"Just remember my dear…you brought this one on yourself." Her father wasn't a bad man, but when he brought her to the tower, had some of his knights nearly drag her there by her arms, she had some rather unladylike thoughts about him.
"Papa, don't do this…please." She had vowed not to cry and angrily wiped away a tear that threatened to fall down her cheek. The Ogres…she should blame this all on the Ogres. Before they had come, before they had ravished the nearby lands and come so close to invading their own, her father never would have considered this.
"I have to my dear. You know what to do to get out of here." With that, he bid her farewell and nodded at the knights. They preceded him out of the tower room and he shut the door behind them all, the click of the lock being turned a strange note of finality.
Well, this is it…Belle had been given a choice. Pick one of the suitors her father had chosen for her over the past year and a half or remain in the tower. It wasn't really much of a choice. Belle knew she was almost past "marriageable" age. Her father, even her maid, had been pointing that out to her. No one will have you in a few more years, m'lady…perhaps you should just wed one of those handsome young men who have asked your father for your hand…
Oh yes, those wonderful handsome young men. First here had been Lord Geoffrey, an insufferable sort who had regaled her with stories of his great racing horses. It wasn't that Belle wasn't interested in horses. It had more been that she couldn't get a word in with him and he seemed not the least bit interested in her. He had one thing on his mind: a son to continue on his horse-breeding program. She would have been little more than a brood mare herself for the likes of him.
Then there had been Brayden, the son of the Duke of Aldrich, a fine, strapping young fellow. He had bored Belle nearly to tears the first time she met him. And as if that weren't an offense enough, he had spent their entire conversation with his gaze buried in her cleavage. When she had shut her eyes and asked him their color, he had stammered and been unable to come up with the right answer.
Following him, there had been a long line of entirely unsuitable suitors. Most were interested only in her dowry and what an alliance with her father might do for them, many were interested in the sons they felt she could have for them (as if a daughter were unworthy), and all seemed to covet her body far more than her mind. The only one who had been kind, who she had contemplated actually saying yes to, had been the second son of a nearly-bankrupt Earl. Her father would have nothing to do with him and sent him on his way.
And now, after this long string of one suitor after another, her father had brought her yet one more: Gaston. He was, perhaps, the worst of the lot. Not only had he leered down at her cleavage, which he found easy to do from his great height, not only had he talked at length about his great feats of strength and his bravery on the field of battle and his hunting ability, not only had he spoken of his great hope for sons to carry on his line, he had also looked at the book she was reading and told her she would have no need of such frivolous things once she was raising his multiple sons. Books…frivolous? Hardly. She had rebuffed his advances with little more than a huff and had returned to her room, book in hand.
Was it really just this afternoon that all that had occurred?
Gaston had been furious, of course. No one ignored Gaston. No woman would turn down Gaston. Except of course for the oddly bookish daughter of Sir Maurice, that is. She was sure he must know all about her. Did he really expect her to be something other than what he had no doubt heard?
With a slight shrug, Belle decided to face her fate with some amount of dignity and made up the small pallet they had left her for a bed. It was covered in straw and she knew already that it would be itchy and uncomfortable. But at least they had left her that much. And her pillow. They had left her the pillow from her own bed as well. She knew she should be thankful for that little bit at least. This was meant to be punishment, meant to make her uncomfortable and dirty and hungry, so much so that she would decide to marry one of those unfortunate brutes to shorten the time she had to spend in what was essentially a dungeon high above the ground.
The only problem, so far as she could see, was that they'd left her with no books. Her father certainly knew how to wound her. Locking her in someplace uncomfortable away from people wouldn't bother her, not really at least. She was used to being alone, for few people had much interest in what she had to say. For so long it had just been her, her father, and her maid. And even Lizbeth had little interest in talking to her. The maid didn't read and more than once Belle had offered to read her a story, but the young girl had just laughed and shooed her away.
If she had books, she would happily wait it out until her father decided he couldn't take locking his only child up in a tower and released her. But without books? She knew she wouldn't last.
But she also knew she couldn't choose one of those horrible suitors that her father seemed to find so perfect for her and that she found perfectly wretched. Her books, however, gave her ideas. Crazy ideas. Ideas that she wouldn't have dared speak of to anyone else. But here she was alone with nothing but her thoughts and her plans. And so, thankfully, she did indeed have some sort of plan in mind.
The books had spoken of a creature, known only as the Dark One, who would answer nearly every wish someone could make. Oh, sure, she knew she could call on the fairies and they would likely answer too. But she suspected they would not give her what she sought, which was a sure way to get out of this situation. But this Dark One, he could do almost anything. And would too…for a price.
