Free Surrender to a Sex Therapist by Anita Lawless

my climbing shoe on its weathered planks. Below me, murky moat water swirled with unseen creatures. I saw a massive flipper break through the surface, attached to an oily body that looked as big as a skyscraper. Swallowing down my fear, I focused ahead and walked quickly to the other side.
    The gate leading into an inner courtyard was made of wrought iron rails, and the space between them was wide enough for my five-foot-six, curvy frame to slip through. I walked through an overgrown garden with crumbling fountains, unkempt hedges, and other decaying finery. Thanks to a small window near the base of one castle wall, I easily slipped inside the sprawling structure. The open shutters creaked slightly when my climbing shoe hit one of them as I thumped to the floor below. I held my breath and stood still, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the heavy shadow inside.
    That’s when I heard the voices. I crept around a long dining table, edging closer to the door on the other side, so I could listen.
    “ It’s over, Rex,” a smooth baritone drifted through the cracks in the rounded, wooden door. “We both know it’s been over for a long time.”
    “ Bullshit!” a deeper bass voice boomed. “We can work through this. For Loki’s sake, you haven’t given us a fair chance.”
    The other man laughed a bitter laugh. “Haven’t given us a fair chance? It’s been six months since Kama died. We’ve grown farther apart in that time and we both know it.”
    “ That’s just your unresolved grief talking, Logan.”
    “ No, that’s the cold, hard truth, and now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to pack.”
    His footsteps made the cobblestone floor beneath me quake. I tried to skitter back from the door and out of sight, but I was too late. A towering giant with long, curling caramel hair and eyes that matched entered the dining room I hid in. He was at least two feet taller than me, and he gaped down as I gaped back. 
    “ Well, what do we have here?” He smirked, making his baby smooth face look lecherous. 
    “ I… I was sent by someone,” I blurted as I staggered back and my head slammed into a table leg.
    Another giant entered the room. This one was a few inches taller than his partner. His hair was a shorter, shaggy mane of midnight black, and his eyes were a pale amber that almost shone yellow. A trimmed beard lined his lower jaw and a moustache slightly hid his upper lip. 
    “ Who sent you?” he growled, giving me a suspicious frown.
    “ A woman. She was a giant, like you,” I rambled on about my encounter with the blue-robed giantess outside Aunty Macy’s bookshop. “She said I had to help you. Something about an old guy coming down from the mountain?”
    The two looked at each other then back at me. “The ancient one,” the black haired man said.
    “ Think she’s telling the truth?” Caramel eyes, who was clad in tight brown breeches and a flowing linen shirt, raised an eyebrow at me, then looked back at his partner.
    “ Did the woman give you a name?” the one who appeared sullen asked this. He wore a vest that looked like it was made from tanned leather, and breeches that matched.
    I shook my head.
    “ We haven’t seen a below dweller in a long time.” Caramel eyes stroked his chin as he regarded me. “It has to mean something, Rex.”
    Rex, the brooding one, nodded. “Let’s put her in the cage until we figure it out.” A slow, wicked smile formed, and he reached for me just as I scooted under the table.
    ***
    The pair of giants stuck me in a gargantuan gilded jail that reminded me of an oversized birdcage. Sadly the bars were placed close together, so there was no escaping my prison. At least not yet.
    Logan AKA caramel eyes stayed with me in the spacious master bedroom where the cage was located. While Rex, the dark brooding one, left us alone. Now Logan sat on a big four poster bed, laid out with a silky plum colored quilt and matching curtains and pillows. He braced his fists on the