Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 WARNING: This story includes sexually explicit material.

   Please note any unfamiliar spellings and phrases may be due to the fact
I am English, not American.

   I would like to thank the proof-readers for all their help

   Any comments, including constructive criticisms, would be most
appreciated.  Please send to artemis55@hotmail.com

   This work is copyrighted by the author.  You may download and keep one
copy for your personal use as long as my by-line and e-mail address and
this paragraph remain on the copy.  Any posting or reposting on a website,
other than the archive or Dejanews, or to a newsgroup requires my
permission first (but I'll probably say yes).  This story should not, under
any circumstances be used to make a profit by anyone other than the author

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   This is another story I wrote while my foot was hurting and I didn't
feel like writing happy romances.  It's not as dark as 'Loss of Innocence'
and has considerably more sex.

   I was experimenting by trying to tell the story backwards but I ran into
problems with my tenses.  When it came to the flashbacks I found I was
writing in past past tense and this resulted in hundreds of 'had's all over
the place.  It looked like they were breeding like rabbits in my text
according to one of my proofreaders.  So in the end I only put the first
sentence of each flashback in past past tense.  I know this will probably
horrify the purists among you but if anyone has a better suggestion how to
deal with the problem could they please send it to me.

   ====================================================================
REPOST NOTE: I wanted to try to tell a story backwards, so that the last
paragraph explained the first.  I'd had this story floating around in my
head for a while.  Had a few problems with the tenses when it came to
flashbacks and some people objected to me using words like 'pandiculation'.
I got some useful feedback though, and this is one story I am planning to
rewrite, if I ever get the time.

   =====================================================================

   Betrayed by a Kiss.

   In the end she was betrayed by a kiss.  A soft, sweet unexpected meeting
of the lips that stole the breath from her body and the strength from her
legs.

   She had lain motionless besides him for what seemed like an eternity,
waiting for him to fall asleep.  Eventually the rise and fall of the chest
beneath her head settled to a slower rhythm.  She carefully extricated
herself from under the weight of his arm and crept away to the bathroom,
collecting her clothes along the way.  She took a quick but thorough shower
and put her dress back on.  She had to pass the bed to reach the door and
paused for a moment to look at him one last time.  Beguiling images of the
pleasure she had experienced in his embrace danced through her memory.  He
had proved to be a vigorous and talented lover.  He was sprawled on his
back with his arms spread wide and one leg dangling over the side of the
bed.  His hair was tumbled across his forehead, giving him a deceiving air
of boyish innocence, and she stooped to gently brush it back.  To her
amazement his eyelids fluttered open and he smiled up at her.  His eyes
were so similar to her mother's, the deep brown of melted chocolate, that
they trapped her into immobility, like a deer caught in a car's headlights.
Taken by surprise she didn't resist when he tangled his hand in her hair
and drew her mouth down to his.

   Shaken to her very core, she collapsed on the side of the bed.  His eyes
were closed again and his hand was a dead weight in her hair pinning her to
the mattress.  She laid her head beside his on the pillow, so close she
could feel the disturbance in the air every time he took a breath, as she
tried to decide what to do next.  The earthy, musky smell of their passion
rose from his body and she couldn't help smiling as she remembered the fun
they had had.

   * * *

   Only a short time earlier she had pushed him flat on his back and knelt
over him.

   'Want to play a game?' she had challenged.

   'What kind of game?' he asked, instinctively cautious.  She quickly
surveyed the room, then crossed to the courtesy bathrobes provided by the
hotel.  She collected the belts, returned to the bed and looped one around
each post of the headboard.

   'You want to tie me up?' he queried uneasily.

   'Where's the challenge in that?' she answered teasingly.  'The idea is
that you hold onto the belts as long as you can.  If you let go, I win; if
you don't let go then you win.'

   'That sounds easy enough,' he said, making himself comfortable on the
bed before taking hold of the belts.  'What do I get for winning?'

   'I hadn't thought about that,' she laughed, 'because I've got no
intention of losing.'