She couldn't imagine the price he would ask for what she needed. It wasn't too grand in the scheme of things, really. She didn't want to kill someone or try to raise someone from the dead (something she read was actually beyond the limits of this creature's power). She didn't want to fall in love or have someone fall in love with her (though if everyone could simply forget about her for awhile, that might be nice). No, she needed the one way she could think of that would make her unmarriageable, would make her undesirable to men seeking a brood mare for their sons.
She sat down on her bed and drew her knees up to her chest, shut her eyes tightly, and quietly spoke so as not to be heard beyond the tower walls. "Dark One, I summon thee." And she took a deep breath. A second. And was just drawing in the third when there was a knock at the door.
Her eyes flew open and she stood on shaky legs. No…oh no. They could not have heard her. She was sure the guards had left the tower after locking her in. After all, what was she, a mere slip of a girl, going to do to try to escape? Even the windows were barred to make it impossible for her to leap from the tower to her death on the rocks below. She stood on tiptoes and peered out as best she could from her diminutive height.
"Well, that was a bit of a let down…" The words came from behind her and she spun around to face the speaker. The creature was sitting on her bed, plucking at the straw with one long-fingered hand. He was nearly all in darkness and there was little she could see besides that one hand that kept picking up pieces of straw and spinning them around, a strange sort of dance she found oddly mesmerizing.
"You're him, aren't you? The Dark One?" She tried to stand up straighter, tried to not look frightened of the obvious magic the man wielded. She was a brave girl, many had told her that before, brave but sometimes rather foolhardy and impulsive. She supposed this situation was no different.
The creature stood, still in darkness, and she was surprised to note that such a fearsome creature was so tiny. She expected him to be a towering beast, someone taller than Gaston and wider than her father, someone who could put the fear of all you held dear in you just by standing over you. But instead he was small and slight, not much taller than she was.
That put her more at ease, somehow. If she wanted to be totally logical, size probably didn't really matter when one wielded such powerful magic, but still. She had always hated looking up to people, made to feel that her short stature meant she was fragile when she never felt fragile, when she was always the brave one ready to face down whatever was thrown her way. And at least she barely had to look up to see the most powerful sorcerer in the world.
"Indeed I am." He didn't move from his spot near her pallet. "What can I do for you, child?"
Belle stiffened at that. "I am not a child." The words came out without her really thinking about them and she cringed a little bit. She needed help from this creature. She didn't need to anger him. A strange high-pitched giggle came from him and Belle actually took a step back. What on earth was that?
"I can see that dearie. So…what can I do for you, my lady?" And he bowed, bending his slim form low at the waist and sweeping one hand out in front of him. Belle almost dropped into a curtsey before she remembered what all of this was about.
"Step into the light." She did not want to do business with someone she could not see. She knew she stood in the light from the candles and she had no doubt he had drawn her over there through the use of his magic. But he stood silhouetted, nothing more than a shadow. She could see unruly hair and his slim form, but little else.
"Demanding thing, aren't you?" She was relieved to note the words had no edge to them.
She shrugged. "I like to see those who I deal with."
"Most prefer that I stick to the hidden corners of the room." He gestured with one hand toward the darkness around him.
"I'm not most people." She had been told that her whole life. Oh Belle, why can't you be like the other girls and dance instead of hide in the library? Her father loved her, but never had understood her.
"I see that." He faltered for a moment, as if the darkness were something palpable that he had to push through to get to the lighted areas of the tower room. She suspected that it wasn't only other people that prefer he remain in darkness, but that he himself liked to hide in those dark corners, far from prying eyes. An oddity for someone so infamous.
Despite his obvious hesitation, he did finally step out into the light where she could see what she was dealing with. "You're human!" she gasped. The stories she had heard of him had not described him as such, speaking of an odd creature, more animal than man, who clung to corners and dealt with people from within a darkness few could see through. The legends about him were as numerous, but not one spoke of his being a man.
"Barely." He took another step toward her and bared his teeth. Teeth, she noticed, that were a crooked blackened mess. But still, despite that, he had all the appearance of a human male. He was slight of stature and not terribly tall, his skin gave off a strange golden sheen when the light hit him and he moved with an odd catlike grace, but he was most certainly a man.
"I disagree." She smiled at him and that seemed to entice him further into the light. He stepped close, almost too close, and she could finally see his eyes with their strange and rather unexpected reptilian irises.
"Do you now, dearie?" He flitted around her, the movements quick and oddly graceful. She noted as he moved into and out of the light that he was dressed rather ostentatiously. No one ever mentioned that either. Long spiked coat made of some sort of leather, brocade vest, legs encased in more leather. With his odd movements, strange eyes, flamboyant dress, and his penchant for hiding in the darkness, she wasn't surprised by the rumors that were spread about him. And yet…he was still just a man. She had to keep that in mind while dealing with him.
