Title: Dirty Little Secret Ch. 1

Rating: T will go up if needed

Paring: RumBelle

Summary: A Repeatinglitanies prompt: Mr Gold and Belle have a clandestine sexual relationship. So clandestine that each think they are the other's dirty little secret.

A/N: this was going to be an angsty oneshot, but as I was coming to the end, I found that I couldn't make myself do the ending I planned. So, this will have another chapter or two. Also, as always, this is un-beta-ed. :sigh:

A small whimper slipped through Belle's throat as she blinked awake. It took a couple of seconds to see that, yes, the sky outside her window was starting to lighten. She used to love the fact that it got light so early in the summer, now she found she couldn't enjoy it. With a sigh she rolled over to face the person sleeping behind her. His longish hair had slipped over his face and she reached up to push it back behind his ear, but ended up curling the silver streaked strands around her finger.

She leaned in, letting the tips of their noses brush as she placed a chaste kiss on his lips.

"Jasper," she whispered against his lips "You need to wake up."

He moaned and she could feel his eyelashes brush against her cheeks as his eyes fluttered open. When they were open, he moaned a much more happy sound and snaked his arm around her waist, pulling her closer as his mouth landed on her's hungrily.

She gave into the kiss for a few moments, needing this kiss more then she should. She couldn't remember when she hadn't wanted him, couldn't remember the first time she saw Jasper Gold walking the streets of StoryBrook and found that she couldn't look away. What she did remember was that day sometime last year when he came into Granny's Dinner and all the seats were taken. She had taken a deep breath and ask if he would mind sharing her booth. He had accepted with a curt nod and they had eaten their meals in a somewhat tense silence. But after that day, when they passed each other around town, he would give her a polite nod.

A polite nod became a passing greeting became a quite conversation in the Library or his shop when no one was there, which late one night, in the darkest corner of the Library stacks became kisses. Kisses that took them upstairs to her apartment.

Afterward, laying next to each other on her small bed, neither said anything as he dressed. They had avoided each other for the next few days, until, just as she was closing, he came to the Library.

Her reaching for his hand to stop his mumbled awkward apology somehow ended up with them on one of the Library tables. He stayed in her apartment that night, but left when the sun rose. That was the start of it. Every couple days he would show up at her apartment, sometimes with dinner or movies. Sometimes she would slip into the back of his shop when he had no customers.

She broke the kiss and turned to look out the window. It was getting lighter. She sighed and pushed him away as he started to kiss down her jaw.

"Belle."

"No," She said, grabbing his hand as it started to slip down to cup her rear. "You need to go. Before the town wakes up."

She rolled out of bed and fled into the bathroom because she wanted it, so badly. Wanted to stay in bed with him all morning. Wanted to not have to be careful not to leave a mark when he cornered her for kisses. Wanted, just once, to be able to go up to him, peck him on the lips in greeting when they ran into each other at Granny's. Wanted to be seen with him.

But it wasn't to be.

So, she finished up in the bathroom, took a deep breath, and put a smile on her face before opening the door.

The smile turned real when she saw him. He was dressed, standing by the door, but fiddling with his cane. She stepped up to him, placing her hands on his chest, caressing upwards to reach the nape of his neck and fix his collar. "There," she said, before moving her fingers into his hair.

"Belle," he sighed, leaning back into her caress. "Belle, I-" He cut himself off, clenching the hand he was raising to her cheek and dropping it to his side. He switched his cane to that hand and collected hers in his other one. "We never finished the movie."

She looked over her shoulder to glimpse the TV. The DVD menu screen was still displayed. "No, we didn't" she turned back to him. "Next time?"

He nodded and with one last kiss, he opened the door and left. She listened to the step-tap as he made his way down the stairs and out the outer door. It was only then that she shut the apartment door, leaned back against it and wiped at the tears she refused to admit were there.