   She stood at the foot of the bed and removed her dress in one smooth
flowing movement.  He took in the sight of her naked body with appreciative
eyes as she crawled onto the bed.  Starting with his toes she nibbled and
licked her way up his legs.  Arriving at his crotch she found his penis
already hard and throbbing in anticipation.  She lingered over it for a
while, teasing it with her hair and breath before devouring it with her
mouth.  She did not neglect his balls but took them each in turn into the
moist cavern of her mouth.  His hands gripped the belts hard as he
encouragingly thrust his hips up to meet her warm wet mouth.

   When he was throbbing eagerly and beginning to gasp and moan she
abandoned his genitalia and continued her progress upwards.  She took a
moment to rearrange her position on the bed more comfortably and to equip
herself with some ice-cubes from the wine bucket.  Starting again at his
extremities she subjected his hands and wrists to continual contrasts
between her warm mouth and the cold ice.  By the time she reached the
insides of his elbows he was groaning and twisting under her ministrations.
She worked her way to his nipples and taken her time tormenting them.  She
traced interlocking patterns with the frigid ice and her ardent tongue,
both leaving moist trails to mark their passage.  She flicked and rubbed
his nipples, then took them into her mouth, sucking hard as he squirmed
beneath her.  She continued relentlessly until he pleaded for mercy, his
erection jabbing against her bottom each time he writhed against the bed.
His hands gripped the belts hard as in no uncertain terms he begged her to
fuck him.

   She straddled his hips and slowly lowered herself until the head of his
penis rested against her entrance.  She held her body at that height,
slowly rotating her hips while her hands cupped and stroked her breasts. 
No matter how much he jerked his hips upward he was unable to penetrate
inside her.  She continued tantalising him as he tried harder and harder to
enter her.  The friction of his penis on the most sensitive part of her
vagina was arousing her and she made it as evident as she could.  For a
moment he was almost content to watch her pleasure herself but his
frustration was plainly building.  Yet still he held tightly to the belts,
determined not to let his carnal desires conquer his self-control.

   At last she had given in to her urge to feel him deep inside her and she
descended, her body smoothly swallowing his penis into its velvety depths.
She set a slow rhythm, revolving her hips with each upward movement. 
Leaning forward, with her weight on her hands, she let her breasts sway
just out of reach of his mouth.  He strained upwards, trying to reach the
hard nipples but she stayed out of reach.  His hips jerked under her,
trying to speed up her rhythm but she continued her slow undulations.  For
a while he accepted her dictates and continued to hold the belts.  Then her
orgasm had slowly built and she straightened up, driving him deep inside,
her body twisting as the sensations shot through her.

   When the last ripple of pleasure had died down she sat astride him
motionless, waiting to see how he would react.  With a short laugh he
theatrically threw aside the belts and tumbled her onto the bed plunging
deep inside her.  Moist squelches echoed every movement as he thrust
eagerly into her.  He rested on his elbows and bent to use his hands and
mouth on her breasts.  For a few moments he traced similar patterns to the
ones she had used on his nipples but she moaned impatiently and pulled his
head down.  His mouth closed softly around her eager nipples and she
encouraged him to be rougher, tugging on his hair and arching upwards
against his mouth.  The pace of his thrusts increased and soon he climaxed.
He pressed a brief kiss against her forehead as he collapsed.  They lay
together in a heap of tangled limbs, her face smothered under his chest. 
When he had regained his composure he considerately rolled off her onto his
back before falling asleep.

   * * *

   Now he seemed to have drifted back to sleep, his kiss a momentary flash
of consciousness.  She made a half-hearted movement to get up and leave but
she could feel the lassitude creeping through her limbs.  He partially
awoke as she moved and rolled over onto his side, leaving her more room on
the bed.  His movement had freed her hair but now her dress was captured by
the weight of his body.  An attempt to disentangle the material was
unsuccessful.  For a moment she pondered her options.  It was no part of
her plans to be discovered in his bed by the hotel staff the following
morning.  Too many questions would be asked and the last thing she wanted
was notoriety.  On the other hand if she disturbed him to release her dress
he may wake up more fully and realise she was leaving.  Awkward
explanations, at the very least, would ensue.  It would be simpler to give
him time to settle deeper into his stupor, then roll him off her dress.  In
some ways it seemed a bit late to be worrying about being found in his bed
in the morning but it was an instinctive thing for her.  The evenings
activities had tired her out but she was confident she could fight her
drowsiness long enough to make good her escape.  She settled down more
comfortably and, to pass the time, let her mind drift back again over the
evening's events.

