by Irons, Rose
Nervously, she stood, smoothing her hands on her dress, and followed the Baron to his study.
For once, he was not at the desk looking to ignore her, but rather seated in one of the great claw-footed chairs by the fire. He gestured to the other one. Her unease growing, Bella sat.
"You were out wandering the halls last night."
Bella bowed her head. She didn't see how she could deny it. "Yes, my lord."
The Baron's voice turned harsh. "Why?"
She felt a flutter in her stomach at his tone. The last thing in the world she wanted was to upset him! "I..." Did she dare tell the truth? "I thought you might need me."
"Me?"
Did he sound confused, or angry? She couldn't read the look on his face. There was something dark moving behind his eyes, something that troubled her, but also stirred something deep within her.
"Yes, my lord." She bit her lip again. "My lord, I'm sorry. I'll resign if you wish."
For several long moments, he didn't speak. Not knowing what else to do, she stood, getting ready to curtsy.
"No, Bella. I don't need your resignation."
"Sir..."
“Stay in your room, Bella.” The Baron gave her a sad smile. “This time I’m not ordering, I’m asking. It’s dangerous here, and you… you have become important to me.”
The words hung in the air, and Bella dared not think about what they meant just yet. “Thank you, sir,” she whispered.
The Baron turned away. “No one has stayed with me so long except my father. It is I who should be thanking you.”
This time she did curtsy, blindly, blinking back the sting of tears. She ached to go to him, to soothe the hurt behind those words.
She couldn't help herself. She did.
He didn't seem to hear her approach, only turning when she touched his shoulder. The Baron stared at her uncomprehendingly for a long moment.
And then he lowered his mouth to hers, and her world began. His lips were soft and hard all at once, the sweetness of the kiss piercing the very core of her. Bella trembled against his mouth, grabbing to his muscled arms to keep from falling. But he plied her with skill, his tongue flicking between her lips and coaxing a low moan from her as she clutched him for balance.
At her moan, he pressed her to him, as though he too had been holding back a dam of need. Bella crushed her breasts against his chest, feeling the heat of him as their mouths joined, feeling a rising tide of desire that she didn't know if she could withstand. His cock was now pressing against her hip, hard and long, and she ached to see it, to have him inside her.
The Baron's hands were at her neckline now, working the buttons of her dress. Feverishly, she helped him, stripping the thin fabric from her and stepping out of it all in a moment. No sooner was she standing before him in her bra and panties than he grabbed her once more, groaning as their lips joined.
Bella pulled at his jacket as they moved, stumbling, to the floor before the fire. There, on a great bearskin rug, they explored each other, her sliding her hands to finally untuck his perfect shirt, him cupping her buttocks and drawing her down beside him. They fit so well together, Bella thought, and for a moment wanted to cry.
She stroked her fingers down his well-muscled chest, tracing them lower and lower. But he caught her hand, and she looked up at him in wordless protest.
Even disheveled and dark with desire, he was handsome. He quirked a crooked smile at the protest on her face, and put a finger to her lips. "Lay back."
Heart pounding, she did as he ordered.
She closed her eyes against the cheerful crackling of the fire, wanting to savor every sensation - the fur on her buttocks, his skin against hers, the feeling of him about to fit himself inside her. But it was only his hands she felt, gently removing her bra and panties until she lay, naked and exposed, on the Baron's floor.
"Sir..." she began softly, but then he was moving on her once more, and she did not know what it was she meant to say.
It was not his hands she felt this time, but his mouth. That glorious, perfect mouth and full lips, lowered to kiss her thigh. Bella moaned and spread her legs. She ached for him to touch her with that mouth.
His probing tongue trailed along her thigh and then gently slipped between her lips. Bella whimpered, unable to help herself. The Baron's mouth was warm and firm, laving her in long strokes as he drank in her juices. He moved so sweetly and gently that she could almost no longer tell where his tongue ended and where her pussy began. He drank in her juices, suckling her clitoris and then moving again in the long, slow strokes that built pleasure within her until she needed to scream.
It was the most perfect sensation she had ever felt.
He gently pressed her thighs back into the bearskin rug, holding them firmly with his large hands. The Baron took another long lick, his skill urging her to new heights. The pleasure was building now, impossibly hot in the core of her, exquisite and aching. She could feel it crashing through her, desperate and fulfilling at once.
As he moved once more to her clitoris, she felt as though her whole body was engulfed by his mouth. Bella gasped and cried out, pressing his face deeply into her pussy. He held it there, deep inside her, as she came, cresting the wave of pent-up need that joined them both.
For long moments, he held there as her breathing slowed. And then, he began again.
