Party at Ares'
By FeklarXena watched Gabrielle inhale a platter of lamb stew, pausing between bites to rip off a piece of bread or take a swallow of ale. The amazing thing was she managed to talk the entire time. They were sitting at a table in the back of yet another tavern, in yet another small town in the middle of nowhere.
"So what do you think, Xena?"
"Hmm?" The warrior's murmur was deep and musical. She was leaning back in her chair, one muscular leg draped across the table.
Gabrielle rolled her eyes and was about to continue, when she saw Iolaus walk through the door. Gabrielle stood up to wave him over when she felt Xena freeze next to her. Her icy blue eyes were narrowed into that look: dark, calculating and *hungry*.
Gabrielle followed her eyes to the woman who had walked in the door after Iolaus. She was tall and regal, with dusky skin so smooth and creamy, Gabrielle felt her mouth water. And her eyes, gods! Huge, dark, widely spaced, and anything but innocent. She met Xena's stare and smiled a wide, toothy smile, as predatory as Xena's own.
Gabrielle's view was temporarily blocked as Xena stood, hips thrust forward, fingers twitching by her chakram. The other warrior slithered over to their table, her hips swaying in tight leather pants, bare skin flashing through the diamond cutouts that ran down the outer seam of each leg. As she closed with Xena, her eyes flicked to the chakram, then slid up her body, savoring the the solid muscle and raw power before her. She licked her lips and purred, "Forget the chakram, bring your whip."
Then they were kissing, deep and wet, twisting each other's hair, violently fucking each other's mouths. The whole tavern erupted in enthusiastic hoots and hollers, women shouting as loudly as the men. The two warriors stopped kissing long enough to scowl at their audience. They resumed as the whole tavern collapsed into silence and an engrossed study of their fingernails.
Gabrielle ducked a pair of mugs sent flying as Xena cleared the table to lay the other woman on it and stepped back into a firmly muscled chest and a hard erection pressing into her ass. She and the man jumped apart at the same time, mumbling embarrassed apologies.
Gabrielle looked up, "Oh, uh, Hi, Iolaus."
He was blushing furiously, "Uh, hi, Gabrielle. How's it going?"
Gabrielle ducked her head around, caught a glance of dark fingers groping Xena's creamy thighs, and jumped back to face Iolaus. "Well, you know life with Xena. Always an, uh, adventure."
"Yeah, I know what you mean." His eyes flicked to the moaning women, then back to Gabrielle. "By the way, that's Nebula."
Gabrielle peeked back at the couple on the table. She felt her mouth go dry as she watched their writhing limbs and thrusting hips. "Wow, she's, uh, she's..."
"Hot?"
Gabrielle turned back, one brow cocked in surprise. Iolaus blushed, "I'm sorry Gabrielle, I didn't mean to--"
She grinned at him, "Don't be. You're right, she *is* hot; incendiary even."
He looked a little relieved that she hadn't taken offense.
"Sometimes I wish I had some of that kind of sex appeal."
"Gabrielle, don't underestimate yourself. You're wonderfully--"
"Cute?" Iolaus looked ready to protest, but she continued, "No, I know I've got my good points...Xena loves my abs."
Iolaus eyed her lithe torso and had to agree with Xena on that one.
"But, just once, I wish I had those long legs," Iolaus nodded, knowing exactly how she felt, "or those bedroom eyesà." she smiled, hungrily eyeing the women again, "or maybe just once those hormones screaming 'Fuck me!' pouring from every orifice in my body."
Iolaus coughed and looked at Gabrielle in surprise. She started giggling, "Come on Iolaus, I couldn't travel with Xena for four years and be a complete innocent." He snickered, then they were both giggling together, leaning against each other and the wall.
Xena and Nebula had managed to introduce themselves and stood side by side, arms akimbo, watching their laughing companions. Xena cleared her throat, "We're getting a room. You two coming?"
When Iolaus and Gabrielle started laughing even harder, Xena rolled her eyes and added, "*Along*, that is?"
***
When they reached the room, Nebula's and Xena's eyes met over Iolaus' head; they grinned and each grabbed an arm, picking him up and bodily tossing him onto the bed.
"Hey, what's up--" Nebula effectively gagged him with her tongue while Xena tied his wrists to the headboard and began peeling his boots and pants off. She ran her nails down his legs, scoring his golden skin, enjoying the feel of his taut muscles writhing under her hands. Holding the base of his cock, she licked up it, her broad tongue lathing the head, then closing her lips to suck. She pressed the head against her palate, then pulled back quickly, lightly raking her teeth over his cock, ending with a sharp nip to the head. He yelped and pulled away from Nebula.
"Come now, Iolaus, don't play coy." Nebula pinched one of his nipples, pulling his torso into a beautiful arch. She pulled on his lower lip with her teeth, biting and growling, as he sinuously writhed under their greedy mouths and fingers. Nebula straddled Iolaus, kissing him, letting his tongue explore her mouth, wriggling her ass in it's tight black leather for Xena.
Xena pulled off Nebula's boots and trailed a feather-light tickle down the soles of her feet. Nebula jumped and look back over her shoulder. Xena gave her ass a resounding slap and growled, "I don't believe I gave you permission to stop."
Nebula narrowed her eyes and smiled a mean, sexy smile that promised retribution. She returned to kissing Iolaus, at first leisurely touches and caresses, lips brushing lips, tongues peeking out to lightly brush each other, brushing, licking, suckingàall to soon they were frantically thrusting into each other's mouths, searching, tasting every hollow, each hidden crevice.
Nebula moaned into Iolaus's mouth as she felt Xena's tongue caressing and teeth nipping the diamonds of flesh revealed by her pants. Alternately heating and cooling, soothing and biting, Xena reached her hips, then swooped down to bite the firm curve of her ass so hard her teeth nearly broke through the leather. Nebula arched and hissed caught between trying to get away from the pleasure-pain and trying to leave herself more open to Xena's touch.
Gabrielle was almost panting, watching Xena nuzzle Nebula's leather-clad cunt, one hand rubbing and squeezing Iolaus' cock, while Nebula played with his nipples. Gabrielle felt her labia swelling and her nipples throbbing against her blouse; she wanted to join in, she wanted to touch herself, she was terrified and overwhelmed, and...
