Belle spun slowly around the room that she'd been given. Her day had been spent reorganizing the china in the cabinets, polishing antique furniture, and scrubbing the floors, and had expected to spend the night once more in the dark cell that had been her home since arriving. Instead, The Dark One had led her here.
Raising her blue eyes to where he stood by the door, she murmured softly a tentative smile forming on her lips. "Thank you. This is a beautiful room. "
He smirked a little. "Well, dearie, you'll be a better servant if you're well rested. "
The claw like, darkened fingers of his hand moved to lift her chin. She could not prevent the shudder that ran through her body, the cotton of the periwinkle blue work dress she had chosen to wear over her chemise, not containing the way her body shook and withdrew when he touched her.
"Tsk, tsk, dearie. You'll need to do better then that. After all, I have you for a lifetime."
She swallowed, and lowered her eyes, and stepped back when he finally released her chin. Her hand moving to press over the sensitive skin, she was certain he had scraped with his nails.
Rumplestiltskin's eyes glittered as he watched her, step back. In a moment a pair of silver scissors was in his hand, and her brow furrowed as she watched him approach, freezing. Whatever could he want with those?
In a flash he had encircled his hand in a patch of her thick dark hair. As quick as the pinch from the tug was there, it was gone. In his hands, his reward for his actions. Smirking and twirling the dark curls around his middle and pointer finger of his right hand.
"Why?" She blinked, watching him, and moving to sit down on the velvet upholstered chair that sat at her new vanity. Needing the space away from him to clear her senses. Watching him from the mirror, so she wouldn't have to look directly into her eyes. She had a feeling in the base of her gut that she wasn't going to like the answer.
The Dark One laughed. "I have a spell I'm preparing that requires the hair of a virgin. "
Blushing brightly, she lowered her eyes to the marble of her vanity top.
"You are a virgin, aren't you, Belle?"
He took the few steps from the center of the room to where she sat, and in a moment the hands that were responsible for the deaths of so many, but also, for the continued safety of her realm, were upon her shoulders. She shuddered, "Of course!" The pink of her cheeks quickly going from flushed pink to rose, now to sunburn red. Her thoughts going back to the few moments she'd had with Gaston, and before him the servant boy Alex. There had been kisses, and touching, but nothing that felt nearly as intimate as the way this monster gripped on to her. She took a breath to steady herself.
"No matter." He responded mildly, the nail of his pointer finger beginning to guide it's way down the skin of her shoulder and arm. "If you're lying, that'll reveal itself as well."
"I am not a liar!" Ripping her arm away and trying to stand, but finding herself pushed back into the chair with surprising strength. His grip tighter then she would have expected, and a surprised whimper escaped her lips.
The hot, wet feeling of his tongue gliding down the back of her neck caused her to struggle further against his attentions, tears prickling her eyes. "Please. Don't do that." The terror she felt was palpable, and The Dark Lord took a moment to revel in it, before withdrawing his hands, and murmuring. "Yes, you taste like a virgin. I look forward to tasting you again when I take that from you."
Tears rolled down her hot cheeks, and he closed the door behind her, locking it. Of course. She gazed at herself in the mirror, before grabbing a jewelry box that sat on the vanity, and threw it with all of her might, watching as the glass shattered, the spreading of the cracks more satisfying then she had expected.
Dropping the wooden inlaid box, with a rose on the cover, and ignoring the pearls, rubies and silver and gold jewelry that spilled out and landed among the broken shards of glass. She noted, numbly that she'd managed to cut herself a little with the impact of the glass. Frowning, she rose, to explore the room.
Finding an attached bath, she moved in, drawing some water to wash her wounds, and sitting on the side of the copper tub as it filled. Ignoring the mirror that was on the opposite wall. She hadn't had good luck with those today.
When the tub was half full, she began to get undressed. Closing and locking the door, as if that could prevent him from joining her if he so chose. All the same, it gave her a shred of dignity to hold on to. She added some of the sweet smelling bubbles sitting in a glass bottle at the end of the tub. Climbing into the sweet, heated water, and watching as the red blood of the small lacerations on her arm pinkened the water around her, and faded into the color of the water, and disappearing.
Despite herself, she began to relax in the water. It had been so long since she had enjoyed a nice long bath, and the bubbles seemed to coax the knots and pain of her muscles away. It hadn't been labeled, and she wasn't even aware of the impending sleep, before it took her.
The Dark one was surprised to find his caretaker nude and asleep on the tub, when he had come to complain about his supper not being served on time as was his usual custom. He froze when he saw her naked in the tub, only bubbles to hide her attributes that he had been so eager to explore. Picking up the glass bottle she'd poured bubbles from, and chuckling to himself as he sniffed the Jasmine muscle and sleeping draught.
"One or two drops would have done the trick, dearie. Now you'll sleep like the dead for the next couple of nights. Everything in moderation." He smirked, and began the task of getting her out of the hazardous water, and somewhere more comfortable.
To his credit, he used his magic to lead her to her bed, heal her wounds as she slept, and when he slipped the white gown with the yellow ribbons around the waist and neck, he didn't take any physical liberties beyond those necessary for dressing her. And though he took his time with the 14 individual buttons that led from her navel to her neck, he didn't touch her. Simply laying her in her bed, and pulling the blankets up around her.
His eyes narrowed, as he considered that choice, brushing it off and muttering to himself. " She's asleep. What's the point?" And he gave one last glance to the brunette beauty that slept in his castle, the sleeping draught having drawn all the fear and worries he had caused her out of her expression. Her peaceful respite left him unsettled, and he locked her again in her room, and strung his bow, darting off into the forest. He had to kill something. That would make him feel better.