So what I wish I’d always known is this: no matter how much you think you know about sex, there’s always plenty more to discover.

‘I wish … I’d known how to ask for what I want in bed,’ says TV presenter Cherry Healey

Firstly, I wish I’d known sex wouldn’t be like it’s depicted in Dirty Dancing. The real thing involves more bodily fluid and laughing than in movies. I also wish I hadn’t been in such a rush to pop my Cherry (sorry, couldn’t resist …).

I had a very near miss with a boy under a boat when I was fifteen, after too much Malibu, then a more favourable experience with a long-term (ie, more than a week) boyfriend at sixteen. He was lovely and it was very sweet—but still painful and definitely not ‘sexy.’

No matter how many saucy books, magazines or videos you steal from your elder brother, there’s no fast track to earth-shattering sexytime. Like anything, it’s a skill that needs both practice and a willingness to learn.

I do wish I’d asked myself, ‘What do I like?’ a little more, rather than thinking, ‘I hope he liked that …’

It took a long time (about ten years!) to work up the courage to suggest stuff in the bedroom. What I now know is that when you’re assertive, everyone wins.

And while the fantasy of bonking Patrick Swayze in a sweaty hut is great, real sex often requires tissues and a sense of humour, neither of which often features in film and TV simulations.

I’d tell my fifteen-year-old self to lay off the Malibu, expect to learn the moves gradually, and embrace the real version of sex—not waste time wondering if I was a bit rubbish.

What do you wish you’d always known about sex?

Tell us at [email protected]

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No.1 Sunday Times bestselling author Sylvia Day,

America’s premier provocative fiction writer,

delivers the debut Cosmo Red-Hot Reads

novel for Mills & Boon.

Download the eBook at:

www.millsandboon.co.uk/cosmo

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From No.1 Sunday Times bestselling author

Sylvia Day comes the gripping romantic

conclusion to the miniseries that launched

Cosmo Red-Hot Reads from Mills & Boon.

It started with Afterburn

and ends with an Aftershock.

Download the eBook at:

www.millsandboon.co.uk/cosmo

Discover more sizzling stories and

red-hot romance at

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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About the Author

Sylvia Day is a Sunday Times and #1 international bestselling author of over twenty award-winning novels sold in more than forty countries. She is a #1 bestselling author in twenty-one countries, with tens of millions of copies of her books in print. Her Crossfire series has been optioned for television by Lionsgate, and she has been nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Author. Visit her at www.sylviaday.com, www.facebook.com/authorsylviaday and on Twitter, @SylDay.

Cosmo Red-Hot Reads from Mills & Boon

ISBN: 978 1 472 01606 5

AFTERSHOCK

© 2014 Sylvia Day

Published in Great Britain 2014

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited,

Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device“) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

® and are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ®are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries..

www.millsandboon.co.uk/cosmo