John!
His eyes snap open and he struggles for breath for a moment. His senses return in a rush and he realizes that she is still touching him. With a sharp jolt, he grabs her hand, and searches her eyes for any hint of what he thinks just occurred.
She looks as if she could devour him whole.
A shudder runs through him as he realizes what he was so close to doing. The very same thing he had sworn to her the night before that he would never do. Give in to her. And give up on Marlena.
He releases her hand as though it is red hot and stumbles backwards with a stricken expression on his face. Marlena, please forgive me. For I know not what to do...
"Stay away from me!" His voice reaches a rasping crescendo as he holds his hands out in front of him. But mere digits and limbs can't protect him from the turmoil inside. All the control he had maintained the night before quickly dissolves when faced with the threat of his own weakening resolve. "Don't! Don't touch me again! I'm warning you..."
"Or what, John?" She laughs but the sound is brittle, underlain with anger and scorn. "You'll hurt me? You'll *kill* me? That would make it rather hard to bring back your *precious* Doc, don't you think?"
"Stop!" He snarls furiously as his hands curl into large fists. "Stop baiting me. Stop playing so many fucking *games*. I'm sick of your *bullshit* and it's going to stop. *Now*!"
"Says you and who's army?" Grace raises one lazy eyebrow. "You really think you have what it takes to scare me John? I do what I want, when I want." She takes a step toward him and crosses her arms in front of her body. She's fully aware that the vee of her blouse reveals her more than ample cleavage and since she suspects that John is weakening, this might be just the thing that puts him over the edge. "I do what I want and I do *who* I want. And John, I intend to do you. One way or another. So," the corner of her mouth curls up as she sees his eyes drop and then flick back up to meet hers, "you can fight me, and then I can have you, or you can just give in and find out what you've been missing..."
"I *know* what I'm missing," John feels the muscles tightening beneath his skin, and he tries to fight the growing murmurs that crackle inside his skull. "I'm missing my wife." He sucks in a deep breath through his nose as his jaw sets and he musters all the determination he can . "You can't compare to Marlena. You're a mere shadow of her."
"Didn't seem to bother Craig when he fucked me in your bed," Grace says cruelly. Her anger has blossomed into rage that is not tempered with any kind of need for control. She has one objective and that is to strip John raw. "Craig didn't seem to know or care about the difference between me and your sainted Doc. He was too busy enjoying himself as I fucked him senseless, right under your nose."
Her words deal John an excruciating body-blow. He finds himself gasping for air as the pain inside his chest explodes and the humming in his head mushrooms into deafening shrieks. <<Your wife has been screwing my husband...>>
Grace feels a thrill of satisfaction as John's eyes betray his agony. You asked for it, John. And you more than deserve it. Ruthlessly, she zeroes in for the kill.
"I had him over and over again, honey. I rode him until he screamed Marlena's name. Isn't that ironic?" She chuckles. "He wanted to leave Nancy for me, but by then I'd moved on." She narrows her eyes. "And there were others, John. You want names and places?" Her speech slows and she enunciates the words, driving her point home. "Do you want every little, hot, sticky detail?"
"*No*!" John bellows, the sound akin to a large beast in pain. "Enough! You've made your point!"
"There was a point?" Grace shrugs casually.
"God, what the hell do you *want* from me?" John can barely stand to be so close to her but at the same time, he can't find the strength to move away. "You tell me you hate me, that you blame me for abandoning you. So, why the hell aren't you running back to Stefano? Why are you still here trying to seduce me?" He shakes his head, the cacophony inside reaching unbearable levels.
"Because you owe me," Grace's reply is nothing less than glacial. "And I intend to collect."
"I don't have anything left to give you," John grinds out the words.
"Your body will do for starters," she reaches out a hand and trails one finger down through the wiry hair of his chest. And once I'm done with that, I'll break your spirit and your soul. "You can pay up now, if you prefer," a crooked smile spreads across her lips as she flattens her palm against his abdominal muscles and she feels them jump madly. "There's no-one for miles. No-one will know..."
John groans as her left hand slides up his denim-clad thigh. All he's aware of now is the searing heat of her touch and the roaring clamor in his head.
