Dante's Revenge

[Arioso]

OOC: This is a private thread for Arioso and BLACK BART, continuing adventures from a previous thread, Dante's Circle.

*****


"Good evening, Sir...miss...and welcome to the Throne Room. My name is Vergil, and I will show you to your table. If there is anything you require for your evening here, please do not hesitate to inform me. I am at your service."

Ella kept her eyes alert as she followed Eric and the fastidiously polite young man who had greeted them at the entrance to the club and now led them through a dimly lit hallway toward the main lounge. The decor was different from what she remembered at Dante's Circle -- an elegant, country provincial theme that made her wonder if any of the couples went fox hunting here. The floors were a dark, polished wood, the walls impeccably white, and the couches and private tables in the main lounge refined yet slightly rustic. Definitely not the polished, urban look of Dante's Circle. But the mood was all too familiar, and it made Ella's skin prickle with heated anticipation.

She felt her nipples straining beneath the tight, gauze blouse she wore -- completely visible through the sheer fabric, yet not bared. It was a sign, Eric had explained to her when he'd advised her on what to wear:

Look, but don't touch. Not without permission.

It was such a simple thing...one, skimpy, sheer blouse. But the meaning behind it -- Eric's willingness to display her, yet remind everyone that she was not to be touched, that he possessed her -- stirred her passion straight to the very depths. Her cheeks flushed with heat at the knowledge that he wanted her, that he claimed her.

Granted, she wore no collar -- not like the ones she saw around the necks of so many of the women in this club (and a few men). She was still too new at all of this; there were too many things that she and Eric hadn't yet discussed. So they agreed that they should keep as close to the truth as possible in order to be believable. To all who asked, Ella was merely "on trial", and still learning.

"Sit at my feet, my pet," Eric said as they reached the semi-private alcove of their table. As Ella eased down and gracefully tucked her legs to one side, Eric nodded to Vergil and instructed, "Bring us a bottle of your best Chianti and a plate of cheese."

"As you wish, Sir," Vergil acknowledged with a polite bow and retreated quietly.

Ella let her neck relax and rested her head on Eric's knee. His fingers soon found their way to her silky, dark mane and stroked through her curls. His touch was soothing...magic to her senses. She let her eyes roam the room as she leaned against his legs. Eric had also explained to her that it would be most convincing if she remained silent unless he spoke to her, which was fine with Ella. It left her free to observe, free of the distraction of small talk. Of course, Eric was the one with the contacts, so he would recognize someone useful to their search whereas she could only study general details. Still, Ella felt more comfortable staying on the alert.

She was wondering if Eric had ever been to this particular club before, and under what circumstances, when an elegantly dressed, middle-aged woman paused a few feet from their table and let out a cry of surprise and delight.

"Marcus?" the woman effused, staring at Eric with obvious recognition. "Why darling! Why didn't I hear that you were back in circulation? Oh, but it has simply been too long, you dear treasure!"

Trying to play her part, Ella kept her eyes submissively low, so she couldn't take a good, long look at the woman's face. It was definitely an older, distinguished face framed with hair so red it suggested a dye job to cover up the gray. She wore a designer suit of royal blue silk, and dripped with gold jewelry.

Ella's ears perked up, and she felt herself grow warm with curiosity. Not only could this woman be a potential lead for them on the whereabouts of Phoenix, who had managed to escape the raid on his private club and on the perverse senator's mansion -- but she seemed to be a link to Eric's past. A past he had been so painfully reluctant to share with Ella.

But Ella wanted to know everything about him...the dark and the light...the bad, as well as the good.

Although she tried to conceal her eagerness with practiced poise, Ella could not stop her skin from tingling as she listened for how Eric would respond to this woman...whether he would invite her to sit and talk for a while...what clues she might reveal about how she knew him...and what he had been like back then...

 

[BLACK BART]

"Jewel Marcini"

Eric stood and held his hand out to the well dressed lady that stood before them, his eyes carefully moving upwards from her high heeled feet and trim ankles, past her lean, long legs to hover on the expensive dress and jeweled throat...to finally stop on her carefully and well done face and eyes.

"Sit ...if you would and share a glass of "red" and some "sharp"

Jewel smiled and nodded, offering her hand and watching Eric bend to kiss the manicured and polished fingers.

"Us Eric? Perhaps we can begin with who your friend is...and what brings you to my club?"

Eric watched her slide into her chair and then seated himself, pouring a third glass and offering it to Jewel before taking a small piece of cheddar for his own.

"My friend is Diana...I'm taking her under my wing and showing her around a few of the best clubs..."

The cheese made it's way to Ella and he held the tempting morsel before her lips and smiled...

"With your permission that is?"

"You never needed my permission to do anything before Marcus...even when you left and broke my heart...has that hard exterior been melted by something...or someone?"

Again Eric smiled and lifted a glass, moving it to Ella's lips and watching her carefully sip from it before he turned his attention back to their guest.

"You've done well for yourself Jewel...the club shows your good taste...though none of the faces are familiar but yours...over the years I've learned it's better to respect the friends you have and act accordingly..."

The explanation seemed to satisfy Jewel and as she raised her own glass to sip at it her eyes took in the byplay between "Marcus" & "Diana"...

"What ever happened to that partner of yours? The one who had such great aspirations of wealth and power...did the two of you ever open your own clubbed like you dreamed of?

Eric sipped at his own glass and hoped the pain he felt at the mention of Phoenix didn't show on his own face...and drew strength from Ella as he stroked her hair with his free hand before answering.

"It became an overnight success...so much of what you taught us rang true...but we were forced to dissolve our partnership and eventually...close the club."

He felt the weight of Ella's hand on his thigh...such a gentle and small gesture...but from Ella it meant the world to him...made all the difference in it...

"I always said eventually the two of you would either kill each other...or find different parts of the world to live in. But I never imagined it would be you..."

Jewels eyes were locked on his...watching for the slightest emotion to run across his face in reaction to the suggestion he was now a murderer...and Eric carefully lowered his glass to the tables polished surface.

The image of one scared Senator came to his mind, how easy it would have been to snap his neck...how good of a reason Eric had to do so...

"Another person I respect and care for taught me the meaning of justice...and how it is more important than revenge, Jewel...I'm not sure where Phoenix is...but he IS...alive."

Jewels eyes closed and then slowly opened, the hard edge gone and a hint of tiredness replacing it...

"Forgive me Marcus...so much has changed...I just needed to make sure...it's not the same atmosphere as it was ten years ago...it's become harder...more difficult to know who is here for the pleasure of it...and who the hunters are."

"Only if you allow Diana and I to enjoy your club for the evening Jewel...and tell me if you see any of the "old" crowd around in the future?"

Jewel smiled and nodded and raised her glass to toast "dear, old friends"...staying a few more minutes before a young and half dressed waiter came to draw her away...leaving the pair of Ella and Eric alone...and with the evening in front of them...

"Would you like to visit the dungeon pet...."

Eric questioned and bent to do what he wanted to the entire time Jewel was present...that being cover her lips with his in promise of the passion to be shared later that night.

"Or the loft?"

