, if he did it slowly or with a boyish smile, or if his clients preferred to unwrap him like a gift. I wanted to know his techniques for pleasing clients; if he was better at being forcefully passionate or tender and sensitive. I wanted to know if he preferred men or women. I wanted to know what it would be like if I hired him. -Valerie Alexander, "Night School" What you hold in your hands here is a distillation of all this. Hot scenarios by cream of the crop writers, literary porn that doesn''t fade out when the sex starts. Instead, each tale is fast-acting aphrodisiac. I hope you use this book like the sex toy that it is.

Violet Blue San Francisco.