11calls | (no subject)

[When he's possessive and controlling? He looks genuinely amused at that before leaning in to kiss her surprisingly softly.]

My god you are cute.

[He Something twitches in his features and he looks positively roguish. He leans into her, his kiss harder.]

I'm not jealous however. I don't get jealous. Get off me so I can punish you for saying that.

[It might be hard to tell if he's actually serious or not.]

[Alex just gives him a look because she doesn't know who he's kidding when he says that he's not jealous because it certainly it's her. It's definitely something that's been apparent to her before and Alex just wants to say something that sounds very close to 'Tannis Braun, Thomas Warren when he was Sexy James Bond and Amalia' but she doesn't. Instead she just bites her lip after he kisses her like that and she feels breathless and her heart is hammering inside of her chest, dragging the blood through her veins so fast she's fairly certain that they can be seen where the collar she's wearing intersects her pale throat.

But she slides off of him and onto her knees on the floor in front of him, her ass brushing against those absurdly high heels.]

[Sometimes Coralee would encourage him.

She'd encourage him to get angry, to get rough. Use that fire inside you Richard. That warm building fire as she spreads beneath him like a flower. He can do that right?

As she slides off of him he leans down because he remembers this.]

Pick your safeword.

[And he withdraws, standing to his full height, hands flexing.]

[Alex doesn't look away from him when he rises to his feet, and her eyes stay locked on his even as her lips twist upward into a very soft but amused smile.]

Apophenia.

[Of course that was going to be what she chose, there was no way that it wasn't going to be.]

[Ha!

This is a look she's never seen on his face. He looks young - younger than his years, less careworn. His hand raises and he hits her. across her rear end. Hard.

Then something dark crosses his features and he looks - like he did before she met him. Before she opened his heart.]

Get on the table.

You saying I'm jealous deserves punishment. You useless little bitch. I want you on the table. Don't look at them look at me.

[She might see though that there are people looking at them, a few people whistling in approval.]

Bend over. I'm not jealous. You're mine do you understand me?

[Alex just yelps a little out of surprise at the slap, she can’t help it. But she definitely doesn’t say her safe word. No, she doesn’t need to especially not with the look on his face. Instead Alex just blushes again at the whistles and cat calls behind her as she gets onto the table and faces him.

Later, when they discuss this (if they discuss it probably more like but Alex isn’t going to think about that she’d argue about him not being jealous. Now, however she doesn’t; she’s a good sub.

Instead she just says softly and Alex means it, even beyond the confines of this game, even if she can’t express it to him otherwise:]

I’m yours, Richard.

[Stroking her hair, his fingers are gentle. His nails scratch gently against the nape of her neck before he pinches there. Hard.

Coralee had taught him all of these things. Why was Alex so convinced he couldn't do it? His hands slow on her neck and slide along her back before slapping her ass again. Hard. Then his hands pull her hair up before he presses her to the table.]

Beg me to let you up.

Beg me to let you up and then we're going to have drinks. Tell me you're sorry for saying I'm jealous.

[His own cock is hardening in his pants and a waitress appears with two drinks and a whip.

Oh. Well.]

You're not going to be able to sit down for a week.

[Alex just groans softly, because this isn't just acting. This feels entirely too real for her. And she'd been convinced that he couldn't do it because if Alex allowed herself to think about it for too long then she'd probably have lost her mind with it. From her vantage point in front of him, Alex can see that he's not play acting about this any more than she is.

And of course she wasn't going to do it, because them going for drinks would have meant ending it, and Alex really doesn't want it to end. She's going to need to unpack that tomorrow, or when the marks from this fade, but for now she just lets out a little whimper that is most definitely a plea for him not to stop.]

Richard...

Shut up.

["Richard hit me."

"I don't want to-"

"Yes you do." Coralee dropped to her knees, "I know you do. I know you do I can tell and it's all right because I want it. I want you to take your power. I want you to. And I know you want to too...]

The drinks are set down and he takes the whip without asking running it across the back of her legs - slow. Gentle.]

