Château d'Mauvoisin

[Mistress Jorja]

Château d'Mauvoisin, crested by the faint rays of the setting sun, took on an almost vengeful countenance in the early dusk. Candles flickered behind heavy drapes, their gold tasseled cords worn and threadbare. A gracefully arching cobblestone path looped its way around a long-forgotten fountain, sea nymphs engulfed by a clinging moss furtively spouted trickles of water from their stone instruments. Stillness hung thick and heavy around the manor, hushed as if it had been waiting for the arrival of a long overdue parcel. The sound of hoofbeats striking the stones with a firm pace drew closer. Concealed mostly by a clawing, overgrown hedge the carriage drew to a stop, the firm voice of the coachmen carried on the silent evening air.

The pair of gray Percherons stood tall and just, graceful despite their muscular build. Red feathers flowed from their forelocks, woven into the coarse manes, their eyes calm as they watched the scene before them. The door to the carriage was opened and a young woman stepped out, head held in a fashion reserved for nobility. Her tresses were pulled tightly against a high forehead, tucked beneath a silken blue hat, silver veil reaching to the very top of her sharply aristocratic nose. Adorned in a stiff, proper dress of the same material she carried herself with the poise and airs of a lady. Trailing behind her was another woman, older and with a grave face, who bowed her head submissively in a gesture of reverance and affection.

Blowing a kiss to the carriage as the doors were once again closed and bolted shut, the two foreigners were ushered inside as if more than a moment in the cool weather would harm their delicate European visages. Few words were exchanged between them and their rather cold host. Up flights of stairs and twisting corridors they were led, the faded rose wallpaper giving a strange unanimity to the halls. The lady in waiting exhanged a few whispered questions about her lady's health and well being before standing aside in obediance. At last alone in her room, the odd man placed her luggage in a neat row, bowing as was customary, and exited.

Adrienne du Roche, as this was the only daughter of the Baron and Baronne who had pressing business to attend to in the city, sighed an exclamation of her discontent and retrieved a well-worn leather bound book from the folds of her dress. Sitting at an cherry stained desk, she riffled through the parchment and wrote in a delicate, flowing script.

The Twelfth of April

Once again I have been near abandoned. My life that I so long have grieved to remain in a state of normalcy has been thrown to the wind again. This time it is at the Château d'Mauvoisin of my late uncle...may God grant him peace and serenity. The Baron and Baronne have important orders they must carry out in a somewhat secretive privacy, so I have been trusted to the care of a distant family member on my mother's side, despite the fact their is no blood relation.

Rumors have drifted upon my all too innocent ears that the young man who inherited my uncle's fortune, by little more than the mere fact of being in the right place at the right time, is a bit mad, that he wanders the wild gardens at night in search of...something. I find this intriguing, and not one to pass up an adventure must attend to a closer investigation at once.

My lady has come with me, a faithful if not motherly woman, to continue my learnings whilst I wile away the days waiting for the return of my parents. I am assured that great hospitality will be shown to me and I shall find this a comfortable and generous abode with an entire house and gardens to explore at my leisure.

I have not yet met this Monsieur Leonce, but if rumor serves me correctly I may encounter him in my evening stroll upon the rich lawns and tangled passages of this all too infamous garden.

a la prochaine
- Adrienne -

 

[Swashbuckler]

Leonce

The chill night air crossed my face as I looked up at the moon, peering through a wispy veil of clouds. A slight breeze circled through the windings of my garden maze. It was finally getting that overgrown, primeval aspect to it that had been so neglected and stiffled by my predascessor. I had to dismiss so many of the gardners here that had such a clouded view of nature. Seeing it only as a beast that must be captured. I prefered all things natural. Just as I preffered this stroll through my maze, alone with the wind, the moon, and the cold. Comforted by the lengthening, tangled mat of grasses under my bare feet. Secure as the growing vines and thorns lick at my skin, poking and striving to pick thier way through my lace cuffed sleeves.