   * * *

   There had been a strong current of sexual electricity between them all
evening but it hadn't been until they left the restaurant that it had
really sparked into passion.  She had no hesitation in accepting his
invitation back to his hotel room but his bodyguards were less sanguine. 
While they waited for the limousine to be brought round there was an
animated whispered discussion.  Eventually he reluctantly approached her,
the bodyguards closely flanking him.

   'I hate to ask this and totally understand if you refuse but my
bodyguards are insisting that you be searched' he explained apologetically.
'I know it's ridiculous to think you pose any threat to me but I pay them
to keep me safe and I would be wasting my money if I didn't take their
advice.' She held her hands out from her sides and twirled for them.

   'Just where in this dress do they suspect me of concealing anything?'
she asked.

   'Inside leg,' one of the bodyguards gruffly explained, his eyes crawling
over her body like a pair of slugs.  For a moment she hesitated.

   'I'm not having some stranger groping me,' she stated firmly, repulsed
by the bodyguard's lascivious gaze.  She gave her dinner companion a sexy
smile and looked deep into his eyes.  She wasn't going to let a small thing
like a body search, however intimate, alter her plans for the evening's
activities.  'How about a compromise: I'll let you search me.' He didn't
hesitate for a moment but waved the bodyguards back and knelt before her.
He enclosed her ankles with his fingers and slowly slid his hands up the
length of her legs, her dress gathering and draping around his arms.  His
hands flattened and slid across her the insides of her thighs.  When they
reached the juncture of her legs she was not able to control her gasp.  One
hand slid back along the cleft between her buttocks while the other
explored further forward.  She swallowed hard and tried to stop her knees
trembling.  He bent his finger and dragged the knuckle across her clit and
to the entrance of her vagina.  She swayed against him and had trouble
controlling the moan that was trying to escape from her lips.  When he
withdrew the warmth of his hands she felt cold and bereft.

   'Nothing there that shouldn't be there,' he reported to his guardians,
his eyes dark with arousal.  'Can we go now?'

   'There's her shoes,' one of them growled.  'You can do a lot of harm
with high heels.' Impatient to be gone she kicked her shoes off,
momentarily pleased when one collided with the lecherous bodyguard's shin,
and followed him into the dark depths of the car.  Before the car had even
started moving their lips met in a passionate kiss.  His hands roamed over
her exposed skin before retracing their path under her skirt.  Her hands
began their own exploration, tugging open his zip and enclosing his penis
in her palms.

   By the time the short journey ended in front of his hotel they were both
hot and panting with passion.  Check-in formalities were handled
impatiently and the wait for the lift seemed endless.  As soon as the doors
slid shut he pulled her close and they renewed their kisses, only to be
interrupted by some hotel guests entering their lift.  She stood demurely
in front of him for the rest of the journey upwards, his arm loosely
encircling her waist.  Out of sight between their bodies her hands were
busy, stroking and massaging his erection.  When they finally reached their
floor he didn't bother to re-zip his trousers but grabbed her hand and
pulled her down the corridor to the correct door.

   The moment the door closed behind them he pushed her hard against it,
his mouth mashing against hers in an impatient kiss.  His trousers and
underwear were swiftly pushed to the floor and her skirt shoved impatiently
out of the way.  Her leg hooked around his waist as his hands lifted her up
to a better height.  His penis sought her opening and plunged in.  They
were both too aroused to waste any time with foreplay or undressing.  He
thrust urgently against her and she clutched his shoulders, her leg around
his waist spurring him on.  There was no finesse to their joining, only raw
passion urging them swiftly into orgasm.  When the last shudders left their
bodies he let her slide back down to the floor.  He shrugged out of the
tangle of his clothes and crossed the room to pour them both a glass of
wine.  He collapsed onto the bed with a satisfied sigh and held out a hand
in a silent invitation to join him.  The edge taken off their passion she
accepted both his invitation and the glass of wine.  Stretched out besides
him she pondered how best to take control of the rest of the evening.

