Description: This story is inspired by and basically about the outfit Gabrielle wore in the end scenes of "Lyre Lyre Hearts On Fire", and is an alt ending for that episode. (Oh yeah, except Xena just happens not to seem pregnant for the story--I wrote one erotic story with her pregnant and that was enough.)

copyright 1/2000 by Xena's Little Bitch MiladyCo@aol.com

Considering how the Battle Of The Bands had gone, it was not surprising that Gabrielle was extremely popular at the party that evening in a local tavern. I know I was far from the only one who had noticed how Gabrielle looked in that tiny white beaded outfit, the way the beads sparkled as she moved, shifting in a million little ways with every swing of her hips. Of course, I felt she looked just as great in a sack, and had experience to prove it, but something about this situation was starting to make me slightly uncomfortable in a way that I was not unfamiliar with and that I did not like.

Everyone was drunk and had been for hours by then. I rested my elbows on the bar and looked out over the crowd. All kinds of people from cities all over Greece, come for our music festival. Certainly was something when you thought about it. Of course, now that I did think about it, I wasn't so sure I liked the way the contest had turned out. I could swear, now that I thought of it, that the winner of the lyre had been decided by violence after all. Now that I have seen a war ended by love I must stop to wonder why this situation did not turn out as I had hoped. Perhaps it had something to do with Draco. For some reason I'd thought that leaving a vicious warlord under a spell that had him in love with my comely traveling companion was a wise idea. Should not I, of all of us, have understood what can happen to love when it is not satisfied?

She did look beautiful, though. I couldn't blame everyone for following her around the tavern's main room with their eyes. I was. The outfit was incredible. It showed off her physique to great advantage; though similar to what she wore every day of her life, I don't know if it was just the outfit or a change in her but she'd never looked quite like that before tonight. Sexy. The kind of sexy that takes your breath away. My Gabrielle. I had never seen a woman with a more lovely body; so soft and so muscular; each part of her was perfect. The way a lock of her short blonde hair would fall into her face, the way the white of the beads made her skin seem tanner, almost as if she were glowing. A man would catch her attention for a moment, she'd throw back her head and laugh at his joke and move on. She had to be drunk to be laughing that much. I realized I didn't like men flirting with her tonight any better than I ever had. In fact, quite less. Perhaps due to the outfit every man in the room seemed drawn to her, and more than a few of the women as well. What was I doing just standing there?

Suddenly my mother was hanging around my neck, whispering drunkenly into my ear, "Xena, if you had to choose a woman, she's the sweetest one you coulda picked."

"I guess that's nice of you to say, Mother," I said, disengaging her from my body. Mother looked out at Gabrielle on the dance floor, she was dancing with five or six men at the same time and she looked flushed, full of life. When had she learned to dance like that? Suddenly my skin felt very hot.

"She certainly has grown up," Mother muttered.

"What do you mean?" I asked sharply.

"Well," she said absently, taking a sip of her drink, "Let's just say it's a good thing you've taken her to your bed, else I'm sure someone would have soon beat you to it!" She chuckled and walked away.

Watching Gabrielle move her hips like that was starting to make me dizzy. Mother was right--or she would have been had I been bright enough to see what was happening. I'd just held back and waited for her to come to a point where she might want to make a choice; suddenly it seemed very important to clarify that I was one of the choices she could make. The pounding beat was deafening. Suddenly Gabrielle looked straight at me, stopped dancing, and left the room. My eyes followed her curves as they ushered her through the doorway. She was angry. She was angry at me. Nothing new there. Doesn't mean it didn't scare me. I never know what to say when she's angry. At lot of the time I don't understand what her expectations are. I had no choice but to slowly follow her out of the tavern.

On the street I kept a few doorways behind her. The beads of her outfit shone in the moonlight. Her anger would have been evident to any passer by, the way she was stomping. What had I done? She reached our inn and walked up to our room. I followed and stood outside the door a few moments to let her get settled. When I entered she was taking off her beaded arm bands and throwing them at the top of the dresser. She turned and glared at me.

"Hey," I said and smiled tentatively.

She glared at me again and sat on a chair to take off her boots, which she then threw at me one after the other. I blocked them with my arm as I walked further into the room. I sat on the trunk at the foot of the bed.

"Are you going to tell me what's wrong?" I asked her.

"Are you an idiot?" she asked. She was really angry. I felt my heart crash into my stomach.

"Obviously you seem to think so," I said, and began unlacing my wrist bracers.

"Xena...You just..." her face was going red from exasperation. "I just can't take it much more. Something's got to give. I can't live like this."

"Like what?" I asked, concerned.

"Like this," she said, gesturing at her body, "Answer me a question, Xena."

"Anything."