Bella shuddered against him, lost in the afterglow of her climax and aching with the need to have him continue, to touch her everywhere, to drive his hard cock deep inside her. She gasped against the wave of pleasure that crashed over and through her, breaking against the tongue at her cunt and leaving her full of a need so exquisite she had trouble breathing. Her toes curled, and she fought the urge to completely succumb and press the Baron's face more firmly between her legs.
She could see the muscles in his shoulders flex as he held her still, and with each move of his head he brought her to new heights of desire she had never before known. The pleasure was like nothing Bella could have imagined. She screamed as she came once more, her pussy pulsing against the Baron's lips.
"Please," she whispered.
Slowly, slowly he rose from between her legs, his face heavy with desire but also a strange look of fear.
"Bella," he whispered, his voice husky with need. "I have to fire you."
Bella stared at him in shock. "What?"
"I have to let you go."
"But - " But she was naked on his floor. But he had just pleasured her in ways she had not ever known she could be pleasured. But he had already told her he needed her to stay. Bella bit her lip, wanting to say all of those reasons, and none of them.
"Bella, please." The Baron's voice sounded strangled now. "Get out."
Slowly, Bella stood and gathered her clothes, feeling dirty and ashamed. She didn't know what had happened. She didn't want to leave.
Once more she turned to him before she left, wanting to speak, but the tormented expression on his face as he stared into the fire left no room for discussion. She went.
~
Not knowing where else to go, Bella found herself walking down the hall to her father's room at the assisted living facility. Was it only yesterday she had been planning how to tell him he would be able to come live with her in the castle, that they wouldn't have to be apart? How had everything gone so wrong so quickly?
She still didn't understand what had happened. Bella and the Baron had finally come together, been close, and he had given her the best orgasm she had ever known. But what she couldn't understand was the pain in his eyes afterwards. He had ordered her to leave, but she couldn't help feeling as though it was a punishment for him as well as her.
Then why make her go?
With a sigh, Bella let herself into her father's room. He was sitting by the window, staring out, but he looked up when she entered.
“Bella? What's wrong?”
“Oh, Daddy.” She knelt by him, putting her head in his lap. “I'm so confused.”
&nbs
p; He stroked her hair, and Bella finally let herself cry the tears of hurt and confusion that she had been holding back since she left the castle.
~
The next morning Bella woke, determined. Somewhere in the night she had come to a conclusion: the Baron hadn't truly wanted her to leave. And she didn't want to leave him.
She deserved an explanation.
Steeling her courage, Bella went up to the castle as usual that morning. It was almost the time she usually arrived for work, and for a moment she was able to pretend that it was all a bad dream, that she would be welcomed inside as always.
But when her knock fell, the door didn't open for several long minutes. She hadn't been expected. For a moment, Bella worried that the Baron might not even open the door for her at all.
He did.
They stood for long moments, looking at each other. Bella thought the Baron looked as though he'd had a rough night. There were dark circles under his eyes, and his normally immaculate suit was wrinkled and looked as though it might still be the one he wore yesterday.
“Ms. Peters.”
Her heart pounding wildly, Bella held her ground against the coolness in his voice. “We need to talk.”
The Baron looked away. “I don't think that's wise.”
“Please.”
Slowly, the Baron opened the door further. Still refusing to meet her eyes, he sighed. “Just a few minutes.”
That's all I need, Bella thought. Allowing herself to feel hope, she stepped inside.
To her surprise, returning to the castle felt like coming home. The great tapestries, the wooden banisters, the silver candlesticks she had cleaned... everything felt familiar to her as the back of her hand.
Taking charge, she led him back to his study. Her eyes flicked at first to the bear rug before the first, and she hoped his did too.
The Baron hovered by the door, but Bella sat expectantly in one of the great wing-back chairs.
“I know I shouldn't be here saying this.” She hesitated, not sure how to continue. There were so many things she wanted to say, and so many questions, she wanted to ask. Finally, she chose the most important one.
“Are you the beast that haunts this castle?”
The Baron's eyes widened, their dark depths frightened and vulnerable for the briefest of seconds. “How did you know that?”
Taking a deep breath, Bella answered the question with another question. “Do you love me?”
“God!” The Baron turned away. “How can you ask me that?”
Bella held her ground. “I have to know.”
“I'm a monster, Bella.” His voice was harsh. “You can't ask me that.”
“Do you love me?”
He scowled. “It doesn't matter what I feel.”
Bella felt as though her heart was breaking. “Of course it does.” She took a step closer to him. “Don't say that.”
“LOOK AT ME!”
