a/n: Apparently I just can't stop. Genny910 fixes my boo-boos and tells me when my stuff doesn't make sense. She completes me.

If you're having a hard time with this pairing, don't read this please. It's perverted.

"All diplomacy is a continuation of war by other means."

Zhou Enlai

Aro's eyes glittered at me fiercely.

"Isabella," he crooned. "I'm appalled at the thought I've offended you. Tell me, whatever have I done?"

His manner was full of regret, but the intensity of his gaze belied that. I had guessed right; he was waiting for me to make the first move. If I was human I would be shaking with nerves.

"You were…intimate with me and then ignored me for a month." I surprised myself with my coy language. I was clearly picking up the speech patterns of these ancient, formal creatures.

"Did you not get my gifts?" Aro gave me an innocent look, moving a step closer. "You're wearing the earrings I sent."

"You tried to kill me." I lifted my chin at him.

"And yet, here you stand," he said, gesturing to me, "lovelier than ever."

"You told me 'good bye!'"

"I bid Bella Swan good bye." Aro shook his head at me indulgently. "Bella Swan is dead, Isabella. You have risen from her ashes, like a magnificent phoenix."

He took another step closer to me. "I would never let any harm come to you. Didn't I give up my personal shield for you? I monitored your well-being through Renata and my dear brothers. You were perfectly safe and cared for. You had everything you could want." Aro's voice was soft, but his face was challenging.

He was waiting for something. Before responding, I needed to examine my own motives. Being here had changed me. Or changing had changed me. Aro was right; Bella Swan, that guileless, timid thing had died. I mourned for her innocence, her transparency, for a fraction of a second. Isabella, Aro's Isabella was careful and calculating.

I took a step toward him and looked up coquettishly through my lashes. I made my voice a breathy whisper. "What if I wanted you?"

"Isabella," he breathed, closing the gap between us and putting a hand to my face. He didn't feel cold anymore. He brought his mouth down until he was just a hairsbreadth from my lips. "I wouldn't dream of denying you." He pressed his lips to mine in a kiss hungrier than the ones we had shared before. It affected me but not to the drunken, dizzying extent that his kisses had before.

"Aro," I interrupted our kiss. He pulled away just enough that I could see his look of impatience. "Isn't it time for dinner?"

"Yes," he answered me cautiously. "But, you have been eating with Renata."

"I want to see you eat." I made my demand with the same flirtatious tone and a pout.

I didn't know why this was so important to me yet, but I did know I was tired of being stuck in that room. I wanted to see what really happened here.

Aro nodded. "You continue to surprise me. Come." He extended his arm to escort me downstairs to the one room I had yet to see since my change: the throne room.

Aro and I drew a few furtive looks as we walked together through the halls. He ignored the looks, and I tried to.

"I must mention, Isabella," he confided in me as we walked, "that I have been quite busy dealing with your friends, the Cullens."

I looked at him, curious, while I assessed my own emotional response. I found I felt little sadness at being estranged from them. I didn't want them destroyed, but I didn't feel the same sharp pang of loss at the mention of their name.

"I contacted Carlisle," he continued. "I asked him to bring his family here to talk about their infractions. Carlisle told me that they have been under attack from a vengeful nomad, a woman whose mate they destroyed?"

"Victoria," I said.

"Yes. She has apparently created a bit of a situation in their area, creating far more newborns than she can feasibly control, all to launch an attack on them.

"I thought of leaving them to their fate but I didn't wish to upset you," Aro sighed theatrically. "Not to mention that this creature's actions are dangerous to us all if they become too conspicuous. I've been busy preparing a team to go help them."

I nodded. I was a little relieved to postpone the date I had to face them. I still didn't feel confident about where I stood here.

I was glad of the distraction of "dinner." It gave me the chance to think about what I knew would happen next between us. I was extremely torn in my reactions to Aro. Part of me was repulsed by his theatrical manner and elaborate games, his cruelty and his perversity.

But another, equal part of me was fascinated by him, by the complexity of his mind and motivations, by the ease with which he exercised immense power with such a light hand. The intense, delirious physical reaction he had aroused in me as a human had been replaced by a different but no less powerful attraction that seemed to have its origin in his profound desire for me. I understood now how one could be affected by another's yearning. It had never meant anything to me to be wanted by the human boys in Forks, and I had never really felt desired by my tortured vampire boyfriend. But the fierce hunger in Aro's eyes? It set me aflame. It was the last thing I expected to feel, but I was grateful for it since it made our agreement more palatable.