 

[Arioso]

Ella's ears had buzzed with every word as the grande dame of this club, Jewel Marcini, had revealed through her weary posture, her strained voice, clues about a dark shift in the underground community.

"...it's become harder...more difficult to know who is here for the pleasure of it...and who the hunters are..."

She was glad that she had already rested her palm on Eric's thigh. A small gesture to reassure him of her love, her understanding about how painful his memories of Phoenix were...now, that same, gentle contact helped steady her own reaction as she recalled how she had been caught up in a sinister trap laid for her by some of those very same 'hunters'.

Thankfully, she was able to maintain her calm outward exterior through the remainder of the conversation. Eric's fingers soothed her as they tangled through her hair. His strength seemed to flow into her wherever their bodies touched.

And when they were finally alone....

The dungeon...or the loft....?

Ella moaned into her beloved's heated kiss, savoring the hungry slide of their lips as they devoured each other's mouths.

When Eric released her, long moments later, she was panting so breathlessly she couldn't answer at first. The bemused twinkle in his eyes as he watched her swoon from their passionate kiss sent shivers running down her spine.

Her gaze dived into his eyes and swam in the tenderness...and lust...she found there.

She wasn't sure what was in the "loft" here. But while she was curious to find out, Ella knew what she needed, and hoped it was Eric's desire as well. She needed to experience the dungeon again...to wash away the nightmares of everything that had been done to her by experiencing it all with a man whom she loved and trusted completely.

"The dungeon...please, sir," Ella murmured huskily when at last she managed to find her voice.

When Eric's smile grew positively wolfish, Ella whimpered and shuddered as the flare of lust licked through her veins and made her clit and nipples burn.

With an easy gesture of his hand, Eric summoned one of the staff, and Vergil swiftly appeared to accommodate their wishes. Eric offered his hand to Ella and pulled her to her feet, whereupon they both followed Vergil away from the main lounge and toward the more private quarters of the dungeon.

"Is there a particular room you would prefer, sir?" Vergil asked as he guided them.

"It has been a while, Vergil, please remind me of our options," Eric answered smoothly.

Ella realized that her husband's request was for her benefit, as she was wholly unfamiliar with this club. With utmost courtesy and professionalism, Vergil listed each different room -- one with a whipping post, one with chains for dangling someone from the ceiling, a larger suite with several pieces of equipment such as a Saint-Andrew's Cross and a horse. At the mention of the suite...and the Saint-Andrew's Cross...Ella felt her cheeks flush hot.

Eric must have been watching her reactions, for no sooner had the heat begun prickling at her skin than he told Vergil, "We'd like the suite for the evening, Vergil."

"Very good, as you wish, sir," Vergil agreed with a nod. "Do you wish full privacy, or would you like a viewing window to be left open for other guests?"

Again, Ella's cheeks flamed with a rush of desire...which grew even hotter when she heard Eric's answer. She could hardly take a step now without feeling the warm dribble of juices pooling inside her pussy.

Vergil ushered them into a spacious room, with dark wood walls and heavy wooden chairs along the walls, reminding Ella of a medieval manor. The lighting, while still electric, took the form of a series of wall-mounted "torches" around the room. To one side was a solid-looking cross complete with leather straps. A little further away was a horse...then a large cabinet...and finally, on the other side of the room was a large, four-poster bed draped in red velvet.

While Vergil explained to Eric that the cabinet contained a complete selection of toys and props, Ella slowly moved toward the middle of the room...taking it all in...remembering what her first visit to a dungeon had been like...how she had loved surrendering and being used...but how ashamed and guilty she had felt afterward...

Finally, she heard the door close...and she was alone with Eric.

She turned toward him and gazed into his eyes, her desire shining clearly through her stance...her look...

"Strip for me, my pet," Eric murmured softly yet firmly, his eyes locked on hers.

His tone of voice was like a drug in her system. Instantly, Ella felt her limbs relax, her muscles grow lithe and pliant, and her heart thudding against her chest. Smiling saucily, she began to swivel her hips and slide her hands suggestively up her hips...over her belly...her breasts...caressing her body as she peeled her sheer, gauze blouse off.

Without need of music, Ella danced for him...baring her flesh to her love...so aroused and eager to discover where their desires would lead him...and how he would start them out...

 

[BLACK BART]

Mesmerizing...

Like a beautiful serpent Ella's body moved...no, writhed towards him, drawing his eyes and holding them with a power he didn't know any woman could possess.

Metamorphic

With each step of her lithe body towards him he watched Ella change before him, her movements become more fluid...erotic...her hips thrusting forward as did the firm weight of her breasts above...her tongue creeping out to glide over her full lips...

"Ella"

Eric dropped the pseudo name his beloved had chosen, the knowledge they were safe and secure within the room giving him the opportunity to do what he had craved to do the entire evening.

"They can see us...but not hear...you wanted to know what the club "life" was like behind closed doors?... I'm going to grant your wish."

It wasn't only Ella who had changed Eric discovered...his voice had echoed the lust he felt for this vision of sexuality before him...became deeper, huskier as he too stepped forward to firmly grasp her wrists and raise them as he pressed against and backed her nude body towards the waiting cross...

"Close your eyes lover....and hold your arms still..."

It took less then a minute...and when Eric stepped back to admire his handiwork he smiled...for before him stood the helpless, wrist bound figure of the woman he loved...

"Clear your mind my love...clear it of what you think will happen...and let What happens flow through your body instead...

In seconds he shed his own clothing and grinned as he felt her eyes upon his own body...with Ella it was different...he wanted her to see his body...wanted her to lust for it for the man he was...not the plaything he had been for so many others...in his past life.

And then he stepped forward again...bending to lower his lips to Ella's ripe breasts, to carefully capture an already hard nipple with his teeth and tug at it...and then wrap his lips around it to suckle at as his hands slid up the length of her lean legs...

He possessed her at that moment... held her physically...and mentally...and yet both knew no harm would come to her...the only torment to be the wait for the pleasuring to peak...and her release to happen...

But that would be a long.... long time away.... for as Eric teased the swollen, dewy lips of her sex with one hand he took his slow.... deliberate time...and as Ella moaned and squirmed he could tell exactly how heightened her desire was...and how urgent...

An urgency he intended to keep alive until his love moaned.... begged...and pleaded for him...to take her.

 

[Arioso]

At the first warm brush of Eric's lips over her stiffened bud, Ella was on fire. She'd already been simmering with anticipation, from the moment he'd told her to strip. Strip for me, my pet, he'd said, in a voice that always made her melt. But now that he had her restrained and completely under his control, heat just crackled through her body.

Eric's nearness was like static electricity, raising every hair on her naked flesh. And his touch....she could grow drunk on his touch...the way he seemed to know exactly how to drive her to the edge of distraction.

"Unnh! Yesss!" she hissed when his fingers teased the soft crease of her inner thighs, so tantalizingly close to her pussy -- yet holding back.

Then his fingers lightly massaged her mons, pressing and rubbing in circles until she moaned her eager delight. Yet again...he held back just enough to keep her from sweeping too quickly toward her peak.

"Eric...oh god, I love you," Ella breathed as her head rolled languidly from side to side.