"I do."
He stopped directly in front of her once more and leaned close, his large eyes meeting her own. She refused to blink, refused to back down. He leaned closer. She could feel his breath fan out across her face and found herself breathing in deeply. His breath was surprisingly not rank, the rotted look of his teeth apparently more cosmetic than anything else. "So…I ask you again…my lady…what do you want of me?"
They were frozen, mere inches away from each other, reptilian eyes meeting her blue ones, a clash of wills that it was obvious this Dark One did not expect. Finally, Belle took a step back from him. A slow smile slid across his face. He had won this one. He would not win the next, she vowed.
Belle turned away from him. She could not meet his eyes as she explained her predicament. "My father wishes me to marry…"
"And you don't like any of your suitors," he finished with a smug sound to his voice.
Belle looked back to him. "No. I don't. But that is neither here nor there. I will not have my father choose whom I marry. If I marry at all, I will do so for love."
He scoffed at that. "Love…what does a girl such as yourself know of love?"
"Not much," she admitted. "But I know I won't find it with suitors who wish me to set aside my books. And I know I won't find it by being some man's brood mare for his sons. And I know I won't find it when anything I say outside of 'What would you like for dinner this evening?' will be entirely ignored. Maybe love isn't what matters so much as my life being my own."
He took another step closer to her. "An impassioned speech for one so young."
"I am not…"
"That young, I know." And he grinned. This one wasn't full of the malice. "I have lived for centuries, dearie. By my standards, everyone is young."
"I suppose that's true." Centuries…she could scarcely imagine being even as old as her father, much less living in this world for so long, seeing everyone around you wither and die while you remain the same. It was no wonder this man kept to the shadows. No stories of his having a companion had ever been told. He was always and completely alone.
"Does it get lonely?" The words slipped out, falling softly into the complete silence around them.
"Never you mind me, missy. This isn't about me. This is about you." He pointed one long finger at her.
"It is. I know."
"And so what is it you want? An escape route? I can transport you to anywhere in the world you would like. A suitor who might appreciate you? I'm sure I can send some young men your way, though I cannot make them fall in love with you." His hand gestures got more and more flamboyant as he talked. "Perhaps you would like to me to turn all your suitors into snails and set them free in your garden?" He sounded almost hopeful for that one.
Belle let out a giggle. It was almost a bit of a relief to find him amusing. This whole thing was hard enough, but at least the Dark One seemed to have a sense of humor about it all, however morbid it might have been. "No. No snails. Though the thought does appeal. And I don't want to leave here. I love my father…"
"He locked you up!"
She was surprised at how outraged he sounded. "He did, but I know he believes he has only my best interest at heart. These are trying times." It was an excuse and she knew it. If her father didn't care if she got married or not, he would not have done such a thing.
"So what do you want then?" He sounded slightly exasperated.
She was stalling. She knew it. But it had come to this. She had called in the Dark One. He had appeared. She had to make her deal and she had to make it now or be forced to wed someone she not only didn't love, but whom she really didn't even like. "My virginity…" The words rushed out of her mouth before she could stop them.
"What?"
Did he sound slightly horrified? "I was thinking. See, the one thing they all require is a virgin bride. Not one of these men would have anything to do with me if I had lain with a man. And so if word got around that I wasn't a virgin and they believed it, then the suitors would disappear. My father would be forced to consider me an old maid and I could spend the rest of my life with my books."
He looked so taken aback. She supposed this wasn't something he had found too many women dealing for. Love, marriage, riches, fertility. But this? Well, Belle never hadbeen normal as so many were wont to inform her. His voice, when he spoke, was quieter than before, less shrill and with a seductively dangerous edge. "And how exactly do you expect me to divest you of your virginity?"
"Oh! Are you really not a man then?" Belle clapped her hand over her mouth. She really had not thought this through. She knew what she wanted to ask him but not how she would go about doing this. She hadn't really thought, when she called on the Dark One to come to her, that she might ask him to be the one to take her virginity.
Silence reigned for a moment and then he laughed. Not that ridiculous giggle he had offered up so far, but a full-throated laugh. "Oh no, dearie. I'm most certainly a man in that way."
"Oh…well…good then." She really wasn't sure when Ask the Dark One to find a way to remove your virginity actually had become Ask the Dark One to take your virginity but she was pretty sure that she had done just that. Somehow the thought wasn't quite as repulsive as she might have imagined it would be, now that she was actually face to face with him. He was odd looking, to be sure, with that strange golden skin, unruly hair, and those fierce eyes. But there was something about him, some indefinable thing that made him oddly attractive.
