The shrill scream that had issued out past Belle's lips was nothing more than a muffled squawk under the pirate's hand's sudden press against her mouth. That suffocating presence stole more than her screams, it took the very air from her, Belle's chest heaving with her panic. She heard the rattle of the chains from a distance, barely registered the way the metal bit unpleasantly against her wrists' skin. She was numb to the pain, but not to the pirate, to the feel of him, his body fit firmly between her spread thighs.
Worse yet she felt his arousal, felt the undeniable proof of his desire. It bulged against the thick leather of his clothes, strained and thrust against the thin lace of her panties. Belle's breath hitched in fear, she was choking, gasping for an air that was not there, flailing her arms, her whole body, in a desperate bid to get away.
A curse hissed out of her captor, his weight pressing down more firmly on her. She couldn't stop her struggles, couldn't stop her panic, or her desperate attempts to draw in oxygen. She was gasping, practically gagging, and then blessed breath flooded her lungs, the pirate having lifted up his hand.
"That's it lass, breathe." That low spoken encouragement was accompanied by a soft touch on her cheek, and followed by the strained sound of his chuckle. "I've not done anything to warrant this amount of panic."
She was too busy taking in great, gasping breaths of air to immediately respond. "Not YET. you mean." Belle saw how he frowned at that.
"So much for the benefit of doubt." Hook muttered. "What happened to the woman who was so certain I wasn't going to hurt her?"
"That was BEFORE you chained me to your bed!" Her shrill tone was accompanied by a pointed jerk on her restraints, Belle then hissing with a pain that had the pirate touching her arm. She felt him slide his fingers under the imprisoning cuff, the abused flesh there raw and already stinging.
"Aye...you've done a right number on your wrists." Hook's words had Belle's eyes narrow, the woman glaring.
"What do you mean I?!" She demanded. "YOU were the one who chained me to your bed! If anyone is to be blamed for all this, it's you!"
"Was not I who snuck a board a pirate's ship." Hook was quick to counter with a curving of his lips.
"I was-AM trying to help."
"Belle love, you'd help best by staying with your books." His fingers slid away from her wrist.
"So you and Rumple could try to kill one another?!" Belle quickly shook her head no. "That is NOT an option."
"Someone IS going to die." Hook said that in a foreboding tone. "It's all just a matter of whom..."
"Don't you at all care that it might be you?" Belle asked with a frown.
"Worried for me, are you pet?" Hook asked with a grin. That smile only grew wider at the scoffing sound Belle let out, the woman red faced and indignant.
"Hardly! Now let me free!"
"First it was a murder you wanted stopped, and now you want to be set free? You're so full of impossible request today, lass."
"Damn you, why not?!" Belle cried out in an infuriated tone. "What is so impossible about the things that I ask?!"
"Simply put?" Hook asked with an arch of his brow. "I've waited a long time for my revenge, and I'm not about to put it aside, no matter how sweet the lips that beg me to do so otherwise ARE."
He eased up off her, so that the worst of his weight no longer pinned Belle down so thoroughly. "As for the other..." Hook was stroking his chin now, a thoughtful expression coloring his eyes as he gazed down at her. "It's clear as rain that the safest place for such a troublesome miss is to keep her here in my bed."
It felt anything BUT safe to her, and the truth of it read in the glower on her face. He was still too close to her, still remaining seated between her thighs. Belle didn't dare move, didn't dare try to struggle for fear of reminding him of the precarious position they both were in.
"You found my ship once after all." Hook added in a musing tone that almost spoke of a grudging respect. "I don't know HOW but I've no doubt you'd be able to do it again. Which is all fine and well, except I don't want you leading the Dark One here just YET."
"Wh...what makes you so certain he won't be able to find you without me?" Belle demanded, then gasped. His hook had pressed gently against her lips, the pirate smiling down at her with wicked satisfaction in his blue colored eyes.
