VIOLENT/NON-CONSENSUAL SEX WARNING/DISCLAIMER: It is a story portraying a Conqueror/slave relationship, so it would appear non-consensual at first. As for sexual violence, there are scenes (In parts 3 and 4) which are detailed and graphic, and may not suite some readers.
Other Disclaimers: See Part 1
SPECIAL THANKS : My humble most ardent gratitude to the excellent, most brilliant Beta readers nancyjean and alexandriaruth , whom I can't thank enough.
Comments & Feedback : MOST WELCOMED – The more you write me, the quicker I post.
http://www.angelfire.com/id/DarkAngel/stories.html
Part 27
Basking in the afterglow of lovemaking and the soft rays of the morning sun, Gabrielle was lounging on a high heap of furs and pillows on the terrace naked, embracing her Lord in her arms and absentmindedly stroking the dark mane that blanketed her torso.
The Conqueror rested her head against her wife's bosom and listened to the beating of her pure heart, her strong arms draped over Gabrielle's lap and waist.
"You are a gifted healer, Gabrielle. Can you cure my heart which is riddled with love for you?" asked the Conqueror.
"Even if I could, it would be the only thing I would deny you, my Lord. Would you really want me to?"
"Not anymore," the Conqueror replied after a few moments and nuzzled the hollow between Gabrielle's neck and shoulder.
The wind curved paths over the navy water of the Aegean Sea .
There were so many things the Queen wished to ask, so many things she needed to know, she didn't know where to begin. "Tell me everything, my Lion," she finally said, and made her Lord laugh.
The Conqueror straightened her head and looked into her wife's shimmering forest green eyes.
“I remember the day I bought you," she began to tell the tale. "It has remained pristine and impeccable in my mind to this day. You were the most beautiful young woman I had ever seen."
The Queen smiled.
"But it wasn't just your magnificent looks… it was your innocence. I distinctly remember thinking how odd it was for a body slave to appear so very innocent."
The Queen lowered her head, but her Lord placed a gentle finger beneath her chin and prompted her wife to look back at her.
"Of all the slaves displayed on array on the platform that day, you were the only one who tried to not draw my attention to you." The Conqueror had to smile when she envisioned the events of that day on the slavery's block, and how Gabrielle had tried to make herself appear small and how she had evaded her gaze. "So small, so innocent and so unassuming… The sight of you brought to mind a phrase I once heard: 'Quiet waters run deep'. It wasn't just my desire you aroused that day, but my interest and curiosity."
The Queen was stunned to hear her Lord tell her this. She had never imagined that she had invoked such thoughts in her Lord's heart and mind. She'd believed it had been plain and simple lust that had motivated her Lord that day and nothing more.
"Unlike all women before you, you didn't offer yourself to me. You never threw yourself at me. You just waited silently for my biddings… so disciplined, so obedient, so selfless and so soft."
Still the scorch of the golden-haired body slave's softness scarred the Conqueror's body.
"I have made a fatal mistake. I have made a mistake no respected warrior should ever do . I underestimated your true power. I underestimated you. What possible threat a young body slave could pose to the mighty Conqueror of the Realm, I thought." The Conqueror's features manifested self-realized hubris. But if falling in love was the downfall that followed her excessive sense of pride, so be it. She no longer cared.
The Queen was so riveted by her Lord's story that she failed to notice she held her breath from time to time.
The Conqueror continued, "Soon enough I learned that you'd healed Perous' boy's broken leg. That's when I learned about your gentle, kind soul and your clever mind. I realized how special and exceptional you were. No body slave would have aided a nobleman or their children for that matter, and no body slave would have bothered themselves with learning a skill or broadening their horizons. Mostly, because for body slaves there isn't really a point. You had gained the utmost esteem of Karpa, whose opinion I value greatly. I became even more intrigued by you."
A lump was lodged in the Queen's throat as she listened to her Lord's words, describing in great details her thoughts and feelings, divulging her inner most deep secrets so freely. They took her back to those early days that seemed like a lifetime ago. The Queen remembered not just the sounds and the sights which assembled the events, but recreated and reconstructed the sensations she had experienced. It made the Queen fall deeper in love with her Lord, if that was even possible.
"May I ask, what incurred your wrath the night you returned from Gaul , my Lion? I've always wondered what I had done to displease you so that night."
The Conqueror knew immediately to what her wife was referring. She referred to the night she had brutally branded her crest into Gabrielle's flesh, and left a permanent symbol of absolute ownership on her.
"It was my own weakness, my love. It wasn't anything you had or hadn't done."
