Beauty And The Beast 25

A couple of first here for me. One, my first entry into the interracial Love Category, part of my plan to get a piece into as many categories as I can this year. This is also my first entry for

Yay Team: Sex & Sports Story Challenge 2025 - The Stories

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I need to express thanks to 29wordsforsnow, as once again, they have saved my ass by tidying and poking me in the right place to pull this story together for release. As always, any cock-ups in here are the very last-minute changes I've made just before hitting the publish button.

Beauty & the Beast

Sienna sat looking across the table at the handsome man sitting opposite her. It wasn't just Sienna that felt that way about him, as a large swath of women felt exactly the same as they tuned in every morning to the biggest national TV breakfast show he co-hosted. At twenty-seven, Sienna Whyte could be described as the classic English rose. Standing at five foot seven with an abundance of long blonde hair, all carefully styled as it cascaded over her shoulders. Her body was almost waif-like, before tapering into a small waist with curves that gracefully flowed into a pair of attractive hips and posterior and well-proportioned slim, elegant legs. A long graceful neck held an attractive face with lips coloured like strawberries and a plumpness to match. Blue eyes shone with a brilliance that was as bright as Sienna herself.

Sat opposite her was Ralph Featherstone, with an army of female admirers, you would imagine that she would feel privileged to be his date for the night, but that was not the case. They both warranted being called celebrities, however their pathway to attain that status was from the opposite ends of the spectrum. She was effectively a celebrity the second she slid from her mother's birthing canal. He grew up in the softness of middle England, leading an average life until he finished university. After studying journalism, good DNA gave him a break as a roving reporter on a local evening news channel before the big boys swooped in knowing that his looks alone would bring in the ratings. From there, he rose through the fickle ranks of show business.

Sienna did not consider that

she

was the privileged one to be dining with Raph, but the dynamic reversed. He should be honoured to be dining with her, and not because of who she was, because of her values regarding a modern relationship.

Sienna was one of two children born to Edgar and Isobelle Whyte. The Whyte family were synonymous within the world of media, owning several national and regional newspapers along with a glut of well-known periodical publications.

In the present day, Sienna was also a journalist, having obtained a degree in journalism. She'd turned her back on the opportunity to just walk into the family empire but wanted to prove that she could make it off her own back, and ended up with her own column in a national newspaper plus writing several articles that were syndicated for release regionally and overseas. She never realised that people moved and shifted between companies, benefitting from her family's influence to ensure that certain individuals put her where she needed to be, just before they themselves, moved on to bigger and better things, notably within her family's business empire. Because of her upbringing, Sienna didn't fully comprehend that she rose to the top off the back of her family's influence.

She became the standard bearer for women, not caring how far she moved from writing balanced and well-thought articles. She had created a generation of young women with near impossible expectations of how a relationship should work, because her crusade was based on her own life and expectations. Women loved her, men viewed her as a rabid feminist. With the weight of her family's empire behind her, her unrealistic views on modern life remained unchecked.

Unbeknown to Sienna, Ralph had a ring in his pocket. He had mulled over the many discussions they had regarding their possible future together and he accepted that this was the way forward in modern society. He would be expected to maintain an exceptional salary to maintain Sienna in the lifestyle she was accustomed to, although he doubted very much it would make any odds due the family money that sat supporting Sienna. Despite giving off the image she was self-supporting, he was aware that she had, since the age of eighteen, been provided with a substantial monthly income to help with her 'household bills'. Ralph came from a fairly middle of the road family; he remembered his parents regaling him with tales of their parents providing financial support. It may have covered helping with a food shop, fixing the car, or helping purchase a new washing machine. Not a regular £20,000 each and every month.

As Ralph steeled his nerves to ask the question, Sienna's phone rang, looking at the screen she was surprised to see the chief editor's number as the caller ID.

"Hello, Thomas, you've never called me on a Saturday, nor a Saturday night. I'm intrigued as to why."

