(Disclaimers for consensual bdsm activity and bad jokes.
This takes place after India, but before the crucifixions.)
Gabrielle waited impatiently for the shuffling procession to reach
the barred door before her. There was no need to search among the
hooded forms for Xena -- the warrior stood half a head above her
three young escorts. A shaft of sunlight streaming through a barred
window high on the opposite wall lit the dark woman's blue eyes. They
were level and calm as the guard leading her by a neck manacle
unlocked the cell door.
Gabrielle backed up to give them room for entry, a light numbness
filling her hands. She stared at her tall partner's face, and her
lips moved in a curse.
The corner of Xena's mouth quirked in acknowledgement. She took
comfort from the fact that her battered guards looked far worse, but
she realized she wasn't a pleasant sight. High security lock-up
wasn't for the soft. Xena considered reminding Gabrielle of this
aloud, but it would come out sounding impossibly butch.
They began the laborious process of unlocking her chains. The lead
guard leaned his butt against the wall, folded his arms, and passed
the time leering at Gabrielle. By contrast, Xena thought fondly, the
young woman returning his lecherous regard looked poised, and rather
ethereal, her shaggy cap of blonde hair feathering softly around
sea-green eyes. Then the warrior's lips tightened as the lead guard
suddenly jerked on the chain, digging the edges of the steel cuff
into her throat.
"I don't know what pull you got with the warden, warrior bitch."
The cocky young soldier twisted the chain in his fist. "But I like
the looks of your winsome little wench, here. Think I'll help you out
with this 'conjugal visit' you charmed out of -- -"
A bardly knee crashed into the man's unprotected groin. Gabrielle
caught him as he sagged, and guided him carefully to his knees. The
two young sentries gripping Xena's arms were surprised into inaction;
they just stared at each other.
"Can you look at me, please?" Gabrielle lifted the guard's chin,
and smiled into his stunned eyes. She spoke clearly, as if to a slow
child. "If you ever lay your filthy hand on my friend again, I'll put
a bounty on that pathetic lentil between your legs, and then I'll
send fifty rabid Amazons to collect it. Do you believe me, son?"
Xena's lips twitched again, but she kept her features carefully
blank.
The milk-complected man grunted something Gabrielle took as
affirmative, so she let him crumple to the ground. She rose, stepped
over him, and went to Xena, one brow rising in an oddly familiar arch
as she studied the bruises on her face. Stern green eyes fixed on
blue ones in a clearly communicated "have a good explanation for
this" glare.
Gabrielle turned in front of Xena, folded her arms, and assumed a
relaxed, but protective stance. Xena smiled down at the blonde head
at her shoulder. She wondered if Gabrielle realized she'd just pulled
off an exemplary imitation of the countless times Xena had looked
down at the bard in exactly that way. And would again.
They waited until the prison escort lifted their leader, and
shambled as menacingly as possible out of the large cell. When the
heavy iron door clanged shut behind them, Gabrielle sighed, then
turned into Xena, and lay her hands lightly on her waist. She moved
close enough that their thighs touched, and their bellies and
breasts. She closed her eyes and rested her forehead on Xena's chest.
They stood silently for awhile.
Gabrielle figured they both needed this. She was still better at
asking for it than her taciturn partner. She felt the slight, warm
lift of the waist beneath her hands as the warrior breathed, and she
comforted herself with that rhythm. All would be well. Xena was here,
they were together. They both had a pulse. For them, it was an
excellent beginning.
Xena stood with her hands loose by her sides, enjoying the feel of
the firm curves beneath her own breasts, and the soft breath on the
base of her throat. She looked down into the tickling hair beneath
her nose, smiling like an idiot. Her young lover's hair -- long,
short, red, blond, whatever -- always smelled like sunshine.
The warrior had done well enough, imagining this body against her
these many nights, but her most vivid fantasy was a poor substitute
for the flesh-and-blood bard. Xena didn't close her eyes. She never
did, when Gabrielle held her like this, and it was one of their
favorite embraces. She liked looking at her too much.
Gabrielle sighed again; in their years together, she had developed
a wide repetoire of expressive sighs. "Tell me what happened."
"Not right now. We'll get to it."
"How badly are you hurt?"
"I'm not, really." Xena lowered her head and began nibbling on
Gabrielle's neck. "I look worse than I am."
"Xena, you better."
Gabrielle opened her eyes, realizing she was enjoying the light
touch of Xena's lips on the soft skin between her neck and shoulder.
