Eleanor

She meets Justin coming into her house: he's shaking, his eyes are red and his breathing ragged. "What happened, Justin?" she asks, and his answer comes, confused & breathless, "Elle," he sighs, and the words come out in a rush "I had no idea Mercedes was your boss until that charity ball you brought me to. Today is the first time I've seen her since then, and it was just to tell her I wouldn't see her anymore. But she threatened to fire you, Elle, if I didn't...didn't..Tell me what to do, Elle."

Like all his stories, this one started in the middle and went nowhere, but she understood perfectly. "Easy, Tiger," she soothes him, stroking his back. Mercedes was a client of his, maybe for a long time, Eleanor thinks with a bit of a shudder, remembering now all the probing questions & innuendoes since Mercedes 'met' Justin at the charity ball. Justin tried to tell her today he wouldn't do it anymore, and the bitch threatened to fire her if he didn't continue. Eleanor summarizes this and repeats it to Justin. "Yes," he sighs confirmation, calmed by her caresses, breathing normally, "except, Elle, Mercedes...she doesn't just want the appointments to continue, she wants, she's always wanted...." he explains, unable to finish, shuddering, his lip curled in disgust.

He doesn't have to finish, Eleanor knows exactly what that bitch Mercedes wanted from her Justin: he would do anything for her, she knows, even something that completely revolted him..."Oh," she whispers in a trembling voice, "Justin, did you...?" He shakes his head and lets out a relieved sigh, "No...but I came close to killing her, seriously, and I walked out on her before we settled anything. I'm so sorry, Elle, I lost control of the situation...she's going to fire you..." His hand reaches for his heart as he starts to panic again: Eleanor reaches out to support him.

"I'm not going to work for that bitch if she's trying to seduce you, Justin," she says, embracing him, his head resting on her neck. He said he almost killed Mercedes, emphasized it, and Eleanor thinks about this as she holds him, her lover. She's played at the edges of his violent tendencies, using him to satiate some of her own sadistic urges. She can't make a man pay quite like Justin can, and she even got a thrill at the thought of him strangling that bitch with his bare hands, because there are times when she's wanted to do it herself...but she vows to herself to never ever intentionally provoke him with jealousy, as she's sometimes tempted to do. If he killed someone, she'd lose him forever, and she just can't have that. "You must hate her even more than I do," she says sympathetically, stroking his hair. He's had to put up with her for years, she thinks, with a little shudder as she remembers the hungry look Mercedes would get in her eyes when she'd talk about Justin.

"It's just a job, Tiger, and I've already been making moves toward finding another...you know I hate working for her, anyway," Eleanor says, leading him to the sofa, where she can stroke & soothe him, and tell him he did the right thing, and that everything is alright. It's a minor setback, she didn't want to lose her current job until she'd secured the next, but she couldn't tolerate working for Mercedes any longer knowing she tried blackmail Justin like that.

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