Say you're sorry. Say I'm not jealous and that you're sorry. And Then...

[He bares his teeth and leans into her ear.]

Warren and the Woman are still talking.

[Thank god somebody was screaming in ectasy, it makes it easier for them to blend in as he runs the whip over the back of her legs again.]

Apologize.

[Alex just shivers, leaning into the way that he's running the leather of the whip over her legs and stockings, and she lets out a shuddering breath that she can't help. But probably for the first time in their tenure together, she actually does in fact, shut up. Call it a miracle. Call it this place. Call it whatever you want to, but Alex definitely isn't being very Alex Reagan like she normally would be right now.

Well, at least until Richard reminds her the reason behind this.

Alex can't see the couple from how she is, but she believes him and gives the tiniest flick of her eyes in that direction so that he knows that she heard him and that she understood.

Right. So, yes not them actually doing this. This is them being undercover, and Alex just apologies softly.]

I'm sorry, you're not jealous. I'm sorry.

[And then she adds, which honestly when has Alex ever admitted this:]

I was wrong.

[I can't believe I hurt you Richard.

Coralee's face is white and lidded with desire before him. Touches, words, appealing to every darker instinct he has...

Punish me for it."

He draws the whip back and runs it across her ass and legs, teeth bared.]

Good.

[The smack against flesh makes him cringe - but his cock rises and he swallows hard.]

...Now tell me that you'll be my good girl.

[The woman - and to his shock she's moving over to straddle Warren. Well shit.

His act drops as he blinks at the two of them, staring owlishly.]

[Alex just yelps again, flinching at the smack and she follows it with a low whimper. She has no idea about the picture that Warren and the woman are making, because her view of them is blocked by the man in front of her and his hardening cock directly in front of her. The words that Richard demanded come easily to Alex, spoken ardently and loud in comparison to the soft tones that they had spoken in before even if they're not exactly loud in the din of people around them.]

I'll be your good girl, Richard. I'll be your good girl.

[He's a little thrown by Warren. Whoever this woman was...it looks like he loves her. He knows what love looks like.

It throws him enough he strokes a gentle hand down her back and mumble to himself.]

...Alex if I...If I let you sit up can you sit okay? Do I need...Do I need to help you?

[Alex just looks very confused even with the gentle hand on her back, and she wonders if she's done something wrong. She can't help but to wonder if she'd done something wrong. Feeling wrong-footed, and uncertain Alex just swallows and stretches her legs out--a single strike of a crop isn't going to do anything permanent but it buys her a little bit of time before she needs to respond. And then she doesn't respond. Instead of saying anything she just gives him a little shake of her head as she starts to slide off of the table and onto the heels, and then she is able to see past him.

With her eyes going wide, she just says softly:]

Oh my god.

Do you think he has a wife?

[Richard's touch is gentle.] Is that her? Has she been following the two of us?

[Is that it? Do women just...initiate men into this cult? Did he initiate her? He stares at her, worried.]

Did I hurt you?

If they're married, it's nothing legal. We would have found that already. I mean, a long term girlfriend or partner or something is possible though. But yeah, I've seen her before. In Charlesworth. In Seattle after Maddie...

[And then Alex just goes extremely pale and drops down onto the bench of the booth, both hands pressing against her face for a moment, because she knows where else she'd seen the woman. A place where at that point, Nic didn't even know where she was. She'd been too angry with him to even speak about where she was going after they'd forced her on vacation.]

She was there at the dinner in Forks. When I was away on my vacation. I thought I was losing my mind. No one knew where I was, not even my mother. But she was there.

[Richard lets Alex talk because looking at this woman he can ...well. He can't explain it. He's seen her but she feels ...She feels.

Fuck.

Across the room the woman looks up sharply and Richard's eyes go wide.]

Can you walk? We need to leave. Now.

[She knows we're here.] is...a moot damn point.