The sight of him, naked and hard for her, for the magic they could create together, was the most potent, addictive vision of sexuality she could ever imagine. It stirred something primal in Ella to know that she made his flesh swell with urgent hunger for her body, just as his body, his touch, made her wet.

His lips kept tugging and suckling her straining nipples, one after the other, until she arched and writhed on the cross in wanton frustration.

But Ella was wholly unprepared for her needy, desperate response to his next sensual torment.

As he let his hands ghost softly along her sides and down over the flare of her hips, he eased his rigid cock between her thighs and just let it nestle there. He didn't pump his hips, he barely even teased his shaft along her pussy lips...he just let her feel his heat.

Soon, Ella's arms and legs were tugging in vain at the straps that held them down. Her hips circled and gyrated as she grunted pathetically in her efforts to rub herself against him...but Eric denied her more than a fleeting kiss of his swollen prick against her tender, needy folds. Just enough of a taste to fuel her craving for him.

Her hips lewdly bucked as she thrashed in ever-mounting need. She whined with lust and shivered every time his shaft slid through the cleft of her intimate folds.

...and what thrilled Ella the most was that this was just the beginning...

 

[BLACK BART]

Eric drew back and smiled as Ella's body shivered.

Not from the cold but the sudden withdrawal of his own hard flesh from her hot, wet sex...

"I'm going to demonstrate something that was made clear to me years ago Ella"

His words were soft, gentle...spoken low in tone as he brought a silk blindfold to Ella's eyes and tied it behind her head.

"You are helpless....defenseless....unable to see what is coming or to prepare your body for what is about to happen. Your body has been "primed", lusting for someone...anyone...to give it pleasure..."

A release Eric knew was to be long in arriving...


............................................... Or was it? ..............................................


"Take a deep breath my love"

And as Ella complied and filled her chest with air her breasts followed erotically


In his hands Eric held a pair of weighted, gleaming silver pincers...with a motion that betrayed practice in the past Eric lifted both and attached the pain giving jewelry to Ella's nipples...

"Ahhhhhhh, noooooahhhhhh"

Ella's pained gasp was immediate...the shock and pain apparent in her voice as Eric stepped back and watched her intently.

Errrrr-ric?"

Her voice was strained, her body twisting and fighting her bonds...until Eric spoke softly once again.

"The more you fight it.... the greater the pain will be...until it washes over you and takes possession of you."

Eric had moved behind his love...and as he spoke he let his hands begin to touch her flesh...caressing her firm buttocks and letting his fingers probe between them, to trail the wetness of her sex backwards and tease her anally...

His lips and tongues trailed kisses mixed with sharp bites up the small of her back...from one side to where her breast swelled and back to the other...speaking no words until his slow teasing trail ended at her lean neck...

"Pain and pleasure my love...which have you chosen? Does one make the other MORE desirable...or do the two merge to a height neither would find possible alone?"

And as Eric heard Ella moan her reply he continued, his hands carefully cupping the fullness of her breasts without disturbing the weighted nipple clamps, the hardness of his cock pressing itself between her buttocks expressing his own desire...

 

[Arioso]

Her reaction was pure instinct.

Ella had shivered in eager anticipation when Eric blindfolded her -- placing her entirely at his mercy.

But when her tender nipples felt the burning pinch of the clamps, her limbs responded instantly, tugging and straining at the bonds that pinned her to the cross. She choked out a sensual whine as the pain sank into her delicate buds, now squeezed tightly into bulging, red nips by the sinister metal lips that kissed them. Her hands wanted nothing more than to fly to her distressed flesh and offer relief, but they could only flex and clench impotently against the straps.

"The more you fight it.... the greater the pain will be...until it washes over you and takes possession of you."

Eric's voice soothed her ears, and stilled her struggles momentarily, but offered no balm for her searing nipples. Ella felt every heartbeat stab into them, and hung tense and panting, her skin warm with a light sheen of sweat.

"Ahh..ahh..aaooww....aaahh..." she whimpered softly through quivering lips.

She didn't know how to stop fighting...Eric's words made sense...and yet they didn't....she trusted him enough to surrender herself entirely to his mercy...yet she didn't know how to surrender to this pain...her body refused, it was trained to fight!

And then...

...then she felt Eric's mouth on her back, starting low and devouring her naked flesh as he slowly moved up. She gasped sharply and arched out from the cross. Her nerves fired in frantic confusion.

It hurt!Itfeltgood.Ohgod!

A brief flash of fear coursed through her at the dizzying sensation...for a moment, the burning pressure in her nipples felt good, and sent daggers of pleasure straight to her clit. Then her heart started beating again, and her mind screamed pain, pain, pain!

Eric's hands caressed the full swells of her breasts, and Ella groaned in erotic agony. The warmth of his hands and the gentleness of his touch felt so good, yet it heightened the throbbing in her tortured nipples, bringing them even more starkly into her consciousness.

"Aaannnhhhh," Ella squealed breathily, slowly losing the battle...feeling the pain wash over her whole body and mind.

She felt her mate's desire, urgent and full, between her buttocks, slick with the juices that dripped from her pussy. And when he asked for her choice, Ella begged.

Without a shred of pride or self-possession, Ella begged.

"Please, Eric! Please fuck me! Fuck my ass....SIR, please fuck your pet!"

 

[BLACK BART]

Eric's hands moved.

One to grip Ella's hair and pull her head back.

The second to move between the cheeks of her ass until they found the wetness that now made his swollen cock slick.

"Is that what you want Ella?"

He questioned, his lips brushing her ear as his words dripped with husky toned LUST.

"Yessssss, Ssssssirrrr...Pleassssse?" Came the instant if not slightly shaky reply.

"You want me to RAM my COCK into you and FUCK you until you CUM?"


"Yessss...God...Yesssss"


His fingers were coated with her lust...and he used that slickness to slide between her trembling ass cheeks and penetrate her tight brown hole...his teeth nipping her ear as she gasped at the sensation of being invaded from behind.

"Who owns you Ella? Tell me who do you belong to now? Who commands what your body feels and your soul needs?"

It was a deliberate trick. Driven half crazy with pain and lust an answer was demanded of her, at any other time...any sane moment she would have answered differently.

But now?

"You do Master. I am yours to do with as you wish...just please....FUCK ME?"

Did she answer that way because it was Eric behind her at that very moment...or was it because her body had been teased and tormented to a point it couldn't survive without the sex it craved?

A second finger had joined the first and as Ella's sphincter loosened he pulled both back to replace them with his throbbing cock, sanity telling him to slowly move into her body...not to tear her apart...

"Say my name pet...tell me you know who is going to fuck you...prove to me"

And as she obeyed he drove himself up and into her ass, the movement catching her off guard and dragging out the single word, his hands both going to grip her hips and pull her back to him...

"Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrric"

He held them like that for a few long seconds, to let Ella's body adapt to the presence of his cock half in her...to let her mind understand what was to come...

And then he pulled her back to him, driving himself deeper into her too tight hole, hearing her cry of pained encouragement even as the weights began their demonic torment...

Again and again he pulled back and then drove deep into her, the weighted nipple clamps bouncing and tugging at her breasts with each thrust, her cries of pain and pleasure only serving to goad Eric further on...