"Hey, we don't have time for this." She lifted her head from the
warrior's chest and looked at her throat. Her fingers rose to the
bruised, chaffed skin there. "That banshee-spawn!"
"Who, Rufus? He was trying to get a rise out of you. Winsome
little wench." Xena grinned and nudged her with her hip. "Hey, I
thought you were following a path of peace, now, Gabrielle."
"Is the man dead, Xena?" Gabrielle snapped.
"No."
"Then he's lucky banshee-spawn."
Unlike some people, Xena knew when to shut up. She studied the
bard's green eyes, intent now on the bleeding bruise above her left
brow. She batted Gabrielle's hand aside casually (whoosh), and
recommenced nibbling on her neck.
"Well." Gabrielle smiled, her eyes closing again. "At least you're
not so brutalized that you can't lip me like . . . like one of your
blessed river trout . . . "
"I can't believe you're still talking." Xena lifted her hands to
Gabrielle's hair, and pulled her in for a tender, bliss-inspiring
kiss. Eventually and inevitably, a rather erotic kiss.
Gabrielle's hands dropped weakly to her sides, then drifted up to
her waist, then made it all the way up to snarl in Xena's wild, dark
hair. The young bard took the initiative, big surprise, her mouth
opening against Xena's, her tongue slipping wet and warm between the
warrior's full lips. Xena sucked her, gently.
Then Gabrielle almost bit her tongue as she reclaimed it and
looked up at Xena incredulously.
"What?" Xena frowned. "I can't give my own wife a little hello
peck?"
"Are you crazy? I don't even know you should be upright -- "
Xena rolled her eyes and shut Gabrielle up by kissing her again,
her arms gaining new strength as they folded her in more tightly,
feeling the bard's full breasts swell against her. It was some time
before they came up for air.
"You heard the banshee spawn, Gabrielle," Xena panted, "this is a
conjugal visit. You know what conjugate means, you've done it with
verbs. Same idea."
"Oh." That was actually starting to sound reasonable to Gabrielle.
She let her hands drift up again, then bent her elbow around the
warrior's neck, and pulled the dark head down hard, grinding her lips
--
"Ow!" Xena bobbed up, rescuing her bruised lower lip.
"Oh -- blast -- did I hurt you?"
"No, no. It's all right." The taller woman smiled down at
Gabrielle with teasing affection. "Lovin' every moment of it."
Gabrielle smiled back at the shared memory, and her mist-green
eyes crinkled at the corners in a way the jaded warrior still found
irresistable. Xena always had to stifle the urge to kiss Gabrielle on
the nose when she did that. It was just so . . . femme.
Then Gabrielle's expression sobered. "I'm going to get you out of
here, Xena. You do know that, right?"
"I do know that." Xena slung an arm over the girl's slender
shoulders and walked with her across the echoing cell. "But first
things first."
Xena led Gabrielle to a far wall, and stopped her a foot from it.
She stood behind her, her hands on her shoulders, both of them
staring at the rough-hewn wood in front of them. Xena leaned in and
whispered directly into the delicate ear. "How often were we making
love when I was captured, Gabrielle?"
"Three to five nights a week," Gabrielle answered at once. She
batted her long eyelashes over her shoulder at Xena. "You mean just
nights, right?"
"When did we do it as little as three?" Xena asked, stung. "Never
mind." She shook the girl's shoulders gently. "Gabrielle, try to
focus. I've been locked up in here for a month. Four weeks."
"Are you saying you've missed -- "
"Do the math."
Suddenly the warrior pushed the younger woman forward, pinning her
against the planks of the wall, and hissed in her ear. "I figure I've
missed out on at least twelve heated matings with you, village girl."
Xena pulled Gabrielle from the wall, and her hands began roaming
freely over her body. "You're the bard. What kind of bedtime story
will you tell me tonight?"
Gabrielle's blonde head dropped back on Xena's shoulder as she
relaxed against her. "How about Snow White," she breathed, her eyes
closing.
"Snow White?" Xena snorted, licking that tender spot at the base
of Gabrielle's gracefully arched neck. "Why that little wimp?"
"Because in Snow White," Gabrielle growled, her green eyes
opening, "the virginal heroine eventually triumphs over the sadistic
queen." She flattened her palms against the wall and pushed, hard,
smacking into Xena and forcing her back a few steps.
Xena whoofed in surprise, then steadied herself ungracefully as
Gabrielle whirled on her.
"Excuse me!" Gabrielle glowered, and Xena felt again that shameful
carnal pulse that hit her whenever Hope showed up. "Who died and made
you Hera, warrior? It's been four weeks for me, too, so who said
we're playing by your rules?"
