Chapter One
‘Is it Jo, Josie or...’ he asked.
‘No, it’s Josephine,’ she interrupted, ‘I prefer to be called Josephine.’
‘That’s fine, Josephine it is then,’ he replied.
‘So Josephine, can you tell me why you are here at sex addicts anonymous and what you hope to get from our sessions?’
The man asking the questions was Michael Bentley, head of the organisation, and as such he often handled the sessions for new members. He had been CEO for about 5 years and, whilst the work could be quite stressful, he had a good team around him and he enjoyed his work. He’d always been interested in feelings and emotions and studied psychology at university, gaining a first class degree. He had worked at a few different hospitals and practices and initially had decided to specialise in couples’ therapy. He felt, with some irony, that he was supremely qualified to handle the subject as his relationships had all ended acrimoniously. Sex, power and manipulation of one kind or another had been at the core of each failed relationship - sometimes he was a little bitter about the outcomes but, more often than not, perhaps twisted would be a more fitting description.
For all his understanding and all his compassionate words to his ‘clients’ underneath, he was just like them. He had his foibles and he definitely had his kinks, which he revelled in. He attended various fetish clubs - just for research he told himself but really, secretly, he couldn’t get enough of looking at sex, reading about or hearing about sex, and he knew that irony upon irony, he was probably a bit of a sex addict himself.
He just needed to meet a like minded woman. He was certain that she was out there... somewhere. He wanted someone that he was attracted to and who was, of course, attracted to him. He loved a woman’s curves first and foremost and to gain his attention, the right woman would have to be articulate, intelligent, passionate, and very sexual, and if she was an exhibitionist, that would be a bonus. He looked for such a woman at every sex and fetish club that he attended, but he knew that it was a long shot. He had heard it said that the best kind of woman was one that was a nymphomaniac that lived over a pub - the analogy brought a wry smile, but no, the woman for him wouldn’t be that obvious.
Sex Addicts Anonymous 100 or the SAA, as it was fondly known by some, was a successful company. The SAA had a large membership and both members and non-members could arrange for private and / or group consultations and therapy sessions. In itself it was just like a private members club; expensive but very worthwhile and very discreet. Whilst the majority of people who used the services were male, the staff, all experts in their respective fields, was a healthy mixture of males and females.
The staff members worked well together and invariably Michael liaised with all the heads of departments on a fairly regular basis. Today, he had met with one of managers, Cindy, the marketing manager, to talk through some advertising campaigns to try to make their services more accessible and appealing for women and she had said she would work on some ideas with her team.
He’d wondered fleetingly about Cindy. She was always pleasant but seemed to lack any kind of passion and she was just too young for him, too blond and too skinny and he really didn’t do pleasant anymore.
Now, Michael looked over at the woman sitting on the sofa opposite and realised that she wasn’t like most of the members that came in here. For a start, she was female and most of the newbies were men. Often the men were forced to come by their wife or partner who had become sick of them fucking around, although to be fair, some men did self refer and others were referred by a GP. So to a have a woman, an attractive stylish woman that had an air of sophistication about her sitting on his sofa was really quite a novelty.
He had read her application earlier and he was able to glean from her personal statement that she was quite thoughtful and intelligent. There was a grainy passport style photo attached to her membership information which really didn’t do her any favours. Michael thought that she was lovely - tall but still curvy, reddish blonde hair, big eyes, red fingernails and so very sexy looking. So all in all he was looking forward to any revelations that she was prepared to share, probably more than he should have been.
So when she didn’t answer, he asked her again.
‘Can you tell me Josephine, why you are here at sex addicts anonymous and what you hope to get from our sessions?’
