by Cyclops © January MMI

The heat in the room was stifling.

Much alcohol.

Few, if any, inhibitions.

Mix, stir well, and horniness abounds.

Gabrielle tried desperately to concentrate on Virgil, she had to make the plan look good. It had to work, for she couldn't bear to lose Xena to the Throne of Hell. She focussed inward on that moment in the Roman dungeon when Xena lay limp and paralysed in her arms and in a quiet, broken tone had said - "I shoulda read one o'your scrolls" and in those few words conveyed the depth of her love for the bard as completely as Gabrielle had told of hers for the former Destroyer of Nations in the trove of scrolls she had amassed in their years of travel.

It helped.

She plied some attention to one of Virgil's nipples, silently thanking Aphrodite that the youth had not yet achieved the full hirsuteness of male adulthood. Her attention wandered and faltered, for it was very difficult, and not very thrilling to have to try to get a grasp on a little nipple that had no luscious, soft yielding breast behind it, just hard muscle and bone.

From the corner of her eye she caught sight of Xena's earnest conversation with Lucifer, and her concentration failed her. She glared at them, feeling the bile rise in her gorge with resentment - she remembered the first time Xena had looked deep into her eyes with that sort of intention in mind. And then the heat built in her crotch as she recalled how it felt when Xena followed through on that intent. As she started to throb, Xena handed Lucifer her goblet, and with an imperious wave of her arm to the musicians, she stalked to the centre of the floor like a tigress in heat.

This was the pre-arranged signal - phase one of the Plan.

Gabrielle felt the scrap of cloth, secured between her legs by thongs, suddenly drench as the Tigress of Amphipolis gestured to her with a caressing, stroking, teasing, gloved hand to join her in the dance. The whimper of relief the bard emitted was drowned by the raucous noises of the vocally approving, excited revellers. She caressed the air in front of her in the same manner as Xena, in just the way they often caressed a sensitive part of each other's anatomy in private.

Her eyes glistened as she moved slowly and fluidly to her feet, and the unyielding fabric and its thong fastening made her breechcloth bite into her hot, swelling mound and spreading slit. She hadn't realised she had quite so much blood in her body until the searing heat of Xena's feral smile had drawn every last drop of it to pool beneath her Golden Fleece.

The bard glided to meet her lover, and as their hands touched, her fingers tingled and sizzled as if some strange unnamed force had leapt between her and Xena. It crackled and snapped as their hands slid slowly, sensuously up each other's arms. Gabrielle's lips parted to let her ragged breath escape her aroused body more easily. It felt as if her every nerve was vibrating like a finely tuned lyre, in resonance with a deep primal music; a music only she could hear, that emanated from the depths of Xena's being.

They were standing close now. So close that but for the barrier of their clothing, their skins would have fused together from the heat of their desire where warrior breasts touched bardic collarbone, bardic breast met warrior belly. Fabric was no barrier to fusion where wet warrior crotch ground the long black coat into bardic belly.

Gabrielle gratefully stifled a moan as she parted her now-slick thighs. With Xena stalking about on those high heels, it took very little discreet movement for the bard to graze her sodden breechcloth off the top of the warrior's boot.

A relief to make some contact.

A tease for not being able to follow through.

She had to do something or she would drop to her knees, bury her face in the folds of the coat and suck and lick every drop of Xena's arousal through the cloth of those brief, tight panties. Concentrate, this is supposed to be an act. Xena wrote the script, look to the author for direction.

As she looked up into Xena's face, she was wondering if the Warrior Princess could feel this anonymous fizzing force through the fabric of her gloves and coat, which clung to her like a second skin. And she realised from the way that those ice blue eyes devoured her mouth and breasts - even more exposed than usual in this outfit - that the source of this force was Xena herself, and that in transmitting it to and through her young lover, by the fleeting touch of their hands and the still-spreading dampness from their groins, the current heir to the Throne of Hell was receiving it back in even greater force.

Such force that Gabrielle had to drop her gaze and turn her head away from the azure blaze of it, or she felt she would loose all control and betray their most intimate secret to this crude, leering crowd and beg Xena to take her there and then in front of them. She could feel her bare back beginning to glow from the heat of Xena's hand, even through the glove. It hovered at the band of the skirt, toying with the notion of sliding between flesh and cloth or simply grasping it firmly, and removing the flimsy obstacle obscuring the delightful sight of the bard's tight little butt from the prurient throng.

Something stopped her. Her other hand rose languidly to caress Gabrielle's cheek, and gently turn her face back to her own again. As Xena tilted her chin with her fingers, the bard saw a softer light in those crystal eyes which spoke to her and said, I'm sorry, I know this is awful for you, trust me. As so often before when these little glitches in communication between them happened, Gabrielle stroked Xena's face tenderly with the backs of her fingers, in a gesture saying, It's okay, I know.