He took a step toward her, then another, until he was standing nearly pressed up against her. She could feel the heat emanating from his body, almost too hot, as if he were running a fever. Without even considering what she was doing, she reached one hand up and pressed it against the skin of his chest that was left bare by the V of his shirt. She could feel his heartbeat beneath her hand, too fast and fluttering like a trapped bird.
One of his hands came up and the back of one knuckle traced down the side of her face, barely brushing the skin there. He tucked one strand of hair behind her ear and she looked up at him, surprised to see a sort of sad smile tugging at one corner of his mouth.
"You have to ask, dear." The words were quiet and without his usual flair.
"Ask?"
"For what you want." She had forgotten those rumors about him. He never took without being given permission, never made a deal without the other person's accord, and always…always…asked the other person to spell out exactly what they wanted.
Belle took a deep breath. And then another. She steeled herself and met his eyes. "I want you to take m…"
With no warning, his mouth crashed down on hers. Belle's eyes slammed shut, overwhelmed by the sensation of his being so near, so right there. His hands came up and tangled in her hair, tilting her head so that he could fit his lips more firmly to hers. He nibbled lightly on her bottom lip and she felt the strangest feeling, a sort of burning sensation that was both pleasant and overpowering at the same time, shoot straight through her lips down to her groin. A groan slipped out of her lips and when they opened, just slightly, he took full advantage, swiping his tongue across his lower lip and then dipping it into her mouth to twine about her own. She had no idea anyone could kiss like that, with tongue and teeth and lips all moving in accord. Her hands came up and gripped his shoulders tightly. Her knees were buckling as the heat moved throughout her body. She couldn't think…couldn't move…could do nothing but focus on what amazing things he was doing to her with his mouth.
He suddenly tore away from her and took a step back, one hand fluttering in the air, fingers rubbing together slightly, before raking through his hair. He was panting, every breath causing his chest to rise and fall deeply and rapidly.
Belle knew she looked no different from him at the moment for she had a hard time catching her breath. Her eyes were wide, cheeks flushed, her body alive and on fire in a way she had never felt before.
"Rumplestiltskin," he finally said, when his breath had settled a little bit.
"What?" Belle could scarcely believe the breathiness to her own voice.
"My name." He quirked an eyebrow at her. "I do believe you've earned it."
Belle laughed, giddy. No one knew the name of the Dark One. She had read many books about his deals, both nefarious and intriguing, but not one of those books mentioned his name. No one even knew if he had a name. After all, most of the books had called him a creature, an imp, an animal of the lowest form. Who needs a name when you're seen in such a light? But here, in this tower room alone and away from others, the Dark One had a name.
"I'm Belle." And she finally offered him that curtsey she felt she should have earlier.
"I know," he said, a grin breaking out on his face. "It fits you."
She smiled, suddenly feeling a little shy. "Thank you…I guess. Not that I had anything to do with that. The name that is…or my looks, I guess. Sorry…I've been told I ramble sometimes…" She shook her head. "So you know what I want. What is your price?"
"Oh not to worry dearie. We'll come up with something."
"Oh no, I'm not falling for that one." Belle blinked a few times, trying to clear the fuzzy feeling in her head that his kiss had created. "I don't even want a first born. I assume you can stop a pregnancy from happening with your magic?"
"I can."
"Then that's part of the deal. No pregnancy. This will already dishonor me. I do not need the added issue of bringing a child into the world to an unwed mother. I've seen what happens to people's 'bastards' in this world."
"Especially my bastard." Belle was surprised at the vehemence behind the hissed words.
"I don't care about that. I simply want you to guarantee that there will be no children from this union."
He cocked his head slightly to the side. "Agreed. No children. So no first-borns. I wasn't going to ask for that anyway." He waved one hand dismissively in the air. "The price will still come later, once I decide how you, or something of yours, may be of use to me."
Belle nodded and turned toward the bed. "The deal is struck then." And with shaky hands she reached up to start unlacing the bodice of her dress, stepping away from Rumplestiltskin as she did so. She had the bodice half unlaced and was ready to pull it off when he suddenly rushed forward and caught her around the waist, his long fingers digging into her and pulling her back, flush against him.
For a moment they simply stood there, his breath tickling the hairs at the nape of her neck as she leaned back just slightly into him. When he spoke, the words were quiet. "What are you doing?" She didn't want to answer at first, just breathed in the scent of him...straw, grass, something wild she couldn't quite place.