Oh, Xena loved this. She straightened to her full, intimidating
height, and her broad shoulders relaxed. She pinned Gabrielle with
icy blue eyes, and the smaller woman went still as she stepped
closer.
"Honey?" Xena said softly. "Listen to me, now." She backed
Gabrielle up to the wall, and then planted her hands on the stone at
either side of her head. "Gabrielle? You get all the tattoos you
want. Drag me across three continents looking for enlightenment.
Swoon over every ambitious guru who tickles your fancy, ignore me
outright for days . . . but never, never doubt who sets the sexual
rules in this relationship."
Gabrielle looked up at her, her lips still curving with the trace
of a smile she couldn't quite suppress.
"You do," Xena said quietly.
"I know," Gabrielle answered softly. "And I want you like crazy."
She made herself stop swimming in those sea-blue eyes. "Look -- we do
have time for this? You're not dented or punctured in any permanent
way, you promise?"
"Cross my heart."
Gabrielle nodded at the floor, then looked up at Xena, and her
eyes were sparkling again. The bard knew this was the moment for a
truly soul-sucking kiss -- either that or a neck-biting lunge, she
hadn't decided yet. She did know she wasn't sure she liked her
lover's expression of easy assurance.
"Xena," Gabrielle began, "I've done some reading about human
sexual copulation, recently. Let me tell you about the tantric
tradition. Xena, it's fascinating. Not the Hindu tantric tradition,
mind you, the Buddhist tantric tradition. I don't even pretend that I
understand what Hindus think about anyth -- oof!"
Gabrielle grinned as Xena turned her to face the wall and then
slammed her against it, a bit roughly.
"I'm probably an expert now in finding the peace and power of
sexual release," Gabrielle went on happily, as Xena's hands slid
hotly across the flat plane of her belly. "But Xena, it's vital that
we not deviate from the classic missionary position, from now on. In
order to achieve sexual-spiritual purity, we must -- oh, my."
Gabrielle arched as long fingers squirmed beneath her top, and
slithered up to cover the cool swells of her breasts.
"Okay," the bard gasped. "A little fun stuff, too, I'm cool with
that. A few slaps, a little tickling. But then we work on an escape
plan, Xena, and I mean -- "
"You are never going to shut up, are you?"
"Me?" Dazed, Gabrielle watched Xena's fingers working busily
beneath her top, foraging from one breast to the other. "You think
that's like - " she licked her lips, " - likely?"
Xena's other hand burrowed beneath the belt of her skirt and
palmed the girl's heated vulva. Gabrielle's legs opened helplessly,
giving her better access, and her head sank back again to rest on
Xena's shoulder as the warrior's hand moved in rapid circles.
"You're listening, right?" Xena whispered, rubbing away.
"Pardon? Were you speaking to me?"
"Gabrielle. Try to focus. Is there anything I should know?"
"No, I'm fine. Or I would be, if you'd just -- "
"Gabrielle! Any blisters, sore fingers? Are we visiting anyone
soon you do not want to see you striped?"
No response.
"Oh great, now you shut up."
Rub, rub, rub.
"Any nightmares lately?" Xena persisted, "anything you don't want
me to do? Any remote possibility that something I say might feasibly
hurt your feelings? How long before your moons? Tell me, so we can
get on with -- "
"Getting on with it would be good," Gabrielle said loudly.
Xena's bruised face lit up. She slid her hands free, whirled
Gabrielle around, bent, tackled her, and straightened with her body
slung over one broad shoulder. Gabrielle whooped softly, but held on
to her waist as well as she could as Xena swaggered toward the other
end of the cell.
Xena fingered the velvet-sheathed firmness of Gabrielle's thigh.
"I see you haven't missed me so much you've neglected your drills."
"Well, it was drill or lay awake all night," Gabrielle grunted.
Xena kneaded the thigh in question as she stalked toward the far
wall. "I'm touched."
"Don't bet on it, warrior, not until you learn to finish what you
-- "
P>Gabrielle's words were cut off as Xena put her down abruptly and
shoved her forward with, again, more force than necessary. The blonde
woman spun and caught herself against a wall, and realized she was
standing against what had to be the most brightly lit wall in the
Grecian prison system.
A space had been cleared at the far end of the cavernous cell. It
was scrupulously clean; Xena had seen to that. The newly-whitewashed
wall sparkled under the light of the dozen torches bracketed to it.