With a hint of urgency and desperation he replied;

"Hi Sienna, we are in a major fix and I need you to do something for us, for me to get us out of the shit. Dave Jenkins, the chief sports editor is supposed to be covering the big European heavyweight boxing match at the O2 Arena tonight, as he entered the venue, he collapsed with a heart attack. He's alive but on his way to hospital. We are under contract to send a senior reporter to the event as part of the syndicate. I'll be honest I tried a couple of the guys that I thought would love the opportunity to have a crack at this, but they can't get to the venue in time. When I spoke to Ray Peterson he said he knew you were having a night out close by tonight. Charge whatever you've had to the company, please. I'm begging, get your backside down to the O2 Arena, they're expecting you."

"Mmm so you're in a fix right, and none of the usual suspects can pick this up? I'll do it but under one proviso. Whatever I write, it's published with no more than a cursory check of the grammar."

"Look Sienna, time is almost out. I'll have one of the junior reporters watch it live on TV, he'll analyse the fight and we can merge the two repo..."

Sienna detected the desperate tone in the call, she was going to call the shots, that was, after all, what she preached in her articles. She cut across him mid-sentence.

"No, it isn't going to play out like that. I'll make a deal. Let someone write up the technical piece for the sport-heads out there, I'll write up a piece looking at the human aspect which can be part of the main article."

On the other end of the line there was a pregnant pause before Thomas sighed in resignation and answered. He did have an ace up his sleeve.

"Ok, we have a deal. There is one thing you need to be aware of Sienna, if the match plays out as forecast, Almasi will win this bout, which lines him up for a crack at the world title. He is a man of little words in public. At the end, all the reporters will be vying for the one interview he will give in private, that's the key part. I need to see your hand up so we are keenly showing we are in to play for an interview. That'll keep the legal beagles off our back with regards to contractual obligations."

That was his saving grace. Almasi had never offered himself to be interviewed by a woman. He would be safe, she could write about the fight and the sport-heads would simply pass over her section to the real analysis of the fight. He doubted many, if any, of Sienna's readership ever went anywhere near the sports section of the newspapers.

Ending the call, Ralph looked at Sienna, feeling miffed that she had failed to factor in that she was currently having dinner with him, unaware that he had a large rock sitting on a gold band inside a small box in his pocket. He was annoyed which Sienna picked up on and managed to get the first shot in.

"What? Don't give me that look, if it was you that had a call like that, you'd be off like a rocket. The world doesn't revolve around you, you know my views on relationships."

"That may be true, but I would have at least paused the phone conversation to talk to you about it, you never even looked my way!"

"This is a chance to take the views of women into the wider world. How do you think we see men that want to beat each other half to death, simply for sport? It's barbaric!"

Ralph swallowed and his voice had a serious edge to it.

"Almasi hasn't half beaten men to death, he beat three men fully to death. There are rumours his silent behaviour is only to mask the monster he is. I strongly recommend not putting your hand up for an interview, God knows what a beast like him would do to you if he had you all alone in a room!"

"Ha! You don't think I could handle myself? All women have to do is reason things out with a man, make sure he sees the true perspective. You say he killed three people, how come he's allowed to box?"

At that point Sienna's phone pinged, her car was outside. She grabbed her coat, stood up and kissed Ralph on the cheek before leaving with a parting comment. She leant into his ear and breathily whispered to him.

"I'll make it up to you, as soon as it's over I'll come to your apartment, I'll put that smile back on your face."

"No, Sienna, I need to be up at four am, look at my face, I'm sure there are more wrinkles from too many late nights like this. Can you come around tomorrow afternoon?"

Sienna sighed.

"Yes, I know you hate losing your beauty sleep. I'll be around mid-afternoon when you get home. I promise I'll wear something nice to make it up to you, and you can be extra nice with that tongue of yours for being such a sourpuss tonight."

Then she was gone, on her way to witness one of the major European sporting events of the year.