How anomalous and inconceivable it was for Gabrielle to hear her Lord ascribing weakness to herself.
"On my way back from war, I entered a tavern and I rented a woman, as I had done countless times in the past… Just urges I needed taken care of… certainly nothing out of the ordinary. When I was about to do my business with her, you were all I could think of. I lost my will before even touching her." The Conqueror rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment, "That never happened to me before and I punished you for it. I began to suspect I wasn't merely in lust or even a little obsessed with you, but that it was something much deeper and much more perilous."
Gabrielle was astounded by the revelations spilling out of her beloved Lord's mouth. The dam that stood high between them was breached at last. There was precious little reason to keep secrets now.
"I wasn't about to allow this to happen to me. No one is to have power over me , the Lord and Master of the Realm, least of all a body slave," the Conqueror explained evenly.
A few silent moments passed between them.
"What did you think changed that night I returned from Gaul ?" the Conqueror was curious to know.
"I thought perhaps it was my Lord's infamous battle-lust. I thought my Lord simply desired to try darker acts with me. What I didn't expect was the pleasure and the high levels of arousal I experienced from it," Gabrielle answered. Ever since she had confessed to her Lord about her darker inclinations after the affliction on the road back from Persia , she had never felt any shame about these predilections of hers.
"And then you testified in court…" the Conqueror recalled. "I refused to believe your testimony… I refused to believe you were even more perfect than I had originally thought. Those words you spoke for all to hear; ' I am rewarded with pleasure in my service to my Lord', " the Conqueror recited word for word as if she had heard them only yesterday, "endeared you to me even more." The Conqueror let out a deep breath. Her hand slid down her wife's silky thigh.
"I needed to reject and eradicate the idea that you were my other half, for it weakened my resolve to kill any emotions I bore towards you. That was the main reason for all my savagery and brutality towards you. It was never just dark desire, never just battle-lust that goaded my measures. Of no fault of your own, you tormented me. My feelings for you tore me asunder. That is why no one before you had suffered the levels of cruelty and violence that I have inflicted upon you."
Gabrielle planted a kiss on her Lord's lips then stroked them with her fingertips, encouraging her Lord to go on.
"I was convinced I would finally break you. I was certain I would make you hate and despise me with passion and that would be the end of this madness." The Conqueror had to scoff at that notion now.
"What terrified me most in those days were my Lord's absences," Gabrielle said. "After each night of equally craved and dreaded darkness I wasn't summoned to my Lord's bed for long days. I feared my Lord discarded me for another or was tired of me. I was afraid I would lose my place in my Lord's bed… I have often taken it into my head to be jealous of you. I could neither believe my own foolishness nor understand it."
The Conqueror chuckled.
A few moments passed and the Conqueror's face became serious again.
"I had to keep far away from you. I often came here to Thira during those days. I did all I could do to stay away from you. I only summoned you for service when I was confident I could maintain austere control. There were nights, I tell you, on which I would lie in my bed aching for you and still I would deny myself the ultimate pleasure of your presence and your intimate service." The Conqueror gazed deeply into her wife's eyes, encouraging her to speak what lay on her heart freely for she seemed to need some time to contemplate her Lord's last words.
"When I was summoned back to my Lord's bed after these respites, my Lord seemed so passionless and so indifferent that I secretly hoped for my Lord's darkness… at least then I felt my Lord's passion towards me," Gabrielle whispered and kissed her Lord's forehead.
The Conqueror left her lounging Queen and reentered the bedchamber. She crouched down to where she had discarded her trousers the previous night and took something out of the garment's pocket. Then she returned back to her wife's embrace and handed her the item she had retrieved.
It was an exquisite gold ring with gold petals surrounding a large green sparkling stone set in the middle.
"My Lord has a penchant for emeralds," the Queen smiled, examined the flawless piece of jewelry then handed it back to the Conqueror.
"It is not an emerald, my Lady, but a green diamond. It is one of a kind. I captured the stone in the Persian palace, and as soon as I returned to Corinth , I had my jeweler set it in a ring. I have carried it with me since then always. I imagined myself giving it to you countless times… the mere presence of it close to my heart… it somehow made the great love I've been bearing towards you slightly more containable," the Conqueror tried to explain as best she could and took her wife's alabaster hand in hers. She gently placed the ring on her wife's finger and brought it to her lips. "Will you accept this token of my love, Gabrielle?" the Conqueror asked.
"Like the collar around my thigh, I shall never remove it from my finger, my Lord," the Queen vowed. "Thank you, my Lord," she whispered and snared her Lord's lips with her own.