Above them, bolted to the high ceiling, was a six-candled chandelier
suspended by a heavy iron chain. Gabrielle took in the arena quickly,
and then her eyes went still as she saw the large wheel staked in the
floor in front of the wall..
Of smooth, polished oak, the wheel was large enough to serve as a
circular bed for an adult woman. It was resting flat, padded, and
raised, perhaps four hands-width from the cell floor.
Gabrielle turned and looked at Xena, still fully dressed, and
trembling with need.
Xena leaned one shoulder against a wooden pillar, half in the
shadows to one side of the cell. Gabrielle could hardly see her
there, past the flickering torchlight.
"Show me your breasts, village girl."
Gabrielle straightened, and turned toward the purring, sensual
voice. Her hands moved to the colorful fabric of her top and began to
unfasten it.
"No. Pull it down under them."
The young woman looked up, hesitated, and then obeyed, pulling the
stretchy fabric down and over the taut globes of her breasts.
Gabrielle stood very still, her back straight. She knew twelve
torches could not possibly produce the heat she felt washing over her
skin -- the source was the two ice-blue eyes watching her in the
darkness.
"Under them, I said."
Gabrielle swallowed, then pulled the tight neck opening further
down, and wedged it beneath her full breasts. The sensitive globes
were pressed together by the constricting fabric, and they bulged
over the neckline. She kept her eyes level and empty.
"Leave it there. Now the skirt. Halfway down."
Gabrielle drew in a slow breath. She fit her hands around her
belt, already twisted and sagging from the assault of Xena's groping
hand, and slid her skirt, and the pants beneath them, down over her
lush hips, revealing her sex. The snug belt kept them in place when
they reached mid-thigh. Gabrielle knew what Xena wanted, and she
straightened again and arched her back slightly, waiting.
Xena looked at her young lover, the trembling, jutting breasts,
the pink nipples flushing with color and swelling, and she felt her
mouth water. Her implacable gaze moved lower, over the small
birthmark, the flat plane of the belly. Then the curvaceous swell of
hips, and the red-gold triangle nestled invitingly between strong
thighs, the warrior's gaze on it as palpable as touch.
"Take your first stance."
Gabrielle hitched in a quick breath. This was hard for her, and
Xena knew it. Gradually, she spread her legs as widely apart as the
constricting skirt would allow, and arched her back more tightly. She
raised her shoulders and let her arms fall behind her. Her breasts
and hips surged under the wash of torchlight. The remnants of
clothing clinging to her body made Gabrielle feel more exposed than
if she'd been stark naked. The warrior knew that, too.
Xena admitted she found this first position especially alluring.
Not just the artfully arranged clothing, although that was extremely
effective, but Gabrielle's strong shoulders curving behind her, that
subtle, helpless curving of her body.
Xena's voice lowered a notch. "Touch yourself."
Another toughie, pleasuring herself in front of her lover;
Gabrielle's eyes brimmed with tears. Tears were her specialty,
through no guile of her own. She just teared easily, under these
circumstances. And it worked, for both of them, every damn time.
Especially the first time the tears appeared.
"Please . . ." Gabrielle whispered.
"I like hearing you beg, village girl. Touch yourself."
Gabrielle's hands crept up her sides. One rested, cold and
trembling, across the compressed tips of her breasts, the palm
brushing lightly across her nipples. The fingers of the other hand
brushed tentatively over the soft gold hair of her mons. Then back
over it. And again. Gabrielle's throat constricted as she swallowed,
sensation creeping warmly through her breasts and groin.
Xena watched this halting performance silently for awhile. Then
she strolled out of the shadows, and her blue eyes had taken on a
silvery sheen. "Not particularly convincing, Gabrielle. You can do
better, and you will. We'll come back to this. Second stance."
Gabrielle lifted her arms, and linked her fingers together behind
her neck. She remembered not to move her eyes to look at Xena as the
tall warrior came nearer.
"You're good at fear, village girl, and anyone watching you might
think you're feeling shame," Xena said softly, pausing to look down
at the younger woman's quivering slit. "But you know you're loving
this, little bard. Every ruthless, how-dark-is-she moment of it. If I
walked away from you right now, Gabrielle, you would probably poison
me."
"Xena, I am going to poison you anyway," Gabrielle said tightly.
She knew her place, and she knew when to chance leaving it. She was
uncomfortable enough to chance it now. "If you think you can light me
up like a torch, and then -- "
"You're not denying the allure of our little haven, I take it? You
are enjoying your visit, so far?" Xena stepped up close behind
Gabrielle, letting her breath tickle her ear. "Then do me the
kindness of shutting the hell up, all right?"