Alex was just watching as well. There seemed to be no reason to hide it. There was something about the woman that almost seemed to beg for them to watch her in ways that Alex can’t describe. It’s like being unable to watch a beautiful sunset over the sea. Or a millipede crawling across your ceiling. It’s beautiful and dangerous and some thing about it makes Alex’s brain just twitch. When the woman looks at them, really LOOKS, Alex can’t look away even if she’s not the focus of the gaze. There’s no point in trying to be covert as Warren just follows the woman’s gaze and gives the two of them the laziest but most please smile.

Alex’s voice is soft when she speaks. Despite the prey instincts telling her to flee, (maybe she does have a sense of self preservation after all) her brain is saying something else too. “They’re not going to be able to attack us in a crowded club, right? But if they get us outside we’re easier prey.”

Up close he knows that her eyes change color. Sometimes green sometimes blue sometimes purple sometimes black. All black and dark and beautiful.

He's gone totally rigid. He should have known. after Geneva he should have known. He should have known she'd find them and that Alex...

His breath hitches in his throat as his grip tightens on Alex's hand. She's looking at them now and...

"We have to get away from them."

Or you should come to me. Surely you must know what I want. Surely you must know.

His gaze is absolutely rigid. He says this but he doesn't move. Sitting back, relaxing.

The woman may be magnetic, attention drawing, street stopping. She seems to have drawn the eye of everyone in the club who is around them now that her attention isn’t focused on Warren. But for Alex there is a greater focus: and that is the man who is sitting relaxed next to her despite his words, despite the way that his eyes are.

Alex has seen his eyes like that before; the grimness, the determination. She has been at the focus of that look more than a few times. Right now with the difference in his posture it’s unsettling and without thinking, Alex just puts her hand on his cheek and turns that focus towards her and away from the woman. “Hey. Let’s go, yeah? Come on.”

There’s worry and care in her expression that Alex can’t help and she just frowns at him. “Richard. Please.”

He's not sure he could move. He wants to. He wants to go with Alex, but the woman - up close she is everything. She fills his gaze before turning her attention to Alex, to the two of them.

Richard turns to look at Alex panicked.

The woman is in a slinky purple dress that looks to be patterned like scales. Now red, now purple, now black, now glowing in the light.

"Alex."

The woman's voice is sea foam and rocks. It's the sound of crashing waves. Her nod is gracious and her smile is the world but Richard...

Richard's throat works and the woman slowly saunters to him before her hand slides around his neck. Pulling him into a kiss that's deep. When she pulls back she says something in a language - a dead language - there are very few people who actually speak ancient Sumarian.

But Richard responds in kind and Tiamat laughs. She sits beside him, staring at Alex with a purr.

Two women on either side of a man who's staring dazed, eyes glassy.

"Imagine my surprise and absolute luck Alex Reagan. I missed you two in Geneva, but then I, roaming my world, find my vessel waiting for me. He has a weakness for strong women. For wanting to measure up. It's all because he was waiting for me."

She settled in as Richard stared. His gaze flicked back to Alex, frozen. Tiamat putting a possessive hand on his thigh.

"I ought to thank Warren for putting you in his path...There is something about you...something that intrigues me."

Jealousy. Alex Reagan has never been particularly good at not being jealous. She’d been jealous of Coralee’s memory even before she’d been proven right in that the woman was alive. She’d been jealous in the fact that Richard had been working with a mysterious ‘she’. Alex had definitely been jealous when Coralee had shown up in that van. Alex is jealous now, she can’t help it as Tiamat kisses him like he’d just kissed Alex. Especially with that possessive hand on his thigh.

While Alex is definitely afraid, seeing this: talking to a Goddess the jealousy is still there and Alex finds herself responding to Tiamat in the same way that she’d responded to Thomas Warren about the Horn. Her Horn.

Alex Reagan’s sense of self preservation is definitely on the otherwise of the world with Nic.

“I don’t think his ‘wanting to measure up’” Alex’s air quotes are audible. “Has anything to do with you at all, actually. I think the blame for them actually rests with Howard Strand.” Without looking away, Alex just wraps her fingers through Richard’s giving them a squeeze of reassurance.

