I Want You, I Need You, I Love You: An Exploration in Lust
Who needs a traffic light when you have equipment like that to stop traffic? Lust: if you have to die, what a way to go, eh?
This is the fourth entry in Katie’s competition involving the Seven Deadly Sins, or as we Buddhists prefer to call them: the seven human hindrances. Check out this link to find out all about it.
The basic scoop is that anyone can enter a 0-600 word submission about the sin/hindrance/flavor Katie selects. A panel of judges will narrow down the submissions to their top five; then Katie will post them for the general blogging community to vote. Anyone can join in on the fun, kind of like contributing to a PAC, entering a triathlon, or being one of the lucky people who have seen Elvis since he “died.” Just be careful. From what I’ve heard, once you dip your toe into any of these tempting waters, you’re likely to get sucked down a drain you may not want to be swirling around in. I’m just saying… Of course, if you have writer’s block, this kind of thing may be just what you’ve been looking for. Consider it my gift to you: Writer’s Draino for your Writer’s Block (or Clog).
Talk about a great writing prompt…It has it all: drama, suspense, emotional turmoil, drainage issues, sexism, ridiculosity. Sometimes I surprise myself with what I find for you.
In the immortal and eloquent words of Piglet: “Oh My. Oh, mm…mm…my, my, my!”
I Want You, I Need You, I Love You
The occasional static and crackles caused by obsessive listening was no match for Elvis’ satin voice. She played the record again, swaying her shapely hips to the music and mouthing the words as she watched herself in her full-length mirror. She knew the words as well as she knew her reflection. Both felt as hollow as a grave before the casket was lowered into it.
Hold me close, hold me tight.
Make me thrill with delight.
Let me know where I stand from the start.
I want you, I need you, I love you
With all my heart.
How many times had men fantasized about her while listening to this song?
She made a career out of making men want the seductive woman they saw when she put on her mask. And she was the best in the business. Desire is what she sold and men bought it up with reckless abandon—men who never knew her, only her act. Nameless men offered her just about anything she wanted from them in exchange for a chance at devouring her body. All she wanted was their undying love and an unbreakable promise never to leave her alone. But they weren’t able to offer her those things, even in for a chance to fondle her breasts and feel her shapely legs wrapped around their torsos.
Ev’ry time that you’re near
All my cares disappear.
Darling, you’re all that I’m living for.
I want you, I need you, I love you
More and more.
“I want you, I need you, I love you.” Elvis crooned. She felt that way about a man once. He was really just a boy and it was so long ago that it hardly counted as this lifetime. But she ached for him with something inside so strong that she knew she would love that man to death…or she would die trying.
I thought I could live without romance
Before you came to me.
But now I know that
I will go on loving you eternally.
But he didn’t give her the chance to give her life to him. He up and left while she was still young and innocent. So she made herself into a woman no other man would ever up and leave. Not and live to tell about it.
Won’t you please be my own?
Never leave me alone
‘Cause I die ev’ry time we’re apart.
I want you, I need you, I love you
With all my heart.
“Yes, Elvis. I know how that feels,” she said to her reflection, which was the most real thing about her anymore. “But no matter how much you beg and plead, they always leave you alone, don’t they? It’s best to leave before you get there, don’t you think?”
She zipped up her dress and adjusted her ample breasts to make sure the cleavage looked just risqué enough for the crowd she wanted, needed, loved to please.
The doorbell rang. She appraised her reflection from glamorous head to spike-heeled toe. Blowing herself a kiss over her shoulder, she grabbed her purse and headed toward the door.
On the dressing table were two empty champagne bottles and one glass smothered in lipstick kisses.
Elvis was silent now. The needle on the stereo was stuck, so she exited to the faint sound of kerrrr-chrrr…kerrrr-chrrr…kerrrr-chrrr...
Go to Katie’s blog to read other awesome Lust submissions. (Go ahead, your significant other will thank you. Well, then again, maybe not…)
I ask again, friends and readers, who is this woman so obviously hindered, so perfectly flawed in her humanity? I’ll tell you at the end of the series.
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The suspense is killing me. Is finger biting one of the deadly sins? I hope not, because I’m a gonner if it is.
I know this is an older entry, but I love how subtly sexy you can make something and still make it very lusty. Great job!
Thanks so much. I really had fun writing this post as an entry for another blogger’s “Seven Deadly Sins” contest. I’m trying my hand at writing a novel now, so hopefully I can still channel this creative part of me!
Thanks for digging through the archives and leaving this comment. I really appreciate it!
I was impressed with your ability to convey the provocative tone and not be graphic.
What’s your novel on?
That’s because I’m really quite a prude at heart (no foul language comes from my lips!) but I am a sensual person.
