*”Ouch!”, She gasped, in both agony and pleasure, as He bit her small toe. He looked up, desire, satisfaction and sadistic longing mixing colloidally across His features.*
*_______________________________________________________*
***Him***
**Crack!** The whip snapped a few inches from the lions face as He danced around it. The lion was used to this routine and knew it was expected to look fierce and pretend to be the predator it used to be. So it growled and roared before taking its leap through a hula hoop set on fire.
He was satisfied, he knew The lion must be tired of this routine but this was His (and the lion’s) day job and he’d always been far ahead of the regulations on animal welfare that had slowly been shutting other circuses down. So He also knew The lion wasn’t unhappy. If He found a better job though He knew he would move on peacefully (taking the lion into retirement with Him).
In the moment after the lion jumped through the ring of fire, His eyes met Hers through the ring. Only for a moment, but he felt a spark inside, lit by something other than the ring. It suddenly felt as though He were performing just for Her. He went through the rest of the routine with greater gusto than he’d felt for the past week, watching Her reactions to the show. She seemed just as intrigued by the lion as She was by Him.
_______________________________________________________
*The big X marked the spot. He tied her arms to the upper bars of the X and legs to the lower bars. He lingered a little on Her legs, admiring how smooth and soft they felt to the touch. He felt the urge to bite them but resisted, He had something more fun in mind.*
_______________________________________________________
***Her***
She hated circuses. To Her they were cesspools of animal torture. She litigated them regularly and while She’d heard good things about this circus and its treatment of animals She needed to see it to believe it. So She’d decided “Why not? Let’s go back to this anachronism of society, maybe I’ll see a way I can shut it down”. This seemed like the happiest outcome for Her.
Once She reached the circus however … nothing changed. The circus performance didn’t radically change Her opinion. All She still wanted was to shut it down. Now She carefully watched the lion tamer searching for kinks in the well crafted image He was putting on.
By the end of the show, She’d seen nothing yet that told her she had what she needed to expose the inherent cruelty of this circus. She decided to probe a little further. She went down the stairs of the circular amphitheater hoping to get a word with Him, maybe by saying She was from the local newspaper doing a story on the circus.
_______________________________________________________
*They shared gentle kisses, perspiration on their brows, what a marathon session that had been. She couldn’t believe it, this ending to her story about the circus was a far cry from what she had expected it to be.*
*_______________________________________________________*
***Them***
“Hi, I’m from the Ginzbury Times”, She said, “We’re doing a small piece on the unique artistry of circuses and I wondered if I could talk to you for a bit”. He looked a little shocked and puzzled by this request. *’What an odd response’*, she thought, *’Wouldn’t most performers be excited by such a request?*’ He paused a moment longer before responding –“Yes, I’d be happy to talk to you about my act, would you like to do it over a drink? It’s been a long day and it would be nice to get a beer”. She considered this, a social lubricant like beer would be useful to her purposes She decided. “Sure, why don’t we head over to the Tramway? It’s one of my favorites in town”, she said. He readily agreed, surprised and curious as to how events had conspired to lead to this moment.
The Tramway was the usual small town bar, there seemed to be regulars loudly complaining about the town’s faults or each other’s, a thin layer of dirt that probably never left the floor, booths that were far too dimly lit and bartenders who took the slightest bit too long to take your order because face it, they had nowhere they needed to be anytime soon, and neither did you.
He got a Modelo while she ordered a Gin and Tonic. They sat at the bar next to each other, feet on the bar stool’s stretchers, their legs almost touching.
“So, what made you join the circus?” She asked without much a preamble.
After a momentary pause, he said, “I kind of slipped into it without much thought. I was poor and here was a job opportunity so I took it. It’s provided for me and taken care of me since. That was, let me see now, almost 8 years ago!”
“Are you passionate about it?”
“The circus? No, not so much. I love the animals but the circus itself is just a way to pay the bills.”
“You love the animals?” She asked, somewhat incredulous.
“Of course! I don’t think I could stand it without them. The lion is one of my favorites, that guy joined the circus with me so we kind of grew up in the circus together”
She didn’t believe him. ‘How could you work for a circus and love the animals!?’ she thought. The gin was doing its job and she blurted out, “But you’re in the circus!”