As so often before, they both felt the urge to seal the apology with a kiss, but even the change in tension of their bodies as they both began to make the move was enough to bring Xena back to full alert. A brief narrowing of her eyes signalled the danger, and she threw her head back to dispatch the nascent kiss as swiftly as possible.

She had no intention of revealing the true nature of their relationship, all she had planned was to hint at something that might be, and so drive Lucifer into a blinding blood lust. Any hint of sex-capades between women seemed to do this to most mortal men, and for all Lucifer's claims to angelic celibacy and purity, she suspected that his decidedly medium-carat jewels were made of the same clay as those of any man born of woman.

Gabrielle came to her senses quickly enough to make the most of the lost opportunity. Her hand trailed down the long column of Xena's throat, and in a moment of peril-inspired self-control, slid towards her shoulder and down along her upper arm, only lightly grazing the side of her breast. What she had longed to do was to let it trace the highest contour of it then come to rest underneath it to cup it and tease the nipple through the corset.

She wondered if Xena could guess her true intention from whay she had actually done.

Xena raised both arms high into the air above her head as she began to straighten up. Gabrielle, feeling the tiny shudder that light touch had elicited in her lover, decided to lay it on a bit. Starting at Xena's armpits, she fluttered both her hands down her sides, being sure to graze the heavily laden cups of the corset with tender loving care.

Xena's jaw tightened and the fire in her eyes turned to furnace heat. This was sailing too close to the wind, one or other of us will lose it soon, she thought, I know I'm not far off it now.

While she still had control, she stepped back from the bard, reluctant to lose the feel of the heat of contact with the Golden Fleece and the passionate outpouring of the girl's slit with her thigh. Then she stepped to one side of the petite Poteideian, and with a mental promise of "Later, love, later." raised an arm to cradle the back of that busy little blonde head.

With an effort worthy of a Titan, Gabrielle swallowed a scream of frustration as she lost the hot wet feel of Xena's mound on her belly, and felt her breechcloth tighten even more as it lost its slick, sensitising contact with Xena's thigh and boot-top.

She catches on fast, thought Xena as she saw Gabrielle's arm move a mere split second behind her own to mirror the warrior's action - Sweet Aphrodite! What control when she's so aroused that I can smell it.

The slow, stately-stepping circling move that they now embarked on, blue eyes locked with green, seemed less erotic to the men, who began to make lewd encouraging suggestions to get them to move back in contact again.

If, like Eve, you were female and knew well what went on between lovers like Xena and Gabrielle, this was where you discovered that what you suspected about them from the physicality of their relationship was true. There was no mistaking the import of that gaze. This panicked her. She wondered who else had noticed, who might realise that whatever either of them were saying or doing, no-one, especially not any male, mortal or archangel, would win one of these soul-mates from the other.

A movement caught the corner of her eye.

Virgil sprang up from the couch he had shared with Gabrielle, and ran to stand close to the lovers as they slowed their circling and closed the gap between them. He was like a dog who has just discovered a bitch in heat, shaking with excitement. Eve breathed a sigh of relief. Men were so dim sometimes - or rather most of the time. And Virgil was way too young to have learned to overcome this male handicap.

Eve recognised the look that flitted briefly across her mother's face. Pure annoyance that she had been interrupted in a most enjoyable pursuit, but recognising that she had something urgent to attend to, like the true warrior she was, she stifled it instantly.

She turned reluctantly to acknowledge Virgil's presence, mentally cursing him. This should be Lucifer, she thought, anxiety beginning to bloom in the pit of her stomach. Still.....show and tell, she heard Gabrielle say in her mind's ear. Maybe this will give Lucifer the right idea if he's not got it already. She smiled, caressed his face, then his chest.

As she did she felt Gabrielle's hand slide along the line of her jaw, as if to say - later, we have business here and if I don't help we may not survive to make love another day.

The bard repeated the warrior's gestures, and a split second after Xena's eyes narrowed - imperceptibly to anyone who wasn't as close or as aware of her as Gabrielle - the bard reclaimed her charge and put phase two (optional, but necessary should Son of Joxer bumble into the crossfire they had both agreed) into action.

Left to her own devices, Xena turned up the heat as only she knew how, in a blistering solo that Gabrielle could only glimpse from time to time, as she had to keep Virgil's attention entirely on herself, or risk him ruining Xena's plan again. Lucifer was clearly close to breaking point - Eve could read him like an open scroll. She wished she could read her mother as well, and that all she was seeing was just the ploy she suspected it to be. But the darkness that was slowly squeezing the life blood out of Xena's heart.... she wasn't sure if there was enough of the woman who had given birth to her, the woman Gabrielle was in love with, left to hold onto the small core of light that remained.

Eve had no idea how dark her mother had been, and how well she could call on that darkness again if there was need without losing her way. Gabrielle did, but she soon found she had a new battle to fight within herself.

Xena slowly, languidly unfastened her long coat, fixing Lucifer with a gaze that would have melted bronze. Gabrielle pushed Virgil to his knees and swayed on the spot so she could see the full effect of this manoeuvre. She had helped Xena get dressed, she was throbbing with anticipation herself.

