Carnal Devotions — Kate Willoughby

When Nathan Somerset buys a ring off the Internet, he's amazed at what he gets. The funky sex toy transports him into erotic fantasies so lifelike he's left drained from multi-orgasmic bliss. Even more surprising, each episode revolves around his timid new neighbor, Annie, who's been avoiding him like he has a social disease. Intrigued by the provocative guises she assumes in his fantasies, he decides to pursue her in real life.

But Annie is far more used to admiring guys from afar. Plagued by acute asthma into her teens, she has little experience with the opposite sex and is convinced that her rating on the love-o-meter is in the negative numbers.

Yet even as Nathan succeeds in convincing her otherwise, he continues using the ring, little knowing that each invocation binds him more intimately to its creator, the goddess Cybele, with life threatening results. When fantasy suddenly becomes reality and the goddess decides to claim her mate, will Annie's love be enough to keep Nathan grounded in their world, or will he be forever cast as the goddess' sexual plaything?