   * * *

   She had been drifting off to sleep when he startled her back to
awareness of the present by snoring loudly.  She poked a finger in his ribs
and he rolled over, draping a leg across her lower body.  Trapped now by
the weight of his limb she lay listening to his slow deep breathing.  She
knew she should be making an effort to move but her mind seduced her with
procrastinating murmurs of 'just five minutes more'.  Her eyelids were
becoming leaden and her yawns more frequent.  It was insidiously easy to
let her breathing pattern match his.  The slow regular rhythm was
somniferous and she could feel herself sinking under the waves of
unconsciousness that were striving to claim her and instinctively struggled
against them.  His face was close to hers, relaxed and vulnerable as he
slept.  She remembered the moment she had first seen him that evening.

   He had seemed to stand out in the crowded restaurant.  He sat alone at
his table and somehow seemed isolated from the chattering diners.  As she
sat at her table she was directly in his line of sight but his gaze seemed
to pass right through her.  While she fidgeted in her seat, glancing
repeatedly at her watch and several times asking the waiter if there was a
message for her, he was much more discreet about his growing impatience. 
Growing bored with her own company she ordered a whisky with ginger and
rapidly consumed it.  Starting to feel warm she rose and removed her
jacket.

   She had carefully chosen her favourite dress for the evening.  It had
been specially designed for her and had never failed to get her any male
attention she desired.  The silky material was a deep red and clung closely
to her figure, making the wearing of any underwear impossible and
displaying her curves to the maximum advantage.  There were two diamond
shapes cut out of the dress.  The front one began at the hollow of her
collarbones and reached almost to her belly button.  The sides revealed the
inner curves of her breasts but stopped short of displaying her areola. 
The back diamond was of a similar size, revealing the hollow of her
backbone and the jut of her shoulder blades.  Gold threads criss-crossed
the gaps to maintain the dress's snug fit.  The skirt swirled down to the
floor with high slits in the side revealing her legs as she walked.  The
overall effect was to draw attention to the glimpses of her bare skin.

   As she sat down she noticed that she had caught his attention.  She gave
him a rueful smile and lifted her glass in a silent toast.  He smiled back
and returned her gesture.  Time crawled by and she finished another drink
but they both still waited alone.  The dance floor was filling with couples
circling to the music.  She boldly stood and walked over to his table and
invited him to dance.  For a moment he seemed taken aback by her
presumption but he willingly followed her onto the dance floor.  They
didn't really speak much as they danced other than to exchange names.  As
they returned to their tables a waiter intercepted them with a message. 
His dinner companion had been involved in a minor accident and so had
cancelled.

   'At least your date had the decency to let you know,' she had commented
ruefully.  'Mine just seems to have decided not to show up.'

   'Well since we are both alone why don't we stay and commiserate with
each other,' he suggested.  She demurred for a moment, not wanting to
appear too eager, then capitulated.

   'I've been wanting to taste this chef's cooking for ages,' she
explained. 'And as I'm all dressed up and here it would be a bit silly for
us both to sit in splendid isolation.  I insist on paying my own bill
though.'

   'If you really wish to.  It would be a small price to pay for such
delightful company.'

   'There speaks someone on a company expense account,' she teased. 
'Exactly.  I have to make the most of it or they may reduce it.  So there
will be no more talk of separate bills.' Even though she was sure he was
not restricted by any kind of expense account she graciously accepted his
offer.  Conversation flowed smoothly and continuously throughout dinner and
she had found herself more and more attracted to him.  He was soon flirting
with her in an old fashioned courtly manner that she found refreshing in
contrast to the usual crude approaches she was accustomed to.  His eyes
told her plainly that he found her equally attractive and when they danced
again the touch of his hand on her bare back sent shivers through her nerve
endings.  He noted her response and when he held her closer she had felt
the unmistakable bulge of his arousal.  When he suggested they left dessert
and instead sampled the strawberries and wine in his hotel room she
immediately agreed.