Virgil stood up suddenly and took the bard in his arms, just as Xena turned away from Lucifer to open the coat and shrug it off. Gabrielle urged the lad into a circling move by shuffling her feet and swaying her hips into his.

The revellers gasped at the sight of the warrior's outfit - a strapless corset, briefs which fit like a second skin draped with a gauzy veil and thigh-high boots. Raising her arms above her head, Xena started to peel off her right glove. From the corner of her eye, Gabrielle caught a glimpse of Xena turning to face her prey, so she quickly got Virgil to his knees again.

Lucifer's face was a picture of lust. Only he had no idea what it was he was feeling. Xena held out her hands to him, her mouth open, as if she wanted to devour him. Gabrielle moaned softly to herself, as the warrior's bare hand caressed her gloved arm, and swept across her collar bone just above her breasts as she threw her head back, her hair streaming off her shoulders in a silken, inky river.

Gabrielle was drenched again, but the angel clearly had no idea what this move simulated, though at the same time he knew it excited him. So much so that he threw back the dregs of his goblet in a loud gulp, and rushed out onto he floor to take Xena's outstretched hands in his.

Virgil lifted Gabrielle off her feet and into the air, as Lucifer pulled Xena's body sharply to his own, raising their clasped hands high into the air. Unfortunately, Virgil started to circle, so Gabrielle threw herself back in his arms to keep an eye to business.

She may have been seeing it from upside down, but there was no mistaking Lucifer's hand trailing its way along Xena's breastbone as she leaned far back in his arms. The next she saw was that Xena must have broken away from him, for now she was flinging herself at him, wrapping her legs round his waist. For the first time since the charade had begun she was glad that Virgil was holding her, for this was taunting beyond her endurance.

She tried to concentrate on Virgil, but even though she succeeded, she was acutely aware when Lucifer danced Xena off the floor, and thanks to their timing, saw the exact moment when he threw the warrior to the couch and straddled her. A few moments more, and the bard wriggled out of Virgil's arms and led him to their own couch. She had to do somethng to block out the sight of Lucifer claiming the warrior's mouth, or she would go mad.

As it was, Gabrielle's heart pounded for fear that they might actually have to go through with it, but as all the fury of heaven broke loose around them, she had no time to chide herself for not trusting Xena's tactics and strategy yet again, and her heart battered her ribcage with a different fear.

All of it seemed so unreal as they left the temple after Lucifer had his ass kicked to Hell by Xena, and were heading back to Cyrene's inn - Xena's mother was long dead but to Gabrielle, it would always be Cyrene's inn - to clear up the mess, that when Xena told her that all she had to do to ground herself during her horrific battle to stay human was to think of the bard, Gabrielle was so moved had to respond with a cheap shot.

"Don't go all emotional on me now Xena."

The warrior grinned wickedly to herself, and thought, "Don't want emotion from me, eh? Just you wait little bard, just you wait!"

Later that day :

It had been a dusty and dirty few hours at Cyrene's Place.

Now the old inn looked much as Gabrielle remembered it the first time she had visited. That was when Draco wanted to trash the village, and Xena had stood against him, totally alone, only winning her mother's grudging approval after she saw that her daughter had really changed.

The next time had been when the Furies had driven Xena mad.

A traumatic time for the two women who loved her most in all the world - her mother and her lover. Gabrielle had been shy of revealing their love to Cyrene. Xena had affected her most stoic attitude. "I don't care if she freaks out, you're the best thing that ever happened to me, and if she can't see that...."

A Xenaic shrug closed any possibility of argument.

Gabrielle choked on the lump that came to her throat as she recalled that day.

Cyrene had already guessed. And approved.

"Gabrielle, no man alive could do for Xena what you have done. She always had the makings of a fine woman, but war and loss and death and grief made her lose her way. You helped her find it. There is nothing evil or sick about such love no matter what ignorant, cruel folk may say."

She closed her eyes, and as the tears spilled down her cheeks she could see in her heart's eye Cyrene's smile as she watched Xena nod off, head resting on the little bard's shoulder, completely at peace after an exhausting day fixing up the inn, followed by one of Cyrene's best meals and a surfeit of her strongest port.

Cyrene was here no longer, the cellar was dry, the food store was depleted thanks to the lavish picnic Xena had used to excite Lucifer's gluttony.

"Gabrielle, why don't you join Mother? Go freshen up and I'll go find some food and fix us something to eat for later."

"Eve, it's okay, I don't mind, Xena did the lion's share of the fighting..."

"No, I mean it. It can't have been easy for either of you, but for you especially, to keep up the pretence of finding those guys irresistible. I could see the signs of strain near the end of the dance..."

"Oh gods, did it show that much ?"

"No-one else would have guessed. But I know you both and how much in love you two are. As in completely."