"The Dark One's not the only one with some tricks." Boasting didn't begin to describe what Hook now was. "And you don't cheat death for as long as I have, without acquiring some magic of your own. It's all just a matter of deciding when and how to use it for the most satisfying of ends."
"He'll kill you..." Belle said when the hook stopped grazing against her lips. "The Dark One can't die..."
"The Dark One can't, but the man CAN." His look was almost pitying now. "Ah...think them one and the same do you? But I and your RUMPLE know better. The man is nothing but a terrified coward, mean and manipulative, greedy and grasping desperately to hold onto his power. A frightened bully on the best of his days, Belle love, you don't want to know what he is capable of on his WORST."
She couldn't help it, his words made her shudder. Worse yet he knew it, the pirate pressed so close on top of the woman that he felt every violent shiver and shake that went through her. The corners of his mouth curved in response, that smirk of his earning Hook Belle's glare.
"It scares you doesn't it? The idea of seeing your Rumple's true face."
"What makes you think I haven't already?" She dared ask the pirate. "Seen and accepted it?"
"You mean that tantrum of his back in the shop?" Hook asked, and leveled her with a smirk. "Oh yes, I know about that. I not only watched from afar his reaction to Smee's theft of the shawl, I enjoyed every second of it."
"But sweet heart..."" The pirate bent over her, the shifting of his body thrusting his arousal solidly against hers. She cringed back and recoiled, Hook's fingers securing a grip on Belle's hair, to keep the woman from twisting away. From him and from the truth he was insinuating. "That moment in the shop was nothing compared to what I've seen."
"I don't know what you think you know that I don't!" Belle snapped back at him with a sharp cry, the chain binding her beneath him rattling with the woman's struggles. "But I've seen! I've seen more than enough!"
Hook scoffed at that. "You've seen only the tip of the iceberg. But don't worry, lass. One way or another, before this is all over, you'll have seen the truth. Of me and of Rumpelstiltskin."
She couldn't help it, Belle fought against his words, just as she fought against his grip on her hair. "You're wrong about that! Wrong about him! He's different now..."
"Oh is he?" There was steel all about him, Hook staring down at her, his fingers tightening their curled grip just short of causing her pain. "Well then I suppose you have nothing to worry about in THAT regard, do you?" He asked with a lift of his brow.
She couldn't stop her body from shaking in response to the veiled threat of both the pirate's words, and his body's nearness. Belle still tried to be brave, still glared up at him with eyes that flashed with her defiance. "That's right I don't!" She said in a brave, bold tone of voice. "Rumple would never disappoint me...!"
Belle spoke with a confidence she did not entirely feel, the words she tried to make the truth ringing hollow to her ears. Because the fact of the matter remained that he had disappointed her, again and again, more times than the beauty was willing to count. Both in the here and now of Storybrooke, and in the past, in the land of their origin, Rumpelstiltskin seemingly going out of his way to do enough horrific things to earn his reputation as the Dark One. She thought then of just a few examples, the baby, the outlaw, the many lies given and the truths withheld. She even recalled the more recent, such as when he had sought to seek revenge on the Evil Queen in this world.
But more than any of those, Belle thought of one day in particular. A day that had seemed so bright with promise and hope, the beauty kissing her beast for the first time. She had kissed him, and Belle had felt as well as seen the proof that he had loved her. Felt it in the way the magic sparked off their lips, a tingling sensation of warmth that reached inside her to deep within. And by the stunned look on Rumpelstiltskin's face, he had felt it too, the man's eyes closed, the Dark One almost smiling.
It was when she had kissed him a second time, that it had all gone to Hell, the Dark Curse rippling under the assault of true love's kiss. Any smile Belle could have worn, was lost to Rumpelstiltskin's rage, the man frightened and angry as he felt his curse start to break. He had fought it's cure, and he had nearly fought her, screaming, yelling, tearing apart the room until everything lay in shambles save for Belle. Only then had he truly turn towards and on her, Rumpelstiltskin grabbing Belle with a grip on the beauty's arm that was far more painful than anything the pirate had thus far thrown at her.