Finally, she turned her head to look up at him, her brows creasing in confusion. "Getting undressed. I thought we were going to get to it?"
He laughed and spun her around with his hands so that she was facing him once again. "So that's it then. Get undressed, do the deed and see your monster off, having gotten what you wanted?"
"You're not a…"
"I am dearie. If I were a gentleman, I wouldn't even consider this proposition."
Belle stiffened her spine and looked him square on. "I've been spoken to enough gentlemen to know what my duty to one of them would be. All I've heard since I became a woman was what was expected out of me in the marriage bed. It seems that gentlemen expect to make this deal all the time. Only they call it marriage."
Rumplestiltskin scoffed at that. "Your duty, is it? Lie back and take it? Let them rut on you like a beast and then roll over and sleep and pray for children and a night of freedom from your duties?"
Belle blushed. "Something like that."
"Well, I'd hate to disappoint you my dear." He stepped closer and brushed her hair away from her shoulders, using both long-fingered hands to tilt her head slightly to the side, baring her neck and the segment of her shoulder that her open bodice revealed. "But you see, it's been a couple centuries since I last did this. And I intend to fully enjoy myself." He leaned in close to her and pressed open-mouthed kisses to just behind her ear, scraping his teeth lightly across her flushed skin and following with his tongue. Slowly he worked his way down her neck until he met her shoulder. Here he paused, biting down a little bit harder, worrying the skin with his teeth and then laving it with his tongue.
Belle let her head fall further away, leaving more skin exposed, allowing him to press kisses to her jaw, her neck, allowing him to taste her with each nibble, with each darting of his tongue to her skin. When he suddenly abandoned her neck and leaned up to suck her earlobe into his mouth, his teeth biting down lightly on it, she gasped.
He chuckled into her ear, the sound rather smug. "Didn't know about that, did you?" And he bit down again, his hot breath tickling her inner ear for a moment before he suckled at earlobe. Belle felt heat engulfing her body and she could think of little other than getting her clothes off, getting his clothes off. Her maid and nanny didn't speak about this aspect of the marriage bed.
Reaching up, she plucked uselessly at his clothing. She needed to feel him beneath her hands and all she could feel was the coat he had draped himself in. It was like an armor, all harsh spikes and stiff leather.
He broke away from her for a moment, shedding the coat quickly before grasping her about the waist and hauling her tight against him. She could feel the hardness of him beneath his leather trousers, pressed firmly to her lower abdomen and her eyes widened. For all his insistence that he wasn't a man, he certainly felt like one. She grasped him about the shoulders, running her hands down his arms, feeling the sinewy strength of him, ran her fingers lightly across his chest, and finally pushed beneath the silk of his shirt, caressing his skin there. He felt odd to her touch, human and yet not. His skin was textured, slightly bumpy, but still warm and soft. She leaned forward, keeping her hand beneath his shirt and pressed a tentative kiss to his neck, to the same place that she had found pleasing just a moment ago.
He groaned and the hands around her waist tightened, but he didn't stop her explorations. Belle took that as a sign to continue and hoped she wasn't wrong. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down to her so she could mimic his own actions, biting and licking at the textured skin there. She felt more than heard his breath hitch and when she bit down a little harder than she intended, he suddenly wrenched himself away. "No more…"
Belle turned away from him. "I'm sorry…I'm doing it all wrong…"
"Oh no, not that, never that." He reached out and took her hand in his. It was a strangely tender gesture for the situation. "I appreciate your…enthusiasm. But it's been over two centuries…" He let the words taper off and sink in.
"That wasn't a quip?" She looked back to him.
"Oh no, dear. I was quite serious." He led her to the bed and sat down on it. Belle sat at his side, taking more than a moment to realize it was no longer straw packed into rough sheets, but instead a luxuriously comfortable feather bed piled high with pillows and covered in quilts. She turned to look at him.
"Magic," he said with a shrug. "I wasn't about to take you on such an uncomfortable surface." He smiled and the sheer naughtiness of the wide grin and the quirk of his eyebrow made her laugh. She suddenly felt more comfortable with him, this Dark One who gave her his name and admitted that while he had some experience, those experiences were long behind him.
Belle crawled up onto the bed and lay down, sinking into the pillows with a sigh. "Come Rumplestiltskin." And she held out her arms.
He went willingly into them, pressing his knee in between her legs to separate them so he could settle there. Hovering slightly above her, making a conscious choice not to crush her beneath him, he settled instead for leaning forward and pressing his lips to hers once more. She instantly opened beneath him, knowing what he wanted.