"What's the matter, little girl?"
Gods, that voice! Gabrielle moaned and came just from that voice rippling down her spine to her nipples, her womb, her clit....She could feel his beard brush her face as he blew on her ear, raising the tiniest of hairs. She could smell him, ambrosia and musk and leather. Then she could smell herself as his fingers, thick and callused, probed her from behind, sliding easily between her wet labia, over her swollen clit, using her own moisture to slick his way into her ass. She shivered, feeling faint. He turned her to the wall, steering with his fingers in her cunt and his thumb in her ass.
The whip cracked just behind her ear, and his heat, his hand, were jerked painfully away.
"Back off, Ares! She's mine."
Gabrielle turned around to see Xena holding the whip wrapped around his neck as she hauled him against her chest and gritted the words in his ear. He smiled that evil fuck me smile and deliberately brought his fingers to his lips tasting Gabrielle's wetness, "Really? She was looking a little abandoned to me."
Xena's eyes flashed to Gabrielle, "She was free to join in, whenev--"
He took the opportunity to grab the whip, spinning with a god's speed, he bound her arms to her sides at the same time he unwound the end from his neck. Xena kicked up, flipping backwards to the bed, struggling to free her arms. Nebula grabbed the end of the whip and pulled it taut. She looped it over Xena's head, binding her even more securely. Xena's eyes widened as she glared at the pirate queen. Nebula leaned down to lick the curve of her ear and purred, "You know what they say, babe: Payback's a bitch!"
A stinging slap left a long-fingered print on the creamy skin of Xena's ass. With a growling yell, Xena redoubled her efforts to get free, arching and kicking, Nebula barely held her down as she freed one arm. In her flailing, she backhanded Iolaus, who shouted, "Hey! I'm just lying here! Bound, if you'll recall...?" Another flailing limb hit him and he decided to just shut up and enjoy the two women rolling around next to him, on him, over him, beside him...
"Ares! Get your ass over here and help me hold her down."
The War God smiled, "Oh, yeah!" He had been waiting far too long to get these two in bed together...How the Tartarus did the Sovereign manage it?!?! He took a running jump at the bed, making his, Nebula's and Xena's leathers disappear just before he landed. He grabbed Xena's arm and materialized a padded leather cuff, but she was moving too much for him to attach it.
He looked back at Gabrielle, who was panting again in a voyeuristic frenzy, eyes frozen to the image of her partner held writhing between the War God and the Pirate Queen.
"Gabrielle." His voice rumbled through her like thunder and lightning, playing on her skin and teasing her nerves to ecstasy. "Hold her legs down Gabrielle."
"Me?" She looked a little doubtful.
"Her?" Nebula sounded very doubtful.
Ares just grinned and slowly let his tongue glide over his sensuous lips.
Gabrielle took a running jump, landing facefirst between Xena's thighs, she didn't pause before she grabbed Xena's hips and began nuzzling, nipping and licking. She spread Xena's labia with her tongue, catching her clit between her teeth and shaking her head ever so lightly, reveling in the taste and scent of her lover. As Nebula began teasing and suckling a nipple, Xena arched back, grabbing the headboard with both hands, pressing her breast deeper into her mouth, spreading her legs wider as Gabrielle dove her tongue into her humid depths. Ares latched the cuff and nipped at her ear, letting his warm breath raise goosebumps along her scalp. He tongued the outer shell, then nibbled his way down her throat. He paused at the artery, feeling the blood course under his lips, then moved lower, the tip of his tongue flicking across her nipple before he closed his lips and pulled hard, suckling like a babe at her breast. They moved as one writhing mass of flesh and sensation, flexing, thrusting, and moaning in concert.
None of them heard Iolaus, pushed to the edge of the bed, shouting, "Guys?
Hey! Guys--"KKKKRAAAACKKK!
The entire world dropped a foot.
Nebula and Ares landed hard, their heads bumping, unconsciously biting down as they continued to pull and suckle the full breasts. Xena screamed as pleasure and pain seared from her nipples down to Gabrielle's tongue furiously fucking her vagina, sending a wave of shivering orgasm through her body.
Slowly, her scream faded to a sigh, her hips still lightly thrusting under Gabrielle's hands. Only then did she become aware of the ominous creaking of wood below them.
"Guys, I think maybe we should get out of here." Iolaus was sitting up, eyeing the groaning floor which was covered with the splintered remains of their bedstead. Much to his dismay the one part of the bedstead that remained intact was the part he was tied to.
The others looked somewhat dazedly at him. "Well? Do you really want to become the tavern's evening show?" Ares looked at Xena who looked at Nebula; they shrugged.
"Come on--" Another ominous crack and the bed settled another couple of inches.
"Xena?" Gabrielle came up looking a little panicked. She jumped as another crack sounded and they could hear yelling in the tavern below them.
Xena tugged at the leather cuff; it was somehow attached to something wedged between the bed and the wall. Nebula looked up and started to help her.
Iolaus pulled again at his bindings, "Ares, you can get us out of here." The God buffed his fingernails disinterestedly. "Come on, think about it, it can't be good for your reputation, I mean how scary will you be if people are sniggering about an orgy gone terribly wrong whenever you appear?"
The God shrugged his massive shoulders, "I don't know, I think people might be rather impressed by a man who fucked Xena through the floor...literally." He smiled a wolfish grin at the thought.
"Ares." Xena growled at him.
"Xena." He purred at her.
She glared at him.
The floor creaked and the bed dropped another inch. Iolaus gave up on the God's common sense and started looking for a knife he could reach with his toes.
Gabrielle tiptoed across the groaning boards to get her dinner knife; she freed Iolaus and he started sawing at Xena's cuff, only to have the leather turn to iron mid-saw.
All four turned and shouted, "Ares!"
He slouched back against a pillow, admiring the shift and flex of his own muscles. Pouting his entirely too full lips, he looked at Xena through his eyelashes. "But, what's in it for me?"