He looked at her with a wry smile and slight glint in his eye. He liked being challenged and he was starting to see how this situation had come about. “That’s true, I am in the circus, but like I said it’s all I’ve been trained for and know to do. But ever since I’ve been there I’ve made sure all the animals basically live as freely as we do. They get time out in the sun, their choice of food and days off. The days off is harder to set up right but every morning we kind do a test run and if they don’t seem ready to perform, they get the day off! Haha, our way of trying to treat them as fairly as we can. There’s a reason we still exist.”
His laugh had such a deep joy to it that for a moment she was pulled into its aura, then she returned to Her thoughts and felt a little flummoxed. This conversation wasn’t going the way she had hoped and predicted. But she had an ace up her sleeve, “Ah but how did you train them? You still use a whip with your lion so clearly there was a deep element of pain involved in the training.”
“Yea, this is a mistake so many circus trainers fall into. A lack of understanding of basic psychology. You can train animals with pain, so loss aversion, OR you could also condition them to pleasure. I chose the latter approach and so far, it hasn’t led to the lion chewing my arm off”, he said, referring to the recent scandal where a lion had mauled its trainer during a performance.
She sat quiet for a little while letting this comment simmer in her mind.
He decided to ask her some questions while whatever internal debate she was having played itself out. “How long have you lived here?” he asked. He enjoyed Her thinking face, it made him want to hold her, but he continued just sipping his beer and waited for her answer. He was surprised at His response to this woman, it had been some time that He had felt so intensely curious about while also being attracted to someone.
In spite of herself, she could feel herself warming up to this wiry man with his surprising thoughts on animal welfare. She replied, “I’ve been here all my life, just left to go to school in Indianapolis before coming back to …” She trailed off suddenly remembering She was supposed to be a journalist. “If you dislike the circus itself why don’t you leave? Maybe you could join the zoo?” she asked trying to move the spotlight back to him.
He laughed. This was a different laugh She realized, it was a mocking laugh, it didn’t have the heart she’d heard before. “The zoo is worse! The animals have no freedom whatsoever, they’re stuck in their cages and unable to escape its confines, at least our animals get their time in the sun and the open air. Not once has the lion squirted pee into onlooker’s faces – why? He’s had plenty of opportunities to do that outside!” he laughed again. This time, the laugh had gained back its heart She realized and felt buoyed by it again. For a fleeting moment she’d felt the desire to be closer to this man – ‘*What is happening to me*?’ she thought to herself. But it was obvious, He was subverting her expectations and in all the right ways.
“So you must feel a deep kinship with this town then?” He asked Her interrupting Her thought process, “To have left and then returned?”
She thought about this for a moment before replying. “Yea, I suppose I do. Too many people choose to leave their hometown and move away looking for something more, a something more that never really exists. I realized I already had that something more here in this place itself. So I came back. Working to better this town has given me a deep well of satisfaction to draw from. What place do you call home?”
He looked a little sad at this. A slight tilting downwards at the edges of his lips and a loss of the glint in his eyes. “I suppose nowhere. All my life I’ve always been moving and no place has ever held me for long enough to feel like home. The circus itself, with its people and animals is my home”.
She felt his pain, and couldn’t help reaching out to rest Her hand on His. He looked into her eyes, those bright green eyes, and could feel the gentle stirrings of something primal. He leaned forward, not sure what to expect. To his surprise she leaned into the kiss as well and their lips met. An unexpected meeting of lips. One neither of them had planned but one that felt needed, necessary in that moment. They came apart slowly, hesitantly. A little soft chuckle bubbled out of Her, ‘*This night has taken a turn’* She thought pleasantly.
After a couple more drinks and talking more gently now of their lives They left the tramway heading over to Her house.
**Home**
*After walking through the door, the animals were released from their hiding place under the platitudes society teaches us are necessary. He uttered an unintentional growl as he kissed and bit her neck. She moaned as She dug with Her nails into His back pulling him in closer. His hands moved down Her back to Her haunches. He flexed his palms stretching out his fingers before covering Her haunches with them and squeezing tight. She breathed heavy and hard into his ear before using her teeth to bite down on his right earlobe.*
“Let’s move this over to the bedroom?” she whispered. He just nodded and took her outstretched hand guiding Him into Her home. An unexpected sight greeted him there. There appeared to be swings, a giant wooden **X** and all manner of fluffy and metal handcuffs along the wall. This woman truly had an animal inside, one that he now realized he had seen through that ring of fire.