We stepped into the throne room. Caius and Marcus were already in their seats, and they turned to see us enter. In fact, the eyes of most of the room were on the two of us. They weren't warm, but they were admiring, respectful. Instead of feeling shy, as would have been my tendency before, I took some pleasure in it.

"Isabella," Marcus rose briefly from his seat to greet me. Caius nodded in my direction, which felt something like a major gesture on his part.

"Heidi will bring dinner in soon," Aro said to me, guiding me up the steps to the three black thrones. "You can sit here."

I was surprised to see he led me to his throne. I glanced at Caius and Marcus, but they just looked placidly at the double doors on the other side of the room. I sat down on the edge of the seat and thanked Aro.

The doors opened and Heidi brought in a group of tourists. She was talking to them about the frescoes and the mosaic-work on the floor as she led them in. They seemed to remain distracted by her talk until the doors closed behind them with a hollow, thumping sound.

Suddenly, the crowd seemed to freeze as they took in the otherworldly creatures that inhabited the room. It was as if all of their instincts told them to run, but their rational brains told them that such things as they feared just didn't exist. The result of the conflict was like time being frozen. I pushed myself to pick someone out of the crowd that I felt sorry for, the most vulnerable of these humans.

I found a young woman in the second row; pale, red-haired, and big-eyed. I waited to feel horrified, to cry out and beg them to spare her.

The silence broke as Aro reached the human closest to him. He glanced back to me for a split second, and our eyes locked. Then he smiled at the middle-aged man for a second, let out a lip-curling snarl, and pulled the man's neck to his mouth.

Pandemonium broke out in the hall as the rest of the immortals moved in to capture their prey and the humans realized what was happening. The smell of blood filled the air, and I found myself gripping the arms of Aro's throne. I had fed a few hours previously, and I was able to resist, but it wasn't easy.

I looked for the redhead I had picked out of the crowd. I saw her in Jane's arms. As Jane's teeth dug into her neck, the girl's blue eyes caught mine. I made myself maintain her gaze. It felt bad but somehow…bearable…just on the edge of discomfort. But if I had to, since I had to, I could handle it.

I sought Aro out again. He was watching me, his hands clasped together in front of him, his gaze steady. He seemed oddly still in the midst of all the activity. His expression was openly desirous.

I had thrown down a gauntlet in front of him, and he had picked it up. I knew I could either stall or go to bed with him now. I watched my responses as if from the outside. I wanted to go with him. I was intoxicated by the power I had over him.

I beckoned him forward with a finger. His eyes flared at me, and he pushed smoothly through the crowd. He mounted the stairs and leaned down over me where I sat.

"Come," Aro growled in my ear as he pulled me from the room. He took a position slightly behind me, placed his hand on my lower back, and pushed me forward through the halls.

He didn't speak, and my tension mounted as we neared the room I knew to be his. As we stepped inside, his insistent but polite escort ended. He closed the door and almost simultaneously slammed me against it with his body.

He grabbed my jaw with one hand and plunged his tongue into my mouth, while his other hand wrapped around my back with such force that his hand tore the back of my dress.

"You're playing a very dangerous game, Isabella." He pulled his lips away from my mouth and growled into my ear.

I brought my thigh up to press against the bulge in his trousers. "You seem to be enjoying our game."

He laughed his odd, slightly effeminate laugh. Suddenly I was spinning through the air, coming down on the fluffy white comforter on his big bed. He held himself poised above me for a moment like a predator, and then he pounced on me, pressing his body into mine again.

His mouth moved down to the neckline of my dress. He hovered there for a moment, looking up at me.

"I hope you aren't terribly attached to this dress," He smiled crookedly at me as he pushed himself back up on his knees and put his hands on opposite sides of my neckline.

I shook my head at him, and he grinned as he tore the front open, pulling it away from my body as the shredded back fell apart.

I reached for his suit jacket, but he pulled it off before I could. He tossed it to the side, then brushed my hands away when I started to loosen his tie. He leaned back on top of me again, tearing my bra away with his teeth as he kicked his dress shoes off with so much force that one hit an end table across the room.