"The rest of you get out of here." With a hissed 'sonofacowfacedbacchae', Xena turned and started digging through the bedding, trying to free the post to which she was manacled. The others ignored her order and jumped to help her. They were shaken by a resounding crash and their half of the bed dropped a foot through the floor. Gabrielle fell into the wall and screamed, she could see straight into the tavern below.
Nebula stood up, glaring at Ares, "Alright, damnit, what do you want,
Ares?"He smiled, caressing his turgid cock, "You..."
"Done! Now get us out--"
"...*All* of you. For a week."
Iolaus and Gabrielle turned in amazement.
"All of us?"
"For a week?"
Ares just smiled and let the building creak again.
Part 2: Collecting Iphicles
The King of Corinth was not sleeping in the royal bedchambers; he was just lying there, wishing he could sleep. Insomnia sucked. He was just about to get up and begin preparations for the morning Council meeting, when his ears popped with a sudden air displacement. He heard vague rustling sounds in the far corner and reached for the sword he kept beside his bed."Uhhh, I feel seasick." A girl's voice--and by the sound of her, he hoped she found a chamberpot, quickly--followed by a sarcastic male voice, "All right, I give, where are we?"
Iolaus?!? What in Tartarus was he doing in Corinthàand sneaking around in his bedroom?
He heard a snap and every torch and candle in the room lit itself. He blinked in the sudden light, staring at the strange assembly before him. The women were nearest him. Two stood tall and proud: one dark and lean, her agile body honed like a blade; the other was light-skinned with glacial blue eyes. She was taller and broader than the others, the curves of a voluptue not quite hiding the hardened body of a warrior. The third was smaller and lighter, partially hidden between the other two. Suddenly she made a dash for a vase in the corner behind her; the blue-eyed warrior quickly followed to rub her back as she noisily retched into the vase. The other woman made a moue of distaste to her male companions, then stared curiously at him.
The men were stark contrasts to each other. Iolaus was small and golden, lithe and finely wrought as ever. But the other--he was tall and dark, dark eyes, dark hair, dark mien, with a body sculpted by Hephaestus himself. His limbs, torso, even his face, seemed solid, powerful, as precisely defined as rock, but when he moved, sinew and muscle shifted and flowed with the smooth power of a coursing river--he could lose himself in contemplation of that body, it's motion, it's...
"Iphicles!" Iolaus jumped behind the dark-haired man, muttering, "Just great, make a deal with a devil and of all places, we end up in Corinth. Herc's gonna' love this one."
Iphicles felt like giggling. Two men, three women, appear out of nowhere, all naked--well, the girl was clothed and Iolaus still had his vest, but that hardly registered against all that magnificent flesh...'hardly registered' is right. What a time for a hard-on--Iphicles, you're a perv.
"Iphicles, I have come for you." That voice *had* to belong to the big one.He did start giggling then; this had to be the weirdest dream he'd had in a while. Maybe Elinor had slipped him a sleeping potion on the sly, his steward knew he'd been having trouble sleep--
His head snapped back, his face burning with the imprint of a large, powerful hand. Someone had slapped him, the crack echoed through the chamberàbut no one had moved.
"You aren't sleeping, you weren't drugged, and this isn't a dream. I *am* here. For you. Now." The deep voice vibrated with repressed impatience. A shiver ran down Iphicles' back as he contemplated the being before him. Just what he needed: another god fucking around with his life. He wondered which one it was.
"Guess." The big guy was starting to sound a little pissed off.
He would have thought Cupid or Bacchus would be more inclined to run around with a troop of beautiful naked people, but in the end there really was only one god with whom he could reconcile with that saturnine face and seductive hostility. "Ares."
"Good guess, now, get over here."
"Ares, what are you playing at here?" The dark eyed woman spoke in a suspicious purr. The other woman looked up; her blue eyes narrowed, but she was distracted when the blond started retching again.
"Nothing much, I'm just collecting the last player for our party. Like you, he too owes me a debt."
Iolaus popped back around, facing the god, "Hold on a minute here, Iphicles doesn't have anything to do with--"
A snap and Iolaus was gagged. "And what would you know of what favors traffic between gods and kings, little man?" Iolaus pulled at the gag, still blocking Ares' path. When Ares slapped him out of his way, the dark-skinned woman started to intervene, then suddenly froze. Ares gave her a slight smile, brow cocked, then playfully shook his finger at her, "Uh, uh. One week. Mine." She growled, nostrils flaring, as she realized her body was frozen in place.
Ignoring the others, Ares turned back to Iphicles. "Now, back to kings and gods and favors, and favors have indeed been granted, haven't they, O victorious King?"
Iphicles cautiously stood, letting the sheet slide off his nude form, keeping his hand on his sword, "Corinth has made generous sacrifices at your temples, Ares, as it does all the gods. If you required more, you had merely to instruct your priests..."
"I do require more, and not for my priests." Ares stalked to the king, eyes glittering, his long cock swelling. Toe to toe, they were nearly of the same height and breadth, but the king's light hair and amber eyes a stark contrast to the god's dark coloring. Holding the king's glance with his dark eyes, Ares grabbed his wrist, pulling the sword from his grasp and tossing it on the bed. He turned up the king's palm; lifting it to his mouth, he licked the salt-sweat gathered there, his tongue tracing the long lines and life patterns of his palm. Hot wet breath on his palm, his wrist, tonguing his pulse, fire up his arm. Iphicles shuddered with lust. It hit like a shock of cold water, tightening his nipples and speeding his pulse.
"Come with me."
Ignoring his screaming cock, he whispered, "I can't. I have responsibilities."
Ares growled and yanked him close, crushing their hard cocks together. One hand at the king's throat, the other twisting his hair, he whispered, "Would it make it easier if I threatened you? Your armies are strong and you are a skilled leader, but without the favor of the God of War.... How long before Argos, Megara and Karakis fall on you like jackals smelling blood? Can you hold them all off together when they hear the God of War has disdained you?"
