Beauty and the Beast (an erotic re-imagining) (13 page)

Best not to think on it. It wasn’t as if she could change the Beast into something less beastly.

“Sir?” she said aloud, hoping he would hear. No answer.

She crept down the dark corridor and descended the stairway to the main hall. The place was deserted.

“Beast, where are you?” she called again. No reply.

The front door lay just a few meters away, the only thing standing between her and freedom. She’d promised the Beast she wouldn’t try to escape, and with all of the wolves prowling the forest, she knew she wouldn’t make it far if she tried. Not without a horse and carriage to protect her.

But there wouldn’t be much harm in merely taking in some fresh night air, right? She could just open the door and look at the stars for a while until she got sleepy enough to return to bed.

With that plan in mind, Belle touched the door, and pulled. It didn’t open.

Locked in. Of course. She was, after all, the Beast’s prisoner. As much as he tried to make her comfortable and at home, if she couldn’t leave when she wished, she was only a well-pampered captive. Not a guest.

“Fairies,” she whispered, surprised by the urgency in her voice. “Open the door.”

The door opened, and the cool night air rushed in to the front hall to greet her. How glorious! She hadn’t been outside, in nature, since that horrible night she almost got ripped to shreds by the wolves. The night the Beast spanked her for nearly getting herself killed.
And for cutting him
, she amended.

Belle stepped outside, wrapping her robe tightly around her. The moon and stars lit up the sky magnificently, and she gazed on them with wonder. Was her Papa looking up at the same sky, thinking of her, as she was of him? Maybe he was, right at this moment.

“If you can hear me, Papa,” she said softly, “I will come home to you soon.” She paused thoughtfully, imagining the night, in only a few more months, that she would be set free. “I’ll have a horse and carriage to lead me safely through the woods and home to you, and I will get there as fast as I can. I promise, Papa.”

At her words, a horse-drawn carriage appeared at the front drive, finely appointed with plush cushions inside, and thick wooden sides that would keep her safe from the predators in the woods.

“Oh my word,” she gasped. She looked around the empty landscape. “Fairies, what have you done?”

She hadn’t meant to make a wish. She hadn’t meant to ask the fairies to help her escape. But in speaking her desire out loud, Belle had summoned the fairies into being accomplices in her betrayal.

That was what leaving the Beast would be—a betrayal. She had promised him six months of servitude without him needing to fear she would escape, in lieu of a lifetime in his dungeon. If the Beast came back to the castle now and saw the horse and carriage, he would be furious. Even worse, he would be…heartbroken.

“I didn’t mean for this to happen,” she whispered.

But it had. And if she chose, she could hop right into that carriage and leave the castle, the fairies, Frederick, and the Beast behind.

She’d never have to see them again. Ever.

Belle took a step toward the carriage, her heart racing. The wind picked up and blew straight through the thin silk of her dressing robe, and she shivered. Escape was but a few steps away.

But she hesitated. Why? Here was her chance at freedom! She could go, now. She could be gone before the Beast even knew she was missing. He would think she was asleep in her suite, and not even look for her until morning.

Frederick would know, when he couldn’t find her in her dreams (because she doubted she could sleep as the carriage took her through the treacherous forest), but what could a man who only existed in her dreams do to her?

Nothing. If she chose to leave, she’d be safe. Somehow, after all this time together with the Beast, she felt he cared for her too much to make good on his threat to find her and eat her if she ran away. She could go home tonight and be at her Papa’s side once more.

There was only one problem with her plan.

Belle didn’t want to leave the Beast.

Yes, she wanted to be with her Papa again, and she hated the thought of betraying her word to the Beast by escaping. She also hated the thought of how brokenhearted the Beast might feel upon learning that he’d been made a fool for trusting her.

But the primary reason she couldn’t seem to take another step toward that carriage, toward her freedom, was that she wanted to spend more time with the Beast (and Frederick, if she were honest with herself). There was still so much to learn from him, so much to share with him.

She was afraid of the Beast, but she cared about him as well. Both the Beast, and Frederick. Seeing them both, the beast and the man, was the highlight of her long days.

If she went back home, she’d be going back to her simple, boring life, as quiet and sweet as it had been. Belle wasn’t certain she’d be happy if she couldn’t walk the halls of the grand castle, exploring its secrets and frightening herself near to death every time she rounded a corner and ran into her massive, monstrous, handsome beast.

“Go away,” she said, her voice cracking. “Fairies, please, take the horse and carriage away, before the Beast returns. I don’t want to leave tonight.”

Maybe tomorrow night she’d change her mind, or the night after that. But right now, what she really wanted was to stay at the castle. With the knowledge that she could leave at anytime if she simply summoned up the means to do so, she was no longer the Beast’s captive.

For the first time, Belle truly felt like an honored guest. Even more, the castle was beginning to feel like it could be home, in its own way. Not home like the warm little cottage she shared with her father, no, but the warmth in the castle came from the heat the Beast created within her. The fire.

The horse and carriage disappeared as quickly as it had arrived, leaving behind only the shimmer that freshly-sown magic always seemed to do. When the wind blew again, the shimmer dissipated into the night air.

Belle turned around and marched back through the castle door, closing it firmly behind her. She stared at the open expanse of the great hall, and breathed in the scent of cut roses, the bouquets that adorned every flat surface imaginable.

“I do believe I am ready for sleep, now,” she said aloud.

Perhaps Frederick would hear her, in some other plane or dimension, and he would meet her in her bedchamber.

Belle smiled and danced up the stairs to her suite.

