Beauty's Cursed Beast Read online

  “Arsenic,” Adam replied glibly, bored that this was what his friends considered interesting after-dinner conversation.

  Henry smacked his lips. “Delightful.”

  Cordray sat back with a frown. “You didn’t win.”

  Henry shrugged. “It’ll be put to a vote, which I don’t expect will be an easy road. However, that’s the way of democracy under an aristocracy. Sometimes you love me and want to jump into bed with me, but other times you can’t understand a thing I do. Actually, I think that’s how it goes with any type of government. Would it help if I took my shirt off? People usually like me better that way.”

  Rory covered her mouth to stem her amusement, knowing Henry’s politics better than most. He played the charming cutie to the public, but he was well-educated on the issues.

  Cordray frowned as he downed the rest of his drink. “So the government is washing its hands of the pill because there might be a fallout?”

  “Of course not. We offer the basic pill with all of its advantages and dysfunctions, and we always will. It’s free of charge, since the Lethals who take it are helping keep the world safer by muting their abilities.” He uncrossed his legs and leaned forward. “Rory, don’t let him make me the bad guy.”

  Belle could tell Rory was caught in a tight spot. She had to think and vote as both the future Chancellor of Avondale, and as a wife of a Lethal. “Our duty is to give the world a chance, not bend over backwards so we can levitate teacups. The details after that are just that – details.”

  Henry’s eyes widened as Cordray harrumphed at his wife. “Oh! Watch this. I haven’t done this with a drink in me in ages.” Then he let go of his crystal high-ball glass, drawing Belle’s eyes as it floated in the air. He clapped for himself, clearly amused as he elbowed Ella. “Are you seeing this? I’m incredible! With a drink and a half in me, at that!”

  “Show-off,” Cordray grumbled, but that seemed to be the end of his frustration.

  Ella snatched his glass out of the air and downed the fiery liquid, shrugging at his affront. “See that? Henry missed out on the important thing – the whiskey – because he was focused on magic. He just doesn’t want the same thing to happen with the pill issue.”

  Henry threw his hands up. “Did that truly need a visual demonstration?”

  “Nope,” Ella replied with a light snigger.

  Henry smirked at her gall, and then shifted next to her, hooking his arm around her shoulders to bring her tighter to his side as he turned back to Cordray’s issue. “Millions of dollars and possible negative side effects to you aren’t worth that parlor trick, Cord.”

  With a little levity and whiskey in her, Ella’s tongue loosened. “Your taxes should go to things that are desperately needed. Life and death come before innovations for mere comfort.”

  Cordray scoffed and looked over at Adam. “Where do you land on the issue?”

  Adam shrugged. “I only know your last name because it’s now Rory’s. You can imagine how much less I care about your magical dysfunctions.”

  Belle scoffed at Adam and batted at his arm. “Be nice.”

  Adam raised an eyebrow at Belle. “Was that not nice? Sorry. Cordray Phillips, do accept my apologies. It’s just that as I’m about to turn into a wolf and join the Lupine in less than a week’s time, I find it hard to care about things that don’t matter.”

  “Adam!” Rory was out of her chair, as if that might make the time he had left slow down. Belle could see Rory mentally tabulating her calendar and realizing that Adam’s thirtieth birthday was sooner than she remembered. Her hand went over her mouth to stifle the horrified gasp. “I’m a terrible friend!”

  Henry turned his chin away and closed his eyes. Ella reached out to the prince, her hand atop his thigh to comfort him over the impending loss of his friend.

  Belle’s heart raced at mention of the ticking clock. Adam knew the date was just around the corner, and he’d made a joke about it.

  Adam regretted his blasé retort when he saw Belle’s eyes start to mist over – half-sad and half-angry. “Belle, I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “I shouldn’t have said it like that. I’m sure I have more time than that.”

  It was a lie, and they both knew it. But he’d lied for her comfort, which was a true pledge of loyalty between them.

