Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 74631 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74631 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Now, he relishes her closeness and seems sure of it, though there is the idea within him that we should drag her to the baths and wash off all the evidence that Elle was ever somewhere else, sleeping under someone else’s roof.
I expect the beast to rise at that thought, too, since he has been with me all these years, fighting for space and dominance, but he does not. That could be because he is satisfied with having her here. We are both satisfied with having her here.
But I am more satisfied, I think.
We have battled so many times that when he does not fight, uneasiness fills me. I try to sense more about him, but it is difficult to separate us with Elle so near. It is as if he has laid his senses over mine and they have melded together.
Again, I wait to see if the beast will try to wrest control from me, but he does not.
Elle’s heartbeat slows down, but when I focus, I can tell that it is my own perception of time. It’s almost as if it’s stretching out so I can dwell on the feeling of her so close to me. We are at a threshold, the two of us. She has found the doorway to the staircase with her hand and hesitates as if staying here with me will get her what she wants.
What do you want, my beauty? I would give her everything for her to stay just like this. Allowing me to have her as I wish, obeying my commands. And giving me peace that I have not had since the curse was laid upon me.
Even with Elle’s small frame in my grasp, the beast does not take over. I begin to relax into the idea that he will not, at least for the time being. He will allow my hands the freedom to explore her without the surge of animal lust.
Because of this, the lust I feel is entirely human. It is not altogether different from the way the beast wants and takes. There is an element to it that reminds me of the beast at his most dangerous, but I do not want to dwell on those thoughts when the way Elle said please echoes in the air around us.
My cock grows harder with her body against mine. For a few seconds I consider what it might be like to let the madness take me again.
She takes a shuddering breath, adjusting her body minutely. Such a small change, but Elle feels entirely new against me. It must be the beast’s senses that allow me to see her movements with such clarity. It was the smallest shift of her shoulders and her hips, the most subtle repositioning, and yet it has also changed how the blood runs through her veins and how she fills her lungs with air.
I want to breathe with her. I want our two bodies to be connected by more than possession. I want them to be connected in every possible way.
“Please,” Elle whispers again. Her hands remain at her sides, forearms over where I am holding her hips. It is far too much to bear without letting the beast claim her, but again, he does not.
Why is this happening? Is it because I want her in the same way the beast does? Am I cursed to want her so ferally, so dangerously, for all time? If that is the outcome of the curse, then it has done its job. If it has made me and the beast one and the same, there may be no way to divide the two of us.
I know there is no imminent danger that she will escape. The magic soothes her enough that she is more curious than frightened. Still, I’m torn between the old ways of wooing a woman with gifts and gentle words and the beast’s way of claiming her. It is true that I stole her from her bed and brought her, sleeping, to the castle. It is true that she asked me to let her go and I refused. It is true that there is little pretty words will do when she knows she is not free to leave.
But there must be some balance. The more I breathe her scent, the more clearly I understand that the beast’s urges are more similar to my own than I want to admit. I wanted to think I was fighting a monster, an animal, for control of my body, and that still remains true.
There are parts of me that are more beast than man.
And yet I will never know how I might have responded to Elle without this curse. Would the man I was before have walked through the enchanted forest and waited outside her window to carry her away? Would he have sought out the bakery where she sold goods and offered her a position in the castle or even suggested marriage?