One person's art is another person's erotica, is another person's pornography. Viewers of a one-woman show of paintings of ménages, genitalia and nudes speak tastefully of humour and anger expressed in the paintings. Restrained blonde Sydney Warren accepts praise gracefully; her erotic art is selling very well in Washington. Her art-dealing partner Max Boudain is confined to a wheelchair and rumour has it that he hires men to make love to the artist. Can this be true, or is it just GAMES PEOPLE PLAY?

Colm Hennessey, no art connoisseur, watches Sydney at the gallery. He's been hired as a gigolo, and she doesn't know it yet. Next time they meet, he's at her home posing - in two senses. He's pretending to be an art model. The relationship between Sydney and Max is fraying badly, but Max is a Svengali-type who wants to keep control. He orders Colm to seduce Sydney. If the lady refuses Max will feel safe asking for marriage. For her part, Sydney dislikes working with just one male model and can't understand why Max is so keen for her to start before other models are hired. Colm sees her as just one more beautiful, neglected woman... and then it becomes personal.

Sydney comes across to me as a complex person, who is aware that sex sells better, and wishes to make enough money to gain independence, so she can truly paint what she wants. If she left wealthy Max she would have to find premises and work harder to get into galleries, so she is trapped by finances as much as loyalty. I did feel sympathy for Sydney but much less so for Max. While he was unfortunate to have been injured in a climbing accident, two years after he and Sydney got together, nothing gives him the right to be so domineering, calculating and possessive. He tells Colm that if Sydney falls for his trap, he will see that she is ruined as an artist. This is hardly the motivation of someone who loves the lady.

Colm takes the role of impartial observer. We also get to know Colm and why he has been working this emotionless escort job for three years. The issue of lonely women hiring male company is seldom raised - some of them are as devoid of human contact and intellectual stimulation in their lives, as of physical pleasure. Shelby Reed has written a slow, artful erotic romance in which GAMES PEOPLE PLAY can make or break lives.