  No one spoke for nearly a minute; there were too many things to say. When Belle leaned in, Adam pressed his forehead to hers, and their eyes closed in unison. “Lie to me,” she begged. “Tell me we have years.”

  Adam couldn’t give her the lie she needed, so he remained quiet. He breathed in and out, dragging the scent of her skin into his lungs as if he meant to memorize every detail of what made her the only woman to captivate him so thoroughly. He wanted to savor her and be near her so the storm inside of him might have a chance at calming.

  Belle shivered, since her seat was nearest the window. Without a thought, Adam removed his tuxedo jacket and wrapped it around her slight shoulders, swallowing her frame in the black material that had been tailored for his broader body. He rubbed warmth into her shoulders.

  “Thank you. You didn’t have to do that.”

  “You’ll never again be cold in my presence. That was my promise to you.”

  Adam didn’t break his focus from Belle until he heard the sound of Rory sniffling. He turned his head to quirk his eyebrow at his friend, wondering what he’d missed. Whenever Belle spoke, his entire focus was on her. Whole worlds could’ve collided, and he wouldn’t have batted an eye if Belle was near.

  “I’m sorry,” Rory said, dabbing at her eyes with her handkerchief. “It’s just that I’ve never seen you like this. I mean, our whole lives you’ve been… And now to hear you say such beautiful things to someone? I can’t tell if I’m crying because I’m proud of you, or because this whole thing is breaking my heart.” She leaned into Cordray, who wrapped his arm around her and kissed her temple.

  Adam cast a conspiratorial eyeroll at Henry, but the prince was equally stunned, his mouth popped open in shock at the sweetness he no doubt never expected to witness in his oldest friend.

  Adam wiped his palms off on his pants and stood. “Quit staring. I had to watch the two of you fawn over who knows how many dates through the years. This is a drop in the bucket.” He extended his hand to Belle. “I believe you promised me a dance.”

  Belle ignored the stares and the tears. She ignored for the moment her plans to give up five years of her life for the possibility of a couple decades with him. She ignored her nerves, her fears, and the millions of questions that might never have an answer. She took his hand and rose, knowing this first dance just might be their last.

  30

  A Ball for Six

  The ballroom was decadent with the overhead lights turned on, but when Lucien had taken the liberty of lighting candles in all one hundred of the candelabras on the walls the atmosphere was dripping with the heat of a night to remember. Music sounded through speakers that had been built into the gold-covered walls. They were trimmed with ornately etched blue baseboards and flying buttresses, giving everything the look of wealth passed down from an age where the finer elements actually meant something. The swirled etchings on the crown moldings two stories above made Belle feel as if she’d been transported to a time when the nobles convened for no reason other than to entertain themselves with how decadent they could shine after the sun went down. There was a stage in the corner, but for this night, the ghosts of musicians past filled the ballroom with melodies that made Belle’s heart race.

  Rory’s tears didn’t stop at the sight, speechless as she took her husband’s hand at the top of the red-carpeted steps and slowly moved down with him. She looked every bit the royal she’d been raised to be – dainty yet somehow strong in the way she carried herself with her chin raised. She showed off her tears to the ballroom without shame, letting the violin music fill the nearly empty ballroom as if announcing her presence to thousands.

  Henry, who had been so self-assured,
stumbled over the edge of the carpet when he walked with Ella on his arm. It was as if the very act of being together in front of witnesses was a scandal, though Belle couldn’t understand why. Ella was perfectly kind. If she was below his station, Belle couldn’t imagine how much something so silly could really matter when there were so many more harrowing things going on.

  Henry led Ella to the top of the steps and bowed, swallowing thickly as he righted himself. There was a nervousness to his jerky movements, as if he was the one beneath her, having to prove himself. Ella glanced around and, confirming that there was no one besides the six of them there, curtsied, and then took Henry’s hand. Belle watched Ella’s fingers sliding into Henry’s and thought that it was the way their hands were meant to be, and every day their fingers had been separate was a crime they’d been forced to endure. The way they walked was devoid of pretention, though they were both dressed lavishly. Their hands swung when they moved together, and Belle thought they looked like two teenagers with a secret.

