Beauty and the Beast (Erotic Fairy Tales) by Nicole Dreadful Read Free Book Online

creature for company, besides the fairies?"
    "No living creature would come near me," he said. "Not even a bird in the garden. I used to love to ride, and to hunt, and so the fairies have kept up the stables and the kennels, though they're empty."

CHAPTER SEVEN
    Consumation

    Eventually they returned to the rose arbor. The invisible hands of the fairies had straightened the silken pillows and cleaned away any trace of the ordeal of transformation. The book Felicity had dropped was neatly on the little table in the corner of the arbor.
    "Why did you stay?" Caledon asked, sitting down on one of the benches. "You should have run away."
    "No," Felicity shook her head. "I had to help you."
    "You should still run away," he said, turning his gaze on her. Though his body was a man's, his eyes remained golden yellow, with unsettling slit pupils. "Do you think that I cannot hurt you now?" He flexed his fingers as if he could still gouge splinters out of the wood beneath his hand. "I am still more beast than man."
    "You would never hurt me," she replied confidently. Caledon kept many of the habits of the Beast, and now she made a bold guess. "You are still enchanted; you cannot touch me unless I give you leave."
    "May I touch you?" he asked. "May I kiss you, Felicity?"
    She had often put these words on his lips in her own fantasies, but now she shook her head. "Not when you speak of hurting me."
    Again he made the clawing motion, then put his head in his hands in a more human gesture and let out a low moan. "I have killed a woman," he whispered through his fingers, not raising his head. "I was a Beast then, and I will always be."
    Felicity said nothing, though her heart somersaulted in her breast at his terrible words.
    "Will you not run from me now?" he said, looking up. Felicity shook her head mutely. "She ran," Caledon said. "She ran from me and I pursued her. I hunted her until I trapped her, and she had no way out. But she found a way, and she cursed me before she jumped. My mother heard her dying words, and bound me with them, to live as a Beast."
    "But you are no longer a Beast," Felicity said.
    "I will always be a Beast inside."
    "But when you were a Beast, I saw that inside, you were a man." Felicity moved to kneel before him and look up into his downturned face. "Promise that you will be gentle with me."
    Caledon blinked his yellow eyes. "I promise," he said without hesitation.
    "Then you may touch me," she said, taking his hands in hers. "So long as you keep your promise."
    He came trembling to kneel with her among the cushions. His hands were hot on her skin as they moved up her arms to cup her face. "May I kiss you?" he whispered.
    "Yes," she whispered back. "You may."
    She closed her eyes and felt his mouth brush against hers. Instinctually, she parted her lips as he did the same, and she felt his tongue slip into her mouth. The sensation was more exquisite than she had imagined. He no longer smelled of ash and smoke, but of something deeper, like warm earth beneath the trees on a hot summer day. She put her arms around his neck, pressing herself closer to his body, but he pulled away. His vertical pupils were wildly dilated, and they were both breathing heavily.
    "Why don't you run from me?" he asked again, ragged edges in his voice.
    "I promised I would stay with you." He began to stand, but she clung to him.
    Caledon put his hand to her throat. "I am dangerous."
    "If you were going to hurt me," Felicity said, "you would have done it long ago." She reached out her own hand and touched her fingers to his cheek. He shivered, but did not look away. "You chose not to harm me, or my father. You've already chosen to be a man, not a beast." His hand was still on her neck, a soft pressure against her throat. Again she felt him quiver, and wondered if he would begin to burn again. Instead he dropped his hand and walked away.
    She did not try to follow. She knelt for a long time, feeling the ghostly touch of his fingers on her