***

At the edge of the forest, hidden from view, the Beast watched silently as Belle’s chance at escape disappeared into the night. He exhaled slowly, not even realizing he’d been holding his breath, awaiting her decision.

She had chosen to stay. The very fact humbled him.

The relief was indescribable. After their rocky start, he’d almost lost all hope of getting Belle to care for him, to be able to look at him and see something other than a monster.

“Thank you, Beauty,” he whispered, his words lost in the blowing wind.

He wanted to go inside and reward her for her loyalty, but after a long night of fruitless hunting, he was so exhausted that he might have to fall asleep and meet her as Frederick in his dreams, instead.

The animals in the forest, like Belle, were less afraid of him now, which should have afforded him even more chances to kill. But instead, he found himself watching their beauty from afar, and he couldn’t bring himself to hurt the creatures—not anymore. He was a changed man.

Maybe this was what the enchantress had meant, all along. That a woman could change him from a beast back into a man. He certainly felt more human than he ever had in the past ten years since the curse struck him.

But it wasn’t just a woman that he needed. He needed true love.

For the first time since he found Belle, love seemed like a very real possibility. He still had a chance.

They
had a chance.

***

Later that evening, Belle awoke to the sound of her bedchamber door creaking open. She sat up, holding the white linen bedding up against her breasts, blinking until her eyes adjusted to the dark.

“Frederick?”

“Good evening, Beauty,” Frederick said softly. “May I sit with you?”

Belle smiled and patted the space on the bed next to her. She had no guilt or shame about inviting Frederick into her bed, after all, he was her dream-man, her fantasy, and she fully intended to make good use of him.

Even if he was possibly a little bit real.

“Fairies, some candlelight, please?” she requested.

Candles flickered to life throughout her bedroom, illuminating Frederick’s handsome face as he sat beside her.

“I’m glad you stayed,” Frederick said. “I would have missed you terribly if you’d left.”

“Now I know I must be dreaming,” she said, uncertain if she felt relief or disappointment. “Because no one knows what happened earlier other than the fairies. And me.”

Frederick grinned and cupped her face in his warm, large hands, pulling her in closer for a kiss. She opened her mouth to him, accepting his tongue, and, in a moment of reckless abandon, pulled him on top of her body.

“I thought you said we couldn’t make love,” Frederick reminded her. “The Beast would know.”

“I belong to the Beast,” she agreed. “Look, he marked me.” She proudly displayed her bite mark, spreading her legs lewdly beneath him.

“The Beast deserves to have you first, before I do. Are you ready for that? To make love with the Beast?”

Belle swallowed hard. The thought both terrified and aroused her. “Yes. I am.”

Frederick dropped his hand between her legs, finding her wetness there. Carefully, slowly, he penetrated her with his finger. First one, then two. Then three.

Belle moaned as she stretched, but she didn’t try to stop him. She knew what Frederick was doing.

He was preparing her for the Beast.

“Aren’t you jealous, Frederick?” she whispered, moaning as he circled his fingers, lubricating her with her own juices. “Don’t you care for me at all?”

“I can’t explain, Beauty,” he said. “But I’ve said from the start that you must love the Beast.”

“But what if I love you?”

She covered her mouth with her hand, shocked by the words that had fallen out of her, seemingly of their own volition.

“Is your heart big enough to love me, and the Beast?” he asked.

The prospect had never occurred to her. Frederick and the Beast were like two sides of the same coin, one refined and handsome, the other brutal and beastly. And yet she desired them both.

She didn’t know how to respond, so she did something she’d never done before—she reached toward his erection, and dropped her head to his lap, wanting to kiss him there the way he had done to her.

Frederick grinned. “What are you doing?”

“I honestly have no idea,” she said, opening his trousers.

His cock was thick, heavy in her hand, and glistened at the end with a drop of arousal. Belle lowered her head and licked the drop off, savoring the taste of salt and man. Had she ever been able to taste something in a dream before?

“Is this all right?” she asked.

“Open your mouth,” he said. “Take it all in, lick with your tongue, and try to keep your teeth at bay.”

Belle hesitated for only a moment before wrapping her lips around his cock. The heat of it, the taste of his flesh in her mouth, was so fantastical and new that she murmured in delight, causing Frederick to moan with pleasure, and tangle his hands in her long hair.

She continued tonguing his cock, swallowing around it, and looked up at him to see if he was enjoying himself. Frederick was so beautiful, with that thick, brown hair, and deep green eyes, eyes that were half-closed now with pleasure.

“I need to know, Beauty,” he said, his voice rough with desire, “can you love the Beast? Can you love us both?”

It made no sense. What man would want her to love another man? But the truth was, when she had her chance for freedom, it wasn’t just one man she thought of that kept her from leaving. It was both the man, and the Beast. So yes. Yes, she could, perhaps, someday…love them both.

“I think so,” she said, sitting up.

Frederick groaned and took hold of her hand, guiding it over his cock. With his hand over hers, he rubbed himself, faster and faster, until he cried out, his face in a grimace that looked almost

(beastly)

primal, and come flowed out of his cock, pouring hotly over her hand.

“Thank you, Belle,” Frederick said.

He rose and washed with water from the basin, and she watched intently, enjoying the view. His long, lean muscled body, the way his strong jawline gleamed in the candlelight…

“You’re so handsome, Frederick.”

For some reason, he stiffened. “It shouldn’t matter what I look like. I want you to love me for who I am, inside.”

“You’re a fantasy. I’ve made you up in my dreams.”

“I may be in your dreams, Belle, but I am as real as my diary, as real as my portrait.”