Ororo laid on top of her lover, tracing the scars over his right eye. "There must be quite a story behind this," she commented, "They almost look like the letter 'M'."

He studied her with his opened eye. "There is," He replied in his deep voice, "but I'm not going to tell you; at least not until you've earned the privilege of hearing it"

She smiled and her body shivered slightly in anticipation as the implied order. "Should I start working on it right now?"

He caressed her face with a finger, it was rough, but the touch was gentle. "No, right now I want to admire your perfect face."

Ororo felt self conscious at the mention of her face, but she knew better than to look away. He had known the effect the comment would have on her, which was why he had said it. Not that he didn't think her face was perfect, her skin was smooth, a little lighter than his, the angles were soft, but strong; even when she was embarrassed this was the face of a queen, his queen.

"Tell me why you're ashamed of your face."

Anger flared in her eyes for a moment "I'm not ashamed!" and died down almost immediately.

He smiled at her, "no, you're not. Tell me why you retreat inside yourself every time I mention how perfect it is, how perfect you are."

She couldn't help but looked away and then rested her head on his strong chest, listening to his heart beat. "I'm not perfect, I'm broken. If I wasn't I wouldn't need you dominating me like you do to enjoy sex."

He took her face in one hand and gently insisted she look at him. "There's nothing wrong with submitting to someone, after all, I submitted myself to you." Ororo snorted in a very un-lady manner, making him chuckles. "I walked away from what I was, left it all behind, for you."

"I didn't ask you to do that." There was defiance in her tone.

"Didn't you?" He asked not letting her break his gaze, "you wanted us to be together, how long do you think we would have lasted if I'd stayed with my old occupation?"

"It would have lasted as long as you would have wanted it to."

"How happy would you have been?"

She looked away. "My happiness doesn't matter."

He kissed the side of her temples, "That's not true. It matters to me. It matters more than anything I was, more than my own happiness. Until I met you, I was just a drone, following orders thinking that was all there was to life. You showed me a world I had never even imagined, but if you weren't by my side, I wouldn't be able to deal with it. I'd just run back to the Renegades and do everything I could to forget about it. You're not weak; you're strong, strong enough for me to want to be stronger just for you." He could she in her eyes that she didn't quite believe him. "So tell me why you're self conscious."

For a moment he thought she might defy him.

"You know I grew up on the street, when I was twelve I caught the attention of a pimp. I guess with my white hair and brown skin it's a wonder it took that long. He promised me a roof over my head and regular meals; I was desperate enough to believe him. I wasn't stupid enough to think it was going to be free, so when he brought a man and told me to have sex with him I did it. I worked for him until he was killed by a rival. I guess he hadn't been too bad; he beat me once in a while, but only when I deserved it.

"The one who took over wasn't as nice. He tried to get me hooked on cocaine, but I wouldn't touch that, so he beat me. After a while he even stopped using the drug as an excuse, he just beat me when ever he felt like it. I did everything I could to hide the bruise, but I could tell the other girls knew about them by the way they looked at me. So I worked harder at hiding it. I adopted a regal bearing and made sure none of the pain I felt showed."

He didn't comment or question, he knew from experience how easy it was to get use to rough, almost inhuman treatment. "When did your powers kick in?"

"I was nineteen. He'd just finished beating me up because I tried to protect one of the new girls from him. She was young, maybe thirteen, a runaway who'd fallen in with the wrong crowd. They sold her to my pimp. She wasn't used to the street yet. She still though she could go back home and write this off as a bad idea.

"He was going to rape her. I had been beaten into submission, but when she looked at me for help something snapped; Lightning started striking all around the house. I could tell I was the one doing it, I kept trying to get the lighting to come inside the house, but it wouldn't.

"He went to a window to check what was going on and lightning struck the ground right next to it. I don't know if he died form being electrocuted or because he bled out when the window exploded, but when I had worked up the courage to check on him he was dead.

"I don't really know what happened after that, I retreated to the corner and waited. I think I was waiting for who ever the next pimp was going to be. Instead Scott showed up and took me away from that life."

"The shining knight swooped in and saved the princess again." He couldn't quite keep the bitterness out of his voice.

She looked at him, coming back from her trip down the dark memory. "Don't be like that. Scott's a nice guy, you two could get along if you gave it a chance."

"You think? Is that why we've been meeting in secret?"

"This isn't a secret; he knows I'm on a date."

"With me?"

She hesitated and then shook her head.

He smiled, "that's what I thought, don't worry, I don't care if the all mighty Scott doesn't know about us. All I care about is you, and making you happy."

"Me and Scott dated for a while," was her reply. He tensed, wondering why she brought that up. "It didn't work out, He was able to take charge, but he couldn't push hard enough."

He relaxed, "he couldn't give you want you needed."

She nodded, "I think he cared too much."

"No," he said shaking his head, "he didn't care enough. If he had, he would have done what ever he needed to satisfy you."

"What about you?" she asked, "will you do whatever's needed?"

He looked at her seriously, "tell me what I have to do, and I will do it."

She looked back at him, trying to read his feature, trying to determine if he truly meant what he said, even though this wasn't the first time they went through this. "Then don't be gentle with me."

He rolled so she was under his muscular body and he held her hands above her head. "You wish is my command," he said before kissing her savagely.