Iphicles screamed his fury and broke free. He charged like a bull, crushing Ares against the stone wall. Ares easily shook him off, then punched him, and punched him again. Impressed that the king was still standing, he grinned and backhanded him onto the bed. Straddling Iphicles' hips and holding his arms above his head, Ares taunted, "So tell me, O King, was that a yes or a no?"
Growling curses, Iphicles arched, trying to throw the god off. Ares merely wrapped his legs more firmly around the king's torso and tightened his grip on his wrists. When the struggles slowed, Ares leaned down to lick his ear. "Well?"
Iphicles felt that voice in his soul. It rumbled through his shaking body, vibrating in his bones and cock--but he'd be damned before he hung his city's fortune on the pleasures of a god.
Respect and annoyance briefly vied for control of Ares' face, then nothing. Finally, lust won out and he leaned closer, letting his beard caress the king's high cheekbones, his forehead, dipping down to his chin, licking his lips, whispering, "But would you risk your city's fortune on the *displeasure* of a god?"
Kissing, his beard tickling the king's full lips, teasing them apart, forcing his tongue inside, dueling the other tongue, sucking it into his mouth, inviting it into his body. He pressed himself lower, his legs spread wide. Feeling the king's weeping cock brush his anus, he arched and moaned, thrusting his cock against the stomach beneath him.
Tearing his mouth free, Ares bit into the king's shoulder, chewing and sucking, then growling into his ear, "Say 'yes', King. Give me your life--your cock--for one week. No strings attached. None will know you're gone--I'll see to it. No future effects, not for you, not for Corinth."
Iphicles was shivering on the edge of orgasm, that taut body writhing over his, ass teasing his cock, words teasing his mind, that knowing tongue licking fire through his bones, his chest, his nipples. Bones and sinew tensed to breaking, and just the thought, the mere thought, "Yes" and he felt the dam break, resistance melt and his body erupt in the liquid fire of release.
"Yes," barely whispered before he passed out.
Part 3
One instant they were in Corinth, a breath later, they were in a huge firelit room. At one end was a large fur-covered bed, strewn about them in front of the fireplace were several large pillows and divans. Sumptuous rugs and tapestries covered the stone floors and walls, overall, everything was luxurious, but dark, browns, reds, and black with only a hint of gold here and there.Strangely enough, the effects of the displacement were worse when they arrived in the firelit hall than when they had arrived in the pitch black of the king's chambers in Corinth. It wasn't so much an awareness of physical movement as a trick of the eyes, seeing one reality disappear and another appear around them. Several of them staggered or swayed in an attempt to maintain their balance. Gabrielle grabbed onto Xena for balance.
Nebula took a step back and called, "Hey, Ares! You got a spare urn around here?"
He looked at Gabrielle, a hint of laughter in his face, "She won't need it."
"Hey, it's your rug." Nebula shrugged.
"No, he's right, my stomach feels fi---" She broke off, eyes narrowing as she glared at the war god. "You! You, you let me.no, you *made* me sick last time, didn't you. You were just sitting there laughing your ass off. You, you mangy, overgrown excuse for a god!" Gabrielle stalked towards him, sputtering, one fist raised.
He didn't look too worried, actually he looked rather amused, especially when Xena grabbed her by the back of her bilious green top and yanked her back. He laughed, "Spunky, isn't she?"
"Spunky?!? Spunky, I'll---Xena, let me go!"
"Gabrielle, calm down, he was probably just trying to distract---<snerk>" The rest of the sentence was lost in an ill-concealed snicker. Gabrielle glared at her lover and wrenched her top free from her grasp.
Ares spoke up, laughter underlying his tone, "Now, now, Gabrielle, she's right you know. Otherwise I would have had to glue you all to the floor from the getgo."
"Oh, and in some bizarre corner of your brain, it was preferable to have me puking my guts into a royal heirloom than to just immobilize us all for a little while?"
She was standing nose to chest with him, glaring less-than-intimidatingly into the vicinity of his adam's apple. He shrugged, "Guess so."
With an inarticulate scream of frustration, Gabrielle spun around and stalked out of the chamber.
Xena tried to grab her before she left, but Gabrielle shook her off and continued out the door.
"No Gabby-nookie for you and me tonight, eh, Xena?" Ares was standing right behind her, his warm breath blowing against her ear.
She punched a sharp elbow into his solar plexis, smiling at the pained 'whoosh' as the breath was knocked out of him.
"You couldn't have just given her a sneezing fit?" Xena looked a little disgruntled as she settled onto one of the divans. She leaned back, arms crossed under her breasts.
Iolaus and Nebula broke their quiet conversation, Iolaus saying, "Maybe I should go talk to her."
"Don't bother." They all looked suspiciously at Ares; he rolled his eyes, "You are all *so* paranoid.She's probably run into Iphicles by now." The others looked around, surprised to realize that the king had ducked out while Gabrielle was sputtering at Ares. "As they both *currently* despise me, they should get along great." His teeth flashed in a predatory grin; he seemed to be taking undue pleasure at that turn of events.
"What makes you think we don't despise you also?" Nebula's voice dripped rancor.
Ares just grinned wolfishly at her, "It doesn't really matter with you, does it?"
She looked affronted, then shrugged. He was right. Lust and sex were in their own section of her mind, locked away in their own hot little box, far, *far*, away from more troublesome things like honor, respect, discretion..She really was a pirate at heart: When she saw something she wanted, she took it; however, whenever and as many times as she wanted. And she wanted this god---but not yet, no, not yet. Oh, yes, she wanted his cock, thick and hard, thrusting inside her---but he could wait. She smiled at the thought. Those sensuous lips would be begging.his tongue, his mouth---he *would* wait, damnit, and he would be desperate for it. Kneeling, on hands and knees.his hands.gods, those hands, large and powerful, fingers long and callused, they could span her waist, tease her body, crush her bones.
"Nghh." With a quick shake of her head, she clicked her mouth shut and growled, "Come here, Blondie!" She grabbed Iolaus' cock, letting him feel her nails as she pulled him close. His eyes widened in surprise, then lust as she crushed her mouth against his. Tongue delving deep into his mouth, pulling and sucking, then thrusting in time to his cock sliding between her thighs, already wet with her musk and his pre-cum.