“And I really don’t think he appreciates your hand on his thigh.” It’s said mostly mildly with an arch of her eyebrow but there is an unspoken: ‘so take your hand off’ within it.

"Howard." She smiles, "Poor Howard. Poor sweet Howard. He does love his son you know. And his son loves his father. Or at least. Loved."

It's a sign of how hard Richard is fighting that he doesn't let go of Alex's hands, or push her away. His features flicker at her but he leans toward Tiamat and kisses her.

Tiamat turns her attention back to Alex, pulling Richard's hand off.

"You don't understand. Alex Reagan. So I will explain. Richard wants this. He was bred to want it. He was born to want it. It's written into his DNA. Coralee was sent to prepare him for it, WArren was sent to pave his way and he will be...righteously rewarded for it."

Something flickers across the Goddess's face and time seems to slow as the bar patrons...stop.

"But you have brought him here. To me. And I am not ungenerous. Indeed I am not without ...compassion. Especially to those who are loyal to me. You want Richard."

She reached across the table, "One way or another you cannot undo this. I have held this vessel for over a thousand years."

Her hands clutch at her wrists, "It is dying. I am coming into my own and I am paving my way and Richard..."

She looked back at Richard who manages to squeeze Alex's fingers. Barely a flicker.

Tiamat looks angry. Than.

"...I am not without compassion. You cannot stop me taking Richard for my own. For the two of us becoming one. But perhaps. We could come to an...arrangement."

Alex just tries not to get swept up in the woman’s dark eyes. They’re bright and deep and Alex can almost swear that she sees the stars that Murdak wove her body into reflected there. Her grip feels cold. Alex feels cold and she just shivers for a moment. But Richard’s touch is a lifeline. It’s a reassurance that he’s still in there, and that this isn’t what he wants.

“You say that he wants this. That he wants you. But it seems to me like you’re exerting a hell of a lot of power over him right now trying to make him do that. If you want me to believe he wants this, then stop touching him. Stop trying to influence his mind. Leave us alone so he can tell me what he wants.”

Edited 2020-05-18 19:19 (UTC)

"Why? Howard kept him from me for years. He beat skepticism into him like a dog." She moves to stroke his cheek, "I have waited over 50 years for him. I have endured Coralee's pawing and his daughter's abandonment. I want him to be happy. And no matter how he feels now..."

She leans against his chest and Richard's grip relaxes a hair. The world around them stops.

"He is beginning to unbend. Moment by moment, every muscle, every fiber of who he is knows what I am. Yearns for me. You should be grateful I am offering you this piece of mercy because you amuse me...Alex."

She leans forward, "There is something about you. Something familiar. It's like I've seen you before and it makes me wonder what and why and where...but as I said."

She clenched her first, "I am forced to rely on technology and human power and resources because this body is weak."

She slides off of Richard, inches away, "Richard am I keeping you here?"

Doctor Richard Strand is a million miles away but when she pulls away from him he's thrust back into the club - the wind roaring through his ears.

He is totally at ease around Tiamat, he knows her now. And he knows why he is here and what she wants. He's craved her fire for years but Alex...Alex is humanity. His humanity.

But there's something now, as he looks at her that he sees and that's...strange. There is something about her. It's fascinating in a way he's never seen before and he wants to understand it.

"...Alex."

His voice is raw.

"Alex. I want..." I want you. I want....

Do you want both of us Richard? You can have both of us. You can have anything you want.

He is in a room, there are just the two of them. Tiamat and he in the darkness, in the caves beneath the waves.

Do you want us both Richard? You can have us. I know you want me but I know you care for her. I am a just and merciful God. You have been waiting to believe in one such as I.

"yes."

You have wanted to believe for so very long. You have been waiting for me haven't you?

"...Alex..."

I'll make you a gift of her.

"Alex."

His features crease and he looks at her, "...Stay with me."