Nothing had been said - Xena only ever explained to anyone, god or mortal, friend or foe, even her own flesh and blood, what she herself felt was necessary to explain. But Eve had figured them out.

"You know?"

"I've been redeemed by the love of Eli, by mother's love, and your love for mother which made you give me chance after chance when a stranger would have been put out of your life, or if they'd committed the crimes I did, would quite rightly have been dispatched. I know, I used to do that myself - and far worse things too. And mother explained to me that it was possible to stop being like that, that for her that had started to happen when she met you. Then she told me she knew that it wouldn't have been possible to to keep to that path for the rest of her life if it hadn't been for you. That made me watch you two very closely. Mother tries to be very surreptitious about it, but if you know how and when to to look, it shines out of her. You babble so much people have no idea what you're talking about. But I travel with the Warrior Princess and her Bard. I have the inside track."

For once the Princess' Bard was at a loss for words.

"Go on. She went up to your old room ages ago. If you hurry the bath water might still be warm and she might actually be still in it."

Gabrielle flushed, not just at the implication of that remark, but the memory that it made flash into her head.

"Are you sitting on the soap?" Xena had quizzed, irritated.

Oh sweet Aphrodite, the fun that had followed that day. And on so many others.

"How do you know what room your grandmother used to give us?" she asked.

Eve smiled and waved the closely written scroll she had been holding in front of the bard's nose.

"Ohhhhhhhhhh" breathed Gabrielle, a different part of her excited now. "Cyrene kept a diary?!"

"Get outta here! This will keep till later, the bath water won't!" smiled Eve.

Gabrielle smiled her thanks - she didn't trust herself to speak - and took the stairs two at a time.

Xena was ready and waiting. Had been for some time, and now she was carefully cleaning and paring her nails with her breast dagger to stave off boredom.

Her keen hearing and acute awareness of her lover's whereabouts, had her on her feet from her slouch on the bed before Gabrielle had reached the landing. She scooped the damp towel she had used to dry her hair off the floor and stood poised until the door opened. Gabrielle was dishevelled, dusty and tired from their heavy day, but to Xena's eyes she was quite simply sex-on-legs. She would not of course, ever admit that to the bard.

"Ya filthy little slut, don'tcha dare come any closer to me 'til you've cleaned yourself up!" snarled Xena, giving Gabrielle just enough time to sweep her eyes from Xena's boots to the top of her head of slicked-down, still-damp hair. The intake of breath was silent, but the movement of bard's bare abs gave her away.

Satisfied that her costume was truly as impressive to her young lover as it had been to all and sundry at the might-have-been orgy, Xena hurled the soggy towel and hit her in the face. Not too hard, but just enough so it would wrap around her head and obscure the view for her.

"Aaaaaaaaaargh!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The half-growl, half-scream was not what she expected.

Neither was what happened next.

Breathing hard, her leather-encased breasts heaving, Gabrielle scraped the towel from her face, balled it and flung it with all her might at the warrior's belly.

"Ouuuffffff" grunted Xena, her eyes watering with the shock of it.

Gabrielle's face contorted with temper, and her eyes were blazing. It was all too much for her. Now that the fear and anxiety was all over, now that her mind wasn't clouded with the creeping evil of Hell, the sight of Xena in that long black coat, in those long black boots, with those long black gloves, her long black hair plastered to her head, brought all the frustration she had felt watching Xena flaunt her body and use her sex as a trap for Lucifer, boiling to the surface.

With that, the fear - that Xena might actually have to give her body to him and even then might still be taken from her forever - which she had so carefully dammed up so that she could function as usefully as Xena needed her to for her plan to work, broke loose.

It swept away her last lingering morsel of control and all her desires were given free rein.

"You cunt-tease!!!!! Don't EVER, EVER do that to me again!!!!!" she screamed, the veins in her neck becoming bright red ropes as she vented her emotions.

Xena's jaw sagged.

The bard hated that word - men use it as a curse, to tell another man he's worthless, she had said to Xena one night, as they lay spent from lovemaking, but your sex is so beautiful to me, just as you tell me mine is to you, and I can't bear to hear it.

Clearly, Gabrielle was majorly upset.

Xena was not the best at figuring out which particular thing she had done in any given day to piss the bard off, but today was exceptional. It was everything she had done to get Lucifer's attention at the orgy. It's not as if I was doing something I had never done to her, thought Xena as she waited, paralysed, for whatever was coming next. Of course she has no dick to fondle, but hey, that's one of the main attractions here let's face it, Xena's mushy brain blundered on in spite of herself.

"Ga..Ga..Gabri..." she gulped.

The bard stumped over to her. Her face, cleaned in spots by the moist missile, was flushed, and she was shaking.

Xena heard the smack of palm meeting cheek before she felt her face begin to sting. Her eyes widened and her mouth opened farther.

