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)
The aftershocks make my mind hazy, and as it finally begins to clear, he lifts me off the chair and puts me on my knees on the rug. It’s very plush and warm from the fire. The beast’s hands on my face are warm. He brushes his thumb over my bottom lip and I open my mouth for him, not caring if I seem wanton or greedy. I’ve been alone too long and I want every bit of company I can get.
I want his company. I don’t daydream about talking to anyone else.
His thumb is replaced by something else. A blush heats my cheeks as I realize. I take his cock in my mouth, tasting the two of us mixed together and relishing his muffled groans as I suck. The beast comes with a jerk of his hips and a groan. I swallow his release, salty and thick, and he comes down afterward slowly, one hand on my face and the other in my hair.
My heart races and with the blindfold on, all I can do is wait. All I can think in the silence after a moment is please don’t leave me. It’s not what I say though. I ask him for the one thing that makes me crazed with need.
“Will you ever let me see you?” I whisper. I’m falling for him. Madly and deeply and yet I still haven’t seen him. I have no idea of what the beast looks like.
He strokes his fingers down my cheek, then takes his hands away.
I do not hear him leave the room, but the silence goes on for a long time.
When I finally gather my courage and lift the blindfold, he’s gone. And my heart is shattered.
THE PRINCE AND THE BEAST
Elle cannot know how it tears me apart to stay away from her. She has no idea how it tortures me not to be inside her every minute of the day. It’s even beginning to torture me that she can’t see me. She can’t truly know me. Or who I used to be. The pain grows with each passing day that I realize she’ll never know the man I used to be. The prince who she could have stood proud next to.
She could never love the beast I’ve become. If only I could go back to what once was.
I thought it would be easy to go without being known, but perhaps I only convinced myself of that after all those long years in the castle. Perhaps I only told myself I did not need to be seen and known because I know too well how it is when people see and judge without knowing.
When I leave Elle, I do it with my hand over my heart and a strange emotion in my chest. I think it is longing, but I thought I was past longing for things many years ago. I thought I had come to terms with the bargain I’d made.
All those lives for mine. That was what I did. I accepted this isolation in exchange for saving the village, my most loyal men, and the innocents I was supposed to protect. I thought then that there was a chance of ending the curse, but after I knew there wasn’t one…
I go back into my rooms, the door closing quietly behind me, holding in pain and anger and most of all, regret.
I want to go back to her. Why do I want what I cannot have?
“I cannot have it,” I yell to the windows in my room, pacing in front of them, purposefully not looking too far past the wall. The rage rises from the beast as I pace. There are many things I could have done in those lands if I hadn’t accepted the witch’s bargain, but that would have meant sacrificing the innocent, and I couldn’t do that. That’s not the duty of a prince.
A prince has to protect his people. It was my duty…but then it all changed, and I never knew that was a part of the deal.
“Why do I want this?” I growl, hearing the beast in my voice.
“I don’t want her to see me,” I say, and then I say it again. I say it until I almost believe it.
And I have many reasons to believe it. If Elle sees me for what I truly am, she’ll never want me to touch her again. I’ve looked upon the mirror many times years ago. I’ve seen the hideousness and terror of the beast. A prince no longer exists. Even when I look upon my flesh, I know it is not what is seen.
I pace around my rooms until I’ve exhausted the urge to run and the beast has settled. He must sense that I’m not going to go back to our Elle.
It feels like days instead of hours when the large tray from the kitchen follows me to Elle’s room. I do not know as much about her as I want, but what I know is that she loves being fed delicacies. She did not have enough food when she lived in the village, and I can give her this. I will remind her of what I provide and be thankful for that.