Matt K. Turner

Of course, thousands of years of traditional masculinity weren't going away without a fight. They lingered in the vestigial memories of men, occasionally challenging a decision to read the directions or wear argyle, hoping for a day when a hurtling piece of space rock will send the world back to a time before the advent of styling gels.

Ian was the kind of smart that makes your straight A student look like she__ drown in a wet paper bag. Ian was the kind of smart that scares people.

She would use her sexuality, but she would make it hers. She would use her beauty not to appeal to their desire, but to strike fear in the hearts of men.

There were times he thought he might not want to live the life he saw before him. It was a life of obstacles and hardships__hallenges and tests of will he could not yet predict. But he couldn__ stop. He had to endure. The path had not changed. It was he who had changed.

Ever wanted more. After all, women weren__ equal to men. They were better. Certainly not in strength or their skill in killing things, but when it came to propagation women absolutely trounced men. Men could bring some chips to the party, but that shindig was always going down in the belly of a woman. And considering that the hardest part of gathering food now was finding a parking spot, strength and killing things were significantly less high on the list of key survival traits.

They were the kind of couple you rolled your eyes at. The couple you wanted to punch square in their perfect noses, but secretly hoped would become your new best friends and invite you to a private dinner party where you__ eat something made with truffle oil and share a rueful laugh about the party scene in Ibiza.

A day ago, the sight of a man removing his face would have blown thick chunks of Aiden__ mind out the back of his head, but not today. Today Aiden was fresh out of shock and running low on wonder.

She had been too well-trained to allow her emotions to take control of her at the time, but the feelings were too strong to quietly recede into a regimen of critical thought. Deep inside her they stewed, logic and reason slowly boiling off. Reduced to their essence, her feelings became more potent, condensed into an emotional certainty. I should have saved them.