  When Henry and Ella began to dance together a few yards from Rory and Cordray, there was a simplicity to their steps. The waltz was without the dips and turns that might compromise the eye contact they were locked in, which seemed steeped in too many unspoken emotions.

  Belle shrugged out of Adam’s tuxedo jacket and handed it back to him. She sucked in her stomach as she mentally prepared herself for taking off her red cloak. Adam buttoned his jacket, but his fingers forgot their purpose when Belle’s cloak slid from her shoulders and was folded over the railing of the second-story balcony.

  The gold material was unlike anything Adam had ever seen. It looked like actual buried treasure, but had the softness of silk to it. The skirt was large enough to capture everyone’s eyes, but not so wide that Adam couldn’t see himself twirling her around on the marble dance floor just to show off her smile. The corset clung to her slender frame, with the top leaving enough exposed to give a man something to rally for, but not so much as to give her away completely. She was missing her gloves, but that only meant he got to feel the slight tremble in her fingers that put his own nerves at ease. If she was anxious, he would be a calming presence to her, as she’d done for him so many times.

  Belle was beautiful in scrubs, even covered in years-old dust. On this night, however, she left him with only his vulnerability intact. “You are perfect,” Adam breathed with a note of rapture to his low voice. “It was worth inviting them over and sitting through seven courses of the longest dinner of my life to see you in this.”

  Belle looked down, smoothing out the many layers that each added some new detail to the look of the dress – decadent, off-center, lovely, laced, crimped, draped – all of it without apology for the spectacle the dress made.

  Belle curtseyed, fanning out the skirt and dropping the edges when she stood upright again. “I’m nervous,” she admitted.

  Before Adam could stop himself, “I’m yours,” tumbled out of his mouth.

  Belle’s demure smile teased her features, brushing a sweetness across her cheeks that drew him in. “And I’m yours.”

  Adam’s heart was racing as he bowed to her, and then looped her hand through the crook of his arm, calming slightly when he felt her side brush his. If she was near, life was manageable. Love was possible.

  He led her down the steps and onto the polished floor, where Cordray was spinning Rory around with a flourish that made Belle anxious. She chewed on her lower lip before her confession rushed out. “So here’s the thing; I don’t know how to dance like that.”

  Adam’s shoulders rolled back with a confidence that came from years of good breeding. “My parents used to send me to the palace to take lessons with Henry. The king and queen thought that if I was there, Henry wouldn’t seduce his instructors.”

  “And how did that work out?”

  “It didn’t. But I did learn a lot about dancing that year while Henry learned the art of French kissing.” He gripped Belle’s hand and held it out to the side, his other one touching on the small of her back with a firm command that her body would move to his rhythm. He swayed slowly at first, taking in her cagey glances and stiff movements. “Do you trust me?”

  Belle frowned up at him. “That’s a heck of a question to ask me right now. I have no idea what I’m doing!”

  Adam sniggered at her fretting. Ella moved gracefully only because Henry chose simple steps. Rory had been born into a life filled with ballrooms and men in line to ask for her hand to take a trip around the dance floor, and Cordray had apparently been educated on what it meant to marry into such an elite class.

  Adam pressed his chest to Belle’s, smirking as her eyes widened. He leaned in to speak, but the curve of her ear distracted him. Though he wouldn’t let her kiss his mouth, his lips acted on impulse and brushed against her earlobe, his body strung like a live wire as his hips moved with hers. Her body always teased him, covered as she kept herself. Now that her cleavage was on display, parts of him awakened, yearning for her in ways he couldn’t bring himself to apologize for.

  Belle’s throaty gasp and fluttering lashes at his sensual caress would’ve embarrassed her, were not the other two couples lost in their own lovestruck waltzes. She gripped his bicep and hand as her knees trembled. “Okay, you can’t do that if you want me to actually get through an entire song.”

  “Why not?” he asked, his lips teasing her earlobe again. This time, he drew it into his mouth and sucked, as if she was the most delicious candy treat.