Anywho, my novel is based on the true story of my grandmother’s and mother’s life. It’s a story about how a fiercely independent and proud young Finnish woman left her family and home with the intention of traveling all the way to Canada to make a new life for herself in the early 1920s. She ended up in Paris where she had to earn some money for her passage overseas. Her stay there was prolonged by growing concerns over German aggression and the fact that the only work she could get was as a domestic servant, so the money wasn’t rolling in. In 1933 she got pregnant. He was a Jewish merchant. When she found out he was Jewish, she cut all ties with him, but now she had a child to raise–a half-Jewish child in the midst of growing antisemitism and then the occupation of Paris.
After Paris was liberated, the woman finds an American GI from NY and believes that he is her “ticket” to that better life she always wanted. To her, NY meant NYC. She didn’t speak English and he didn’t speak French, so neither could clarify that he lived in a backwoods part of NY state. She took her now 13 year old daughter into a strange land with a virtual stranger and jumped from a war-torn city into an impoverished, isolated hovel. But she refused to return to Europe.
I’m building the story around this true account of their life.
Thanks for asking.
[...] The Seven Deadly Sins Series. A simple little writing competition, or the Dave and Lorna Show as it is affectionately [...]
Hi Lorna, I realize I’m coming late to the party, just wanted to say congratulations. Loved your entry. Especially liked your link to the song that also had on that page “One night with you”. Loved it!!
Thanks so much! Can’t wait for the next sin. I never know what she’s going to do next–the character, that is!
[...] contest was noon on Saturday and the winner is: Lorna from Lorna’s Voice. Her entry: I Want, I Need You, I Love You” was spectacular. Congratulations. Once again – a donation will be made to the [...]
[...] entry for the sin of lust in Katie’s Seven Deadly Sins writing contest, I Want You, I Need You, I Love You, is a finalist. It’s one of five essays that showcase the talent that publishers are [...]
Great job on the Lust entry, Lorna. You slayed it with subtlety instead of a sledge hammer. Of course, I’m still hoping to grind you into the dust in this competition.
Sounds like the competitive spirit of the Olympics have gotten under your skin! I’m glad we’re not competing in track and field. You wouldn’t tie my shoe laces together, would you?
[...] from Lorna – from over at Lorna’s Voice (Visit here to see Lorna’s Lush Lust post) [...]
I don’t recall if I’ve said this before, or often enough, but you are quite good with the words. What a vivid portrait of Eleanor Roosevelt!
Thank you ever so much! How did you guess it was that lusty first lady I was describing? It was Elvis, wasn’t it? Old Eleanor couldn’t resist The King…
I always love reading your prose. Thanks for sharing.
Missed you! Love having a good internet connection.
Thanks! I’m plugging away on my book. This is a much more arduous process than I thought…
Very nice… Very real… I have to admit I wanted to shake her and tell her to stop doing this to herself.
Yeah, me too. But she wouldn’t listen. Have you ever has a character that just wouldn’t listen to you?
Outstanding writing – the lyrics intertwined with narrative creates an inner dialog that reveals a tender emotionally devastated core hiding beneath a lustful veneer. Well done Lorna! Very well done in fact.
Thank you, kind Sir! Each sin inspires something different in me–this one got me searching for song lyrics. I think my character is driving the narrative, not me. She is a veritable force of nature (or the unnatural)!
Fantastic! I loved reading it
Thanks so much! I usually write stories about my life, so this is a real departure for me…or is it? Bwaahaha!
a real departure…but truly amazing…!
Have you ever surprised yourself by something you’ve written? It’s an odd feeling. I’m so glad you like this–I feel like in each one of these essays I’m stepping further out on a shaky limb…
It’s good to have this kind of feedback. Then again, it only emboldens me! 
sometimes it has also been the case with me…i’m surprised by the piece I’ve written!
But good going…I’ll keep emboldening you
Fantastic! You seem to outdo yourself with each submission, Lorna. Thank goodness my computer comes with parental controls.
Well. it was supposed to be lusty…
Another stellar submission for this “Lusty” category, Lorna. This is extremely captivating. There is a flow that is easy to get engrossd in. I really like the way you wove the lyrics to the song right through the story. It’s such an unusual style for you but I am loving it more and more with each entry. I can’t even imagine the way it’s going to go but I have little snippets of ideas. I really don’t want to think about those. I would much rather wait and see where you are going to take this. Great writtttttting ….. super – one.
Toodles,
Izzy
Thanks, Izzy. It’s kind of funny that I have to wait until each sin is announced and then some idea pops into my head for my disturbed character and for a way to move more deeply into her character. I don’t know where the idea of song lyrics being part of the narrative came from, but it did. I just picture her and she tells me where to go with the story. Kind of strange but kind of fun.
Looking forward to your entry!