The long, slender hands crept around the bard's waist and settled
there, the chill in her fingers making Gabrielle jump. They smoothed
across the lean belly, then moved higher.
"I need a little time to enjoy the image of my naked Amazon
queen," Xena murmured, her eyes closing, "standing spread and arched
in front of me. All white curves and secret clefts. The beginning of
fear in her eyes . . . "
The eyes closed again as the rubbing hands left her, and then
hovered over the full naked breasts. The warrior flattened her palms,
and then lowered their rough surfaces to scrape against Gabrielle's
turgid nipples.
"You're afraid, Gabrielle, and I've taught you that fear should
never be ignored. It might be your instinct, warning you of real
danger." Xena's palms coasted in tiny, rasping circles. "At times
like this, you're never entirely sure how far behind I've left the
darkness, are you?"
"No," Gabrielle whispered.
"You're wise to admit it." Xena kissed the bard's cheek, chastely,
her hands still moving. "Thank you, friend. For the trust."
"Always." Gabrielle gave up, and surged her breasts hard against
Xena's open hands, hungry for their grip. "Xena, get on with it, damn
it!"
"Don't reach release, Gabrielle."
"Ah, gods!" Gabrielle hissed, her eyes flashing open. There was
genuine despair in the sound.
The warrior began kneading her breasts, pulling them in slow,
wide, circles, and Gabrielle concentrated on her breathing. Xena was
capable of doing this for hours. She'd performed this maddening
mauling before for that long, on two memorable occassions. The bard
had come both times, explosively, from that touch alone. Now she
stood it as long as she could, then she let out a tight breath.
"Xena! Four weeks! This is no time for your bloody control fetish
-- "
P>"Seems like the perfect time to me."
Knead, knead, knead.
"Look, it's not that I can't control myself." Gabrielle's voice
was starting to tremble, and she had to catch her lower lip in her
teeth for a moment. "I can last as long as you want without --
finishing. You make me prove that all . . . all the time. But there's
no need, Xena. No one's going to run out of steam, here." The bard
closed her eyes again, briefly, as another burst of heat burst
ignited her stiffened nipples. "Xena? You know very well I average a
good three times a night. We -- "
"When have I made you come only three times? I want dates." Xena's
blue eyes were teasingly fierce. But then so were her fingers, all
ten of them, clamping tightly down over the full globes of
Gabrielle's breasts and digging in, hard.
Gabrielle arched, gasping, as they both knew she would -- the
bard's breasts were infamously sensitive, and Xena had developed a
particular fondness for snatching them suddenly.
"Sweet Artemis," the bard whispered. Then her green eyes grew less
fearful, and more feline. "Oh, that's right. The three-times thing
must have been with someone else." Gabrielle felt the warrior go
still behind her, and her heart skittered a beat.
Mistake. Gabrielle's quip was just a little too snarky, she had
been a little too distant since their return from India, and the
warrior had been deprived just a little too long.
Xena tore the rest of Gabrielle's clothes off. So abruptly, and
with such strength, that the younger woman was surprised out of
resistance. Her arms darted up automatically to cross over her
humming breasts. Xena snarled and clenched Gabrielle's arms together
behind her, arching her back to wash her nakedness in torchlight.
"Don't cover those breasts, village girl. I want them exposed to
me at all times." Xena's words were starting to slur, and Gabrielle's
inner alarm rose a notch. "Your body is not yours to hide, Gabrielle,
you've entrusted it to me. And lest you develop the faintest craving
to share it with anyone else, I'll have to prove to you that it's
still mine to command."
The warrior pushed her, hard.
Gabrielle stumbled over the wheel's edge and sprawled on top of
it. The rough lip of the wood scraped her ankle, but she hardly felt
it in the sudden rush of fire through her belly.
She raised herself on her elbows on the wheel's padded surface,
her pale body stark against muslin dyed a midnight-blue. Her legs
closed instinctively as Xena appeared in front of her.
The tall woman stood looking down at her nakedness for a moment,
her blue eyes glittering. Then she bent down and grasped Gabrielle's
ankles with chilled hands. She pulled, sliding the young woman
effortlessly toward her, and then dropped her feet with a contemptous
thud.
"Take your third position, Gabrielle."