"At the party tonight, who did you think was the most attractive person there."

"What?" I asked, taken completely off guard.

"You heard. Who did you, Xena, warrior princess, think was the most attractive person at the party at the tavern here in Melodia tonight."

"Well, honestly Gabrielle, you," I said.

"Good answer. Safe answer. But tell me, Xena, of all the people at the party, who did you most want to push up against a wall and ravish?"

I coughed a moment and I imagine I turned red.

"I'd have to stick with the same answer, 'You'."

"Good," said Gabrielle, slowly getting to her feet and pulling me with her, "Because if you hadn't given that answer, Xena, my heart would have been broken." She was moving forward slowly, looking into my eyes, pushing me towards the wall.

"Well, Gabrielle, it's a good thing that's the answer you were looking for, else my heart would have been broken also, plus I wouldn't get to ravish you now."

Gabrielle slammed my back up against the wall by the door of our room. "Ah, you really think that after all it has taken for me to get your attention...Xena, I practically had to bed every person in that room to get you to notice me."

"That's not true," I whispered. Gabrielle held me tight against the wall, her hand holding my wrists crossed behind my back, as she kissed my neck. Her tongue was hot and it moved very slowly and surely over my skin. I couldn't breathe. "I already wanted you...I always wanted you...from the beginning. I promise, Gabrielle...I would never...lie...about something like this--"

With a swift gesture she planted her hand in my hair and pulled my head down so she could kiss me on the mouth. It was not a gentle gesture, and I liked that. She made me feel that if I were to lose control of my passion, if I were to forget to be gentle, she might not actually mind.

The levels to her kiss were endless. The longer our mouths were joined the more intense it felt. Her other hand moved to cup my breast, which made me gasp and left my hands free to cup her beaded butt and pull her hard against me, slamming my back into the wall again. She wrapped her legs around me as I lifted her off the floor, my hands on her butt held her against me as her hips ground a slow rhythm into my body. Gabrielle's kisses found the spot behind my ear that is so particularly sensitive; I couldn't help but moan. Her body pressing against me was so vital, so electric. I slipped my hands under her tiny shorts; the skin of her butt was beyond soft and she groaned loudly when I pressed it firmly and thrust my crotch up against hers. I was lost in her touch, in the movement of her body against mine, waiting for each thrust so that I could thrust back harder. Her lips met my mouth again, raising my passion yet another level. It was all I could do stay upright, even with the assistance of the wall.

"Gods, Gabrielle, tell me you didn't do this with any of those men!"

She gasped, "Xena, you amaze me! Look at me Xena."

I looked at her. She looked like my precious Gabrielle, except hot and sweaty and full of passion. Her eyes were dark green-gray and bored into some part of me that seemed deeper even than my soul.

"Xena I couldn't imagine doing this with anyone but you," she said as she stared into my eyes and ran her hands through the hair at my temples, her breath still ragged, "You are everything I want."

Before I was really aware of it I had carried her to the bed and I was on top of her, kissing her and roughly running my hands over every inch of her body. The beads felt shiny under my hands, and under the beads her breasts felt full and ready for my touch. I stared at them as they strained against the beaded top and she moaned and gasped with each change in the pressure of my hands. Something about her made me feel like I was sixteen again. Silently my hands slipped under her top, massaging her breasts, letting her nipples roll against the palms of my hands. She arched her back and thrust her hips up towards me, and I moved my thigh between her legs to meet her need. I felt her wetness as heat through my pants and I moaned as my center pressed down against her thigh. I held her beautiful waist tight against the bed as I pulled back slightly, and then pushed forward to grind against her, again and again.

"How bad do you want me?" I whispered in her ear. Gods, her neck, so hot and sleek and smooth under my mouth. I was very close to the edge.

"Bad, Xena, I want you so bad I don't think I can take another second of this." Her hands were all over my back under my coat, then I felt her hand against the soft leather at the apex between my legs, of course I moved hard against her hand, gasping, and I put my hand between her legs and closed my eyes and just kept kissing her and touching her exactly the way she touched me, hard, long strokes that our breathing soon echoed. Gabrielle sounded like lust itself below me, her lips on mine a million tiny muscles reaching out, her hand between my legs moving in circles pressed into the soft, damp leather, driving me, faster and faster, as my hand pressed against her center pushed her ever closer and I had to open my eyes. She was staring right at me, and we smiled at each other, both with expressions of such, gods, well, love is the only word I have for it but so raw, so passionate, I can't describe what it felt like as we pushed each other over the edge into a delirium unlike any I have found in all the world.

Gabrielle pushed me over on my back and started kissing me again.

"You're incredible, Xena," she murmured.

"Did I tell you how great you look in that outfit?"