“Welcome” she said shortly. She wondered if he would react badly to the scene in front of him and watched his reaction. He seemed to just be taking it in. When he finally looked at Her, there was that glint in his eye again that She’d seen earlier. This excited her. In response she took off her shirt leaving a lacy black bra underneath. Apparently forgetting to do your laundry had surprising benefits.
*He pulled Her in, never having let go of her hand. She pulled his shirt off and found his wiriness didn’t mean there wasn’t something tight and firm for her to run her hands down. He watched her before leaning in to kiss her thick lips, biting and pulling on them for good measure. She ran her hands through his long curly hair and pulled on them, making Him gasp. He started moving his kissing downwards, towards the good bits. He bit her neck again, pausing at her clavicles before reaching her tits. He rapidly unclasped her bra and covered her nipples with his mouth, licking and biting in random succession. This drew out another moan from her encouraging him to keep going. But he stopped immediately.*
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
*In response, he unbuttoned and unzipped her pants taking her to the bed. He then returned to his previous position. Kissing and biting her nipples. Moving from one breast to the other. Listening and enjoying her contented moans.*
“Wait” she said, “We need a safe word”. He looked up and said “Ok, how about *bristle*” She nodded in response before saying, “Alright, well, keep at it”. He grinned at this before leaning back *in.*
*He worked his way down to her stomach biting and kissing everywhere he could. Then the thighs but he didn’t stop there. He kept moving down to her feet. Her cute small feet which he now kissed and bit.*
*”Ouch!” She gasped, in both agony and pleasure, as He bit her small toe. He looked up, desire, satisfaction and sadistic longing mixing colloidally across His features.*
*She pulled Him back up to Her and said, “I need you inside me right now”. She took off his pants as fast as she could and admired his erection for a moment, holding it in her palm, gently stroking as they looked right into each other’s eyes. He pulled out of her hand and went down to her pussy, teasing her entrance for a moment, stroking up and down with his penis before inserting it slowly. Her eyes rolled back into her head for a moment from the satisfaction of it, of having this warm throbbing object stretch her as it went inside Her. He held her legs at His shoulders as He watched her and started to rock gently in and out of her. “Harder” she grunted. “Yes ma’am” he said before starting to pound harder and harder into her. Her moans were getting louder and He could feel himself getting closer and closer to the edge. He stopped just before getting there and She looked at Him with slight unhappiness in her eyes. “I think we need a new position” He said and moved her waist so she turned around. Her haunches were now up in the air for him to hold on to while he moved in and out of her. After a few minutes he was about to come when She demanded, “Wait, just a little more!” He held on for a minute before He felt Her contractions. He pounded her a few more strokes before He came inside Her. Suddenly He wondered, ‘Why the hell had they forgotten condoms?!’ He drew Himself out of Her and lay down next to Her.*
“Uh, we kinda forgot the condom” He said. She looked at Him for a moment before saying, “Don’t worry I’m safe, got tested just a few days ago, are you safe?” He looked at her wryly, “Yea, it’s been a while for me but I’ve definitely been tested and nothing much has happened in the interim”. “Also I’m on birth control” she answered his unasked question. ‘*Thank god for modern science, being animals is great, but truly being animals would mean uncontrolled pregnancies and STDs’* He thought. “So do the animals in the circus get to have sex?” She asked. “Yea, we try to make it possible for them to have mates, by getting in touch with zoos in the cities we pass through but, like us, they have their dry periods too”.
They lay in silence for a little while, each contemplating the place they had ended up before She said, “So, ready for round 2?”
He laughed and said, “I think I’d like to make use of this large X of yours, I’ve never been with anyone who owns that!”
“Ah you want to be my Dom?” She asked.
“Sure though I’m not sure I totally get how it works” He said.
“Treat me like your lion. Make me do tricks, for pleasure, like you said” She demurred, “I actually have a whip in that closet if you want”
‘*Oh this is getting far more interesting that I’d expected’* He thought.
Source: reddit.com/r/eroticliterature/comments/fnclvw/the_lion_tamer_and_the_lawyer