Gabrielle waited a moment, and Xena allowed it, giving her time to
gather her courage. Then she lay flat, and drew her legs as widely
apart as she could, her heels burning lightly as they scraped over
the canvass. The padded center of the wheel pressed into her back,
making her chest swell upward and her hips crest over the cushioned
edge of the rise. Gabrielle's head was lowered, but not so far that
she could escape the warrior's greedy eyes.
Xena bent and fit the young woman's ankles into the padded leather
cuffs attached to the wheel's side. She went to the other side, and
did the same with one slender wrist; but she let the other remain
free. Then she stepped back and took a critical survey of her naked
captive's presentation.
Gabrielle was shuddering, her head turned to one side, her eyes
open. Her one free hand moved restlessly over her body,
half-concealing one breast, then the cold fiingers darting down to
tent protectively over her exposed vulva.
"I could come right now, Gabrielle. Just looking at you, like
this."
Gabrielle took her upper lip in her teeth and closed her eyes. She
made herself lift her hand from her mound and lie flat, shoulders to
the table's surface. Her hand settled, trembling, on her lean belly.
Tear-filled green eyes opened and searched Xena's pale face.
Xena smiled. "I'm not even going to touch you, village girl. I'm
just going to talk to you. Like I said, looking at you is enough for
me. For you, it's the sound of my voice. My voice alone can make you
wet, Gabrielle, whenever I desire it." Her eyebrow arched.
"Yes." Gabrielle shivered.
Xena nodded. She stepped up onto the table and knelt beside her,
rummaging in a pocket. She withdrew two shining metal clamps -- tiny
dragon's heads, with green gems for eyes, and blunted teeth,
connected by a delicate gold chain -- and, without ceremony, bent
over Gabrielle and snapped them around her protruding nipples.
The bard gasped and cried out. Her back bucked into a tighter arch
as her hand flew up instinctively to strike at Xena's face. The
warrior caught her wrist with a spare, effortless movement, and
pressed it down beside Gabrielle's flushed face. She looked up at the
ceiling, and Gabrielle followed her gaze.
The six white candles in the chandelier directly overhead had been
glowing long enough to drip wending lines of melting wax over its
iron rim. Xena's sense of timing bordered on genius, and she had
planned this session well.
The battered warrior backed off the table, rose, and limped to the
small wooden table against the wall. She returned with her bullwhip
coiled around her fist. She stood at Gabrielle's feet, twining the
supple leather through her fingers.
"You're about to be fucked, village girl." Xena's voice was
toneless. "But you're going to pleasure yourself, first. You'll
recall I wasn't satisfied with your first attempt. Best be sure you
make yourself wet, I warn you."
"What?" Gabrielle whispered.
Xena looked down at the spread-eagled woman, her eyes shuttered
blue lanterns. "I said, finger your cunt, Gabrielle."
Gabrielle swallowed, visibly. Her unfettered hand moved, almost of
its own accord, passing over her bare breasts, coming to rest between
her wide-spread legs. She nudged the tips of two cold fingers between
her quivering labia, and began to stroke a soft circle around her
long-turgid clitoris, her eyes closing in humiliation.
The young bard was so ready, so impossibly sensitive, she almost
exploded at this first intimate touch. Gabrielle drew in a shallow
breath and slowed her fingers, until the heat spurting through her
groin subsided. Then she rested her blonde head back against the
wheel's surface, and forced herself to resume the gentle stroking.
A large drop of melted wax splashed down on her lean stomach, and
Gabrielle's head snapped up again, sharply. The shock in her green
eyes sent Xena's blood roiling through her veins, and it was the dark
woman who moaned softly. Gabrielle knew better than to stop the
maddening caress, but the brief, burning pain on her belly seemed to
ignite and flow into her clipped nipples, and her lips parted,
breathlessly.
Another drop. This one on her taut thigh, and Gabrielle's legs
twitched hard in response to the mild pain, giving the watching
warrior a brief, unforgettable view of her fingers working busily in
her wetness. Gabrielle kept rubbing, and her head began to turn
slowly on the muslin.
Xena measured Gabrielle with her eyes, timing her lover with
exquisite patience, as two more small splatters of candlewax sent
currents of erotic heat through Gabrielle's quaking form. The
warrior's face was impassive as she watched, but the hands that
twined in the bullwhip were trembling. She saw a heavy wetness
glisten on the girl's circling fingers, and decided she was ready.
She'd better be, Xena sure as hell was.
The tall woman stepped forward and knocked Gabrielle's hand from
between her legs with a disdainful slap. Then she flipped the long
hilt of the bullwhip in her hand, and placed its circular tip at the
base of Gabrielle's moist nether lips. She paused -- to look at the
green eyes, huge, staring at her -- and then tightened her lips, and
held the girl's free hand down firmly. Then she skewered the whip up
inside her.