But even as he fucked her from behind Eric kept a part of his mind on Ella and how ready she was...as her cunt juices washed over them and continued to lube the cock driving her crazy he knew how close she was...and just as she reached her plateau he moved his hands to the clamps and removed them.

"It THIS what you want?"

Eric demanded and drove himself deep into her, moving in and out at a pace faster and harder than before...

and as he did a wailing cry came from his beloved wife’s throat and lips...signifying it was indeed what she needed at that moment...in that place...

"YESSSSSSSSSsssssss...."

 

[Arioso]

Ella's mind was dizzy with heat and lust and the rushing roar of a truth so stark it was almost blinding.

She belonged to Eric. It was more than love, it was utter surrender.

Her cries echoed against the walls of their private cell, a steady crescendo of raw need quivering on the jagged edge between agony and ecstasy.

"Ericccc! Ahh! Yess Errrriccc yessss!" Ella screamed as his cock reamed her ass.

If she weren't strapped in tightly, Ella knew that she would have fallen to the floor on her hands and knees, he was fucking her to near oblivion. But then, when he removed the clamps and thrust even harder and deeper into her hot, tight ass---

"OHGODERRRRICCCC!!!"

Her blood had become fire in her veins, scalding her nipples now freed from the fierce pinch of the clamps, and searing through her limbs and belly and ass and clit. Air crashing from her lungs in gusts as her body arched and strained to fly free.

"My body my heart my soul yourrrrssss Errrricc...all yourrss!" Ella babbled almost deliriously, fervently....a confession drawn straight from her core.

Eric pounded his meaty, rigid cock into her without mercy, taking her, taming her, branding her with his heat, mastering her body and mind. Ella could hear his ragged breathing, could feel him panting against her neck like a racehorse in an open stretch, and it was too much.

Tremors began to rack her limbs, quaking through her flesh, an orgasm bursting from no single source but suddenly rattling her from head to toe. She was fallingfallingfalling into a chasm that pulled her in, faster, faster, faster until her skin crackled with blistering pleasure.

"EEERRRRRRRICCCCC!!! Masssterrrr!!" she screamed in the darkness beneath her blindfold as her pussy began to spasm frantically and her tight, rectal muscles clenched down on her beloved's cock.

 

[BLACK BART]

Eric rode a slow, spiraling ride into a dark abyss...

With each thrust of his cock into Ella's body he felt himself slipping. Felt the control he had developed over the years shed from him much like a snake sheds its skin.

With each wave of carnal pleasure created by the incredible tightness of Ella's anal muscles he felt the moment draw closer and closer to an explosion and release of himself he had feared for years.

It wasn't such a bad thing, was it? After all it was the most primal instinct...to possess a woman and to mate...to make her yours in a way that left no doubt in either mind involved that she was indeed...yours? To TAKE her?????

Eric groaned.... the rumble of it starting deep in his belly as he pressed deep into Ella and felt her surge back in acceptance, the turmoil that he had dealt with for years now....gone?

And then as Ella screamed out her own release....as her body clenched his own cock even tighter...Eric howled his own pleasure...the growl much like the lone wolf so many miles away at the cabin and retreat the two shared.

ELLLLLLLLLLLLLLAHHHHHHHHHHH

Minutes later or so Eric hoped that was all the time that had passed...he returned to his senses, to find Ella cuddled up in the curl of his arm, her nude body molded so perfectly to his he could hardlt tell where she ended and he began...and the dam burst inside of him, the tears welling in his eyes, quietly streaming down his cheeks, the memories of how he had failed twice to the women he loved most in his life overwhelming his mind and body...



Something had broke inside of Eric....Ella WAS his....completely and utterly his to possess...to love...to care for...

He had failed his mother, even at an early age he understood too well the life she lived...and yet in his foolish, young innocence he believed it would get better...that it would somehow be made.... right...and he had held onto that hope for so many long years alone...never lifting a hand to protect her when she was there.

"I should have never let you go Ella.... never put you in his hands knowing what he was capable of...but it's not going to happen again.... I’ll kill him with my bare hands before he gets that close to you again."

To honor...to love.... and to protect as long as he would live...

This time would be different...He was going to take the fight to the beast...to return to where he knew Phoenix was sure to surface...and to make sure the beast never rose again.

 

[Arioso]

Her arms were stretched out tight -- helplessly drawn out from her body. Her legs, too, were secured firmly, holding her in place. Her heart and lungs were weak with exhaustion from the frantic, wild mating that had driven her nearly senseless.

And yet...Ella felt powerful...and she felt safe.

Eric's strength surrounded her. He'd wrapped himself around her in a tight, almost desperate, embrace and the essence of his manhood burned itself upon her innermost depths.

She was his. She belonged to him completely, on a level she'd never even imagined. As his hands began to work to free her from the restraints, her limbs dropped heavily and she fell into Eric's secure embrace. Even with all her strength gone, she could fall and he would catch her.

Ella's mind was still floating, soaring on a plane of euphoria and completion, while Eric moved them both to the massive four-poster bed that graced the room. But as she lay next to him, their bodies entwined, her heart was attuned to him and began to sense a deep sorrow welling up in his being.

She gazed into his eyes lovingly...reverently...and caressed his rugged face with gentle hands. Leaning close, she kissed along the faint trails of tears that ran down his cheeks.

"My love," Ella whispered as she nuzzled him. "Master of all that I am....my sweet man....please don't keep your pain from me. You know I'm strong enough to bear it. What is it? What is tearing at you inside, right now?"

As she spoke, Eric tensed against her, and Ella knew that even now, he was trying to shield her from his past. Unwilling to be denied, she pressed him again.

"My body is yours, and you know it has taken the full force of what you have inside -- all your passion," Ella murmured tenderly, massaging her hands over Eric's well-muscled flesh. "But my heart is also yours, and no less strong...no less resilient. Please, don't hold back....let me help you, my life's love..."

Ella tilted her face up to Eric's and gazed steadily in his eyes, silently hoping that he would share this burden with her...

 

[BLACK BART]

"Please, don't hold back.... let me help you, my life's love..."

Eric shuddered and took a deep breath as Ella turned within his arms to face him and gently press a kiss to his lips...

"In the club Ella...do you remember seeing a picture of a woman on the wall? She was older...even in the stillness of the pose you might have detected a regal bearing...her face tranquil...yet her eyes?"

Ella nodded, her hand stroking his face gently, her own eyes giving him the calm strength he needed now...

"She's my mother Ella...and Phoenix's as well.... different fathers...but a link to two boys left on the street to fend for themselves. I'm a year older...never knew of the link...nor did he...until one day when we opened the club and Phoenix had the painting made from a picture he had kept through the years.... the same picture I carried in the ratty, dog eared bible left behind in that last apartment...we had two bonds...he and I...one from surviving together on the street...the second one...from the blood that flowed in our veins. It was all I had...the last shred of humanity I could carry with me...and yet I never lied to myself there was a difference between Phoenix and I..."

Eric paused, his mind filled with memories of growing up on the street with never ending hungers...some physical and quite painful as an empty belly created when demanding food and not getting it for foods on a regular basis...the other hungers of a kind that would abate at times but would never dissipate...