I rounded a corner and noticed a well grown thorny branch had been blown from its wall. I picked it up, grasping it firmly as the wind tore through my thick hair whipping it about my face. I sqeezed the branch, feeling the skin of my palm burst as the thorns enter my flesh, releasing the flow of life that runs down to color the boringly pale lace at my wrist. As I stand there in the now howling wind, suddenly I hear distant thunder behind me in the distance.

I love the energy that preceeds a good storm. Just as I feel the first cold droplets of rain on my back I hear hurried footsteps aproaching me. I see a woman's form emerge from the whistling hedges, wrapped against the cold and looking slighty bewildered, perhaps lost. I watch quietly as she turns to face me...

 

[Mistress Jorja]

Adrienne

The sun set, extinguishing the soft golden glow of day and leaving nought but shadows and fleeting phantoms of an overactive imagination. I closed my leather journal with a determined snap, picked up my skirts, and made my way downstairs. The house was laid out in a usual fashion, and finding the back entrance took but a moment. As I saw the twisted skeleton key in the lock of the sturdy oak door, I thought it was a bit overdone...almost paranoid, in the middle of nowhere like this one hardly had to worry about the safety of ones abode.

I have always felt at home in the dark, even as a child I would sneak out at night to dance with the shadows. My feet find the roughly hewn walkway, and I follow it with animalistic instinct. I catch brief glimpses of the almost full moon, the ethereal paleness indifferent yet watchful over this savage garden. What must be a riot of color during the day is bleached to stark shades of black and white.

Tangles of vegetation catch longingly at my skirts, the wavering fingers of mist form indistinguishable apparitions, that appear and vanish at the will of some unknown master. Senses keen and alert, a distant growl of thunder invigorates me in a primitive way. I wander the labyrinth until the last faint traces of sunlight fade into the edges and corners of this cold, yet somehow beautiful landscape.

The first drop of cold rain slides sullenly down my neck, awakening me from the mesmorization of the grotesque specters that seem to lurk behind each landmark. I turn, startled at my loss of time and direction. The waves of power, in sync with the resounding thunder, send involuntary shudders through me. Overwhelming. My thin silken shawl doesn’t offer a safe harbor from the cold nor the electricity that seemingly seers the air.

A slight distinction from the murky shadows off to my right calls my attention. I turn, curious but wary, as a well-dressed gentleman emerges from the gnarled form of trailing vines. I let out a little gasp of surprise, “Monsieur!”

The wind clawed roughly at my hair, batting at the loosened strands with a cat-like playfulness, but the air around him remained still and calm, untouched by the vicious breeze. His pair of calculating, reptilian eyes stare me down, unruffled by my sudden materialization on the pathway before him, as if women wandering in his garden at night were an everyday event.

 

[Swashbuckler]

Leonce

There she was. Here, in my maze. The sight of her flashed through my mind like the thunderbolt that split the sky behind me illuminating her face. I had always knew she would come, on a night like this, born of thunder and natural beauty.

She spoke, "Monsieur," as her hair flittered across her face. Awestruck, I could not reply. I stepped forward and observed her form. I was confused by her dress. It seemed so out of place on her, but even spirits of nature must change with the times, I surmised in my daze. She eyed me curiously as I wandered around her, surveying her as it were.

When I rounded her and came face to face with her, close enough to smell her hair. Oddly it was a human scent, nothing of earth about it at all. I noticed that she was either curious or worriedas she stared up at my eyes. I bowed my head to her as I said, "Welcome." I was answered by a torrent of rain and a close clap of thunder, summoned by her in place of a voice. It made my ears ring, it was perfect as I siezed her shoulders, still clutching the thorny branch, it now scratched her silken shawl and my blood colored it to natural colors.

 

[Mistress Jorja]

Adrienne

I stood still, following his lithe movements with only my eyes. He observed me, a rare and delicate porcelain figurine on this pedestal of thorn-covered vines. There was recognition in his eyes, though I was positive we had never met before.

