Needs must!

"Release me from these irons," you say to her in an even voice. "Please, Corinne. I cannot bear to know that you have suffered so, I cannot say that I love you and not offer the comforts which I have to give."

"Will you give them gently?" she asks, almost pleading. It breaks your heart to hear it, but with Trina's life in the balance, your conscience must pay the price.

"I will offer you nothing but tenderness," you promise.

With a trembling hand, Corinne takes a key from where it sits upon the altar, and a dagger. You try your best to look into her eyes with nothing but infatuation, even though there is no real way to know which of the implements she will use, and there is real fear that you must hide. If she completes the action she started five years ago, then not only is your life forfeit, but Trina's as well - and possibly your entire kingdom, as there is no telling what will happen should the throne suddenly become vacant just as Elyssia is beginning to prosper!

Corinne looks you in the eyes, as if making her decision... and then she steps behind you.

The rope at your neck goes slack!

Slim hands loosen the knot, and the rope is pulled over your head, tossed aside. Then, she kneels in front of you, slipping the key into the manacles and turning sharply to the right. The bolt is withdrawn, and the heavy irons clank to the floor.

For a moment, your impulse is to sieze her and throw her aside, that you might make a run for the door - or, to strike a hard blow upon her chin to try and render her ****. But there are three things that stay these action! One, a single scream from her will doubtless bring the giant, and that will end badly! Two, you cannot see what she did with the knife, and she may be holding it ready. And three... though she has committed a great crime against you and Trina, she is still a young woman and it has been driven into you since early childhood that to strike at a woman is a shameful thing. Corinne is far from innocent, but it is the sickness in her mind which drives her so.

Your brief hesitation seems to have aroused her suspicions! For a moment, her eyes begin to glare, but then you reach a hand up to her face, cupping her cheek in one hand. She gasps at the unexpected contact, then sighs and pushes her face into your palm like a cat demanding affection. But, she still seems to be keeping her guard up, wary of a trick.

It has to be done... you gently tilt her chin up with your other hand, and descend toward her trembling lips.

Corinne seems to not know how to react, what to do with this kind of intimate touch. Her mouth hangs open as one in shocked surprise, and you kiss her lips with tenderness and feather-lightness, not wanting to break the spell you seem to have now cast upon her. Her breath comes in heaving gasps, though it seems to be more from fear than excitement. Perhaps she fears that, with all that she wanted potentially before her; it will only be yanked away from her - a fear that, honestly, you are in no position to allay!

You back away for a moment. "You do not kiss me in return?" you ask in a whisper.

"I... I do n-not know how," she stammers. "No one has ever kissed me... like this."

"Close your eyes, beloved," you tell her, "and I will show you."

Corinne does so, once again seemingly making herself ****, but her hand is still behind her back and it would take only a breath for her to scream. And so, you must keep up the charade... you lean in to kiss her again, and this time her lips respond to you. With a shrug of her shoulders, Corinne allows her blouse to slip away, as it was already nearly completely open... strange that she has fewer qualms about baring her breasts to you than she did about a kiss! And although you spent yourself freely with Trina in the meadow only two hours before, the involuntary reaction to kissing a beautiful and naked woman begins to arouse you to full hardness. You wonder how far this deception will need to go - and it occurs to you that the only way (perhaps) to truly be sure that Corinne is completely distracted is to bring her to climax!

She pulls away for a moment, and rises from her knees; not to escape you, but seemingly to give you a better look at her. "Many have called me beautiful," she says, her voice almost seductive. "What say you, my love?"

"I have none to compare you to," you tell her. "You are the only woman in the world, Corinne."

Her eyes seem to search yours for deceit, and you close them for just a moment to bring Trina's face back into your mind's eye once again, trying desperately to keep her from seeing the lie. Strange, that to make love to a woman is the most difficult thing you have ever done! But not so strange after all, perhaps, as you must do so while pretending the real feelings you have for another, feelings which had fully awakened only hours before, are instead for her - for the one who might with a single word destroy the life of she who truly holds your heart.

Corinne's eyes reveal nothing of what she sees in yours. She backs away slowly, her remaining garments dropping to the floor, and as she sits back into the ornate throne before the stained glass window, she opens her legs in invitation. "If there is no other woman for you," she says in a low purr, "then give of yourself to me now!"

It is clear that Corinne will have you, as a lover, here and now... or, you will face the consequences of refusing her.