Gabrielle reached up to the warrior's neck, grabbed the edges of the coat in two white knuckled hands and with the extra strength surging through her body from her overwrought emotional state, unceremoniously pulled Xena's face down to her own. She took the warrior's mouth and attacked it as if she were trying to eat her way in through the Gates of Hell to get at the woman she loved.

Xena had a hard time keeping her balance. She was used to hauling the bard off her feet so she wouldn't have to break her back bending to claim the petite woman's lips. This was new, and she was momentarily frozen by the confusion this caused her.

Then her brain started to wake up.

It had been difficult to get back into the costume. The bustier was damp from the sweat of her earlier erotic exertions. It had felt clammy from the moment she had managed to close it round her torso, and her skin had been a mass of goosebumps from the chill of it.

The briefs were another matter.

They were sopping wet in one place and all-over sweaty to add to the warrior's misery in decking herself out in the costume for a private show. She had shivered for a good five minutes before she had begun to feel something close to extreme discomfort, and had almost abandoned her plan for a surprise orgy for two. She had felt as sexy as last week's washing, and arousal seemed like any other three syllable word the bard could use to baffle her with.

Now, Xena whimpered into that ravishing mouth that was plundering hers, trying to meet that sparring, probing bardic tongue with her own and failing, unsure when those teeth were going to nip lips or tongue. It was a whimper of plain amazement as she felt the sodden crotch of the briefs overload with a hot, new tide of pure lust.

Like Pygmalion's statue, she came to life at last, and reached her hands behind Gabrielle's back to fumble about trying to find the tie of her leather halter-top. Normally, she located it unerringly, but this all-out assault had thrown her.

Gabrielle reacted instantly.

She broke the kiss, straightened her arms to their full length and stepped back.

"Oh no you don't, this is *my* seduction scenario now Warrior Princess."

Xena leaned on the short little arms - her own felt like frayed rope, all strength gone from them - but the bard had kept her fists in place and the taller woman hadn't enough upper body above them to bridge the gap between mouths. She could feel her inner thighs growing warm and sticky. By the Gods, she was aroused now!

"Please.... Gabrielle...."

The sound of her own voice shocked Xena. This was the closest thing to a whine she had ever emitted in her life.

"Please NOTHING!"

A drop of bardic spittle landed in her left eye, and Xena flinched.

"YOU pleased yourself this afternoon, now it's MY turn to please myself! Ya got that Your Highness?"

"But Gabrie..."

"SHUT UP!"

The bard gave Xena a good shake to emphasise each word, then with a mighty heave shoved her backwards. Xena staggered, her co-ordination shot to bits by the aggressive, pumped-up approach the younger woman was taking. The high-heeled boots helped to further unbalance her, and she stumbled backwards until the breath was knocked out of her when she crash-landed against one of the supports of their four poster bed.

(Cyrene had a honeymoon suite, and Xena and Gabrielle always got it. Even if she had to evict newly-weds.)

Gabrielle stood for a moment, her fists balled at her sides, her chest heaving with exertion. She wanted to see what position Xena fetched up in before she made her next move.

A little stunned by the post, Xena's vision swam, and she missed the dangerous glint in the bard's eye. It was a game, she decided. Gabrielle was getting her own back for this afternoon.

"Gabrielle, y'know I didn't mean it, it was just a plan. I get the message, you're annoyed..."

"ANNOYED?!?!?!?! You have NO IDEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Gabrielle moved so fast she was like a whiplash. Xena's head snapped to one side from the force of the flying backhander that landed on her cheek. She felt hands frantically grabbing the edges of the coat, heard the low growl and looked back to see the first of the hooks that fastened the garment rip out of the fabric.

She blinked to clear her eyes of the tears that the blow had brought to them, and by the time she could see properly, the bard's angry growl had dwindled to frantic grunts as she bent to undo the last fastener, and Xena saw the last hook part company from the seam. Gabrielle stood up to her full height and pushed the coat back off the warrior's broad shoulders.

Mesmerised, Xena looked into the sea green eyes of her lover, and at last saw her mistake. It was no game, the bard had been so traumatised by the day's events, that her body was burning with battle lust. And as Xena knew from personal experience, there was only one way to sate it. Let it burn itself out.

She smiled.

Her thighs were slick and slippery, and her nipples were starting to ache and chafe inside the tight-fitting, damp bustier. She licked her lips.

"WHAT are you grinning at? I've never been more serious!" snapped Gabrielle.

She ripped away the filmy scarf that Xena had tied round her waist over the panties with a sharp tug.

"Put your hands behind your back, you tramp. What you did today makes Meg look like a Hestian Virgin!"

Xena clenched her jaw to contain her smile and the war whoop she wanted to let out. Oh Aphrodite, you've opened up a volcano in my little bard, I am going to enjoy this so much! With a compliant nod she put her hands behind her back, and bit the inside of her cheeks as Gabrielle muttered under her breath while she bound the warrior's wrists with the scarf. It was a pathetic excuse for a knot, and with her gloves still on Xena could have escaped her bondage in a trice.