Mad as Abbé Faria

His nostrils flared as he moved closer to me, I took a step back in apprehension, but froze again when I realized he meant no harm. He then regained his composure and welcomed me with a broad sweeping motion that encompassed everything in the gardens that could be seen, and the secrets, also, buried and hidden away, unfit for mere mortals.

As he moved to rest his hands on the silken folds of my dress, I noticed the fresh blood on his arm, glinting black in the odd lighting. I exclaimed over this injury, and took to tearing a small strip of fabric from the hem of my ruffles. Bandaging his arm tenderly, he continued to look at me, speechless with an uncalled for reverence and admiration.

“Monsieur Leonce, you must be more careful when tending to your...garden.”

 

[Swashbuckler]

Leonce

How curious she was, tearing her un-natural garment, and then to bind my hand. She spoke, shattering my stupor at her with her words as she tied my hand. "you must be more be more careful shen tending your...garden." I smiled broadly at her ruse. She was testing me, "Nay, not my garden, 'tis all for you, as well you know." I said to her proudly. "How do I address you, fair nymph" I asked reverantly as she finished binding my wound. I would have enjoyed letting it purge itself with blood for a time, but I assumed that she knew best.

SHe looked up at me with a puzzled face that was greeted by a host of droplets from the storm of her awakening. How lovely her bosum looked glistening in the falshing light of the tempest around us below her chin.

 

[Mistress Jorja]

Adrienne

The azure sky let out another shuddering sigh, rain falling faster now, clanging metallically off the etched sculptures gathered around us, their visages deformed and grotesque in the brief bursts of phosphorescent light. Broad leaves drooped under the weight of the water, and a single droplet ran down my neck to chisel a chilling path between the high arch of my breasts. Smiling slightly, I reveled in the way he took in my figure with a broad sweeping gaze. I admired his long hair combed back in an aristocratic flourish and his perfect lips, the color matching that of the blood already beginning to seep through his makeshift bandage. Rumors always got around to mentioning his peculiarities, but never quite emphasized the alure of his handsome charm.

But I must be as mad as him, if I am truely having such thoughts about a dripping wet, bleeding man whom I have happened across in the gardens at midnight!

I looked at him questioningly, first he claimed this entire twisted maze was souly for my pleasure, and then to pretend not to know who I was.

“Adrienne, sir, but surely the Baron...my father...must have informed you of my stay...”

 

[Swashbuckler]

Leonce

"Adrienne," I repeated as she babbled with her musical voice. She mentioned something about "the Baron" some superior spirit no doubt. "No, I received no notice of your coming." I told her. Stepping past her slightly and looking up into the pouring heavens I continued, "I only knew that you would come, if I had made the propper preparations. To which I must have, much to my surprise, for here you are." I said as I turned to face her. "I am as ever, your faithful servant," I added with a sweeping bow.

Raising my eyes to her face, "This is a glorious night, the night of your rebirth to the solid world. Would you care for a tour? Is there anything that I might offer you? I am so pleased that you have came, Adrienne, so pleased." The final two words dripped from my tongue and hung in the rapidly chilling air between us in a lithe cloud of vapor as I waited for her answer. I noticed the chill had begun to make tiny seedling mounds on her exposed flesh, I thought that odd.

 

[Mistress Jorja]

Adrienne

The wind that had been gently toying with my delicately plaited hair now took on a more vicious tone, fighting with his richly accented speech for her attention. It choose the words for him carefully, flinging away from my ears the bits of speech it did not want me to hear.

“...no notice...proper preparations...my surprise...your faithful servant...your rebirth to the solid world...”

Preparations??? Faithful Servant??? Rebirth to the Solid World??? He addressed me with the reverence of street beggars vying for the attention of royalty, and although I was upper class and had a strong sense of my wealth, his inherited fortune easily rivaled my own. And being a man, bearing a long list of honorable titles, no doubt, he was in any eyes my superior.