"He was never that hungry Ella...there was always a line...live and let live.... our creed we would often repeat to each other...but never interfere...I thought that alone would guarantee your safety but I was wrong."

And it had nearly cost Ella her life...

Eric swallowed and nearly choked, the grief and guilt washing over and through him and leaving his face twisted with what he had done.

"I lost my mother because I was too afraid to try and help her Ella...I knew she was "entertaining" men and yet I accepted her introducing them each and every one as her "boyfriend"...it didn't matter to me as long as I was the only "man" in her life...and then when we met...I found what I had thought was never possible...someone who I could love...and who loved me in return..."

And had nearly lost her because of another childish belief...

Eric took a deep breath, forced the emotions and self-pity from his body and raised his eyes to look into Ella's for the first time since he had started talking...

"I won't risk losing you again El....Can't.... I know how to find him...and once I do..."

He stopped...his own version of justice so very different than Ella’s that he knew what she would do if he confessed his intentions of righting the scales to her...

"I'm going to stop him once and for all."

He slept then...the effort of confessing to Ella ridding him of his last reserves...her own gentle fingers moving through his hair telling him at this moment...with her everything was all right...as long as she held him...touched him...as long as they were together...Eric was whole...

 

[Arioso]

She had listened to Eric's simple, heartfelt description of his earlier life, and the connection he had to Phoenix through their mother, and had steeled herself not to react with dismay or shock. He had kept this bottled up for so long, tried to shoulder it all on his own, so she knew how loathe he would be to see pity or anguish in her expression.

Ella cradled her mate's frame against her and gently stroked her hands through his hair, murmuring words of support, as Eric slipped into a much-needed slumber.

Her research into Eric's past had prepared her for some of this -- what little detail the FBI could find on his family had suggested that his mother was a prostitute; no information whatsoever on his father. But to learn that Phoenix was his brother by blood.

Ella grieved for him, for the betrayal he must be feeling at everything that Phoenix had put them both through. Her heart constricted tightly at the thought that Eric blamed himself for the fate that had befallen his mother. He'd been only a boy. What could he have done?

Eventually, she drifted asleep, her arms and legs wrapped around Eric in an unconscious effort to shield him from his demons. She could spend her life healing this man.

In the morning, Ella woke first and spent several quiet moments gazing at Eric's face while he slept. Her hands glided along his cheeks, down his neck, and fanned out across her chest. He woke to her caresses and smiled, pulling her in for a deep, lingering kiss.

They rose and dressed each other, touching each other with tenderness that was as powerful as the brute force of their fucking the night before. At one point, Eric stood behind her, wrapped his arms around her, and just held her close for a long, long moment. Ella's pleasure at being in her beloved's arms was bittersweet...for his sober stoicism worried her...

Eric spoke briefly with the club's management as they were leaving, while Ella waited quietly, once again projecting the image of the dutiful submissive. It was a mask, a disguise for their investigation...and yet Ella was beginning to see some of the truth that it held for her...Eric had begun to show her about surrender...trust...completion...

Their ride back to the cabin was peaceful and graced with the beauty of the landscape that surrounded the remote, small town that Ella had been drawn to -- ages ago, it seemed -- for a case she hadn't even considered worthwhile. Fate...it worked in strange ways, and Ella could feel it at work again.

A thought slowly grew in her mind...and Ella gnawed at it for the duration of the journey. It was a splinter that pierced her to the core...dividing her loyalties...

The old truck pulled up to their hand-crafted retreat in the early afternoon. By the time Eric shifted into park and stilled the rumbling engine, Ella had reached a decision, but one that sat uneasily in her conscience. It was unprofessional...and entirely against her training....

But Fate intervened again, and gave her the perfect exit.

Inside the cabin, she fired up her laptop and logged into the FBI database...and left it open and running.

Then she checked their voice mail for any calls they'd received while they'd been away at the Throne Room.

"Eric, there's a message from Diane....she and Jack are looking for a little help with the plumbing over at the youth retreat," Ella called out as Eric was getting himself a drink in the kitchen.

She sauntered over to him with an easygoing smile, betraying none of the doubts she felt inside about her actions.

"I'll go over and lend them a hand -- it will do me good to feel capable after playing the quiet, humble little submissive," Ella continued, winking at her husband with a playful grin. "I don't think I'll be too long. If you want to start planning the next direction for us to go in our investigation, my computer is fired up, and you're welcome to use it."

Eric's eyes widened at her offer, and Ella could imagine some of the questions running through his mind.

Yes, she was compromising her ethics. Allowing anyone outside the Bureau access to their network was a clear violation of policy. But Eric would have a much better chance at tracking Phoenix down with the resources available to her...and she didn't want to see this quest consume him for years...and years.

Tilting her face up to his, she kissed him softly and murmured, "I'll be back before dinner, and I'll say hi to Jack and Diane for you, my love."

Then she went out to her own small car, parked alongside the spacious deck attached to their cabin, and started the engine....giving Eric the freedom to do what he needed to do...

...and dearly hoping that what she had done was what he needed...

 

[BLACK BART]

Eric stood on the deck above and watched Ella drive away from their home with mixed emotions.

Part of him wondered at a love so great Ella would put his needs before hers...and another part of him felt guilty for bringing that emotional response to the surface.

To lay aside the regulations of the agency she had sacrificed so much to serve them...all for him???

for him?

He found himself staring at the screen of her laptop and thinking how easy it would be...he was versed with search programs and to type in a few words wouldn't really be such a violation...the database they used was enormous and linked to an almost infinite resource of local police forces Ella had told him there were few that could evade detection.

All that it would take would be the right name...One tiny step in the wrong direction...Ella giving what she knew shouldn't be given but doing so in the name of...

Love?

Was the cost of what he was about to look for going to be a part of what Ella and he shared?

The thought made him shudder and as he considered what life would be like without Ella only one word came to his mind.

There was a different way...there had to be...something from the past perhaps he had overlooked or forgotten...the thought expanded and he stepped away from the inviting screen to turn towards the corner desk they used on rare occasion.

It was still there. The ratty cover still barely intact, the gold lettering now badly faded and tarnished as he opened it to look for clues...

When Ella returned and walked in she found Eric sitting on the bed...the contents of the hollowed out Bible spread across it's surface...the phone and a well filled paper notepad beside it all...

Eric watched Ella's eyes track from the still open laptop to the savings book in his hand...and as their eyes met he lifted his free hand in mute invitation for her to join him.

He kissed her, his hand brushing her cheek and running through her hair as she sat beside him.

"This account was set up by my mother to use only in the worst possible emergency...I had forgotten about it until now...when I called the bank to see if it was still active I was surprised to hear it was...the balance never touched until the same day we returned from the Senators island...and yesterday...both withdrawals taken from the same branch..."

He kissed Ella a second time...letting his lips linger on hers and feeling her respond, the passbook dropping to the floor as he pulled her into his arms to crush her against his chest and murmur in her hair.

The words came out then...of how much Ella meant to him. How every second spent near her was a treasure of priceless proportions...and how wrong it felt to take advantage of the gift she offered him in the form of the agencies data base, he kissed her...on the head...the neck...her cheeks and eyes...smiling as she opened them to see him before him and smile in return.