She had no intention of doing so.

Gabrielle walked slowly and deliberately to stand face to face with Xena at some distance from her. She folded her arms across her chest and stood, her eyes narrowed, and raked them over Xena's body slowly from her slick hair to those booted feet. On the way down she paid special attention to the warrior's cleavage and darkening panties, but avoided any eye contact.

Xena's gulp must have been audible the next room. The bard slowly worked her way back up the quaking body of the taller woman and finally fixed her gaze on those glacial eyes.

They were begging, pleading for Gabrielle to touch her. The muscles in Xena's shoulders and arms were popping with tension, she was aching to break free and have the bard take her. She was exercising all her self control to stay tied to the bedpost. She had no idea what to do or say to make her lover move, so she bowed her head.

Gabrielle was enjoying every second of watching Xena squirm with the torment of not getting what she wanted, when she wanted it, as was her wont.

"Taste of your own medicine, huh? Not an easy pill to swallow is it?" she sneered, trying to take her mind off the heat building between her own legs.

Head still bent, Xena gave a little nod.

With what can only be described as a triumphant leer, Gabrielle closed the gap between them and stood inches away from Xena. The warrior strained forward as far as her bonds would let her, but that one, single solitary inch that separated them might as well have been a mile.

She could feel the heat of the bard's body, smell the scent of her arousal, see the sweat that had begun to sheen that silken skin, and she could neither touch nor be touched, taste nor be tasted.

She whimpered.

With a crooked little smile, Gabrielle, keeping her eyes locked with Xena's, bent down and removed a sai from her boot. She tapped the point of it pensively against her pursed lips, as if she had no idea what she was going to do with the weapon. Then as if she had just had a brainwave, she licked the point, then turning the short, blunt sword on her prisoner, she traced the imagined outline of Xena's breastplate.

In great detail, including the decorative swirls of each cup, as lingeringly as possible.

A huge groan started from the soles of Xena's boots as each nipple was tortured. It continued as the bard trailed the sai downwards, teasing the belly button, to trace the straps of Xena's kilt on her thighs. The warrior's legs began to shudder uncontrollably.

The groan turned into a full-throated roar as the tip of the metal rod played lightly down her belly and onto her mound. As the tip dipped to slip between her legs, Xena thrust her hips forward to try to make contact with it to give her throbbing clit some ease.

"Not so fast! You should be so lucky my warrior slut," taunted Gabrielle, as she snatched the sai away.

"Aaaaaarrrrggghhhh!!!" growled Xena, and she tossed her head back and banged it off the post with frustration. At the bard's low, throaty chuckle she squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her jaw to keep every last ounce of control over her body.

Gabrielle grabbed the front of the bustier with one hand between the warrior's breasts and tugged hard. And harder. And harder still, until there was a rending sound and the side seams began to give way enough to let her expose her lover's breasts.

The bard almost drooled at the sight of those large dusky nipples, straining towards her face, begging to be suckled. With a huge sigh of relief that they were no longer being chafed, Xena relaxed her jaw, opened her eyes, and looked down at the top of Gabrielle's bent head.

She bit her lip as the bard's tongue swirled round a nipple, lips closed over it and she began to suck. Then a small hand cupped the other breast, and began to knead it, gently at first. Then teeth began to nip and tug, and the hand began to flick, roll and pinch, and Xena thought she was going to explode.

She bucked her hips forward to try to touch any part of Gabrielle's body, but the bard pulled back and switched mouth and hand. She alternated these attentions on both breasts until Xena was whimpering, her head rolling against the bedpost, and she herself could feel her own thighs running warm and slick.

Then she stepped suddenly away, and gave the bustier an extra wrench. It still clung to Xena's waist, but her breasts and belly were now fully exposed. For a little while Gabrielle seemed undecided what to do next. Xena was straining forward against her bonds once more, her eyes alight with her excitement and arousal, tears of joy and frustration coursing down her cheeks.

"You look good enough to eat now," drawled Gabrielle. "None of that hard woman stuff any more, just soft... tender...succulent... meat.

The sai clattered to the floor, the bard wanted both hands free. She moved closer and dropped to her knees near Xena's feet. Clasping her hands behind her back, she inclined her head until her face was not quite touching Xena's mound. The briefs had been a dark colour to start with, but they were darker now.

Gabrielle drew in a long deep breath and smelt the reason for the darkness - goddess, Xena was dripping wet! Oooh Princess, you are soooo hot for me! Let's cool you, she thought wickedly. And she slowly, steadily expelled her breath into the lava pit between Xena's thighs, turning her head to make sure she stayed on target as Xena writhed under this exquisite new torture.

"Ohhhh gods!" groaned Xena, her voice husky and about half an octave deeper than usual. This was going to drive her insane. She wondered how long more she could keep up the pretence of being captive if Gabrielle kept teasing her like this. Then as she felt yet another hot trickle from her throbbing slit, she wondered how Gabrielle could stand being this close. Easy, she realised, she is so pissed at me I bet it's not even registering. And she started to shake.