“M’Lord, you are sore mistaken, for surely it is not I with whom you speak of with such a passion.”

I would try the logical approach of denying his odd claims about my identity, for although I was intrigued by this man of the night, it wasn’t in my soul to deceive another. And if this excuse was not pliable in his mind, I would play along to whatever strange plans he had already set.

I accepted his invitation for a saunter through the intricate mazes, with him as my guide, for I knew finding my way back to the manor would be an almost impossible task without his assistance. The thought of spending the night alone in this atmosphere of anticipation, the creatures of this land my only companions, when I was used to beds of gold embroidery and fine silk as opposed to one of leaves and dried moss, was not my idea of an enjoyable evening.

His fingers grazed just above my elbow when he reached out to take my arm in a companionable manner, but his grasp had a much stronger effect than was perhaps intended. The warm touch of another was welcoming in the tirade of the icy downpour, bullets of rain pelting us, relentlessly seeking to cool the heat of flesh. Another flash of lightening, much nearer this time, set the bleached monotone gardens ablaze with vibrant flames of color for a moment, before settling comfortably back into it’s bland shades of gray.

 

[Swashbuckler]

Leonce

Adrienne's arm fell into my grasp as I pulled her toward a side passage of the maze. I was leading her to the center, to the altar that I was sure would impress her. As we turned through passages, I pointed out statues, that I was coaxing a growth of vines over. Adrienne seemed very impressed with the vines that encircled one female breast, though she kept quiet. A thick vine that wound its way up a masculine leg and had thorns sticking into marbled manhood elicited another reaction from her eyes. It was as if she had never seen anything before, a young spirit I surmised.

The rain beat harder than ever the further we went. Adrienne seem to grow a little restless, but rounding the final corner and pulling her throught he low arch we reached the center of the grand maze. Before us was the marble platform, crisscrossed with thorny vines. Splashed with the color from buds, streaked with trails of rainwater; the marble bench, now an altar to nature awaits us. It is shrouded by hanging vines and low branches that cast flickering shadows in the lightning bursts. Proudly, I ask, "Do you approve?" I step forward and seize a swaying thorny vine, my wrist wraps itself absently as I look into Adrienne's eyes, as expectant as a star schoolboy.

 

[Mistress Jorja]

Adrienne

Straining my eyes against the dusky light, I am able to make out most of the statues he points out to me. A connoisseur of artistic as well as natural beauty, the garden emulates the concentric circles of a bullseye, each growing tighter and tighter.

The nude figures captured my attention. In artwork, a body without clothes was just curves and lines, to be appreciated by the eye but never intended to elicit other emotions. These statues, however, tangled in the wildness of the undergrowth were an erotic display appealing in a primative way to all senses.

A masculine statue, vine embedded painfully into the chiseled marble, caught my eye, and reminded me of my ongoing reluctance to initiate intimate relations, despite how important my lady had told me they would be. I had been helped into 'womanhood' by a stable boy with a few hurried moments of tousling in the lumpy hay of the loft. At best, it left me feeling curious at what could be obtained from or bestowed upon someone of slightly more age and experience.

An alter was presented to me for my approval, the droplets of water forming into minute blemishes on the almost flat surface. Brazen green tangles formed intricate patters over the ebony and ivory streaks in the marble. The mere idea of a cold, hard slate of stone against my back was appealing. I quickly reined my thoughts...the statues had been interesting, yes, but no need to get so worked up over them.

It seemed strange, such a lavishly carved object to be in the middle of this riot of greenery instead of a more prestigious position, perhaps somewhere actually inside the house.

"It's lovely...but...what practical purpose could it ever hope to serve?"