   * * *

   She had forgotten about the strawberries.  With an effort she raised her
head and in the lamplight she could dimly see a bowl set out on a table
across the room.  The siren call of Morpheus was becoming more and more
difficult to resist and she could feel the pandiculation creeping through
her limbs.  She was sinking under the billowing pressure of unconsciousness
and it seemed an otiose struggle to stay awake.  She knew that it was
impractical to attempt to leave now but still she tried to summon up the
willpower to force her torpid body to move.  He was still entangled with
her body but he was completely comatose.  This hadn't been the way she had
planned to end her evening.  She had been in similar situations in similar
hotel rooms before but had always managed to make a clean getaway.  She
touched a finger to her lips, wondering if it was her imagination or if
they really were still tingling from his kiss.  She had prepared so
carefully for this evening but one moment's inattention and her plans had
been irrevocably altered.  She should have been safely home and asleep in
her own bed by now.

   * * *

   It had all started so well.  She had allowed plenty of time to pamper
herself during the afternoon.  Her employees called in to inform her that
everything was going according to plan.  As expected a taxi had been
ordered and it was an easy job to intercept the message and arrange for a
bogus taxi to make the collection.  The cars that were going to arrange the
accident were standing by waiting for her signal.  The quarry confirmed his
booking at the restaurant and a limousine had been ordered to deliver him
there.  A surprisingly small bribe allowed her to be seated at the table
next to his.  Everything possible had been organised.  It was all down to
her now to carry the plan through to a successful conclusion.  She finished
her make-up and carefully twisted her hair into a chignon.  Her dress was
laid out ready on the bed.  Only one task remained to be completed.

   She took out the box from the bottom of her make-up bag and unlocked it.
She raised the lid and took a moment to study the pictures taped there. 
This was her ritual to remind herself why she lived the way she did.  One
photograph showed her mother as a happy laughing teenager.  She made an
attractive picture with her blonde hair blowing in the wind and her big
brown eyes sparkling with health and happiness.  The other was a stark
contrast.  A copy of an official police photograph, it showed her mother
sprawled among a collection of garbage bags, dead from a drug overdose. 
Her hair was lank and her eyes stared blankly at the camera.

   She forced herself to study the last picture, branding it onto her
retina.  Sometimes there came a point during her assignments when she
hesitated, compassion struggling to control her actions and she needed this
memory to reinforce her willpower.  Everyday she thanked whatever stars
watched over her that she hadn't followed her mother's path.  She had come
close but the shock of her mother's death had brought her fledging career
as a prostitute and her tentative flirtation with drugs to an abrupt halt.

   She had sworn vengeance but had been surprised when she had been offered
a way to achieve it.  Her first kill had left her shaken but unrepentant.
Now she had deprived so many drug dealers of their lives all their faces
blurred into one homogeneous nightmare.  There were times when she wondered
if she made the wrong choice.  On the street she had been selling her body
but it had been an honest trade.  On her dark days she felt as though now
she was not only trading her body but her soul also.

   Taking a deep breath to strengthen her resolve she slipped on a pair of
gloves and opened the jar.  Although she had been assured that the poison
could only be absorbed through saliva in the mouth she didn't like to take
any unnecessary chances.  A mere trace was capable of killing a fully-grown
human so she treated it with respect.  It was tasteless, odourless and
colourless, making it impossible to detect.  As she had done on countless
other occasions she carefully smoothed it onto her nipples.

   Copyright Vickie Morgan, March 1999 E-mail artemis55@hotmail.com

   This story is distributed free of charge for your entertainment.  It
does take quite a lot of time and effort to write, type, edit and post a
story.  All I ask is that you take a couple of minutes to e-mail me, let me
know that you've read this and perhaps give some reaction.  Thank you.