"Life without you El...to risk losing even a small part of what we've created between us...it wasn’t worth it...but I know where Phoenix is hiding...I have to go back to the same neighborhood we grew up in...and once I'm there I'll be able to find him..."

 

[Arioso]

Ella smiled gently at Eric as she caressed his cheek, touched at how protective Eric was....at how he had refused to compromise her ethics by accepting what she'd offered, and had instead sought an alternate path.

A path down which she would accompany him, to whatever end it might lead them.

"You know I've got your back," Ella murmured. Her gaze softened and she added, "Lead, sir, and I will follow."

She brushed her face against his, nuzzling him intimately, breathing against his cheek until her lips slowly eased toward his, melding to his heat. Ella slid her tongue into the silky warmth of her mate's mouth and kissed him with aching tenderness, accented with strains of lust.

Ella groaned when Eric took her in his arms and pressed her close, as if trying to merge their bodies into a single being. Their hands groped and pawed, blindly peeling away the layers of clothing that separated them until they felt the glorious press of naked flesh on naked flesh. God, Eric's hands were perfect! They fit her hips, her ass, so well...cupping and squeezing until Ella was panting with need and clinging wantonly to Eric's muscular frame.

Eric buried his face against her slender neck and hungrily nipped and sucked at the tender skin. It sent shivers of lust running up and down her spine, and Ella writhed in mounting frustration....her body craving his touch more and more, insatiable for him.

The very blood in her veins was screaming for him by the time he rolled on top of her, spread her legs wide, and thrust his swollen cock home. Ella pulsed with him, her hips thrusting rhythmically, a living heartbeat engulfing his body and drawing him into her hypnotic, thrumming beat.

His weight crushed her into the soft mattress. Ella could feel her beloved everywhere -- surrounding her, invading her, claiming her body and soul.

The slap of flesh, the breathy grunts, grew faster and harder, until at last, a blistering climax roared through them both, and they drowned in a taste of paradise.

Only with Eric was she this complete.....

They slept in each other's arms, one with each other...at peace, before the rising storm...

In the morning, Ella rose at Eric's gentle urging. The sky was just barely beginning to lighten...yet their work started anew today.

As Ella dressed herself in jeans and a tight, form-flattering shirt, she listened attentively to everything that Eric told her about where they were going....things she would have to be on guard against.....what she would need to pack....where they would be staying....who they would contact first....

 

[BLACK BART]

Rain...It wasn't an accurate enough description for the deluge that assaulted Eric and Ella as they stepped out of the rented car and soaked them to the skin immediately. It was wet and should have smelled fresh, but somehow the bitter sweet stench of the streets beat even this and came to his flaring nostrils as he lifted his jacket to give Ella what protection he had to offer.

Inside the stench was different. The cloying smell of powerful incense and the underlying hint of why the perfumed dung was burned came to them first, then the smell of sex and unwashed human bodies.

"Eric?"

Ella's question came as he pulled the door shut and let his eyes adjust to the deliberately dim interior, the jacket slipping off to reveal the simple T shirt that clung to his body as if it had been molded that way and had now become near transparent.


"This is where two kinds of people come Ella"

Eric spoke in a normal tone and began to search the tables and the faces that sat at each.

"Those that have something to sell and those that want to buy. The better-dressed slime are "agents" and act for the men and women who want to stay unknown, the less dressed are the "goods" for sale. You can take their words on the "quality" of the goods but never turn your back on them when you're alone."

His words were repetitive. Warnings about a world he had struggled so hard to forget and sworn never to reenter...and was now returning to willingly. But this time it was different. He wasn't here to play the game. His stakes were larger...for he intended to play the players.

And he knew exactly what it took to hook them.

Power.... and wealth...or at least the impression of it.

"Let me take your coat my dear"

Hooking his fingers under the collar of the expensive and tailored long coat Eric slid it from her shoulders slowly, making a production of it and knowing it would draw the attention they wanted.

For what man or woman wouldn't stare at a figure, as Ella possessed when it was wrapped in a “Bustier" made of the finest dyed silk that was cut to lift and display her every "asset"? Nodding towards a small table set for two that he had prearranged to be waiting for them Eric spoke loud enough to be heard by everyone close to them.

"Our table waits for us in the far corner, my pet..."

The couple had barely taken half a dozen steps when from the shadows a man stepped forward to stop them with an oily smile, his hand going to the diamond studded necklace at Ella's neck, his eyes never leaving Ella's figure as he directed his comments to Eric.

"I'd like to make a private bid before you offer her to the public.

Eric paused and let his eyes wander over the cheap cut of suit the man wore and the gaudy display of even cheaper gold necklaces around his neck.

"This is MY Mistress and even IF she were for sale you could NOT afford her.... friend."

Placing his own hand on the mans wrist he let the anger over the blatant way the man undressed his "Mistress" with his eyes creep into his own voice and began to apply pressure.

"Now apologize before I break your arm...and then LEAVE. I want to watch the parade of flesh without being bothered by your cheap...stinking.... cologne."

 

[Arioso]

Ella stood calmly, but her eyes pierced the sleazy, underworld cretin's exterior with the cool precision of a surgeon's scalpel. She didn't need to bluff. Confidence radiated from her, born of the knowledge that she could hurt this man in ways he'd never dreamed. Eric wasn't the only one who could break an arm. And though it would be unwise even to mention the law in this establishment, Ella knew this type, and knew he'd piss himself like a baby if she discreetly arranged to have a few agents from the Bureau rattle his cage.

"Give him until the count of three and then snap his wrist," Ella murmured evenly to Eric, her gaze fixed on the greasy-haired 'agent' and simmering with contempt.

A sly grin came to Eric's lips, reassuring Ella that she was playing her role well. Before Eric even managed to say "one", the man's hand jerked away from Ella's neck.

"Please excuse me, I misunderstood," the toad of a man apologized. Although his gaze grew less lascivious, admiration gleamed in his eyes as he withdrew.

Without missing a beat, Ella nodded gracefully to Eric, whereupon he led her to their table. She stood, head held high, surveying the room, while he pulled her chair out for her, her coat draped over his arm.

When she was seated, she declared, "I would like a mimosa, prepared according to my usual preferences."

Ella knew that Eric would order her one heavy on the orange juice, so that her wits would not be dulled by alcohol. While she waited for him to procure her drink, she studied the denizens of this heavily perfumed club.

Everywhere, she saw the very vices that she had worked for years to root out as an FBI agent...

Living, thinking, free human beings....being offered up on the auction block by modern-day slavers.

She loathed what she saw.

More than ever, she felt a fire in her belly to bring those who kept this world operating to justice.

 

[BLACK BART]

Talon watched approvingly as the female bartender quickly and smoothly mixed his "Mistress's" order in a gold rimmed champagne flute, the cocktail garnished with an orange wheel and handed to him with a smile.

Mistress....the choice had been no mistake on his part this time, it placed Ella in a position of power and relative safety, her beauty an untouchable display to those that surrounded her simply because she was a buyer...and not for sale.