 

[Swashbuckler]

Leonce

"...what practical purpose?.." Her words shocked me momentarily. She was toying with me, a test of my faith in her. Obviously, she was acting with extremely niave, goading my own primal stirrings further. Attempting to break the spell before it could be cemented. Of course she would want to have it demonstrated to her in the most basic, animalistic fashion.

My mind having churned her intentions and desires over, I spoke, "Of course, a demonstration!" Seizing the vine and tearing it from its mourings witha powerful jerk, I flew to her. Seizing her wrists and dragging her to the altar. She feigned protests, that I could only ignore. Binding her wrists above her head with the vine I began to tear at her earthly disguise of clothing. Scattering the tatters to the wind of the storm whipping around us as lightning split the sky and thunder shook the very earth with its booming closeness. Nothing in my mortal experience could compare to the passion that was rising within me, like a personal Vesuvious, bulging at my own frivolous clothing.

 

[Mistress Jorja]

Adrienne

I let out a yelp of dismay as he swept me off my feet...literally. At first I thought it was only a playful joke, but the heated look of concentration brimming with an intense fire showed me I was sorely mistaken. Sinking my nails into the back of his neck seemed to only heighten his instability, urging him on an instinctual level, instead of it’s intended effect for him to release me.

Wrenching my arms above my head, he paused to study me in the briefest flash of lightening, a distant glazed expression on his face, as if contemplating his next move...awaiting for some divine voice to bestow instructions on his mortal ears.

“Of course, a demonstration.”

His tone was that of jubilance, excitement that rushed over his body, spreading outwards in concentric circles of emotion. Before I had a chance to question any of this, he slithered his other arm around my waist, gaining a snake-like grip, fingers like fangs, seeking something beneath the layers of material.

Entwining the emerald vines around my delicate wrists, he traced a finger down the folds of my elegant costume. Ripping at the gossamer material, the shards of fabric were caught in the hungry jaws of the wind and bore off to far realms, the pale robin egg’s blue of tattered material straining against the pull of the tides and currents of the air.

Unnerving as it was, I felt myself respond to the precarious position I was in with more than fear...a certain note of anticipation tinged my cries and pleas, which he hurriedly stifled with his own mouth.

 

[Swashbuckler]

Leonce

Engulfing Adrienne's mouth with my own and penetrating its warm depths with my tongue, I could feel her reacting to my actions. The rent constraints of her bosum had revealed anearthly beautiful globes, capped with perfect nipples. A thumb and forefinger teased one to a throbbing beacon. All the while my kiss smothered her mouth and quieted her half hearted protests, and my free hand tore at her curiously common petticoats. It was not the wardrobe that I had always dreamed of, however, it was marvelous to unravle the prize of my endeavors.

I broke our kiss and read the fire in her surprised eyes. Adrienne's face was bathed in raindrops, and mixed expressions of fire and fear flushed her cheeks. How perfect she looked, displayed upon the altar and offering her flesh to me. I could not stand for patience any longer and with both hands I tore the remains of her blue and white drapings from her chest with a wonderful sound of destruction. Instantly, I sunk my lips upon one of those luscious globes atop her heart. My darting tongue could feel the pulse of life each time it dragged across the jutting peak, thereon. She cried out, words were of no consequence to me, and I ignored them as I set to my work of worship on her second mound.

Her legs half kicked and half encircled my waist with this new assault, disheveled petticoats rustling in harmony with the racing wind. This brought me full circle to my divine purpose and I let one last nip of teeth graze her nipple as I began to slide lower on Adrienne's heavenly form. Lips kissing, tongue licking across her rain splattered abdomen. My hands led the way, caressing, and exploring Adrienne's flesh. Until, they reached the annoying cloth barrier that still presisted in baffling layers at her waist. In a priaml fury and with scream filled with the rage of the savage, for there is no beast more viscious than man, I clawed and tore at layer upon layer, until her perfect flesh revealed itself. My eyes widened and I took a deep breathe before clamping my lips upon her goddess bud, in the tangles above her garden.