<<You could do *anything* you wanted to me. There's no-one here to stop you John. How about it, for old times sake? You can take me here, right now, on the floor..>>
"I... I... I.... Want..." John's distantly aware his lips are moving but the words are not his. And then he feels his consciousness slipping into shadows.
"What do you want, John?" Grace senses the change immediately and it excites her beyond measure. Her desire escalates and she presses herself against him, her lips against his ear and her breaths short and shallow. "Do you want to take me now?"
<<You can fuck me until I'm screaming and nobody will ever know the difference.>>
"Want. *You*." He pushes her backwards and slams her up against the wall of the ramshackle cabin. Grace gasps as he pins her and his mouth takes hers with nothing less than brutality. His teeth draw blood from her lower lip and she groans as she feels him wrench her blouse from her shoulders. His mouth and teeth continue to mark her as he claims her flesh and she shudders as she feels his hand slide between her legs.
"Oh *God*," she gasps. "John, oh yes, that's it. Oh, that..." her breath comes in short gasps as he tears away her panties and continues to stroke her with his fingers while his mouth moves down to the swell of her breasts, "that... oh my God...oh, please..."
John...*please*!
He spins suddenly out of the blackness and knows with a dizzying clarity where the voice in his head comes from. He can't let her down again.
His senses struggle into consciousness and everything hits him at once. The feel of her, the taste and the scent... he is enveloped in her and he is simultaneously intoxicated and disgusted.
"*Marlena*." The sound of her name is exquisite and so utterly right that it fills him with complete conviction.
"I'm not Marlena," Grace's voice sounds irately. "*Dammit*, I am NOT Marlena."
"That's right, you're not," John peels himself from her and looks at her coldly. "But she's inside you. She's not gone, I *know* that now. I belong to her and *you* will never bring me any pleasure. You have no soul, you're incapable of being a fraction of the woman Marlena is."
"I don't fucking *believe* this!" Grace pulls her shirt back on and wraps it around naked body. Her body that screams with nerves on fire with need for him. Her body that shakes with rage and frustration. "You know what? Fuck *you* too, John. You fucking, pompous, self-righteous *bastard*."
She can't believe this. She had him. She *had* him, she knows she did. He was hers. He was practically inside her, had given himself over to the utter, fucking, *bliss* of claiming her and becoming hers. He wasn't even fighting.
And then... nothing.
"You know what?" She demands, her eyes blazing, her voice scything in tone and volume. "I don't need this bullshit. I don't need *you*, John. You can't treat me like some worthless piece of *shit* you brought in on your shoe. Your precious Marlena might have put up with that, but I will *not*." Her lips curl into an ugly sneer. "You keep pining for something that is lost to you forever. Just don't expect me to hang around and watch your pathetic ass drown in the vat of denial you've been brewing, okay?"
"You don't get it, do you?" John almost laughs as he picks his shirt up from the ground and pulls it on over his shoulders. "Marlena and I have a connection. My *soul* is tied to hers." Her rage is disconcerting, but not as much as the knowledge of what he has almost done, once again. However, this time, the truth will be his armor. "You can tell me she's gone all you want, but I *feel* her inside you. It doesn't matter how deep down you try and bury her Grace, I *know* she's there. I heard her inside my head just now, she doesn't want you to win any more than I do."
"Oh my God," Grace looks horrified and she takes a step backward. "You're crazy. You're fucking *crazy*. You think you *heard* her?" She stares at him for a moment before she shakes her head and holds up her palm towards him. "Do me a favor and stay away from me, all right? Just leave me alone." Her eyes narrow and her parting remark is loaded with scorn "I'm sure you and the voices in your head will be very happy together."
She starts towards the cabin and John follows her. When he enters he finds her pulling on the skintight black pants that she'd pulled from the car.
"What do you think you're doing?" he asks in a tone that is somewhere approaching reasonable.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" She buttons the pants and pulls off the blouse that she is wearing.
"Uh..." John finds himself looking away as she pulls on her bra and then a red shirt that buttons closely across her breasts.
"I'm *leaving*," she doesn't even look at him as she drags her fingers through her tangled blonde hair. "That's what I'm doing."
