This was a joint effort between me and another gutterbug (she knows). No beta here, and a little esoteric but I hope you enjoy it all the same.


Lizzie felt the pull of his field of attraction in her blood, in her bones. How someone held harmless, restrained hand and foot to a chair still compel her so strongly? It was chaos and he was her strange attractor. If possible, he seemed more dangerous; all of that potential, not just for violence and sex, but secrets and much more frightening, the possibility of being known.

He waited for her to approach. The certainty of being unable to hide behind her usual guards, being unable to distract him from that which she didn't want seen made her reluctant. When his lips parted, she found herself watching for his tongue, the secret details of his teeth, something to account for the heat flowing through her body as he drew a long breath and she waited, riveted, for the exhale.

She felt her own lungs seize with the effort to mirror his breathing pattern. Her posture shifted in the chair, became more open like his. It was a reflex she couldn't stop as she felt his eyes follow the lines of her body as her legs opened a bit more to allow her ankles to press back to the chair legs.

They regarded each other across the empty air between them, unsure if they were allies or enemy combatants. His eyes gleamed with challenge, come and see if I'm as bad as you think. Very slowly, she closed her knees, allowing her eyes to travel with deliberate insolence up his bound body, knowing he couldn't mimic her movement. She allowed the flavor of power to roll across her palate, both her own and that which radiated from him in waves.

It was the moment of pure chaos the moment of destruction of the old and the emergence of the new order. This was the tipping point. So her scar became the butterfly effect, the locus of Fate. She had no idea if it was wise to approach; a wild animal is still wild, even when chained. But she was on her feet and across the floor before she could think it through, because in the end the laws of attraction would win.

"Agent Keen, what a pleasure."

It had begun.