Within thirty minutes she walked towards the press section. Dressed in a Le Vestiaire Stretch Jersey and Mesh Mini Dress, both public and press alike gawped at her, men's mouths hung open and a few lecherous comments were thrown her way. It gave the appearance of a traditional LBT dress from the front or back but from the sides a thin fine mesh four-inch panel ran top to bottom, The wearer wasn't expected to don any underwear as not to ruin the lines of the dress, and Sienna had taken that step to ensure the dress looked "just right". Despite the cat calls, Sienna basked in the admiring looks from both men and women as she took her place with the other press hacks.

There were numerous double-takes as to the women in the black dress that looked more like she had stepped from a fashion shoot than were there to report on a major sporting event. Whispers passed through the press hacks as more than one recognised who she was. There were a few remarks asking if she had got lost somewhere, or the fashion show was next week in the O2 Arena and not tonight, but Sienna had weathered this kind of behaviour before. It was childish banter that press hacks loved so much.

The venue was rammed with fifteen thousand people there to watch this match. Sienna looked around. There were people from all walks of life, she recognized several people from her world, the rich and famous, who held the best seats of the house. Then behind that, rows of faces that represented the remainder of the populus. It also surprised her to see a substantial number of women here too. Surely, they didn't derive pleasure from watching two men needlessly hitting each other?

The speakers boomed out as the MC announced the arrival of the fighters, the current holder Gary Butler, a solid mass of muscle in a six-foot five-inch frame, his body was a canvas of tattoos, with blonde hair cut short into a flat top. He came to the rink shouting and goading the crowd to help heighten his adrenalin. Next up was the man who simply went by the name of Almasi. On the short drive over, Sienna had looked up the two fighters to see who they were. Almasi was Swahili meaning diamond, the quick read up she managed laid claim he earned the name, which he had legally taken, as he was as hard as a diamond. She managed to discover that he had killed someone as an amateur with a punch to the head that was so fierce it had caused brain damage; the man died. And yet here he was, prepared to possibly do the same to yet another human being, or be the if he wasn't as good as his opponent.

Unlike his opponent, he walked to the ring in a calm and confident manner, in another world he could be a man walking into an office ready to undertake a day's work producing reports and spreadsheets.

Sienna made notes on her phone, his face was emotionless, no rage or hate, simply nothing. In the ring he looked out to the crowd and, as he looked around, suddenly stopped and Sienna felt as if he was staring directly at her for a few moments. His eyes matched his skin, appearing almost black, Sienna felt as if she was looking into the eyes of a shark before it took its prey. She looked away, as she physically shuddered, but she didn't understand why. After some posturing by the current title holder, a few unheard words with the referee in the centre of the ring, the next thing was the sound of the bell, the roar of the crowd as the two men moved towards each other.

It was raw unadulterated violence. Sienna watched as they danced around each other, probing the air with little jabs or sudden changes in posture to try and trick the other man. Then the blows started, a quick flurry for a few seconds, gloves deflecting blows before looking to counterattack. Seconds before the end of the first round, Butler managed to strike a glancing blow off Almasi's head, but clearly catching his eye. In less than a second, he followed it up with a punch to his side. She watched as the solid black flesh rippled slightly under the force. Immediately, a wild frenzy filled the air as the spectators sensed a quick victory looked imminent. The bell sounded, Almasi was safe, at least until the next round.

The second round was brutal, each man traded punishing blows. Butler took a hit to his face, causing his lip to bleed, and another to his head seemed to momentarily disorientate him. It was part ruse, as Alsami moved for the next blow, Butler caught him on the same eye again. The referee stopped the match momentarily to decide if the match should go on. It did. Between the rounds, Alsami's corner worked hard to stem the blood flow from the cut, but there was a buzz in the air, it was as if the crowd sensed that Butler was gaining the upper hand.