"Ahhh-ahh - " Gabrielle's gasp gave way to a guttural groan as the
stiff leather surged in stages up her copiously slick tunnel. The
ridged sides of the whip created a delicious friction as it rooted
higher, until she was fully impaled. Gabrielle lifted her head and
stared at Xena's white-knuckled hand clasped around the buried
whiphandle, an inch from her straining cunt. The bard grunted
helplessly, an impossibly erotic sound.
"I told you I wouldn't touch you, village girl." Xena closed her
eyes as the heat of Gabrielle's yawning sex warmed the tops of her
fingers. "I didn't say you wouldn't be touched."
Xena slowly pulled the whiphandle half way out. Gabrielle's knees
jerked, then her hips bucked tightly, trying to expel the leather
shaft altogether. A drop of candlewax splashed down on Gabrielle's
clipped, quivering left nipple. Fire spun through Gabrielle's loins
and up her ribcage, arcing like heat-lightning from one of her turgid
nipples to the other, and she gave in and screamed this time, her
body shaking spasmodically in an effort to maintain control.
Xena groaned, a purring base note from deep in her throat, and
plunged the whip back in deeply. She twisted the rod in her fist,
listening to the lovely squelching noise deep within the girl's
sopping sex. The warrior's knees almost buckled as the spread-eagled
woman grunted again, a sound as sweet to Xena's ears as birdsong.
Xena let go of the bullwhip and stood with effort, her face
shining with sweat. Gabrielle's body was glistening too, the pale
swells and tanned curves shuddering with heat. The whip provided a
cruel carnal contrast to Gabrielle's virginal beauty -- it hung
obscenely out of the girl's vagina, like a burrowing snake.
Xena grasped the edge of the wheel, and used her considerable
strength to pull it toward her. There was a grinding of metal against
wood.
To Gabrielle's horror, the large disk began to turn slowly, and
she with it, the image of the iron chandelier starting to turn above
her.
Xena bent and snatched the loose end of her bullwhip before it
could move past her. She held it carefully over the turning wheel to
keep it clear, and it's hilt could remain deeply, pleasantly buried
between Gabrielle's wide-spread legs.
"Gabrielle," Xena said calmly. "Use your free hand to pull the
chain between the nipple clamps."
"Ah gods, please," Gabrielle sobbed, spinning slowly. She flung
her arm over her eyes so she couldn't see the warrior's piercing gaze
on her body as she came full circle.
"Do it."
Gabrielle forced her arm down to her stomach. She snagged the
delicate gold chain attached to the nipple-clamps in icy fingers,
arched her back and tugged at it, her shoulders shaking with
suppressed sobs. She resolved to keep her tearing eyes trained on the
ceiling. Only the young queen's growing ability to focus held any
hope that she could hold back the growing sexual churning aching to
explode between her legs.
"You're going to listen, Gabrielle, because this time, I get to
pick out the bedtime story." Xena heard the rusted gears beneath the
wheel catch and turn, and knew they would keep the big wooden disk
spinning -- a slow, relentless rotation.
"This story is called, What The Warrior Did To The Bard Once She
Escaped." Xena's rich voice was melodic. She held the whip carefully
as Gabrielle spun past her, jiggling it just enough that the girl
felt its warm sliding deep in her cunt. "I'm going to find your camp,
Gabrielle, and wait until you sleep. I'll move silently from the
surrounding brush to your blankets, snarl them in one hand, and -- "
"Stop it," Gabrielle gasped, drops of sweat flying from her
forehead as she shook her head.
"Don't come, Gabrielle," Xena said calmly. "And wrest them off
you. I'll snatch you naked in ten seconds, village girl, and then my
hands will be all over you. Pressing down on your shoulders, holding
them down so those beautiful pink tits arch up at me. Pull that
chain, little bitch, I want to be able to see the sting in those
nipples."
Gabrielle used bone-cracking force on herself and managed to lie
quietly while her traitorous hand twisted the delicate gold chain
connecting her throbbing breasts. The martyred nipples blushed
scarlet under the assault, and her chest heaved her outraged breath.
"I'll lip your nipples, then suck them. I'll sink my teeth in your
buds, Gabrielle. I'll chew you. You know the strength of my hands on
your arms, holding you down.".