She looked down at their bodies, loving the sight of his golden skin against her creamy darkness, his tight pink nipples rubbing her dusky breasts, his golden hair abrading her black curls. He ducked to suck one of her long, dark nipples into his mouth, teasing it with his lips, then his teeth, and finally his tongue. He pulled hard, his mouth a long, dark tunnel, sucking a line of electric sensation straight from her cunt through her nipple. Each flick of his tongue, each nip of his teeth, thrummed that line of sensation, setting ripples of pleasure loose in her body.
"Oh yeah, baby," she moaned. She loved his body, his smile, his heart, but right now she loved his height and his long, hard cock just meeting the juncture of her thighs. They stood toe-to-toe, his thrusting cock just spreading her labia and rubbing her clit against her pubic bone. Rubbing and sucking, harder, faster, writhing, thrusting, bodies screaming with need. "Harder, damnit!".
Nails raking his shoulders, she screamed and arched her back, pressing her legs together, squeezing his cock against her clit. That final pressure was too much. A series of electric shocks cascaded through her body, each building on the other until white heat fired her synapses, blinding her, leaving her shaken, dazed, loosely falling to her knees. His cum and hers melted down her legs as they collapsed together and passed out.
***
"Wow."
Xena jumped at his voice, half surprised to find her hand between her legs, pulling at her clit. Images of Nebula and Iolaus seared into her mind, as she lay back on the divan and dreamily raised her hand to her face. Tracing her fingers along her dry lips, she smelled her arousal, then licked them, tasting her own cum. Ares leaned in to lick her lips, tangling his tongue with hers.
She slapped him with her cum soaked hand, marking him with her scent and driving him away.
"Tease."
"Pig."
Neither could work up enough energy to put much heat into the insults.
He sat back on his heels and smiled a small smile, his teeth barely showing.
Xena looked at him speculatively through her black bangs, "I should warn Gabrielle."
He arched a brow, "Of what?"
Half her mouth slid into a sly, reluctant smile, "That she's falling into your trap."
"Oh?" Reaching over, he measured the width of her throat with one hand, then skimmed from the points of her collarbone down over her breasts, the tips of his thumb and forefinger just brushing her nipples. He sucked on
his other thumb, slowly savoring the taste and feel of his own salty flesh as he pulled it out between his pursed lips. He knelt to circle her nipple with his wet thumb, then blew, tightening it to a hard peak. His eyes flicked back to hers, catching her lost in the play of his hands. He whispered low and deep, his throat vibrating against her chest, "She is going to be so hot when she finally gives in."She undulated and broke into a feral grin, "Oh yeah."
His fingers traced down her torso to brush through thick black pubic hair, tugging slightly at her labia. He straddled her hips and sat lightly on her legs, still running his hands over her body. Goose bumps and shivers of sensation rippled across her in the wake of his light touches; then he wasn't even touching her, just gliding his fingers above her skin, the mere energy of his passing enough to rouse her sensitive flesh. Her eyes were closed, lips slightly parted, breath shallow; her mind and body were totally absorbed in the featherlight sensations. This was what he loved about her, what he missed: her absolute sensual awareness...in battle, in bed, in life.
He leaned forward to rest on his hands next to her head. She arched, teasing his cock against her firm stomach, letting the crisp hair on his thighs and chest rasp against her hips and tighten her nipples. He felt the dark cloud of her pubis tickling his scrotum and shuddered.
"It's been a long time, Xena."
"Hmmm?" Even with her eyes closed, lost in the scent and feel of pleasure, one brow arched a question.
He smiled and leaned down to kiss her. His tongue darted out to quickly trace her lips. Her own tongue snuck out to follow his, barely kissing it before he pulled away.
"Not in this body. But we have been together, many times, in many ways...Melatus, Chairicon, Melia, Lydia, Kolya, even Borias--my lovers, my students, and at times, my avatars."
Xena's eyes opened wide and her body stiffened as he spoke. She remembered them all, her own lovers and allies...and mentors. Borias, beautiful...barbarian, he had been nearly as wild as she; she could still feel his hard body beneath her, behind her, next to her, fighting and fucking and fucking and fighting. It was the same to her then, but slowly, imperceptibly, he tamed her feral bloodlust and taught her the rudiments of strategy. Melatus and Melia, dark twins from Sparta, who had slowly built on those rudiments, teaching her ever more complex weapons and tactics. Kolya, who had taken the control Lao Ma had tried to teach her and given it a focus in violence and war. Chairicon who taught her to read and manipulate the hearts and minds of others, making her into a cunning leader and ever more fearsome warlord. And then there was Lydia. Lydia had been the most dangerous of all. She had just appeared one day, unarmed, carrying only the deceptively simple board game of her Persian homeland:
Shach. Using its carved kings and queens, horses and castles, they had played out the fates of innumerable villages and towns. Lydia played games, and she taught Xena to do the same, playing on boards, on the ground, in battle, and in the minds and bodies of those around her.She shuddered as the names and the bodies spread in an endless line before her mind's eye.
A quick twist and they were falling, Xena landing on Ares. She knelt over him, her blue eyes nearly as dark as his, feral anger flowing like a current under her skin, "And Cortese? Tell me about Cortese."
"He was one of mine, too."
The heel of her hand punched into his breastbone with enough force to break the bone and crush the heart of a mortal. "Why?" The word turned into a howl in her mind, echoing in her heart.
"Because it was meant to be, Xena."
She couldn't hear his answer over the silent wail echoing in her soul, *Why? Why? Why?* It was her eternal, all-consuming question. Her fingers dug in around his heart, starting to break the skin. She remembered the pain of Lyceus' death, her family's rejection, Caesar's betrayal...and then her betrayals, Borias, Lao Ma, Cyan. Memory was a physical pain that left her panting, desperate to change it, force it out, return it a thousand-fold to the world that had given her this pain, this memory.
"...it was meant to be, Xena."
Then, the image of Gabrielle, but not her Gabrielle, the other one---an abused slave turned wanton murderer, consumed first with fear, then vengeance and bloodlust. And she knew what the Fates had tried to tell her so long ago...she knew why. She had resented it, hated it. She still did. She knew why...but it brought no comfort.
