"Ellen's Bet" is the first volume in a collection of erotic literary stories called "Taking Chances". They are stories about contemporary women, who for various reasons - sound or unsound, considered or impulsive - make a wager. The result of her wager, win or lose, will have a significant impact on the direction of her life and of her relationships. Ellen is a 38-year-old married mother of three. She is an executive with a Chicago firm that licenses proprietary industrial processes and provides training and consulting in those products to client firms. She travels to Baton Rouge in early February, 2010 to work with a firm there. She meets Patrick, who is her contact and facilitator on his firm’s behalf. Patrick invites Ellen to his home to watch the Superbowl. Although not particularly interested in football, Ellen accepts, seeing the social occasion as a pleasant way to spend an otherwise empty day in a city she has never before visited. Ellen meets Patrick’s wife, Roberta, and four young men from the firm Patrick has also invited. Naturally, all the others expect the New Orleans Saints, who play home games just eighty miles to the south of Baton Rouge, to win the game. Ellen expects the Indianapolis Colts, who play in her neighboring state, to win. One of the young men proposes a bet on the game for a sizable sum which all the other men are willing to match. Ellen is unable to cover the proposed wager with cash. For reasons she can’t begin to understand immediately, Ellen blurts out that she will cover the bet with her body. She understands the implications of what she is proposing. She understands the terrible jeopardy to which she is exposing herself. Somehow, though, the thought of being so far out on so perilous a limb – sweet victory one possible outcome, utter humiliation and abasement the other – lights a fire in her. She finds herself unable to resist the allure and tension of the hazard into which she is placing herself. Ellen's Bet is a novella of eight chapters and about 25,000 words. Ellen's Bet contains thematic material and descriptions that make the story appropriate only for adults.