A fat dollop of molten wax splashed periously close to Gabrielle's
glistening slit, and the bard screamed, spinning. Xena began
jump-roping the leather whip between her open legs, jostling the pole
of leather snugged inside her, brushing it against her straining
clit.
"But it's licking you I long for most, Gabrielle. I place one hand
high on each of your inner thighs and pry them gently open. I hold
you down so carefully you won't even bruise, but you have no hope of
escaping me. You jerk up and beat at my shoulders with your fists as
I lower my head between your legs. You try to cover your sex with
your hands. I look up at you, and you take them away, opening to me
again."
"Xena, let me go," Gabrielle called softly. Tears were building
again behind her closed eyelids as she turned.
"My lips nestle through your hairy lips, bard," Xena hissed,
flipping the whip faster, "my tongue flickers out like a snake and
snaps against your tight, pounding little bud -- "
"Xena, please," Gabrielle cried, twisting wildly on the slowly
turning wheel.
Xena closed her eyes. "Again, Gabrielle."
"Please!" Gabrielle screamed. "Gods, Xena, I beg you -- "
Xena snarled, snapping the whip now against the bard's spasming
clitoris. "All right . . . .it's time. Tell me how the story ends,
village girl."
Gabrielle imploded, shrieking, her eyes fluttering whitely in her
head. Her full breasts rocked and bobbed with her convulsions of
pleasure, her softly-furred mound surging off the padded rise to
hang, suspended and twitching, inches from it. Gabrielle ground her
hips in delirious circles, whining out her climax in dwindling gasps
as the whip slipped soddenly out of her slit.
Xena imagined she'd seen small lightning bolts streaking from
Gabrielle's shuddering sex, but she wrote that off as ego.
_____ *** _____
The usual things happened after that. Gabrielle finally calmed
down. Xena let her spin for awhile in the afterglow, because she
looked like she was enjoying the dizziness so much. Eventually Xena
stopped the wheel, uncuffed Gabrielle, and helped her up. Together,
they got most the wax off of her. Gabrielle tried jogging in place to
restore circulation to her numb legs, but one jounce of her abused
breasts discouraged that notion.
Xena wrapped her shivering young partner in a soft, silk robe
bribed from a guard for this occassion. She put an arm around her
shoulders and led her to a pile of heaped furs in the corner. A small
fire crackled in a narrow hearth nearby, lighting their private
space.
Gabrielle sank down on the thick furs gratefully. Her teeth were
chattering. Xena lowered herself stiffly beside her, and Gabrielle
rested her head against her shoulder.
"Sweet Artemis," Gabrielle muttered.
"Yeah." Xena smiled proudly.
"Sweet Artemis. Hoo."
"Wasn't it?"
"Sweet Art -- "
"Gabrielle." Xena jostled her shoulders gently. "It's time we got
to work."
"On getting you out of here?" Gabrielle opened sated green eyes
and squinted up at Xena, but then let them drift closed again.
"That's okay, we don't have to. I'll move in, I don't mind."
Xena lifted an eyebrow. "I appreciate the sentiment, but that's
not particularly helpful at this time."
"Xena, you just blew the top of my head off, it's the best I can
do at the moment."
But Gabrielle rallied, opening her eyes and giving her head a
brisk shake, stinging Xena's cheek with flying hair. Then she looked
up at the warrior thoughtfully. "When I was a kid, I had a dozen
dreams every night. Real vivid dreams, good and bad -- my nightmares
woke up the whole neighborhood."
Xena winced in sympathy. She was well acquainted with nightmares.
"I had the imagination of Aesop," Gabrielle continued. "I dreamed
heroes more heroic than Hercules, lovers more passionate than Theseus
and Andromeda. But I never imagined anyone like you." She lifted her
hand, and brushed Xena's lips with the backs of her fingers.
"I'd do it, Xena. You know that, right? I'd find a way to be
sentenced here, if my choice was freedom or never seeing you again.
I'd follow you here, or anywhere. I'll follow you to those accursed
crosses, if it really comes to that." Gabrielle shrugged. "With no
regrets."
The warrior stared at her.
Gabrielle laughed, and nudged Xena with her shoulder. "That's
okay, you don't have to say anything mushy back. I'm a bard, I'm
supposed to be able to express -- "
Xena tipped Gabrielle's chin up and quieted her with a kiss, a
warm smothering smooch that drained any residual tension out of them
both.
Gabrielle blinked into Xena's blue eyes. "Okay, warriors express
themselves pretty well, too." She straightened against the furs, and
rubbed her hands together to jump-start her thinking. "What's first,
boss?"
They got to work.