Beyond The darkness: Chapter Two The Meeting

In the dark stillness of her room, Jessica heard Constance whisper her name. She opened her eyes and turned toward her friend, but groaned at the pain that tortured her welted bottom. "Be still, darling," Constance whispered, her voice soft and soothing as she knelt at Jessica's bedside. "You mustn't try to move." "But even lying still hurts," Jessica said. She looked at Constance and was immediately comforted by her friend's sympathetic blue eyes. She reached out to touch Constance's golden hair. Constance said, "Here, darling, I have oil of lavender, which I purchased from a woman in the village. She said that it has healing qualities. I'll rub some on your poor bottom." "It...it's not only my bottom that was beaten." Constance smoothed Jessica's chestnut hair back from her face and said, "You're my friend, Jessica. I will do whatever you need me to do. Haven't I always?" "But if you're caught here, you'll be punished. You must leave." "Oh, damn them, and their punishments!" "Constance!" But Constance was already lifting Jessica's cotton gown to reveal her red and swollen rear. "I mean it, Jessica. Damn them all. Look what they've done to you. And why? Was there any love in this? Did they really mean it for your own good?" Jessica was silent. She had not felt any love from Sister Angela or from Father Martino. "I think you must love someone in order to punish them." Constance said. "If I were to spank you, you would know it was done with love." Gently, Constance began to rub oil into Jessica's hot bottom cheeks. Jessica moaned. "Spread your legs, darling," Constance told her. Jessica spread her legs and Constance soothed her sore mound and her aching lips with the lavender oil. Jessica moaned again. Despite the pain that would not relent, a slow pleasure began to build as Constance's gentle hands touched her. She shifted on the bed, trying not to reveal her longing. When Constance stood again, Jessica felt a disappointment that spread from her groin to her heart. And when Constance bent to her, smelling of lavender, her smooth rounded breasts falling from the top of her gown, and placed a soft kiss on Jessica's lips, Jessica quivered with desire. "I'm your friend forever, Jessica," said Constance. "Don't ever forget. Sleep well, my love." Jessica watched Constance slip from the room, then closed her eyes again. *Jessica.* "No, no, no!" She pulled her pillow over her head, but this did nothing to stifle the voice that filled her brain. *Open the window, Jessica. Open the window and bid me enter.* "You open the window! My legs won't carry me that far!" *Open the window, Jessica. You can do this, for me, and you will. Open the window and bid me enter.* His words caressed her, his voice commanded her, and she was compelled to obey. It was not like the terror that had made her obey Father Martino earlier. No, this voice she wanted to obey. With a groan, she pushed herself off the bed and walked, painfully, to the window. Looking out, she saw no one. Only the distant trees swaying in the silver light of night. She unlatched the bolt and threw open the window. "Well, where are you?" she demanded. "The window is open! Enter!" She hung her head out the window and looked around, then smirked and turned back inside. As she turned to the bed, she felt the cool breeze on her sore thighs and sighed. "Jessica." She whirled back around to see the figure of a man standing before her in the darkness. "How did you get in here?" "By your command, my lady." "My command?" "I am yours, Jessica, as much as you are mine." Hesitantly, she approached him to gain a better look at his face. A lion's mane of dark hair surrounded the face of a young god. Had she seen this face before, in marble, in Paris, perhaps, or in Rome? Youth and age, wonder and wisdom, came together in eyes like sapphire gems. He was a dark-haired Eros, come to whisk her away to his castle in the clouds. He smiled and said, "Yes, my love. Exactly." He reached out his hands and she took them in her own. In a moment, she was on her bed again, not sure how they had crossed the room, and he knelt at her side as Constance had. "You love her," he whispered. "Yes." "And she shall be yours." "How?" "Ssh." He kissed her lips, softly, insistently, as his hand brushed her mass of dark curls from her face and neck. His mouth moved to kiss her neck. Jessica thought she would swoon from the sensations that filled her entire being. His lips parted and, suddenly, she felt a fierce stabbing where his mouth closed over her throbbing vein. He drew the life from her, feasted on her. Vaguely, she knew this and yet her mind was hazy and she didn't care. Pain where his sharp teeth penetrated her flesh, pleasure that traveled from the tips of her breasts to the pulsing knot between her legs. The pain inflicted by the strap became suffused with pleasure. "Yes, Jessica," he said, raising his mouth from her neck. "All of your pain will be pleasure with me." Slowly, he ran his tongue over the place he had bitten. The pain there vanished. "But I wanted to feel that pain," she murmured as though drunk. He laughed softly and kissed her lips again. He moved over her, lifting her gown over her bottom, and then his tongue moved over her battered flesh and with each velvet stroke, she healed. Pain faded from each place his tongue touched. "No one shall ever punish you again but me, my love." His voice was like music, lulling her, and she moaned and smiled sleepily at the sound. "And you shall feel my love in every touch, every slap, every bite, every kiss." He moved between her legs and she cried out. His tongue soothed her sore mound before pushing between her swollen lips to find that pulse that throbbed wildly now, driving her to near madness as she thrashed about beneath his busy mouth. Again and again his tongue caressed her, never tiring, until her breath caught in her throat and she shuddered and moved against him uncontrollably. When she had calmed, he sat and took her on his lap. "No more pain," she murmured. "No," he said. "Unless it comes from me." "Would you ever use a leather strap on me?" "Only if you asked me to, my love. But this --" He held up his right hand. "This you shall feel often." "What are you?" "As you said, I am Eros...to your Psyche." She touched his upheld hand, then bent forward to kiss the cool white palm. "Ah," he said. "I like that. You will do that often as well." He looked away from her, toward the open window, and said, "It will be dawn soon. I must leave you." "No, please," said Jessica. "Don't leave me." "You will see me tomorrow evening." "I have another session with Father Martino tomorrow evening." "No, that will not happen. Not if you dare to follow your heart and come to me, my love." His brows drew together in a vicious frown and he said, "And soon we shall deal with your Father Martino." Without warning, he pulled her close and sank his teeth into her neck again. Through the pain she saw the iron gate and the woods, a path through the woods that led to another gate, hidden by vines, a garden, white flowers and statues and angels dancing within a fountain. She could hear the flow of water, could smell the intoxicating scents around her. He lifted his mouth, but this time he did not heal the wound with his tongue. "It hurts," she said. "Yes, my love,"he said. He kissed her. "Each time the pain calls you back to this moment, remember that I love you, that I gave you this pain in love." She smiled suddenly and wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his mouth. Gently, he pulled away from her and stood. "Goodbye, my Jessica. Come to me. Dare for me. Be willing for me." And then, somehow, he was gone. She leapt out of bed and looked around her. Was this a dream? But her body no longer ached. Was the beating simply a nightmare? She rushed to the window and looked out at the rising sun. A sudden twinge of pain at her neck made her gasp. She touched her fingertips to the two marks there and smiled softly. Not a dream. She sat on the window seat and lowered her head onto her bent knees. She slept. And she dreamed of a path through the woods, and a garden, all in white.