Chapter 16
Ares’ eyes were closed. He was smiling. He and Jessa lay naked in his bed, their bodies intertwined. His expression reflected both the physical satisfaction – and the triumph – that he felt.
Ares stroked Jessa’s hair.
"The best thing for you is to just get right back into the saddle again. Your army has been without its commander for much too long now – it’s lost its momentum without you to lead them."
"Please, Ares – I can’t. I need some time!"
"Jessa, you can’t just mope around and dwell on the mistakes you’ve made – even one as big as Hercules. Let it go – let him go."
He rolled over until Jessa’s soft body was under his. He kissed her deeply.
"This is the second time you’ve chosen me over him – how can there be any doubts left in your mind about which one you want to release?"
He kissed her again – this time with much heated passion.
"You love me – and I love you – what more needs to be said? Release him – and this time the false feelings that you have for him will fade."
His mouth and hands caressed her. He brought her up into a breathless, gasping state.
"Let him go, Jessa. Release him… release him…"
Jessa felt her body begin to submit to him.
"No!"
She pushed him away and rolled out from under him. She staggered to a window. She was gasping – and she trembled uncontrollably. Her body screamed at her to go back to him – to surrender to him.
"No! Not this time Ares," she panted, "I won’t make any more decisions on what my body wants – especially this decision! I won’t allow it – I won’t allow you to do it again!"
She leaned against the window’s sill, praying that the breeze that blew against her naked body would cool the heat of her passion – praying that the cool breaths that she drew would clear her head.
"Hercules was right – you have been manipulating me. Every time you saw any doubt in my eyes about anything that you wanted me to do, you used my passions to sway me to your point of view. And I always gave in to you – even when my heart told me that it was wrong."
She turned to face him. "He was right about you manipulating me, and he was right that I need to follow what my heart tells me is right. And my heart tells me that what you were doing to me – and the things that you had me doing to others – is wrong!"
She took a silk sheet from the bed and wrapped it around herself.
Ares got out of the bed and approached her. Anger was beginning to flicker deep within his eyes.
"He called you ‘murderer’!"
"He was right. I did murder those two men – just like I murdered those other two men on that first day I became a warlord. I should never have let you talk me into killing them. It was murder, and not execution."
"So, I’m going to loose you to him based on semantics!"
"No, not semantics, Ares – motive. I played judge, jury, and executioner for them all – and that was wrong."
"So, okay! You look at it that way if you want to! But that doesn’t mean you should choose him over me! That was just one, isolated incident!"
"It wasn’t just one isolated incident and you know that, Ares!"
Her face turned hard.
"And how was it that you knew he called me murderer? How was it that you came to find me in that forest? You’ve been spying on us, haven’t you?"
Ares said nothing.
"You orchestrated that whole thing with those outlaws, didn’t you?" Anger edged her voice. "You knew how I would react – and how Hercules would too!
"Gods! I have been such a fool!
"When I fell in love with you, I was so unprepared! It’s power and depth overwhelmed me – it so overwhelmed me that I couldn’t see straight, I couldn’t think straight – my soul was totally open and vulnerable! You saw that and you took advantage of it, Ares! You took me, and fashioned me, and used me like I was just another one of your weapons! You used me, Ares!"
She glared at him in cold fury. "You used me!"
Ares returned her glare in kind.
"So now you’re saying that everything is my fault? You’re blaming me for everything you did?"
"No, Ares," her voice was suddenly quiet, "I don’t blame you."
The anger drained away in Ares’ face, to be replaced with puzzlement.
"You may have manipulated and used me, but I allowed you to."
Jessa sighed and shook her head. "Besides, how can I blame you? It’s just in your nature. I can no more blame you for the things that you have done to me, than I can blame a hungry wolf for the slaughter of a sheep. (Actually, if you think about it, Ares is a wolf in creep’s clothing. Grin.)
She looked at him with hard eyes.
"But even so, it was still wrong."
Ares eyes narrowed.
"So, what are you saying?"
"That you must return me to Hercules."
"What!" Ares’ face flashed red in outrage. "So this is it? You’ve made your decision and you’re choosing him? You’re just going to write me off?"
Jessa stepped up to him and looked earnestly into his eyes.
"Oh gods, no, Ares – I haven’t written you off. You were right about one thing, Ares – I’m a warrior – and it’s deeply rooted in me."
She suddenly pulled a startled Ares into a passionate embrace. She spoke to him in the brief pauses of her fervent kisses.
"And the warrior in me –– is intensely –– fiercely –– profoundly –– attracted to you –– gods help me –– it burns my soul –– my body aches for you…"
Ares was panting as he returned her feverish kisses. He pulled her body hard up against his. His hand urgently tugged at the sheet wrapped around Jessa’s body.
"Then choose me," his voice was rough with desire.
Jessa put a hand on his heaving chest and pushed hard – bluntly severing their embrace. Clutching the disarrayed sheet in one hand and gasping, she swayed unsteadily on her feet.
"But - I won’t allow that attraction to overrule my mind and heart anymore!"
A sweating and huffing Ares stood before her. (In more ways than one! Wicked grin.)He held his arms out imploringly. "Jessaaaaa!" he complained in a whining, frustrated voice.