His tongue met hers and she tilted her face upward, moving her tongue to twine about his. He gasped into her mouth and she clung to him, pulling him down by the shirt so that he lay flush against her. His left hand stroked down her side, starting at her neck and skimming over her ribs before finally dipping beneath the open bodice and cupping her breast through her thin chemise.
She arched into his touch. "Yes…please…" He kissed down her neck, plucking at the string of her chemise as he did so. Belle managed to get her hands between them and finish the unlacing job she started on her bodice, pulling it apart, granting him more access.
He managed to finally get the string apart and pushed it down off her shoulders. He stopped and met her eyes for a moment and she nodded, allowing him to draw the garment off her arms. It pooled around her waist, leaving her bare from the waist up.
Rumplestiltskin didn't move, simply stared, watching as the flickering candlelight of the room made strange patterns on her skin. She felt her nipples tighten at his scrutiny. She had never felt so exposed before and attempted to cover herself with her arms. He quickly stopped her, moving to grasp her arms and holding them apart.
His eyes met hers for just a moment, before sliding down her body again. "Beautiful," he murmured and he leaned down, arms still out at his sides keeping hers still, to capture one nipple in his mouth. Belle whimpered, all coherent thought leaving her. All she could think was more…
And more he gave her, suckling her, laving his tongue over her. He left her nipple for a moment and nibbled the underside of her breast and Belle finally freed her arms from his grip to entangle her fingers in his hair. Dear Gods…
He made his way slowly to her other breast, pressing hot kisses to the space between them, nibbling a little and then rubbing the roughness of his jaw and cheek against her. Her eyes fluttered and closed, the sensations almost too much. She had never been this close to a man before and the textured skin of his face rubbing against her nipple almost sent her over the edge right then and there. "Rumple…"
She didn't even get his name out before he bit down, tugging her nipple into his mouth and running his tongue over it, all the while his teeth continued their ministrations on the outer edges of her nipple. Her back arched without her consciously telling it to. She was all reactions, all sensations, all gasps and moans.
And then she could think of little other than baring him as he had bared her. She squeezed her hands between them and undid the buttons of his brocade vest, shoving the freed garment off his shoulders, pleased when he moved in such a way that allowed her to push it down his arms. He pulled it off completely of it and tossed it across the room. Belle giggled.
He looked up at her and smiled. Not a sneer, not one of his maniacal grins, just an honest smile. Belle pushed herself up and kissed him. His arms immediately came around her and crushed her tight to him. She never could have imagined she would have liked kissing quite so much. Some of her suitors had attempted to kiss her. Paul, the one she had contemplated saying yes to, had been chaste and sweet. The kiss had done nothing for her but it had not been repulsive. Gaston had pressed her up against a wall and had been all tongue and sloppy lips. She'd felt like she needed a bath after that and it seemed to take hours to get the horrible garlicky taste of his breath out of her mouth. Rumplestiltskin kissed her thoroughly, but it was not messy. He did things with his tongue she didn't even know someone could do and it made her want to reciprocate, made her willing to try to please him in the same way he was pleasing her. The sounds he was making somewhere in the back of his throat were incredibly compelling and Belle guessed she was doing something right.
Running her hands down her back and sides she brought them back to his front and started to undo the buttons of the shirt that was keeping his skin from her.
He froze, ending the kiss and backing away slightly with a hiss. "What do you think you're doing?"
Belle closed her eyes for a moment. "I thought that was rather obvious."
"You don't want to see that."
Belle hadn't really thought much about his admittance that it was over two centuries since he'd done this, but now she couldn't get it out of her head. Was he shy? Embarrassed? Had he once just been a man and so felt uncomfortable with his strange skin? She suddenly felt that she was going to have to be the one to reassure him. That was an unexpected turn of events. And so she did the only thing a brave young woman like her could do. She bolted upward and pushed on his shoulders, flipping him over so that he was the one laying on the pillows and she was above him.
It felt odd, suddenly being the one in control, but she remembered that really, she had been in control the whole time. She called him to her. The deal was her idea. She asked him to be the one to take her virginity. And now she was the one who could take the reins.
She set to working on his shirt, unbuttoning each button slowly as she placed careful kisses on the strange bumpy skin of his chest. As she revealed more of his skin, his hands came up to tangle in her hair, unbraiding it and creating a mess of her curls. She felt his hands wander lazily down the skin on her back, causing goose bumps in their wake. Finally she had the buttons undone and pulled the two halves of the shirt apart.
She wondered if his nipples were as sensitive as hers had been to his ministrations and kissed one, glancing up to see his reaction. He was watching her, his eyes intense and his mouth slightly open. He didn't seem to be offended and so she kissed it again, opening her mouth to encircle the small flat bud with her lips. She laved it with her tongue and he gasped, moaning her name. She bit down as he did and his hands clenched around her head, the nails biting almost painfully into her scalp.