"The hardest fates fall on those best able to bear them."
"Yes," his eyes looked almost sympathetic. It was a strange, almost disturbing expression, one she'd never seen on him before.
"And you, Ares, is your fate hard?"
His eyes slid away, evasive and angry, then shifted back to meet hers, "Yes." A near-silent exhalation, that she felt in her soul more than she heard.
She eased her arms, letting her body slowly relax into his until she lay on him completely, her legs on his legs, her cheek resting on his breast. His arms rose and he held her, more like a father than a lover.
After a while, he felt her lips quirk against his chest and she spoke with that familiar ironic twist, "You know, if you keep this up, people are going to think you're going soft."
He lightly pulled on her hair, lifting her head to meet his solemn eyes, "Not a chance, Xena. I am still the god of war."
She answered, equally serious, "And I'm still a warrior."
He smiled, lowering his eyes; his expression suddenly changed from deadly serious to sensual lust.
She rolled her eyes and growled, "Pig."
He rubbed his hardening groin against her belly and purred, "Yeah, but you like me like that."
She slowly sat up, pulling herself up vertebra by vertebra, stretching and scrunching her back at the same time, like a cat. He just watched, enjoying the play of muscle and sinew across her abdomen and through her limbs.
She leaned forward, measuring her palms against his chest. Each pectoral was broader than her fully stretched hand and formed of hard muscle that flexed, and became harder still as she brushed over his nipples. She circled the nipples with her index fingers, then tugged at the black hairs that swirled around them, finally, she swooped down to lick and suckle each as they tightened into hard, red pebbles. She would suckle one, teasing with her tongue, nipping with her teeth as her fingers slowly circling the other nipple with faster, lighter and sharper strokes until he bucked and moaned. Then she would switch and start all over again.
He was panting, writhing and arching his hips, trying to press his weeping cock against her belly, his belly, anything godsdamnit! But she just sat further up, away from his hips, focused solely on his oversensitized nipples. They were hard and red, nearly chapped from her attentions, but she never stopped, never even paused. Pleasure and frustration turned into maddening pain, especially as he smelled her musk flooding over them, mixing with the scent of his desperation. He snarled and rolled them over, his eyes black and furious with need, he thrust his hips into her.
She stopped him. Clenching her thighs around his hips, she held him just short of her cunt and smiled, enjoying his frustration. One brow arched, her own voice a husky snarl, she asked, "What now, Ares?"
He growled and pulled back, then grabbed her ankles, tossing her legs over his shoulders and bending her knees to her head, he thrust into her fast and hard. With a high shout and a feral grin she arched her back, pulling him deeper. Then he was mindlessly thrusting, setting a hard, fast rhythm that she met and bettered. Their ferocity fed off each other, until they were a single clawing, biting, undulating body with one mind, one will, one goal as he pounded into her.
The pressure building in his balls as her powerful body clenched around his cock was unbearable. But he held on, growling and biting his lip, he circled his hips, wrenching an ululating scream from her as she came. His mouth ached with the need to bite her, the need to mark her, to finally feel her flesh give way to his teeth, his cock, his body. His teeth latched on to the smooth white curve of her breast, pulling and sucking. He tasted blood and pulled harder, knowing his mark would last. Feeling her internal muscles surge with a new orgasm, he thrust harder and deeper. His entire body was clenched and shaking with tension before he exploded, flooding her with his hot semen. He moaned as one last shuddering orgasm rippled through her vagina, milking his cock, then it dissipated through her body, ending as a slight shiver in her fingers and toes.
Her body still shook with residual orgasmic pulses as he collapsed onto her. He was barely aware of her legs lowering to cradle his hips or the taste of his blood mixed with hers on his lips, as he fell into a dreamless sleep.
Part 4
When they first materialized in Ares' Hall, Iphicles slithered out the first door he found and blindly marched down a hallway, cursing himself for acting like a bitch in heat. He couldn't believe he had given himself--forget that, he had given his entire kingdom to Ares --as easily as a guttersnipe whore offered a dinar. Ares had promised that no one would know he was missing; Iphicles really didn't want to think about what that could mean."Goatfucking son of a bitch!" He punched one of the doors lining the hall, splitting the skin over his knuckles. He unconsciously licked the blood as he looked into the blackness on the other side of the doorway. He couldn't see
anything, so he stepped through...and ended up back in the hallway. The cracked door with his blood on it was just behind him. He paused and consciously looked around himself for the first time. Only periodically lit by torches, the hallway was dank and dark and seemed to have been carved out of the heart of a mountain rather than built. And it was endless, all he could see was door after door after door, stretching beyond the limits of his sight in both directions."Fucking gods and their labyrinths." He started opening other doors that lined the hall. They all led lead nowhere--literally. He stepped through door after door, always ending up in the hallway, in front of the same door he'd just stepped through, the only difference being the increase in his frustration.
Then suddenly one door opened onto the outside world. The sudden wash of sunlight and the scent of grass and trees were so refreshing that he didn't even wonder how a forest could stretch out in all directions from a hallway lined with doors, nor did he question why, at a little after midnight, the sun was at high noon, he just stepped through the door and started walking. At first he just absorbed the pleasant heat of the sun on his back, he stretched, flexing tense muscles and feeling the soothing warmth roll down his body in waves. The bright green grass under his bare feet was equally pleasant after the cold stone of the hall. He began to have hope that he might find his way back to Corinth before something went irreversibly wrong.
After the third sapling whipped his ass as he passed, he decided he might have done better to go back for a sheet or fur to wear...but for the life of him he couldn't find the damned door. He looked up at the sun and growled; it hadn't
moved in all the time he had been tramping through this damned forest. Some of the trees looked familiar, but he couldn't be sure where he was; he couldn't find any of his own tracks and with the sun unnaturally stuck at high noon he couldn't even tell in what direction he was walking.After another hour of wandering, he heard a strange sound: an arhythmic thumping and thrashing, occasionally punctuated by a human voice. He was amazed at how much relief he felt at finally hearing another human voice. It wasn't a particularly happy voice, indeed the woman sounded downright pissed off. But beggars can't be choosers, so with a brief prayer that he wasn't about to run into a harpy, he headed for the voice.