 

[Mistress Jorja]

Adrienne

His advancements put cracks in the wall of my usually incorrigible mind set on the way a lady should act, the rougher his kisses tore at my crimson lips, the more that crumbled away, shattering my staunch resolve. Cries for help faded into voracious exclamations, spoken in such a heated voice that the words themselves were unintelligible to human ears. His teeth grated at my neck, the raw sensations earning yet another moan of appreciation for his artful movements.

The cold slate was smooth against the bare skin of my back, petticoats bunched uncomfortably around my hips. He paused his lascivious assault to stand back, straightening his starched white clothing, a vague outline of his handsome form barely distinguishable from the stately shadows of towering trees. A nervous anticipation flushed my cheeks, as he observed the scene lay out before him. My concentration on his dexterous caresses had been broken, leaving a searing pain in my wrists where the vines cut cruely into my soft skin, and a dull ache in the core of my body...longing for something I knew only he could provide.

Rain coursed it’s way over my bare skin, trickling in a steady stream between my breasts which were forced to the sky by the bindings of my wrists and the contorted position I was placed in. The ice cold caress of the drops caused a tightening in my body, a tension I had rarely experienced before. Soon joining it was the feel of a warm mouth, burning in contrast.

Lightening clawed at the sky like a caged animal, growling menacingly with a low rumble of thunder. I blinked the rain off my long eyelashes with a quick flutter, giving the effect of tears streaming down my rosy cheeks. Straining my eyes against dark and the feathery glow of the moon, Leonce’s silhouette was highlighted against the backdrop of colorless forms and writing gargoyles of the imagination. He tore with an almost nefarious resolve, parting tightly wrapped fabric from skin with ease of one peeling a fine white clove of garlic, removing each layer with due appreciation yet with the rapidity the situation called for.

I arched my back into the subtle curve of a finely crafted china vase, the slightly chapped lips teasing my inflamed skin. Struggling to remain opposed to such feelings as he was willing to lavish soon proved to be futile, as I longed to draw my fingers through the wildy tangled locks of dark hair that framed his face. The deluge of water fueled rather than extinguished the burning need trapped inside both of us. I the cynosure of his extravagance, he lowered himself in a position of the upmost reverence onto my unclad body.

 

[Swashbuckler]

Leonce

Adrienne cried to the heavens as I sank upon her. My lips clamped hard on her revealed and swollen instincts given female flesh. Teeth grazed its erect surface, causing her body to react with violent movements. I grabbed her undulating hips firm. Pulling them hard to my lips. My tongue flashed like unseen lightning, electrifying her skin as I sucked.

Adrienne screams were drown out by thunder as I plunged my tongue into savor the waters of her divine flood. Never had my thirst been so quenched, I drank full. The potent concoction of her flavor made my head buzz and my manhood swell and throb. I released her in a violent motion. Her thick nectar hot on my lips as I stood. My useless blouse I destroyed, more than removed in my desperation to mate. Unbeleivably, my britches had not burst from the pressure within them. No matter, I tore the buttons from them and the garment swirled to my ankles. I kicked them venomously away as the cold drops of water caressed my searing iron flesh with thier steam.

I saw Adriennes eyes widen as I stepped forward and burst into her divine field with my mortal plough... I scream to the sky as I glide through the gates of paradise.

 

[Mistress Jorja]

Adrienne

His actions were those worthy only of a mad man. No words were exchanged between us, but I understood his unearthly need despite that, conveyed by his touch and scent. The sharp edges of his chapped lips pressed painfully against the nerves of my fragile porcelain skin. He again broke our embrace, much to my disappoint, and despite the screams of longing that now issued from me.

Almost hypnotized by his fingers darting over the lacings and fastenings of his stately costume, he tore the robes revealing more and more patches of warm, brown skin. Placing his hands spread wide next to my shoulders, he positioned himself over me, and looked into my eyes again, his pupil’s dilated and glowing in the feeble light with the power of a jungle cat.

