Page 127 of Pure Recklessness

‘When you say explicit, are you referring to those awful true crime stories everyone’s obsessed with?’ Mum asked.

‘No. Much worse!’ Dad paused.

‘What could be worse than books about gory murders?’ Mum asked.

‘Pornography,’ he whispered, his voice dripping with disgust.

‘Goodness!’ Mum gasped.

‘Remember when that book came out. Sixty Shades of Sin?’ he asked.

‘You mean Fifty Shades of Grey?’ I blurted out, then instantly regretted it. I was supposed to be steering them off this topic of conversation, not leaning into it.

Up until recently, I hadn’t even read the books by E.L. James, but despite my parents controlling what I saw online, I did remember hearing about them. Couldn’t remember how though.

‘That’s the one,’ Dad said. ‘Those romance books corrupt innocent minds into doing unthinkable things.’

He said the word romance like he was saying something hideous like serial killer or cockroach pie.

‘Unthinkable things?’ I rolled my eyes. ‘Like having sex?’

‘Eleanor!’ Mum warned and Dad gasped loudly.

See.

This was a prime example of how I grew up.

Sex was a dirty, forbidden word that should never be spoken.

If I’d said motherfucking cunt, my parents would’ve had less of a reaction.

Actually, no. If I’d mentioned that ‘c’ word, they’d be on the first train to London to stage an intervention.

‘What?’ I blew out an exasperated breath. ‘It isn’t a swear word.’

‘It may as well be!’ Dad bellowed.

Wow.

If this was how they reacted to the word ‘sex’, imagine if they found out that I worked for a company which encouraged their customers to have more of it.

If they knew what products Sated sold, my parents would assume the staff walked around naked or dressed in black leather crotchless shorts with nipple rings and whips in their hands and fucked each other on desks.

Although I was guilty of indulging in the desk fucking, I was sure I was an exception and that the majority of my colleagues were more professional.

Jesus.

If they knew what I’d been up to, especially with my boss, who was also eleven years older than me, they’d order me straight back to the village.

Which was exactly why they could absolutely never find out.

‘Our sweet, darling daughter would never get involved in something so horrendous,’ Mum scoffed.

Horrendous.

Double wow.

‘Of course not,’ Dad conceded. ‘My mistake. We taught her better than that. Homeschooling was the best decision we ever made.’