One of his hands came up to her hip and then slid down her thigh, tracing lazy patterns there before continuing his explorations up her inner thigh. He hesitated a moment as he got closer to that area that had been burning with liquid heat since this whole thing began, brushing his fingers lightly through the curls at the juncture of her thighs. When she sighed and relaxed, he spread her thighs a little further apart and pressed one finger into her slick folds.
"Oh!" Belle's eyes flew open as he touched her, the sensation so different from her own somewhat timid explorations of the area she had made in the past.
He looked up at her and met her eyes, the lines of his face all creased into a look of surprise. "You're wet." He whispered the words and if she hadn't been involved in such an intimate moment with the Dark One, she might have laughed at how awed he sounded. Instead, she just nodded and he shook his head. "I didn't expect that."
She didn't like the frown that flitted across his face for a moment and so grabbed him about both sides of his face. "Touch me…"
It was all the invitation he needed really. He rose up and turned her, placing her carefully in the center of the mound of pillows. He settled close to her lying at her side, one hand tucked beneath his head. After sliding her chemise down her legs and tossing it aside, to join his vest somewhere on the ground to the side of the bed, he returned to the task at hand. Delicately, he separated the folds with one finger, the slickness making every movement send sparks through her whole body. He rubbed lightly, small circles around the nub that she knew was aching most for his touch. He moved in wider circles, still not touching it, instead dipping one finger into her. He didn't press in terribly deep, making shallow thrusts with just one finger and finally joining it with a second and a third. Belle moaned at the feeling and when he finally brought his thumb up to touch the nub that was the center of her pleasure and let his fingers enter her a little more deeply, she nearly screamed from the intensity.
Her whole body shook as he continued his ministrations and then she felt a strange tight sensation deep inside her and for a second, she felt as taut as the string on a bow. Then the world exploded around her and she couldn't hold back her screams as her body writhed beneath him and tightened around the fingers still inside her.
When she settled, came back to herself, could actually focus her eyes, she turned her head to look at him. She had touched herself before, had explored that area once she realized it brought her pleasure, but she had been too afraid to continue forward to that point, always ceasing the activity before she was too lost in the sensation. It was breath-taking and she couldn't speak as she looked at him. Bringing one hand up, she brushed the curls away from his face, pleased at the grin she saw there. Without really thinking about what she was doing, she pushed herself up by her elbows and met his lips. The kiss was tender, almost chaste. They broke apart and she was surprised to note his eyes looked almost wet around the edges. She was amazed, but nearly everything about this encounter left her as such. She had expected him to simply toss her down on the bed and have his way with her. Quick and dirty, over in no time and she would lose the one thing that meant she'd never have a husband, at least not one her father would pick for her. Instead, she received tenderness and time and his worrying about her pleasure. A monster indeed. It hardly seemed so, despite what he may say.
He met her eyes, finally, the question in them evident. She nodded and bit her lip. This was what she wanted, but if she were totally honest with herself, she was frightened. She had heard horror stories of the marriage bed from women older than herself who were already married. She had heard about pain and careless husbands who had rutted away despite dryness and pain and blood. This was what she had expected. There had never been a story that suggested the Dark One concerned himself with mercy.
He quickly divested himself of his trousers and Belle thought it surely must have been through magic as they didn't seem to be the easiest thing to get into or out of. He moved so quickly that she barely had time to note that the strange color of his skin covered his entire body. And then he was over her, separating her legs with one knee before settling between them once more. Stopping there, he reached one hand up and cupped her face lightly. Was his hand actually trembling? She placed her hand over his, stilling its fluttering movement. "We don't have to do this," he murmured.
Belle shook her head. "I want to…"
"We can make it look as if we did without…"
She squeezed his hand. "I want to."
The smile her resolve brought to his face was both unexpected and beautiful. He removed the hand that was cupping her face and reached down between them, touching her lightly, running his finger through her folds once more, spreading the moisture that had pooled there. Then he grasped himself in hand, lining the tip of his cock up with her entrance.
She looked up, met his eyes, nodded once more. This was what she wanted and sometime, during all of this, she had begun wanting this, not for the sake of her keeping her life her own, but because she wanted him inside her, wanted him to make love to her, ached to be filled with him.
The head slid in without difficulty. He had readied her well and the slickness made it easy for him to slip inside her. It was a strange feeling, like being invaded and completed at the same time. He moved forward just an inch or two and then paused, clearly uncertain. But this...this was the whole reason for this strange proposal of hers.