And though it placed him in the position of servitude he felt no shame, it only reinforced his ability to protect her and kept him in the background where he could glean the information as to who the flesh merchants truly were.

"My Mistress has need of several....items...for a special party she is planning. These items must be of rare beauty...and yet have a delicate personality...if you understand? We were told this...establishment....might be hosting such items tonight?"

The drink exchanged hands and he sipped from it, the cocktail meeting his approval if not personal taste...and he slid a c-note in return.

There is a private showing tonight, invitation only...but I might be able to make room if your Mistress desires?

Her hand covered his; her eyes flirting with him and making the conditions of her proposed indiscretion quite clear to him.

"If she approves of the quality of the merchandise my Mistress will be very generous in her gratitude’s, I'm sure"

*Generous enough to NOT prosecute her if she turned witness* Eric reflected to himself as her hand slid off and captured the bill...

Returning to the table Eric placed the drink to Ella's right side and quietly stood behind her, his eyes not missing the rigid posture of her bare shoulders or the stern look in her otherwise beautiful features...


"You never become used to ugliness my love...but in order to survive and remain focused you need to turn a blind eye at times to it...until a time comes when you can correct the wrongs"

He offered softly and touched a hand to her shoulder...

How different the touch of a loved one felt, as Ella lifted her hand and covered his briefly, how thrilling a simple caress could feel from the right person.

"I have arranged an audience for us, to view the kind of merchandise you seek, it will be with the hour...if you wish?"

 

[Arioso]

Ella was no stranger to ugliness, having seen enough of it in her line of work. But Eric's words, his touch, were a comfort to her nonetheless. He was her reminder of beauty...

...of love...

...of honor, even in a place like this.

Her slender fingers gently stroked his hand as it rested on her shoulder.

"I do wish it, my jewel," she praised him as she imagined a real Mistress might -- still uncertain about her ability to pull off the act. "You have succeeded in fulfilling my wishes most beautifully, as I have come to expect."

What woman could ever fail to be pleased by a man like Eric? Ella still had moments of awe at her incredible good fortune.

She sipped her mimosa, still surveying the room with a deceptive detachment, her aloof demeanor a mask behind which her mind and senses acutely focused on even the most minor detail.

"I do hope the offerings will be of the quality I require, and that my time will not have been wasted here....one can never tell in small-time operations such as this one," Ella mused coolly, continuing her masquerade. She wrinkled her nose in distaste that was only half-feigned. "I still have my doubts about lesser establishments.....always reeking too much of cheap incense to cover the smell diseased wares."

Ella gave Eric's hand one last squeeze before letting her own slip down to her lap as she prepared to wait until their entry into a very privileged -- if sordid -- inner circle...

...where she hoped some answers might be awaiting them.

 

[BLACK BART]

Appearances

It was in this world, ALL about appearances.

Eric had schooled Ella in it, warning of the intense scrutiny they would be under and the assumptions made IF they were to supply the incorrect attitude.

"I do hope the offerings will be of the quality I require, and that my time will not have been wasted here....one can never tell in small-time operations such as this one,

I still have my doubts about lesser establishments.....always reeking too much of cheap incense to cover the smell diseased wares."


Ella's voice was cool...indifferent...ICY even....and yet as they were escorted to the floors above Eric knew it was feigned and silently prayed in the event to come she could continue with the casual composure...

He followed her into a room three times of the lounge below, the lighting of the room dim and shadowed, the air filled with reek of incense and sweat...stopping as Ella was told to "browse" through the "items on display" and holding his breath as she looked around her.

"I was led to believe"

Ella's tone was even colder...biting...her eyes cutting into the young man who had brought them into the room and was turning to leave.

"That this was going to be a PRIVATE showing of the FINEST qualities, NOT the drugged out WHORES in a clearance room."

In the few seconds they were in the room Ella's eyes had cut through the smoke to see the truth, each and every woman that was "posed" in the interior...bound to a pole...bent over a "horse"...locked into a set of "stocks"...showed evident signs of being heavily drugged and well shadowed scars of hard use on thier bodies...

She turned and faced him, her eyes filled with anger...and a repulsion of what she was seeing...and Eric let that anger flow into him and moved it to his voice as he spoke.

"You've insulted my Mistress. We came here on the promise of veiwing prime goods and instead you offer this TRASH, we will leave and spread word of this INSULT and once your cruel JOKE has been made public you will be fortunate if you can house alley whores for a living..."

Eyes straight forward he let his gaze burn into the pale faced, wide eyed look of the man that had perpetuated the sly hoax, all the while ignoring the women that were literally caged within the confines of the room waiting to be sold.

"I should break your NECK for daring to insult such a LADY as you have done."

The last words weren't posed. Eric was ready to step around his "Lady" and do just that, to take the thin neck in his hands and CRUSH it until the face turned blue and the eyes rolled in thier sockets, to listen to the delicate bones crush under his grip and then drop the lifeless corse to the floor...

"NO"

Eric shook the image from his mind as the single word rang out and he felt a cool hand placed on his chest, his eyes looking down to Ella's hand and her eyes.

"We will leave and let them feel our revenge in a much more refined manner, once they find NO ONE will come to this putrid hole even for a free drink, they will know for certain who has spread the word."

Fighting the temptation to shrug off her hand and move towards the now visibly shaken man Eric regained control of himself and smiled a cool smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"As you wish, Mistress"

 

[Arioso]

The club's hapless, straggly-haired employee hastened to try to keep up with their determined, swift stride...once he'd shaken himself out of a bone-chilling bout of fear at Eric's clear, uncompromising menace.

"If I may explain--" he began somewhat breathlessly.

"No, let me explain," Ella cut him off tersely yet smoothly, not for a moment faltering in her stride. "You fail to understand the resources at my disposal. I can have six of my men go down and prowl the same shelters...the same soup kitchens...the same vacant, condemned buildings...where you scraped up that lot back there. Not only could they find pathetic wretches better than the merchandise you're offering, but I have a very discreet and well-paid physician who could examine each one and screen out the diseased ones, which I suspect you haven't done."

Although it turned Ella's stomach to speak like this...to voice the truth of where those poor women back there had come from...of what was being done to them against their will, just because they were poor and alone....Ella hardened her will and instead used her knowledge to seem nonchalant and filled with contempt for amateurs.

When all she wanted to do was call in a team of agents, bust this operation, and free those poor women...

Sweetly, she continued....her eyes steadily fixed foreward, and almost bored. "As a refined hostess, I would never serve my distinguished guests a meal that would poison their stomachs; and even less would I offer them entertainment that would poison their loins. I am grievously disappointed in this....cut-rate delicatessen."

An inspiration flitted through Ella's mind. Her lips curved cruelly as she turned to the worm of a man, and murmured to Eric to put her cloak on her shoulders.

"Although....your space...these rooms....would be serviceable if under proper management....I may mention this episode to one of my guests. He's always looking for opportunities to broaden his empire," Ella mused slyly, letting the hint sink in.

Her eyes narrowed thoughtfully and flickered with just a gleam of genuine interest. It was a tempting idea, she had to admit...setting one of the bigger 'sharks' on these gutterfish...and in spite of herself, Ella's chiseled smile grew wolfish.

