Elizabeth Coldwell's "Heat" describes the fierce affair between a barmaid and her brutish boss, a man she doesn't even like but who sets her heart pounding. In "Spike," Rachel Kramer Bussel gives us turn-ons of a different kind, when a young goth girl shows a pushy "man's man" who wears not just the pants, but the spike-heeled shoes. Once again, Blue has compiled a book that is both sexy and surprising and as literary as it is libidinous.

With stories by Cate Robertson, Sydney Beier, Saskia Walker, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Geneva King, K.L. Gillespie, Donna George Storey, Bonnie Dee, Jean Roberta, Elizabeth Coldwell, Alicia Wag, Eva Hore, Jordana Winters, Magenta Brown, Teresa Lamai, Lee Skinner, Adrie Santos, L.E. Yates, Emerald, and Alison Tyler.