"Please Gabrielle, eat me!" she pleaded, looking down at the kneeling bard.

"Why? What have you *ever* done to deserve that kind of attention from me now?"

The bard's eyes were hard and glittering. She had never, ever felt this jealous of Xena before, she had never felt such rage, never come so close to physically hurting someone because she thought they had claimed Xena's feigned lust and turned the warrior's love away from her. She knew she was deeply in love with Xena before, but this redefined the meaning of deep for her, and its intensity had frightened her.

She now knew for sure that all that foreplay was a show to dazzle them. She had believed it was the creeping, seeping evil from hell that had clouded her emotions, made her feel like hitting people. But Xena's plan had worked and the Gate of Hell was closed. No evil. What was her excuse now?

Xena sniffled for a bit, and the tears started to fall from her cheeks faster. Some of them even splashed Gabrielle's upturned face, before she answered.

"Nothin'. You know I have no idea why ya love me, little bard. I'm rotten to the core. Why would anyone love a heap of old Harpy droppings like me?"

Gabrielle grabbed Xena by the knees, stopping her from spreading her legs wider, and buried her face between her thighs and started to kiss and lick her mound through the soaked briefs. She hoped the warrior wouldn't notice the extra salty moisture from the bard's own tears.

Xena's head dropped forward on a shuddering sigh. She bit her lip hard to stop herself crying out with relief, and tasted her own blood. She started to blink her tears away as soon as Gabrielle moved her hands to stroke the backs of her legs, and with slow circling motions, the hands climbed their way up her tingling thighs and slid under the taut cloth of the panties.

The warrior began to grin, her breath escaping her open mouth in ragged gasps, for she loved the feel of those small strong fingers as they massaged her buttocks, often so tense from hours or days in the saddle, as much as Gabrielle loved to work the knots out of them. She watched with a sinking feeling of horror as the bard moved her head away.

"On no!...Oh no!...Oh no!" she panted, staring at the top of the blonde head in disbelief. This was too much...too little...gods damn her, she had taken her mouth away to soon!

Then Xena yelped.

The soft skin of her belly above the top of the briefs was nipped between teeth, Gabrielle started to tug the waist of the scanty garment upwards, and her hands also moved farther and farther upwards. This elicited a moan that would have registered in Athens if they'd had seismometers back then, as the cloth between Xena's legs, tightened, slackened, tightened.... in a tantalising rhythm that sent tremors rippling from Xena's swollen, streaming, steaming sex up through her belly.

The hot waves of her excitement seemed to make her heart skip and shudder until it took up a new rhythm, like a galley-slave rowing to the beat of the oarsmaster's drum. But as soon as the tortured warrior thought she was going to be allowed release, the little minx changed tactic.

She leaned back, and turning her hands until Xena felt the bard's knuckles digging into her, gripped the thin fabric and started to tug roughly at it. Her expression was intense, the warrior could see it if she bent her head to one side and leaned a little lower, and that her jaw was clenched. She shifted her booted feet a little - an experiment to see just how preoccupied the bard was.

She shuffled a little more, leaned a bit more, and her hair swung over her shoulder. She shuffled again.

And her hair dripped.

Right onto that pert little nose.

"Did I say you could move your feet?!" snarled Gabrielle. "Stand still!!!!!"

She glared up at Xena and paused in her attack on the briefs.

"No...yes...I mean...yes..no... oh Hades..." groaned Xena.

"Oh just shut up and behave!" she said impatiently, and with a final exasperated tug, the seams gave way and she flung the remnants of Xena's panties across the room. She sat back on her hunkers and took stock of the situation for a few moments. Only someone who knew Xena as well as she did, and who had made love to her as often as she had would have known how much control Xena was exercising.

There was one little bit she didn't know about, thought Xena, as she fought the shudder in her limbs. She thought her really good chewing teeth would crack with the strain of being clenched together so hard. No doubt about it, the bard had those two subtle signals taped. But the struggle to keep her hands tied... that was Xena's secret.

Keeping her eyes glued to Xena's face after what seemed like an eternity to the strung-out, strung-up warrior, the bard slipped inquisitive, feathery fingers into her slippery folds.

Xena bucked at this light, tickling caress, and throwing her head back, gave up all pretence of silent stoicism and yelled.

"You little Fury!!!! You torturing Harpy!!!!"

Much more of that, and she'd have slipped her bonds.

Gabrielle was feeling wet, hot, bothered and in need of some attention herself. A wicked thought occurred to her, and with huge, leery grin she moved in for the kill, as it were. How ready was Xena? She slid a curious finger inside, as she spread the top of the warrior's slit with her free hand to expose the her pulsing clit.

Hmmm...more, she thought. And she closed her lips around the swollen bud of sensitive flesh, sucked delicately, then teased it with the tip of her tongue.