With a roar, the Baron lunged towards her – and began to change.
As Bella watched in horror, the man before her shifted, his form lengthening and thickening, his shoulders growing even more broad. His hair shagged out and became fur, his suit ripping as he exploded from himself.
And then before her stood a bear, snarling lightly.
Bella could see each of his great white teeth, could smell his musk. Her heart pounded wildly, but she stood her ground. This was the Baron. Arthur. With a kiss, he had touched her very soul. He would never hurt her.
“I love you,” she whispered.
Trusting with all her soul, she looked into the bear's eyes. What she saw there reflected back at her was both beast, and man.
She loved both.
Bella leaned forward and gently kissed his nose. She could feel the bear's breath on her neck. She had no fear.
And then it was a man before her once more, naked. The Baron drew her close to him and he was kissing her, holding her so tightly.
“I love you, too,” he whispered.
“I know,” she gasped, and then he caught up her mouth in his once more, and she was lost.
With a groan, he crushed her to him. His hands were everywhere, undressing her, and she pressed herself against his bare form, needing to feel all of him at once. He was at once hard and soft under her hands, and she could feel his muscles rippling as he grabbed her and lowered her to the rug where they had been what seemed like a lifetime ago.
The Baron ripped her skirt then, and Bella found herself helping him. Her clothes were nearly torn to pieces with the urgency of their desire, Bella feeling almost like an animal herself with how badly she needed to fuck him. She had been waiting a lifetime, it seemed.
And then they were naked together, their legs intertwined, and the Baron lowered himself onto her, his cock finding her swollen lips and piercing them, driving deep into the core of her.
She cried out as he buried himself to the hilt, pressing deeper into her than any man ever had before, bruising her cervix with his need.
It was perfect. In that moment, the world stopped around them. She and her man, beast though he was, together they were whole.
And then he started to move within in her, so achingly sweet that Bella cried out. She had thought he would take her with all of his rough animal need, and she needed him to – but this, in this moment, was perfect. She luxuriated in the feel of each thrust, the way his cock curved against the walls of her and making her wetter than she could ever remember being before.
“Please,” she panted, “take me.”
With a groan, the Baron forced himself deep inside her once more, and they began to rock together. He fucked her with a savagery Bella had never known he contained, taking the depths of her with every inch of him until she screamed.
The Baron cried out with her, their voices echoing through the empty castle as they took their pleasure. Bella could feel all he was doing in every part of her, pleasure cresting through her, breaking and then rising once more.
“More,” she gasped, “more!”
Savagely, his teeth locked on her throat, and she gasped at the pain, brilliant and white. It blossomed within her, matching the pleasure and crescendoing to an agonizing high that left her reeling. Another wave of pleasure grasped her as he thrust again, plumbing her depths with all of his animal need.
“Mine,” he growled.
“Yes!” Bella screamed. She drowned in him as he took her then, fucking her until she wept for release. Again and again she came as he took her, his cock pressing into her in ways she had never imagined.
The Baron groaned above her, freezing. His cock nudged against her cervix, and he held there for a moment, quivering, and she could feel his heart beat against her lips.
She saw the wonderment and love in his eyes, and smiled. He was perfect.
“I want to feel you cum inside me,” Bella whispered.
With a sound like a roar, the Baron released his seed inside her, his cock pulsing as he came. The feel of him filling her brought tears to Bella’s eyes, and her pussy quivered in response.
The Baron leaned down and kissed her deeply, and she felt her body shudder as she came yet again.
“I'm yours,” she whispered. “For this moment and for always.”
~
“Why did you come back?”
The Baron was trailing his fingers along her arm, still seeming to marvel at her naked body next to his. Bella smiled at his incredulity.
“You really didn't know I loved you?”
He sighed and rested his hand on her hip. “You don't understand, Bella. I've lived with this... curse... for so long. I didn't see how anyone could love me. Much less thought anyone ever would.”
“Can you tell me?” She propped herself up and looked at him.
The Baron looked away. “It's not a pretty story.”
She kissed him. “I'll survive.”
He sat up, careless of his beauty. Bella couldn't help but drink in the sight of him, the fire flickering across his naked form. H
is abs were still slick with sweat from their lovemaking, and his cock was already stirring once more.
“When I was young, my father was always taking care of others. It was admirable, and I know he was well loved for it, but he neglected me and my mother. It hurt her how he would stay away for so long, and how he seemed to care more about his causes than her. I was... bitter.”
The Baron's eyes focused on something far away. “Then one night my father was out, helping in a nearby town. It was just after my mother died, and I was angry that he couldn't even stay with me when I needed him.