The Conqueror was pleased. She moved her lips from the Queen's and sent them traveling lower till she claimed a rosy nipple and sucked it into her mouth. She unleashed her tongue on it, causing her Queen to instinctively spread her thighs wide, releasing her scent that indicated her arousal.
"I sometime wish I could wear your scent over my body like perfumed oil. That way I could smell your desire constantly," the Conqueror grinned and resumed sucking her lover's tender flesh of her breast till she drew blood, eliciting a sharp intake of breath from her writhing Queen.
"But others would be able to smell me on you…" the Queen pointed out with a giggle.
"Well… I am a benevolent Ruler… you said so yourself," the Conqueror replied and delved three fingers into her wife's aromatic cleft.
Enthralled by their desire, the Lord and Queen were soon carried away by it and quickly found themselves lost in vital yet slow and tender lovemaking.
When their physical needs for one another were satisfied, they returned to peacefully lie in each other's arms, sated for the time being.
"I've always found my Lord's amorous touches to be extremely distracting," Gabrielle moaned. "I thoroughly enjoyed it when my Lord taught me some battle strategies, but I must confess to this day I am not entirely sure as to my Lord's reason and motivation to do so," Gabrielle recalled when her mind wandered back to the days when she'd been her Lord's body slave.
"At the time I had a need to communicate with you, only I didn't know how to go about it. You must understand, before you I had no such desire to connect with a bedmate. So I spoke mostly about matters I…" the Conqueror's voice trailed off.
Gabrielle found it sweet and disheartening at the same time - Sweet, because she knew how difficult it was for her Lord to admit incompetence, and disheartening because of what had been deprived of her, from the both of them for so long.
"May I ask, my Lord, what prompted you last night to… when the subject of children arose…" the Queen asked delicately so as not anger her Lord again.
"During the birth of our daughter you lost a lot of blood. Your life was in grave jeopardy. I ordered all present in your bedchamber to leave. I remained alone with you." The Conqueror's expression became haunted by the painful memories of that day, and fixated her gaze upon the sea as if to calm herself. "You were so pale, so fragile and so weak you could barely draw breath. I bathed you and cleaned your bed, my Lady, and I never left your side. I witnessed the light about you fast extinguishing… I felt such trepidation at the thought of losing you. I don't understand how the rest…"
"How the rest of us mere mortals suffer fear on a daily basis, my Lord!?" the Queen teased and made the Conqueror laugh at her own condescension.
While Gabrielle allowed a few moments to pass by before she revisited the subject again, she reveled in the notion that the Lord Conqueror of the Realm, the most fearless of all warriors, feared but one thing, losing her, her beloved.
"No one has told me that it was you, my Lord, who had cared for me. I wasn't aware of how it affected you and how profoundly so."
"I don't ever want to experience that feeling again. I love you too much, Gabrielle, and I refuse to lose you."
"I understand, my Lion. You won't lose me. I will never bring up the subject of conceiving again," the Queen promised. She realized then just how truly intense and awesome was her Lord's love towards her, for she was willing to forgo securing her own dynasty rather than risk going through life without her dearly loved Queen.
"I have never prayed to the Gods and never asked them for anything in my entire life until that day in your bedchamber. I prayed to the Goddess Athena to heal you and a few short candle-marks later you opened your beautiful eyes."
It was then that the Queen finally learned the true reason for to her Lord's wish to name her heir after the Goddess. When the Conqueror had first suggested the name, the Queen assumed it had been for the Goddess' attributes and talents of war, wisdom, courage, strength and strategy. Now she realized that it had been plain gratitude. The Conqueror had named their child after Athena to give praises to the Goddess whom she'd thought had healed her love and to glorify the Goddess' name for her healing skills, and no other skill.
The Queen's eyes were misty with tears again.
The Conqueror's lips found their way to her Queen's eyelids and kissed them gently. "And you never suspected how I felt?" she asked. "After all I asked you to marry me…"
"I was led to believe that your marriage proposal was a demonstration of your will and power supremacy for the benefit of the Realm's nobility. Only Princess Lao-Ling seemed to have seen through my Lord's true motivation."
"Is that so?" the Conqueror cocked her head, looked at her wife and raised an eyebrow.
"Indeed, my Lord. Soon after my Lord's proposal she told me that my Lord bore great affection towards me."
"She is wise, I'll grant her that," the Conqueror said and the Queen nodded in agreement. "She wasn't the only one, you know. My mother seemed to notice our true feelings towards one another as well."