Two....

Hmmmm....

She nipped a little, licked harder....

Gods....three....easily...

She barely had a chance to get a rhythm going with her fingers when Xena came, closing round them like a vice, racked with the tremors of her orgasm.

As it died away, Gabrielle slipped her hand out and burrowed her face into Xena's slit, lavishing attention on it with her mouth and tongue, but this was for herself, to lap the warrior's juices, she had no intention of letting the new wave she could feel starting to build in the warrior break.

She sat back on heels again, sated. Her next move was decided. She was going to move away, strip as slowly as she could, and make Xena watch while she took care of herself. Which would probably drive her insane.

That was the plan.

So much for the best-laid plans of Bards and Warrior Princesses.

Xena slumped, her knees sagged and her feet slid out from under her. She slithered down the bedpost, and ended up sitting on the floor, one long booted leg on either side of the bard. She was still panting, her face streaked with tears and her eyes like bright jewels, glowing with her love for Gabrielle.

"Have I told ya lately that you're the best and brightest and dearest thing in my life?" she whispered huskily, and gave one of those silly lop-sided grins that made the bard's stomach do back flips.

It was the grin.

Or maybe it was the tears.

Or maybe what she said.

Or maybe all three.

Gabrielle was never sure afterwards.

Whatever, it broke the spell.

And the pink outline of her hand on one cheek, and the red swelling on the opposite cheekbone from the back hander seemed to shine like beacons at Gabrielle. Her eyes stung and she reached a shaking hand out to stroke the makings of a fine bruise on the cheekbone.

"Oh gods, Xena, what have I done to you?"

She was anguished, now that her anger and frustration were spent. Her desire was fading as horror at hurting Xena replaced her blind blood lust.

"Nothing I didn't deserve," said the warrior, and holding up her gloveless hands she waggled her fingers in Gabrielle's face. "And nothing I didn't enjoy."

"But...but...Hades, I was like...like...a beast in rut."

"You were pretty pumped up, and so was I. When the stakes are high and you win the battle, it's called battle lust. I got to fight the battle, but you just got to watch. So you were just that bit more pumped up than I was, and you just.... exploded."

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't 've..."

"Don't be!"

Xena put a long well-manicured finger to the bard's lips.

"It was kinda spectacular - y'know. Like one of those firecracker shows we saw in Chin?"

Gabrielle nodded, then Xena took her finger away and claimed the blonde's mouth in a long lingering kiss that was sweetened with the taste of the warrior's cum.

"Ya kinda upset my plan, though" said Xena when they came up for air.

"Can we carry on with it now?" murmured Gabrielle, feeling herself begin to get warmer, wetter again.

"Nah," said Xena pulling a face as she surveyed the ruins of her bustier, and scanned the room to see where the shreds of her briefs had landed. She reached onto the bed behind her and scooped the breast dagger off it, then started to work on freeing herself from her rags. "Kinda built my plan round stripping this lot off. Tastefully, of course."

Gabrielle's eyes widened. It was only dawning on her now that Xena had slipped her bonds, out of the gloves and the coat. The latter had bunched up between her and the bed as she had slumped to the floor.

"You...you could have got free any time?!?!?!"

Xena looked up from hacking at the demolished garment round her waist, and with a wry grin, nodded. Gabrielle was momentarily robbed of her powers of speech, and it took her a little while to process that admission.

"You let me hit you."

That was a statement. Xena was too busy getting rid of the unwanted bustier to bother wasting time commenting on the obvious.

"You enjoyed it???!!!! You wanted me to hit you?!!!!!!!!"

Xena paused and screwed her face up as she thought about this.

"As soon as I realised that the little games we'd played had messed your heart and your head up so bad, I thought the best thing I could do to help you get over it was to let you vent it. And yeah, I enjoyed it - I know I'm good, but you really think that bit was all an act?"

"No, of course not, but Xena, what if I hadn't stopped with just a few slaps, if I'd got so mad I hurt you badly, or worse.... oh gods..."

"Stop that!" commanded Xena, pulling the bard's hands away from her face as she started to sob softly. "You would never hurt me - I know that. You have never gone over the edge into a killing rage the way I can. I trust you completely. Besides, I could've stopped you any time I thought you'd gone too far 'cos that knot was nothing short of pathetic. We gotta work on your knotting skills, Gabrielle. It's one thing having me break loose and have my wicked way with you, quite another to have some scummy warlord do it and slit our throats some night."

Gabrielle flushed with mortification and was just about to ask for a knotting lesson when she caught the wicked glint in Xena's eyes. She started to giggle. The warrior's throaty chuckle tipped both of them into a long belly laugh.

At last, both breathless, they stopped and contemplated each other in silence for a bit. Xena broke the spell by hauling herself onto the edge of their bed and crossing her legs.

"I could use a hand to get out of these," she said, arching an eyebrow suggestively, and wagged her foot under the blonde's chin.

"You got it!"