"Iiii... don't think so," John raises a single eyebrow as he watches her sit on the bed and pull on first one boot and then the other. He still feels unsettled and he is struggling for control, but Grace's reaction to his refusal of her has surprised him. Suddenly he is the one in control and she is ready to flee, although he's not sure that she recognizes that yet. If she did, he doubts she'd be running. It's not part of her game-plan, he's sure. She's operating on pure instinct. He's never had her more where he wants her and he's not going to lose this opportunity. "You told me you didn't know where you'd be going. You told me there was no point in trying to escape."
"I lied," she says baldly as she zips up her boots.
"What a surprise," he lets out a brittle laugh. "I doubt you have it in you to be honest. About anything."
"I honestly hate you," she glares at him as she stands. "How about that?"
"Yeah, it's really obvious with you trying to seduce me every three point five seconds,. You think *I'm* pathetic and you're the one who's so desperate to get laid she chooses the person she hates more than anyone." John actually manages a grin in the hopes it will piss her off even more.
It appears he's succeeded as the flat of her palm connects with the side of his face. "Fuck you, John Black!" She's boiling over with wrath, her heart pounding and her breath short and shallow as she confronts him.
"Baby, I know you want to," his voice is soft but undeniably mocking her as he steps closer. "I give you an A for effort too. But see, I know that this is just a game to you. You think you hate me, but you can't stay away from me, just like I can't stay away from you. And we both know why, don't we?" Her name drifts unspoken between them. "You want to be in control. But I'm the one man that you can't have. And the only man you want. And that drives you crazy."
He knows as he utters the words that they are true. She thinks this is simply a power struggle. If she can seduce him then she will have won and she can break his spirit. And to a certain extent, she is correct.
"You're used to getting your own way, Grace. You're nothing more than a spoiled child. And you think if you have me, you'll get tired of me and then you can forget about me." He smirks as he reaches out his hand and draws a fingertip over the skin that is revealed by her shirt. "But you're wrong." He leans in, his breath warm against the side of her face. "You feel that? The way your skin sings? The beating of your heart? The way you ache for me to touch you?" He can feel it and he knows that it is just the same for her. It always has been. "That's never going away. All the time that Marlena and I spent apart, my body never stopped craving her. You can walk away from me but you'll never find anyone to fill or subdue the need you feel for me." He pulls his face back and meets her bottomless golden gaze. "You'll search for me in the eyes and the arms of every man you meet and you'll never find anything that approaches what you and I have." Almost reverently, he slides his hand up and cups her cheek tenderly.
Grace feels herself drowning in the ocean of his eyes and her heart hammers against her ribcage. And she feels as though there will never be anything like breathing again, she is so full of need and so full of him.
"Then why are you fighting me?" she whispers plaintively. She sounds weak but at this moment she doesn't care. The blood in her screams for him until she is dizzy and she closes her hand around his wrist to steady herself. The wrist attached to the hand that holds her in his palm. "I know you want me, why won't you take me?"
"Because you're not her." His words are soft and gentle with the full force of a sledgehammer. "Because what you and I could have doesn't even begin to compare to the magic that Marlena and I create just by holding each other. Because I won't sully the memory of the woman that gives reason to my every *day* by *settling* for mere *sex* with you." He drops his hand, the tenderness fading from his eyes. "What we had that night was meaningless. It was unsatisfying and left me empty and wanting Marlena. So tell me why I'd want to do that to myself again?"
It is with horror that Grace realizes that her eyes are swimming with tears. She had sworn all those years ago, back on Stefano's Caribbean hideaway, that she would never expose herself to this kind of pain again. She would never let anyone hurt her like Roman Brady had. She can't believe she's let it happen again.
"You're a *pig*!" she hisses and angrily she swipes at her cheeks with the back of her fingers.
The gesture is so utterly Marlena that it takes John's breath away. His expression softens. "Listen," he starts. "I'm s-"
"Screw you!" she cuts him off with a right hook that sends him reeling. It's followed up by a roundhouse kick to the stomach that really does leave him gasping for breath.
By the time he recovers and makes it outside, there is no sign of her.
"Dammit!" he slams the door shut behind him, sending a shudder through the ancient structure. He can't believe he went that far. He'd meant to slip inside her defenses, not batter them until there was nothing left. Good one Black, can't you do *anything* right? First you don't even *know* that she's not Marlena and then you piss her off so much that she disappears completely.
He scans the trees in front of him, trying to pick up some trace of her among the undergrowth.
There is nothing until the chilling sound of her scream reaches him.