“Leonce!” I spoke, my words muted by wind, questioning his actions. He paid me no heed, and instead brought his manhood, pulsing with vivacity to my seldom worshiped sanctuary. Pressing into me with a tenacious growl, he parted the folds of resilient flesh, intent on forcing our two bodies into one, a unique entity.

“Leonce...” I murmured again, this time without such strong conviction as I felt a measure of satisfaction from his rough caresses. His name, over and over again, escaped my lips, the meaning becoming more blurred with each stroke he ploughed into me, until it was merely a chant which personified our mutual need. The fear which flushed my cheeks grew to a steadier crescendo of passion, as I became oblivious of the pounding rain and focused my only thoughts on the pounding slashes of heat invading my body to the core.

 

[Swashbuckler]

Leonce

I ploughed her with wild abandon and fiery purpose. Adrienne reacted to every thrust into her milten fields with a gasping chant. I recognized my name, over and over. How marvelous her response to my worship. Deeper and powerful I dug her furow. Her sliken grip, thight and quivvering, upon my flesh. Her heat and internal caressing coaxing my burning seed. I pressed on, my blood boilng and I held her tight. She tugged insistantly upon my spade as I turned and churned her earthy depths again and again, with evergrowing speed.

Her chant becoming hoarse and her body quaking around me I feel her blossum into bliss. I dig in with one thunderous stroke of my flesh. I plant my burning seed into her depths with a triumphant roar to the pouring heavens. I feel our our irrigations mingling in the boiling mixture of our joining. My body quakes as I jerk short thrusts, she tugs hungerily upon my spade, starved for every drop of my emmision.

Both quivvering in release and in touch with the divine, I hold Adrienne close as I press my lips softly to hers. The rain pours around us. The heavens thunder in salute to our union.

 

[Mistress Jorja]

Adrienne

As the shuddering power of the storm and of this man, furrowed deep within, washed over me, a stark sense of reality overcame me again. I shifted my weight, impaled almost painfully on this burning hot poker, so that each movement sent overwhelming sensations coursing through my veins. Struggling once again, my cursed captor remained in his dominant position pushing my prone body harder and harder against the now warming slab of marble.

I attempted to assault him verbally, but my voice cracked with the intensity of the whisper of his breath on the underside of my breasts. He quieted me into a silence of almost sublime awe, the feelings usual reserved for lavishment upon divine beings now placed strongly and willingly on a mortal.

Torrents of rain were now cascading from the heavens as I turned my face to the side to shelter myself under Leonce’s protective pose. I could feel the result of our endeavors seeping warmly down my inner thigh, radiating from where he remained nestled in me. He raised his head and scanned the garden rapidly, his eyes sultry slits of gleaming light, as if searching for an unknown rival. Guarding me like his kill, his crushing weight caused me to gasp aloud again, which he silenced with a brush of his finger over my lips.

 

[Swashbuckler]

Leonce

I quiet Adrienne with a finger to her lips and wrap my arms around her softly. I kiss her forehead and draw her up in my arms as I rise off the stone of the altar. Scattered leaves entangled into her hair, what a perfect creature of nature she is. I unbind her wrists and kiss the pinkish marks left behind. Stepping back I observe her more fully, this is the creature I had always expected. Skin wet with raindrops, running. Hair disheveled, damp, and strew with foilage. Nipples, standing like dark snowcaps on high, white peaks. Lips; steaming, parted, flowing a river of issue. Lost in thought, I hardly notice the storm as it begins to relent.

"Adrienne," I inquire softly and cautiously,"would,..perhaps,...y-you care to retire?" Her expression flusters me, "I have no true cave of earth, but I do have a grand hearth...sh-sh-should you be interested?" I bow my head in unworthiness, before her. How could I invite her to seek shelter in a human structure. What a fool I was. I shook my head in self doubt.