It was the girl from his room, the one who had been sick. She was in a small clearing, expertly thrashing an oak tree with an Amazon staff. Standing amidst the others, she had seemed like a child or even a doll, so he was a little surprised to realize she was quite good--and that she most certainly did not have the body of a child. Finely wrought muscles rippled down her back and legs as she smoothly swung the staff through a series of blocks into a powerful overhead strike that sent bark flying, then she turned and stood with her feet spread wide, furiously shaking her staff at the sky.
"...arrogant, egotistical, oversexed, cock-brained, asshole of a god! Do you hear me, Ares? You can just go fu--" Then she saw him. Her mouth shut with an audible click, at the same time her hands dropped to her sides and her feet narrowed to a demurely girlish stance. "Uh, hi."
He stepped forward, "Hello."
She started to smile, then her face froze. She blushed even more furiously, her eyes glued somewhere below his belly-button. Jumping back and grabbing a branch to cover himself with, he missed seeing her quickly lick her lips. Suddenly the branch was ripped out of his hands.
"No, wait, don't! It's pretty--I mean, poison, poison! I saw poison sumac..." she looked down at the decidedly poison sumac-free branch and tossed it behind her, "...around here somewhere...Still it's not something you want to risk. Once I--I mean I knew someone who used the wrong leaf once--behind a bush, you know...It was terrible. Itching for weeks afterwards...After that, I really couldn't blame Xena for using my scrolls."
"Uh, maybe there's some over there..." She looked ready to run away, so he grabbed her, hauling her back around to face him. He felt a thrill of excitement as he watched her eyes slip down his chest, then jerk back up; her nostrils flared a little and her tongue slid out to wet her lips. He could almost feel that sharp pink tongue circling his tight nipples, and gods, hers were hard, too, standing out against the rough cloth of her top. After a while, he realized she was staring into his eyes, pointedly ignoring where he was staring. She shook her arm in his tight grasp and he let go.
Now it was his turn to blush, "Uh, sorry, about that...maybe I should go off in a different direction."
"No! I mean, it's not like I don't hang around with people who are wont to run around naked all the time anyway, I should be used to it by now. Besides, I've been wandering for a couple of hours now by myself and, uh...do you know how to get back to the hall? "
He grimaced. "It *should* be right around here. I've been backtracking for hours, it has to be here...somewhere."
"Oh." She nodded, then jerked her eyes back up to his face again. They stood a little awkwardly for a few moments more. She held her chin uncomfortably high, resolutely not letting her eyes slip, while he wished she were a little taller so he could check her out without being completely obvious.
"By the way, my name is Gabrielle." She put out her hand, jabbing him in the stomach just above his groin, "Oh, I'm sorry!" She bent to examine the scratch and her long hair fell over her shoulder, caressing his cock. He was suddenly consumed with the image of her kneeling before him, teasing him, wrapping his cock in a silken web of golden hair. When his cock hardened at the image, she jerked upright, "Oh, my!" Her wide eyes managed to grow even wider and more shocked. //Fuck.// Just his luck to be stuck the gods only knew where, naked, with a virginal cocktease.
Before she could run off again, he quickly grabbed her hand and kissed it in the formal court manner, "I'm Iphicles, King of Corinth." //And cosmic practical joke.//
She nodded, keeping her eyes glued to his, "I know."
His brow quirked a question and her blush returned with a vengeance, "Ares, uh, kind of made it clear who you were.".
His cock twitched at the memory, but his face darkened and he snarled, "I can't believe I let him play me like that."
"You shouldn't blame yourself. He's a god. Worse, he's tricky. At least you've never met him before *and* you only got yourself caught. This is the second time he's tricked me into something--maybe the third, it's hard to tell, you know? What's worse, it's my fault all the rest of them are here." She ended on a sigh, her expression rapidly shifting from entreaty to annoyance to dismay.
"Oh, that explains it..." She looked a little affronted and he quickly continued, "I mean, this doesn't really seem like Iolaus," //except for the part about the three naked women// "being with Ares, that is. But if he thought someone" //especially a naked woman// "was in trouble..."
She looked a little annoyed, then bit her lip and sighed again, "Yeah, I know. But there were...extenuating circumstances. Still, he wouldn't be here--none of them would be here, if I hadn't jumped--umm, ok, well, it was kind of an or--er, ok, the floor was falling and if I'd just left, the others probably wouldn't have, ummm, agreed to his terms. But you know, they don't always have to be so protective..."
//The floor was falling?// Judging from the blush spreading from her face down her chest--damn, but those breasts pretty much defined perky--there was a bit more to the story, and she didn't want to tell it. Curiosity overcoming politeness, he half-opened his mouth to ask a question, but she blurted out, "Look, it's a long story and it's all my fault, ok?"
She turned and started marching off into the forest, calling over her shoulder, "Let's go this way!"
His mouth still hung open like a fish as he watched her disappear into the foliage. He quickly jogged to catch up to her then slowed his pace to match hers. She was nearly a foot shorter than him, but walked with a quick step, as though used to keeping up with someone faster or taller than herself. Something that she had said earlier niggled in his brain at that thought. //What was it?// He heard her exclaim from ahead and he dropped the thought to catch up
with her.***
They were back in the same clearing where they met. She was desperately looking around the clearing--examining trees, bushes, anything but him. But sometimes she slipped and her green eyes slid back across his body, then jumped away and she'd blush furiously and start babbling about something new. He smiled, then he almost giggled; he couldn't help it, she was ridiculous...but cute.
"Gods! I'm so huuuungry!" He really tried to ignore the way her voice deepened and exaggerated the word, the way his cock twitched as she groaned in mock pain, the way her constant blush was having a very nice effect on her breasts, plumping them, tightening her nipples against the dark cloth of her top. She would look like that when she came, flushed and panting, hard nipples and rippling abs, round thighs wrapped around him, her heels digging into his ass as he thrust into--
He shivered as her hungry eyes finally focused on his. Her face was eager and she panted slightly. Her mouth open, she licked her lips. He didn't breath as she approached, reaching up to grab his-- "Iphicles, do you think these berries are edi--Oh my!"