"Come, Alex," she said to Eric, using the pseudonym they'd agreed on for this visit, "I will not wait in this den of insults while you bring the car. Although it may very well ruin a decent pair of shoes, I prefer walking in the mud to staying....here." Ella sniffed the last word and wrinkled her nose.

She couldn't know whether or not her words had shaken anything...or anyone...loose, but Ella felt she had given her utmost.

Eric might have some insights, once they were safely away.

 

[BLACK BART]

"As you command, Mistress"

Eric could literally FEEL the anger pulsing from Ella as he slid the cloak over her shoulders and fastened the gold chain at her throat.

And it seemed so could the man as he quickly scurried out of her way to hide behind the bar as Eric followed Ella out of the club...

Seated inside the car, the engine running, that anger still rolled off her...too evident in the way her crossed legs trembled and she drummed her finger on the Jag's console between them...

"You were perfect babe, played them just right...no one doubted you were THE big fish swimming in the pool tonight...you had them terrified of you and whimpering as they tried to please you. Relax now...let it out of your system and we can talk about what happened in a level manner..."

Ella's eyes were a confused mix of anger and pain as she turned to him, her face pale as she nodded and took a deep breath before answering...

"Did we gain anything Eric.... other than a sour taste in my mouth and stomach?"

Eric nodded, knowing the feeling only all too well and yet hating himself for the ability to shrug it off so easily

Later he would tell her...after they returned to the saneness of the retreat and shared thier bed as lovers should...of how you coped with it in order to survive...how you learned NOT to question the wrongness of it in order to simply survive...and accepted it until the day you could do something about it....

"Funny isn't it? How people using people like that are so eager to prove themselves to others...he was so desperate to show you he was connected he broke a cardinal rule in flesh trading..."

From his breast pocket Eric slid a gold embossed business card that the slimy owner had pushed at him, a final effort to show he was "somebody" in the flesh world...

"We dial this number on this exact date...enter this pin code...and another date and location will be given to us...the strung out women we saw back there were present of their own volition...

........................The women we'll see here... won't be."......


What looked like failure had been a minor success...Eric had quietly watched Ella's anger turn the tide and make the man pull out his "ace card", giving away a chance at the "big time" the pimp knew he'd never get again...IF he was alive after they found out the invitation had been "passed".

In effect he had used the situation AND Ella to get what they needed...

"The best thing you could do is turn in that club Ella, you could save more than one life after we make this phone call..."

 

[Arioso]

Ella stared out the window at the darkened woods that glided past as Eric drove them back to their own private haven. The golden halo of the headlights reflected back off the pavement and added an eerie glow to Ella's already pale skin.

Those women...those drugged, bound women she had seen tonight...they were there of their own volition????

She believed Eric; she trusted his knowledge of this world. Yet the realization triggered a forlorn shiver in her soul. It was incomprehensible to her...couldn't those women see themselves, see how they were destroying their own health? The drugs alone...

With a deep breath, Ella struggled to rein in her doubts. There was far more to the human condition than she knew, and she'd never been in their shoes.

But a part of her couldn't stop seeing the world as she had when she was fifteen. Simple. Clear choices between good and bad. Human goodness as infinite...and "evil" as simply fear and poor decisions based on bad understanding.

Impatiently, she brushed the back of her hand across her left eye to stave off a rebellious tear that threatened to spill free. For a moment...her face looked not so much like that of a seasoned federal agent in her thirties as it did like that of a bewildered girl.

After clearing her throat, Ella said evenly, "I can think of nothing better than sending a few teams in to clear out that scum pit. As soon as we've made our next connection, I'll get the Bureau on it."

The warmth of Eric's hand on her arm as he gave her a reassuring squeeze steadied Ella a little. She flashed him a grateful smile, yet went back to brooding quietly as they continued down the road.

If these women were there of their own free will tonight...dear god, what will the poor women who are being displayed against their will be like? Ella found herself wondering darkly.

It was only when they finally pulled into the familiar, gravel drive to their cabin that Ella felt herself relax a little. She turned to Eric once they were inside and raised weary, troubled eyes to his.

"I need a shower. That place made me feel...dirty," she confessed. "Join me?"

"You know that's an invitation I'll never turn down," Eric chuckled tenderly, caressing her cheek.

His sympathy and gentle humor eased the weight that pressed down on her and brought a smile to her face.

They shed their clothes just outside the shower and joined each other beneath a warm, cleansing spray.

As the water cascaded down their bodies, Ella sought the shelter of Eric's arms and raised her lips to his.

She kissed him with all the urgency of a soul seeking to regain its path...

...feeling in Eric's response her guide...and her passion...

Ella's need for him swelled as she felt his lips press to hers, their mouths joining in a slow, sensual dance of demanding and yielding. She slid her soap-slickened hands around his hips to pull him closer to her. Her fingers kneaded the taut flesh of his buttocks and massaged each firm cheek as she deepened their kiss. Tongues slipped and slid, in and out, tangling amid the heat of their mingled breath.

Her blood sizzled as she felt their flesh hardening -- Eric's cock thick and eager against her belly, her nipples rigid as they dug into his chest. Both of them responding to the flood of desire and adrenaline, the need for cleansing release, that had strained within throughout this dark evening.

As she groped at her beloved more and more desperately, Ella was consumed with joy and despair all at once.

Why? Why...if there was such love as this to be enjoyed in the world...why did people need that...that other...painful...degrading...mockery of love?

 

[BLACK BART]

The water washed away the grime and stench of the club they had vacated. As the steam rose and thier skins turned a healthy pink Eric sighed and smiled...

for it was Ella's hands and lips that brought to life a fire that healed his inner most wounds...

"Ell...."

Reluctantly he broke the kiss that she gave him to look into her eyes, the wave of emotion he felt choking off the words he needed to say...

"I love you Ell..."

Again her lips captured his as she molded his body to his and he felt the surge of adrenalin tearing through his veins, demanding that he give into the carnal desires she proked in him...

"I don't deserve you...but with you I feel...whole...alive...and when I look into your eyes....everything is....right"

Right because she took away the guilt and pain he had carried with him for as long as he could remember...Right because in her arms she carried him to a world where that agony was laid aside...and in her eyes he became the man he had wondered if he could be...

Ella's eyes opened and Eric knew....Knew that she read his thoughts and the feelings of self-doubt he felt...and looked past them to a place deeper in his soul then he ever felt possible to share...

"I feel the same, my love...you don't need to say the words, though they sound sweet on your lips."

Eric smiled at her gentle words and nodded, Ella's arms sliding up his check to wrap themselves around his neck as her eyes grew smokey with lust...

"But I do my love.....Need to say them...For you to know I will never forget what we share and how you've fulfilled my life....and for me so I won't stop showing you how I feel."

His smile changed to a wolves grin...as Ella deliberately pressed her sex against his and rose to her tiptoes to demand...

"Then show me...my love...SHOW ME!"

Eric responded in turn...bending his knees to lower himself and place his own urgent need at the wet heat of Ella's sex....and thrust upwards...

"I intend to my love....Now...and for the rest of the night...."