 

[Mistress Jorja]

Adrienne

My bonds were finally removed, as Leonce picked me up as if I weighed nothing more than one of the perfectly shaped leaves now entangled frustratingly in my thick hair. Backing away from him, I searched the ground surrounding the alter for my clothing...his clothing...any clothing, but the fruits of my relentless search turned up little more than a shimmery scrap caught in the malevolent clutches of a poorly attended to shrub.

He seemed to be lost in thought, and I instinctively wrapped my arms around my chest at his intrinsic gaze.

"I'm...I'm....sorry, I just....can't." I stammered.

My emotions, wrought with anxiety of what had just happened, yet piqued with an undeniable interest, were too overwhelming. My eyes darted away from him, as I turned to the nearest path and fled.

 

[Swashbuckler]

Leonce

"Can't..." I repeated her dumbstruck and softly. I bellowed at the heavens. Fists beat into my temples. Fingernails clawed at my useless face. I stomped in a circle of defeat. Wheeling to face her, my eyes glowing with rage, "Why?!?" I demanded, to forcefully, but after all my time and effort to fail this close to the fruition of all of my dreams. "Why, sweet, Adrienne, why?" I asked pathetically falling on my knees at her feet. "Is the maze not pleasing to you, why? What must I do? I beg of you, do not abandon me? Why?" I collapsed sobbing before her, one hand grasping her calf in a feeble attempt to hold her to this realm.

 

[Mistress Jorja]

Adrienne

I darted back from his torrid touch, almost afraid of the self-contained power that pulsed beneath his skin. Crying out, I slipped on the cobblestone that gleamed like dark blood in the rain-encased light from the moon, my feet sliding out from beneath my still unsure legs.

Hauling myself up using the head of a dainty statue of a wood nymph barely clad with morning dew, I backed away from the crescent shaped clearing.

"...Why...?"

His beseeching cries of supplication tore at me, yet my depraved soul couldn't bear to bow it's head and recognize the esoteric desires I held inside. They were in such sharp contrast to his animalistic fervor just moments ago, that I stood frozen and unnerved, trapped between my sense of logic and my need for freedom from the strict rigidity of such a staunch world.

"Monsieur Leonce, I implore you to stop this at once. I...oh...I shan't breath a word of this to anyone if you'll just allow me to retreat in peace. Please, monsieur, I don't understand what it is you beg so fiercely of me for."

 

[Swashbuckler]

My pain was turning to rage as Adrienne retreats from my grasp. How dare her! How dare her materialize in my santuary, and then to attempt to leave this world. Nay, there is only one way I will let her escape from me now!

My eyes flash; pupils dialating, capularies pulsing crimson across pale fields, as I look up at Adrienne. "Adrienne!" I shout, the veins flexing on my throat, "You have taken my seed, once. You are now bound to my garden. Either out of your will or against it! The die has been cast. I refuse to yield my permission for you to leave." With that I lunge forward, like a tiger from the dark of the forest, siezing her shoulders and pinning her to the ground beneathe me. The words may have sunk in as her eyes flash with fear as we fall hard on the muddy earth.

 

[Mistress Jorja]

Adrienne

It had been all good and well that I had satisfied my curiosity, but no...I had to push him to the breaking point. Oh why didn’t I heed the warnings that this was not a man to play games with?!

His voice was sharply fierce, vowing to never let me leave and ranting that I was forever tied to him and his temple of a garden. Although the ecstacy I had felt with him astride me had been beyond all sensations I had ever experienced, the harsh reality of what a precarious situation I was in washed over me like the stinging beads of ice water that still twined with the wind.

Falling back under his weight, knocking the air from me as he presses himself again atop me, a veritable cage of skin and bone. His hands grasp painfully into my flesh, as images of torment flash through my panicked mind. The Baron and Baronne were not due back for weeks, and in such a large abandoned house he could keep me hostage against my will, to serve his every sadistic whim...

The involuntary shudder that followed perfectly expressed my storming emotions.