//Huh? What? Shit!// His eyes jumped back to her face...unfortunately, his eyes weren't the only thing that jumped up...not that it was unpleasant, having his cock rub against her bare torso... //Fuck, stop daydreaming, you idiot.// Now it was his turn to blush and red heat suffused his face and chest--courtly manners 101 had definitely not covered this situation. Regrettably, the rearrangement of blood did nothing to calm his heavy cock.
He backed off, "Maybe I should go and find someth--"
He was lost, frozen, watching as her hand slid up her stomach and slicked in the drops precum left by his cock. She lightly sniffed, then, closing her eyes, she tasted him. In slow motion, her pink tongue slid out, whipped a salty drop off her finger tip, then curled back into her mouth.
He was panting, his cock rock hard and throbbing against his stomach. He had never seen a woman so totally absorbed in the taste of a man's cum--in the taste of *his* cum. Her expression was so serene, so beatific...and all he wanted was to lift her onto his cock and fuck her against a tree. She was so tiny, he could bend and wrap her around his body any way he wanted. He leaned against a tree, letting the bark dig into his forearm, imagining it cushioning her back as he forced his way into her and pounded her into the tree. His tried not to pull on his cock; he'd thrust fast and hard, she would be so fucking tight... He was grunting like an animal, ready to scream, he ground his arm into the tree, then twisted, letting the bark tear over his shoulder to his back, rasping his buttocks, imagining her nails as she ripped into him, pain and pleasure exploding as his hips jerked and thrust into his squeezing fist.
Then he was frozen again, breath stolen, mouth agape, picture of a madman raping himself. Eyes still closed, her tongue curled out to taste him again, delicately lapping her fingers, like a cat discovering cream. He fingered the weeping slit of his own cock, brought it to his mouth and tasted the same bitter salt she tasted. She sucked her fingers in, wrapping her tongue around them, savoring his taste. //Fuck, little girl, there's more where that came from.//
He took two strides, fisted one hand in her hair, the other under her ass and pulled her up to his mouth. He kissed her deep and hard, forcing his way in and ravaging her with his tongue. When her legs wrapped around his waist he backed her into a tree, grinding his hips into the folds of her skirt, growling into her mouth as his desperately seeking cock barely brushed her ass. Fuck! She was too short to kiss and fuck at the same time. But he didn't want to let go, he didn't want to stop kissing her, he didn't want to see that blissed out serenity while he grunted and rutted between her legs like an animal.
Suddenly Gabrielle's legs were lifted, her cunt pulled tighter against him, and a strange heat, weight...mass settled behind him. He jumped at the scalding tongue that rimmed his ear, followed by sharp teeth nipping, then biting hard and pulling the lobe. Never breaking the kiss, he arched back, squirming against metal studs that scored his already-raw back, and a hot leather-bound cock that pressed into his ass. He shivered and almost jumped away as the beard teased his cheek and that voice, gods, that fucking voice, husked in his ear, "Well, well, well, isn't this a nasty little scene."
Ares' hot tongue slid down the plane of his cheek to his mouth, tracing their lips, still sealed together. Then he was invading, taking over her mouth, weaning her away; at the same time he reached around to grasp Iphicles' cock, pulling up then palming the head, his callused knuckles brushing her clit. Gabrielle stilled and started to struggle. Ares pressed harder into Iphicles' ass, forcing them flat against the tree. One hand held her mouth to his, the other pulled harder at Iphicles' cock, nails scraped over the glans, fingers teased and pulled at her lips, mixing their juices, so they were both hot and wet--then it was gone, leaving them both writhing. She searched his abdomen for
anything hard to rub her engorged clit against, he humped the air below her ass--if he could just catch the head in her cunt, her ass, anywhere...if he could just fucking cum.Then the heat was gone and he heard Ares' deep laughter behind him. "Having a little logistical difficulty, O King?"
With a roar, Iphicles turned, letting Gabrielle fall in a dazed, writhing, heap.
"Perhaps, you should ask the Warrior Princess for advice, I hear she's found numerous ways around that little problem."
Iphicles slowly circled the god. Black leather tightened over supple muscles as Ares crouched into a fighting stance. He felt like a primitive stalking its prey, but he wanted nothing more than to pounce and thrash the arrogant bastard. His cock throbbed at the image of him grinding the god's face in the dirt as he pounded into his ass, biting his neck like a cat in heat, forcing blood and cum from his body.
"Iphicles, don't! It's just--" Gabrielle sounded weak and breathless...and hungry.
"I know, Gabrielle." //It's just what the manipulative bastard wants.// But, gods! The image of the god struggling under him, his blood on his hands, in his mouth. Iphicles mouth flooded with the coppery saliva of battle and lust. "He must think me a fool, to think I'd fall the same way twice." Iphicles could read it in his eyes: even if he did win this time, the minute he started to win, the god would have him trussed like a Solstice goose, spread and ready for fucking. "But I'm not a fool." The words were painfully ground out, but he forcibly relaxed his stance and gave a tight, feral smile to Gabrielle.
To his surprise, Ares relaxed and smiled broadly--much too broadly for their comfort. "Well, now that that's over, anybody want breakfast?"
"Breakfast?" They stared at Ares in amazement. Iphicles was hot, his cock uncomfortably hard; Gabrielle's body thrummed with barely controlled lust and anger.
"But of course, it's just after sunrise in the mortal lands, I'd think you'd be hungry by now." Ares grinned even more. Iphicles shook his head and looked at Gabrielle; she looked equally bemused. Ares in 'happy host' mode really did not fit. The grin turned just a little bit evil, "Besides, without me, you'll never get out of here."
"Why not?" Gabrielle's voice was firm and tinged with suspicion.
"Because this is my world, little girl, and for the next six days you're mine."
Gabrielle picked up her staff, glaring at the god. "If I hear one more 'little girl' I'm going to--"
And they were gone.
TBC 