My laugh turned to a groan in my throat as his teeth met my breast with just enough bite to send a throb through my body. He continued to tease my breasts as the hand that wasn't propping him up pulled the last of my dress away from my body and ran back up from my knee to my waist.

I reached for him again, this time going for his belt buckle. Aro pushed himself away from me again and gazed at my body, watching his hand slowly stroke from my jaw, skimming over my breast and down where my panties covered my hip. Then he looked at me with a smirk and dug his fingers into the lacy edge and pulled. I gasped as he exposed all of me. Then I pulled his mouth down to mine, kissing him as aggressively as he had kissed me earlier.

He pressed himself against me again, and this time he let me unbuckle his pants. I swallowed the tiniest bit of lingering anxiety about touching a man there for the first time, then I wrapped my hand around him. I marveled at how hard it was and at the same time how smooth the skin felt. It was his turn to groan, and he seemed to freeze for a moment, burying his face in the pillow next to my ear and saying something I couldn't understand. He was trembling slightly. I could feel it in my other hand, which rested on his shoulder.

I stroked him, pulling another submerged groan from him before he pulled his head back up and gazed at me, his face lacking his usual poise for just a second before recovering.

"Be careful, sweet," he murmured. For a second I thought I was hurting him, and I released him. But then he mumbled, perhaps to himself, "Amazing. No distractions." The way he winced slightly when he said that last word I, realized that he meant being touched intimately without having to absorb someone's thoughts.

For the first time, I understood what a burden it was, going through so many centuries, and never being able to touch someone without hearing everything they had ever experienced. Especially now, as I was coming alive sexually for the first time, I felt sad for him, never being able to feel this pleasure without the static of others' thoughts.

My reverie didn't last long, though. Aro's thoughts shifted so swiftly that he quickly overcame his musing. He took advantage of my inaction to stroke his hand down my abdomen again. and then between my legs, I gasped again and rose up to meet his hands as he established a rhythm that was actually more tentative than his calculated touches when I was human. He was teasing me.

I twisted under his touch, trying to get more, while pulling somewhat clumsily at his shirt. He let me pull his tie off while smiling indulgently at my writhing.

"Please," I begged him. I regretted that I hadn't been able to maintain control over our tryst, but it was a small issue in the face of the oddly powerful lust I felt for this bizarre, disturbing man.

"Whatever you want, Isabella." Together, he and I pulled the rest of his clothes away from him, he more adeptly than I, and he pressed himself against me again. It felt as though he was trying to have our bare skin touch as much as possible. It was curiously intimate, especially since we were closer in stature than Edward and I had been. We matched up much more evenly, and he seemed to want to stay that way for a long moment before finally, both of us trembling, he entered me, letting out another whispered phrase I couldn't understand.

I whimpered with pleasure and he looked at me, his eyes clearing slightly. I gave him a minute nod, and he began to thrust hard but almost methodically. He continued his careful thrusts, looking at me, his eyes burning but not seeming to really see me. The pleasure built up, and I let out a louder cry. He seemed to snap, suddenly beginning to thrust into me more roughly, deliciously. He kissed me hungrily, and I could feel his teeth on my mouth again. I fought back, digging my nails into his back and meeting his desire with mine.

The act had unimagined savagery, and I wondered with the piece of my mind that wasn't lost whether it would always be like this, whether I had lost the chance to make love like a human instead of an animal. Regardless, it was glorious and consuming. When I felt that rising pleasure that I only remembered dimly from the last minutes of my human life, I realized that it didn't matter if I never felt that again, because this was so much better.

I came, almost screaming into his shoulder. Aro shuddered violently and thrust into me fiercely a half a dozen times before letting out a stream of words in a tongue I didn't recognize. He had lost every sign of composure, and he dropped down beside my sated body. He slipped out of me and just stared, his mouth slightly open and a dazed look covering his perfect, patrician face.

I lost a moment recovering. Then, I reached for him again, startling him from his trance but quickly pulling us both back under.

a/n: AHHHH! I cannot believe you just read that! Anyhow, thanks for reading and all your lovely reviews (I think we've weeded out the innocent and easily horrified at this point). Also, big creepy thank yous to Katiebird at Bookish Temptations for being brave enough to rec this.

Xoxo JuJu