These stories are a varied lot, which I love, but it's also interesting to see a few similarities handled very differently. I've noticed, in reading reviews, that Shanna Germain's "Devil's Food" and Victoria Janssen's "Vanilla" have been listed as favorites several times. Of course! Chocolate and vanilla! Why wouldn't we dream of tasty foods?

I asked Victoria about her story, and she said:

"Vanilla" started with, well, a vanilla bean. I was in my twenties before I ever baked using a real vanilla bean, and the sensuality of working with one - the rich fragrance clinging to my fingers - was so marvelous it seemed like something that had to go into a story. From there, I worked into the telepathy idea, because sensing another person's sensations telepathically would be both more intense and less cliched than, say, sniffing your lover's fingers. I tied it into older woman, younger man because that was something I wasn't seeing much in erotica, back when I first wrote the story. I wouldn't mind using those characters again; I'm just waiting for the right idea to come along. less