He met her eyes once more. She could almost hear the question, knew he wasn't sure if he should really continue. She leaned up and captured his mouth with hers, wrapped her legs around his calves. Words weren't needed. Actions were. And those actions could not have made it any clearer.
Finally, at long last, he thrust forward, one quick motion, and then he was inside her completely, his groin flush against hers, as close together as two people could get. She gasped into his mouth and he swallowed it by deepening the kiss, running his hands down her side to her hip. He remained still inside her as he ended the kiss.
Belle caught her breath, feeling a bead of sweat slide down her brow. With his being so still, she was able to adjust to the strange sensation of being filled up by him. Her body finally adjusted to the intrusion, stretching to accommodate him and soon she found she was growing restless. She drew back slightly, allowing him to slip out just an inch or two before she moved back to capture him completely within her.
He gasped, his eyes widening. "Oh, Belle." The words seemed to be torn from him and then he was moving inside her, his hands gripping her hips and holding her steady as he thrust into her.
Belle wrapped her arms around his shoulders and clung to him, the feeling of fullness changing into one of growing need, quieter and without the urgency of before, but still there. She didn't know it was possible to need like this, to want like this. Soon she was gasping along with him, each thrust sending sparks through her body.
When one of Rumplestiltskin's hands left her hip and moved to her center, rubbing on that tiny nub of sensation once more, she broke apart again, the feeling of tautness and explosion so much more intense with him buried in her. She could feel the walls inside her clench and flutter around him, trying to pull him deeper, closer, further within her than she felt she could stand without going too far over the edge.
His thrusts, once so steady, became erratic and both hands returned to her hips to hold her as he finally thrust one more time, then held himself motionless. She felt his seed flood into her and he collapsed on top of her with a groan.
And then all was silent and still. After a moment he rolled off of her, to lay collapsed at her side, lying on his back with his shoulder just barely touching hers. When he turned his head to look at her, she suddenly felt self-conscious and looked around for a sheet, anything really, to cover herself with. Rumplestiltskin gave her a bit of a rueful grin and with a small waving of his hand, produced a light blanket she was able to drape over herself. She was most amused that he quickly grabbed the other side and pulled it over his body, tucking it close up around his neck. The great Dark One…self-conscious. Who would have thought it?
"I know my price." The words he spoke were quiet, without any of the usual flare she had seen from him, and yet she tensed up anyway. His price. She had nearly forgotten that this was nothing more than a deal and that she had made the deal without agreeing to her payment for it. That was a stupid thing, really. She had read the stories of those who made such mistakes with him.
"Name it then." She steeled her nerves and stared up at the ceiling. At least she knew he couldn't deal for her first-born.
"You." The word was surprisingly soft.
She turned her head quickly and her eyes met his strange ones. "What?"
"You. I want you to come with me, to my castle." She could see no deception in his gaze.
She shook her head. "Why?"
"I think you would make a fine companion." He turned on his side again toward her and grasped one of her hands in his, wrapping his long fingers around her much smaller ones. "You would want for nothing. You would never have to marry someone you did not want."
"And this," she said, waving a hand over their bodies, still damp from their exertions. "Would we do this?"
He smiled, soft and almost sad. "Maybe from time to time…if you wanted it. Otherwise no. I do not force myself on women." The words faded away as he looked away.
"I didn't imagine for a moment that you would." And she smiled. This was her chance, her real chance. Adventure, excitement, the great unknown. And if she ended up with a lover at her side, someone who took care of her and was gentle with her, then all the better for her. The Dark One's companion. She liked the sound of that. She took a deep breath and leaned slightly toward him.
He stopped her from speaking for a moment, raising one hand up and pointing a long slender finger at her. "It's forever, dear."
She smiled and she felt like it might have been the first real smile that had graced her face in a very long time. Gently, she grasped his hand, extended finger and all, in hers. "Then I will go with you…forever."
Author's note:
The prompt for this came from the OUAT Kink Meme on LJ:
Belle has rejected Gaston and a score of other suitors; she won't be sold off in an arranged marriage. Her father has locked her in a tower until she agrees to marry one of them. Belle invokes Rumpelstiltskin to make a deal to get her out of there, but she also wants to put an end to this by making herself unmarriageable. The easiest way? Getting rid of her virginity. But she doesn't have a particular person in mind and doesn't want to worry about pregnancy, disease, her dad throwing the guy in prison...she just needs sex with absolutely no risks, no consequences, and no strings. She decides that Rumpel himself is the man for the job.
Belle is bossy and businesslike and "let's get this over with"; Rumpel, on the other hand, is all "I haven't gotten laid in a century; let's do this right." As it turns out, Belle never specified that it had to be fast...