"Really!?" It was the Queen's turn to be surprised. "Lady Satrina knew how I felt towards you as well. It would seem that we weren't able to see that which we couldn't believe to be true."
"Tell me, beloved; tell me when you first started to feel love towards me," the Conqueror sounded very eager to know.
"I think…" the Queen pondered and momentarily halted her speech, "Since the first time I saw you, my Lord."
"On the slaver's platform?" the Conqueror asked.
"That wasn't the first time I saw you, my Lord," Gabrielle pointed out and anticipated her Lord's eyes getting wider with growing surprise.
"The first time my eyes met you was the day of your enthroning in Corinth , my Lord. I was twelve years old then,” Gabrielle smiled like one would when reminiscing about a fond memory. “My father took Lila and me to Corinth to watch the festive parade in your honor. I could only see you from a distance, of course, but the power exuding from the Destroyer of Nations reached and grabbed hold of me, nonetheless. My Lord was so strong, so beautiful, and so majestic I could feel my heart being enslaved by you right then and there. You taught me what desire was that day."
The Conqueror was dumbstruck and when she heard her beloved wife tell the story of her love for her, she could feel her heart beating painfully in her chest.
"I realize now, that when I stood on the slaver's platform under your piercing eyes, I was as much terrified by your towering presence, my Lord, as by my own emotions towards you," the Queen whispered and looked down on the green diamond on her wee finger.
The Conqueror collected her Queen in her arms and pressed her tightly against her body.
"You never cease to amaze me, my precious Gabrielle. I remember how astonished I was to learn that it was you who saved my life on the road back from Persia . You sacrificed your freedom, your life and future happiness in order to save me, your Owner and Master. I realized then that I would do the same for you. Such is the power you wield over me."
"I have neither life, nor freedom nor happiness without you, Xena, and trust that I would never use the love you bear me to either hurt or manipulate you."
"I know, Gabrielle. Still no one can know I love you. Not a soul."
"I understand, my Lord. I will keep your great love, our great love a secret upon the pain of death."
"Thank you, my wife."
A full moon rose and washed the Royal couple with its pale silvery light. The Conqueror got up and made her way to their bedchamber, took a blanket, and returned to the terrace. She covered her wife's body in order to protect her from the night's biting chill.
"We haven't eaten all day. I'm going down to the kitchen to prepare a light supper to feed my Queen."
Gabrielle darted off the heap of cushions she was lying on as if she was bitten by a snake.
"I think it is unwise to let you venture into the kitchen unsupervised, my Lord," the Queen taunted with a smile and covered her nude body with one of the Conqueror's robes, which was too sizable for her small frame.
"You have only just discovered my true feelings towards you and already you are taking liberties and being disrespectful," the Conqueror burst into thunderous laughter.
The Queen pressed her body against her Lord's. "Never, my dreaded Lord," she said.
The Royal couple strolled down the stairs and entered the kitchen.
"What would you like to eat, my Lord?" the Queen asked, but when she glanced at her Lord's features she got an idea as to her Lord's appetite.
With one swift motion of her arm over the kitchen table's surface, the Conqueror cleared the wooden table, letting all the items previously on top of it fall down and scatter over the floor beneath it in disarray, aside from a small bowl with some virgin olive oil in it.
"You know what I would like to eat, Gabrielle, so serve me and sate my hunger."
The Queen smiled knowingly. She pushed back the Conqueror's robe from her shoulders. She approached the wooden table, and bent over it, splaying her breasts and stomach against its smooth surface.
With her chin resting against the table, Gabrielle heard her Lord closing the gap between them and positioning herself closely behind her. Next she felt the twin moons of her buttocks being lustfully kneaded by the Conqueror's hands.
"Have I told you how much I adore the dimples above this perfect asset of yours?" the Conqueror asked and squeezed the limber, taut flesh in her hands for emphasis.
"You have, my Lord," the Queen moaned as fresh fluids began to trickle down her thighs. She remembered when it was exactly that her Lord had spoken these words to her before. It had been the night the Conqueror had offered her wine, which did wonders to loosen her inhibitions.
Next the Queen felt her twin globes being parted and her Lord's scorching breath against the sensitive flesh of her rear opening.
The Queen readied herself. She clutched the table's upper edges above her head with her small hands and closed her eyes in anticipation.
The Conqueror's long, warm and moist tongue rimmed Gabrielle's anus then pushed through the tight ring of muscles.
"Oh, dear Lord," Gabrielle whimpered and held her breath. The sensations that shot through her petite wanton body by her Lord's thick tongue wriggling inside her rear opening toughened her clit. The pleasure was so intense she wanted to scream.