Despite her earnestness, Jessa could not help feeling a little sorry for him – not to mention amused.
"No, Ares, I want you to return me to Hercules."
"Come on, Jessa! Don’t ask me to do that again!" He couldn’t seem to muster much anger this time – his level of frustration was running too high. He started to advance on Jessa, reaching out for her.
Jessa put her free arm out straight and pushed at him on his chest with her fingertips while she backed up – trying to maintain the distance between them.
"Now, Ares! Be reasonable!"
He just continued to advance – his hungry eyes bored into hers – his expression was of intense lust.
Jessa glanced nervously about for an escape route. "Ares, stop! What about your agreement!"
Ares lunged. Jessa squealed and jumped back, avoiding capture – but Ares had one corner of her sheet. He jerked it. The unwrapping sheet spun Jessa around dizzyingly and she fell to the floor with a squawk. He dived for her. Jessa squealed in panic and tried to roll away from him. She was almost successful. Almost.
"Ares!"
He had her by one ankle and was hauling her in hand-over-hand by her leg. The naked skin of her rump squeaked as she was dragged over the polished marble floor.
Jessa’s voice was desperate as she frantically tried to find something to grab onto.
"Ares! Hercules still has some time coming!"
Ares had her by the hips now. He was using more than just his hands now, as he climbed up her body.
"Ares! Ares, stop!" She had her hands buried in his hair, but, for some reason, her rebellious hands were pulling him to her, rather than pushing him away.
"Oh, gods!"
He finally reached his destination and descended on her for a kiss. Her lips parted and reached for his.
"No, wait! What am I doing! Stop it, Ares!"
She started struggling again.
"Jessa, please!" pleaded an impassioned Ares.
"You said you’d give him equal time!" she cried out frantically as she squirmed.
Her squirming was doing nothing towards convincing him to stop – in fact, it seemed to be having just the opposite effect. Ares was about at the end of his rope. He groaned and attacked her mouth again.
"No, Ares!" Jessa cried in a muffled, almost unintelligible voice, "You promised!"
He pulled his head back abruptly.
"Okay, okay!" Ares cried piteously with a look of agony on his face, "I’ll send you back! But, Jessa, you can’t just go off and leave me hanging like this!"
Jessa couldn’t subdue the snorting giggle that escaped her at his choice of words.
"Oh, alright, Ares…"
He dived back in hastily for another kiss – but Jessa’s hand intervened and he just got a mouth full of fingers.
"BUT – you have to promise – no more spying!"
"I promise, I promise! Okay, already, I promise!"
Jessa paused as she looked into his hungry eyes for confirmation of his sincerity.
"Well, okay then, you…"
Ares smothered the rest of her sentence with his mouth. After a long, heated session of kissing, Jessa pushed at him again.
"NOW what!" he asked, rolling his eyes in exasperation.
"How does it feel?" Jessa asked him.
He looked at her in total bafflement. "How does what feel?"
"How does it feel to have your body used to force you to a decision?"
Ares stared at her for a moment, jaw dropped, completely nonplussed.
Then he cocked his head and raised his eyebrows.
"How does it feel?" He shrugged his shoulders and then grinned wickedly at her. "Pretty damn good, from where I’m sittin’ right now!"
Jessa squealed once more as he descended upon her, assaulting her once more with his mouth.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Hercules sat on a rock along side of a river. He was throwing small stones out into the water, seemingly for no purpose. Suddenly, he threw the rest of his handful of pebbles in all at once, full force, with a growl.
The shock of the stones hitting the water, at the speed that a half-god can deliver, sent a huge column of water shooting up into the air for dozens of feet, before it showered back down in a miniature rain storm – and Hercules was at it’s epicenter.
He jumped to his feet with a gasp from the shock of the cold water.
"Great!" he groused, as he stood there, completely drenched.
He shook the water from his hair and then removed his sopping shirt. As he began wringing it out, a hand reached out and took it from him.
"Here let me do that."
Hercules looked up in surprise.
"Jessa!"
She smiled up at him, her brow wrinkled with anxiety.
"Hercules, can you ever forgive me?"
He swept her into his arms in a tight embrace.
"Jessa, I’m sorry!"
"No, Hercules, you have nothing to be sorry about." She leaned back in his arms and looked into his face. "You were right – Ares has been manipulating me – I realize that now. I’m so sorry I didn’t believe you! I just thought you were jealous!" There were tears in her eyes. "Hercules, please forgive me!"
Hercules hugged her tighter and cradled her head against his chest.
"Jessa, there’s nothing to forgive – you just couldn’t see what he was doing to you – he wouldn’t let you."
"Oh, Hercules, you were right about everything – about him manipulating me – using me – and about it being murder."
Suddenly she was limp in his arms and he had to hold her to keep her from falling – her body was racked violently with her sobbing.
"Hercules – I murdered those two men! And – and – the other two when – when Ares – and – all the others – oh gods, Hercules – all those others!"
She couldn’t speak anymore – she just wept uncontrollably onto Hercules’ chest – her tears joining the droplets of water from the river as they streamed down his body.
Email: fanficbeth@aol.com