  “Oh,” she moaned, biting down on her lower lip. “It feels too good.”

  “Don’t you want to feel good?” He indulged her in a slow twirl, but then brought her firmly to his front. “Belle?” His whisper was just low enough to provoke a shiver out of her. “I want to Pulse you. Just a little bit.” He recalled the last time he’d Pulsed a woman in this very ballroom. He didn’t even remember her name, but he could visualize the naïve eye candy up on the stage, taking off her top and throwing it into the crowd. His parents’ reputation of upper-class civility had long since been shattered after he’d buried them and indulged in a stretch of debauchery.

  Adam didn’t want Belle to lose herself so completely. In truth, he hadn’t meant for the girl on the stage to go so far. He never knew how close to the edge people were until he Pulsed them. For some, his gift made them come out of their shell so they could have face-to-face conversations, when before they’d been previously lost to their introverted tendencies. For others, they were already contemplating a wilder life, and needed the smallest of urgings to fling themselves over the edge. Still, the man he was now knew he should’ve asked if she wanted his Pulse. He wouldn’t push Belle forward unless it was what she wanted.

  Belle looked up at him curiously. “I think I’ll leave that up to you. Take some of my Discernment, and then decide.” Her hand snaked up his bicep and slid over to palm his heart to give him a direct hit. “I trust you.”

  A flood of caution over pulsing her too hard mingled with an overwhelming urge to kiss her as Belle’s Pulse battled with his desires. Oh, how he wanted to taste her lips. There were so many things he wanted to do with Belle, and it even seemed as if the wave of Discernment was giving him the green light. Still, he hesitated. If he scraped her with his fangs, she might not look at him with that adoring expression he’d grown to crave.

  His right hand palmed her tailbone and Pulsed a low-level dose through her to strip away a thin layer of her inhibitions. He frowned down at her, his mouth drawing to the side. “I must be losing my touch. It didn’t work. You were supposed to be tearing off my clothes and making love to me on the floor by now.”

  “Ha, ha.”

  Belle’s limbs loosened just enough to where he could start to turn them as they danced, his chest beaming with pride that she trusted him so. She wasn’t adept in the art enough to waltz, but he didn’t need her to be. He needed her to be in his arms and to trust him enough to let go, which finally, was beginning to happen.

  When she
laughed as he dipped her near the end of one of the livelier songs, the sound of her unfettered joy was pure honey coating his heart, bringing him to life again and again. An hour passed, and then another, but Adam never tired of watching Belle truly let go. She’d cared for her father, then protected herself against a cruel sheriff. Now her life was to look after him. He wanted so much more for her – a lifetime of dancing.

  Adam brought them to a slow side-to-side as he pondered the unselfish nature of her life.

  She tilted her head up at him, a look of mild concern tainting her smile. “You went somewhere in your head just now. What’s wrong?”

  “After I turn, I want you to travel.”

  “Travel? Do you need me to deliver something?”

  He let out a groan of frustration. “You can’t even be hypothetically selfish. No. Travel for fun. I’ll put aside some money. Anywhere you want to go.”

  Belle pondered the offer before outright rejecting it. “Why don’t we go somewhere together before you turn? We could pack up and go up north.”

  Adam rolled his eyes. “I meant travel that involves a plane ticket and faking your way through a foreign language.”

  Belle stilled, bringing their dance to a halt. “Okay. Then let’s go. You and me. Let’s leave tomorrow.”

  Adam’s mouth was tight in a firm line. “You know I can’t do that. Imagine the looks we would get. A beautiful woman and her beast.”

  Belle wanted to argue. Oh, she had buckets of things to say to counter his harsh assessment of himself. But she kept them locked inside, because she knew her valid points wouldn’t do any good. “I want so many memories with you that I forget the details. I want to look back at our life and see a series of blurry smiles.”

  Adam’s chin lowered at the one thing he couldn’t give her. “Belle, I wish I…” Then he stopped, gripping her hand with sudden excitement. “Maybe I can give you memories of us.”