She soon needed more, deeper more powerful strokes into her. She felt her Lord backing away from her and soon the sweet contact between her Lord's tongue and her opening was lost. Gabrielle saw her Lord dipping her hand into the virgin olive oil and a shiver ran down her spine.
The Conqueror roved her oil-laden fingers over silk folds and smeared it over the small nodule of Gabrielle's sex. Her hand moved to rub the slippery oil over the heated skin of Gabrielle's backside and anointed the puckered crevice. Then she delivered a hard flat spank to the perky flesh of her ass, leaving it tingling hot.
"It feels so good, my Lord," she sighted under her breath.
"It makes you so wet between your legs when I spank this sassy ass of yours, doesn't it?"
"You are welcome to verify for yourself, my Lord," Gabrielle wished this sweet torture would never end.
"Not so fast, you little minx. I am not in the habit of rewarding pleasure for insolence."
Gabrielle could hear that her Lord's last sentence was spoken through smiling lips – Oh and how she welcomed the play.
The Conqueror raised her arm in the air, and then landed another solid smack to the buttocks that drove her wild with desire. The sound of the flesh being beaten sent her lust soaring higher.
"Not allowed into the kitchen unsupervised, am I?" the Conqueror sneered, letting her open palm forcefully connect with the Queen's buttocks, sending ripples through the trembling flesh, ripples that shook the Queen's womanhood as well.
"I pray you, forgive your humbled servant, my Lord," Gabrielle offered somewhat conflicted, for she wished her Lord's disciplining her to continue.
"Not sounding too sure, are we?" the Conqueror noticed and introduced a strike so powerful it pushed the table slightly frontward with the Queen still on top of it.
Gabrielle's oiled flesh simmered with red fire where her Lord had struck her.
"In all humility, my beloved Lord, I beseech you to accept my apology." Gabrielle simply adored every aspect of this private game they played.
The Conqueror considered her wife's ardent plea and the shade of red coloring the imprint of her palm left on her Queen's buttocks. She placed her chiseled leg between her Queen's legs and kicked sideways to prompt her wife to widen her spread. She dipped her hand into the virgin oil a second time and daubed the greasy substance along her hefty shaft.
It went smoothly into the Queen's rear entrance and crammed its way into her depth with nothing to hinder its steadfast advance.
"Thank you, my gracious Lord," the Queen purred as she felt her Lord's body blanketing her back, and two strong arms slick with oil sliding over her own arms and lodging over her hands at the edge of the table.
Snared under her Lord's body weight, the Queen felt loved, protected and yet deliciously helpless, completely at the mercy of her Lord and lover.
The pace that the Conqueror set was slow. Almost gently her oil-polished member stoutly cleaved inside Gabrielle's back cavern and drew out again. Her bleak glare met the dutiful body lying passively beneath her.
"Give me your lips, wife," the Conqueror commanded and Gabrielle turned her head and offered her parted lips.
The Conqueror gorged upon the sweet mouth, and sent her loins forward. With her deep thrusts, she pressed her lover's throbbing womanhood against the lower edges of the table over and over again, providing her with relief for her growing need.
The Conqueror's muscles flexed against the Queen's body with the effort of ramming and grinding in and out of her. It was one of the sensations the Queen cherished most. For her, it was her Lord's intimate way of unleashing power and she felt it on her very flesh.
Gabrielle felt her Lord's movements becoming shorter and more insistent.
The fire within them coursed through their sweating bodies then violently erupted, and surged out of them. The Conqueror pressed down hard against her Queen, thoroughly milking the powerful release for all its worth.
They remained connected to one another in that position for several long moments.
"I still love and crave my Lord's darkness and I shall welcome and receive it always with unlimited love and desire," the Queen needed to assure.
The Conqueror planted an exhausted kiss on her Queen's blushed cheek.
"Know that my love for you is and will be constant and present, even if it is concealed from others around us. When we are alone, I will reveal it for you to witness and feel, always."
"Then I wish we never had to leave Thira , my Lord."
"We shall remain here for a fortnight, and it is my solemn oath to you that we shall visit here as often as we can," the Conqueror said and withdrew from her wife.
The Queen staggered back to stand on her legs.
"Thank you, my Lord. Now, what would you wish to eat?
***
The Royal couple stayed in Thira for nearly a moon before they returned back to Corinth , back to their duties and responsibilities. During this moon they spent their time fishing, swimming, exploring the land, hunting and loving.