The third round took off at a relentless pace, Sienna could see the sweat glistening on each man's skin, the determination etched on each man's face. As it neared the end of the round, something happened. It was as if a switch was flipped inside Alsami as the punches suddenly grew in power and speed. As soon as the first glove breached Butler's defences, his body reacted to the raw energy that had been released, the crowd now roaring in anticipation as blow after blow pummelled Butler. Sienna looked on, mesmerised. Alsami had complete control, all she could see was a coldness as he ruthlessly sent Butler to the floor. The referee immediately stopped the fight, as Alsami stood there as if made of stone, until he saw Butler move, still alive. He returned to his corner of the ring.

۞۞۞۞

Victorious, the referee held Almasi's arm in the air. The sound of the crowd was deafening, but the man stood there expressionless at his victory. The referee rotated Almasi through a three sixty turn for the crowd to see as thousands of camera flashes filled the stadium.

For the first time in her life Sienna had felt a surge of adrenaline when the big black man had taken advantage of his debilitated opponent. Sensing the end was near, the crowd were deafening as they goaded Almasi on to finish the job. As her heart rate slowed down, she realised her nipples were pressed tight against her dress, which she found odd. She had winced as the man battered his opponent until he dropped to the canvas like a felled giant tree, leaving him unconscious, so why... why had her body responded to something that she had felt was so abhorrent?

People came and went into the ring; he was presented with the belt signifying he was now the European Heavyweight champion which he held triumphantly above his head as he was crowned king of the ring. A few minutes later he moved over to the ropes as a sea of hands went up from the press. Sienna raised her hand, but unlike the others who almost bounced around in desperation, she didn't, he wasn't going to pick out the one person who was clearly out of place here. Suddenly there were gasps from assembled reporters.

His finger was clearly pointing at Sienna.

Within seconds he was out of the ring heading back towards his dressing room as security personnel ushered Sienna out then almost frogmarched her off towards the direction he had strode off in. Other than the moment he had looked at her and pointed, there was no further contact.

When she reached his dressing room door, his manager put his hand on her arm, turning her upper torso towards him, and Sienna was not amused at being manhandled like this.

"Honey, I haven't a clue why he picked you to do this but this is what happens. You go in, sit down and ask him questions about the fight. He'll answer them until he's had enough, when you ask him a question and he fails to answer, that's your cue to leave. Do you understand? Don't push the man when he's had enough otherwise, you'll find yourself on your ass when he tosses you out!"

Sienna nodded at this stark set of instructions, a security guard opened the door and she was literally thrust into the room before the door closed behind her.

۞۞۞۞

She looked at him, a tall, black mass of a man, his skin covered in a sheen of perspiration as he towered over her, one eye semi-closed but the other still expressionless as he looked, in fact Sienna felt, glared at her. He raised his arms holding his hands in front of Sienna. When he spoke his voice was deep, but it was the tone. She was expecting a macho arrogant tone, instead it was calm and...polite.

"Would you mind helping me with these please?"

Undoing the gloves, she was shocked at the weight of them and the size of his hands, they were enormous. Her hands looked like doll hands in comparison. Once removed he said thank you and then... just stood there.

Despite there being chairs he didn't sit, nor indicated to Sienna she should sit, so she stood a mere couple of feet away from the towering giant. She suddenly became conscious of her clothes, or lack of them. As well as the dress that bordered on the scandalous, she had topped off the look by wearing a pair of Christopher Esper sheer knee-high boots, again black mesh material to show more flesh. The boots were a gift, they would not officially be released until later in the year, but the publicity from the right legs being held by these boots was invaluable. And right now, this towering hulk of a man appraised her. Her first thoughts were;

is this how he must behave when he must surely have an escort delivered to him to sate his needs?

The thought made her dislike for him ramp up another notch. With that, she wanted to view him, and oddly, he reminded her of a purebred racehorse, the sheen of perspiration on his black skin, the small beads of sweat on his bald head and chest. His left eye was partially closed with a cut above it, the result of the two strikes, the last one, for a few seconds, looked as if he would go down. She noted that without his gum shields he lost the neolithic look that she felt both men wore in the ring; it added to the primitive exposition she had just watched unfold.