Ain't Shady Baby, I'm Hot

97

"Xena! Xena, where are you?" She whipped around, looking for the source of the calls.

"I'm here! Hello?" She called back staring into the grey mist. The ground beneath her was mossy and cold. Green surrounded her as she stood in a foggy forest. Cold nipping at her skin. Her black slip dress the only thing covering her form. Her bare feet grounding her.

"Xena! Honey! Oh please tell me she's here." She turned her head again, her hair whirling around her as she spun. The voice now recognizable.

"Mom! I'm here!" The female tried to move. But she was stuck. Her feet firmly planted in the ground. Her once comforting thought of feeling the ground below her now grew to fear.

"Xena! We need you! Where are you?"

"Xena! Please help!"

"Kie? Pope!" She called out desperately yanking her legs with her hand. Begging them to move.

"She's not coming guys!"

"She left us. She doesn't care. She got what she wanted."

"She's with my brother. She chose him."

"She picked him over John B."

"Him over us."

"B, JJ, Sarah, no! It's not- it's not true!" She cried out, "just, just hold on! I'm coming!"

"There's no use fighting it." Her voice caught in her throat. Her eyes closed as she heard the same voice continue. Her body tensing up. "We all know you pretend to pretend. But I see through it. We all do."

"No." She shook her head willing herself not to listen. A barking laugh came from behind her. Heat rising, steam hissing as she kept her eyes shut.

"You left your Pogues. You abandoned them, all for me." The young woman was whisked away. A tug at her center as the scene shifted. A whirl of color spiraling, spinning faster and faster until her hand and waist were gripped.

Her eyes snapping open as her legs began to move. But she wasn't in control. She looked up, up into the eyes of a masked stranger. Navy blue and black shield the blue and grey amused swirls.

Not a stranger. Not anymore.

"See from their eyes, Darling. You with their enemy. Dancing." He spun her around her eyes seeing her friends as they stood in a group. Anger seeping from them as they watched with folded arms. "Sneaking around with. Living together. Flirting. Touching. Sleeping with. Kissing."

"I'm being blackmailed!" She shouted trying to pull free but she couldn't. She was trapped.

"You weren't blackmailed before. Your wicked heart letting you fall apart. You willingly opened your door. You willingly offered me time. Your bed. Your home. But better yet, you willingly gave me you." The masked male had spun her around. Trapping her to his chest as she could do nothing but watch her Pogues slowly disappear into black smoke. "Your heart. Your mind. You've given me the ability to consume you." His whispered sent a shiver up her spine and a tug in her gut. His hand rising to her neck as he cupped her throat.

"Tell me, Xena. Have you ever fantasized about us before? About finally giving in to this? This feeling?"

"No." It was weak as his hand snuck down from her waist and slowly trailed along her stomach.

"It's not good to lie, Darling. After all, I'm in your head." He squeezed her throat as his lips met her skin. Her head lulling to the side as her eyes shut. Her body out of her control as she became a puppet to thoughts she tried to hide. His hands pulling the strings.

"You and I aren't so different. Moral-less. Alone. Broken. Craving. Damaged." His hand tugged her closer with each word.

"All you have to do is tell me you're mine. You already know that I'm the only one who will ever be enough to set you alight." His voice low and raspy in her ear. Teeth teasingly dragging along her neck. His fingertips dancing along her lower stomach. The thin ash grey dancing gown nothing as his fingers burned through the material. "To help you burn."

"You- you killed someone, Rafe. You killed Sheriff Peterkin." A moan slipped from her lips as he suckled a soft spot at her neck.

"You've always loved the morally grey characters." The ballroom twisted into a bedroom. "Why fight what your soul craves?" An extravagant gold, grey, black, and white design interior as she was trapped against a wall. Hands at her hips. Her shirt pulled up to her chest as a mouth kissed down her stomach.

"Just three words. Three words and I'll take you away."

"I can't." He bit down on the skin of her stomach. "I won't!" She hissed as he dug his fingers into her side.

"You can." He was standing now, his hands at either side of her face. "And one day. You will."

Her eyes burned as she glared up at the male. Up at Rafe Cameron as he hovered inches from her face. A look of pure arrogance and joy at her predicament plastered on his face. Her right hand twitching as she began to shake it.

Her body now responding to her will.

"My friends--my family will always come first."

"Even at your sacrifice?" His face dropped lower, inches from her lips, "always so selfless. Hmm?" His eyes studied her for a moment. The world swirling around beyond them as she held his gaze.

He slammed his lips onto hers. Her body reacting violently with his. Her hands at his back as she dug her fingers into the muscle through his thin white shirt. Her legs rose, wrapping around him as he pushed her further into the wall.

"Tell me, Xena." His lips were back on hers parting for a moment. "Why aren't you pushing away? Why aren't you fighting me? You can stop me, Xena. You should stop me." He warned. "You must stop me."

"Shut up." She snapped, returning his kiss with a frenzy.

"Then tell me, Xena." He beckoned like a siren to a sailor. Nipping his teeth into her bottom lip.

"You first." She ordered laying out her terms. "You tell me you're mine." She would not get burned again.

Her lips meeting his as a tingling sensation pooled at her stomach. Her legs pulling him in as his tongue slipped past her lips. She struggled to breathe and when she did all she smelt was him. Mahogany. Sandalwood. Ocean.

It swirled around them as a breeze whipped around and ferried them away to the next stop in her mind. The two locked in their battle for dominance.

Their hands roaming as a tugging feeling yanked at Xena's throat. Her head pulling back as she rested her forehead on his.

"This will all go away in a month or two. Maybe sooner. Even if you are the only person to both successfully infuriate and fascinate me at the same time, you've put the people I love at risk." Xena pants as she sets her feet on the floor.

A tear built in her eye. A quick flutter of her lashes and it cascaded down her cheek.

"This isn't real. Any of it. This is a haunting. You following me into my dreams to torment my heart." Her hands dropped from around him. Her eyes closing.

"So do not ask me to leave everything behind. Because I won't. I won't abandon my friends, my family for you. You were wrong." Her eyes snapped open as they stood in the center of the ring. A single spotlight on the two. Their foreheads the only thing touching.

"I'm as selfish as they come."