With nothing more than his anger and brute strength, Rumpelstiltskin had manhandled Belle down to the castle's bowels. It was there in the dungeons he had left her, locked away for her own safety, as he had madly howled and ravaged the rest of the castle in a bid to expend his rage. She hadn't understood it at the time, hadn't been close to knowing why Rumple would not want his curse to be broken. She hadn't understood, and the beauty hadn't forgotten, Belle knowing that THAT Was the worst side of Rumpelstiltskin. She loved him anyway, and actively forgave him, the woman positive that there was almost nothing that could happen that would be worst than that day.
Even as she told herself this, the doubts still tried to take hold of her heart. It was that doubt's attempt that had her thoughts whispering in her ear about her real reasons for coming here. The cold blooded murder she had hoped to avert. She looked at Hook, and she saw not only her potential tormentor, but the face of a reckless pirate, a man who held all the power in the world to devastate her and Rumple's future. Because Belle knew, that no matter what Hook might do, it wouldn't justify Rumpelstiltskin's cold blooded murder of him.
She looked up at Hook, and Belle swore then and there that she couldn't let Rumple kill him. Not for Hook's sake, and not just for her own, but for Rumple's. For his SOUL, Belle knowing that once Rumpelstiltskin actively killed someone, there would be no going back from the darkness.
That same darkness was apparent in Hook's storm blue gaze, the pirate having a history Belle couldn't begin to imagine. The raping and pillaging, the plunder and mayhem, and yet something made her want to believe there was something worth saving in the pirate as well. Was it really something as simple as the fact that in both of their first two encounters, he hadn't actually tried to hurt her? That he had only tried to frighten her into thinking he wanted to kill her? Was there a thread of goodness that ran through him, just as it ran inside Rumpelstiltskin? And could Belle draw on it, maybe even heal him the way she wanted to Rumpelstiltskin?
Belle realized then that she had stopped trying to shake free of the pirate. Instead she just stared up at him, her lips parting on a slightly rasping breath. Hook was no longer cruelly fisting her hair, instead gazing down at her with a considering look in his eyes. She wondered then if Hook even knew what to do with her now that he had chained Belle to his bed.
"So now what?" She softly inquired. Another almost mocking lift of his eyebrows was given her.
"Now?" Belle slowly nodded her head to that questioning sound. "Now I suppose it's just a matter of WAITING."
"Waiting." She repeated with a tone of pure disbelief. Belle then rattled her chains, as though to remind him of their existence. "And just what am I supposed to do until then?"
It was a poor choice of words, the pirate on top of her smiling. She leveled him with another angry glare, and hissed. "Don't even think about that!"
"You know lass, most women would be thrilled to find themselves in my bed."
"Yes, I am sure most would." She retorted with a rattle of her chains, and a blush blooming real heat in her skin. "But NOT when they are chained up."
His grin became positively smug, the pirate gazing down at her with smoldering intensity. "You'd be surprised how wrong you are about THAT."
It wasn't quite a scandalized gasp that she gave him, though Belle was sure she blushed even hotter in response. Hook let out a laugh, chuckling as he finally rolled off of her pinned form.
"And maybe someday I'll see about to...expanding your knowledge on such things. But as for right now, I've work to do."
She was still gaping in surprise as he got off the bed, his first set of words nearly distracting her from his last. It wasn't until the pirate was almost to the door of the bedroom, shawl in hand, that Belle thought to speak. "Work, what work?!"
He didn't answer her, at least not in words. Instead the pirate just smiled, and gave a mocking salute with his hook. Belle couldn't stop from crying out his name, struggling anew against the chains, but nothing she said could draw him back to the bed, or even keep him in the room. She screamed then, in fury and frustration but also in fear, scared of what Hook intended to do with the shawl that Rumpelstiltskin had such a desperate need of.
To Be Continued...
So...this one was hard to write...to a point. I actually had most of it written back right after I had finished chapter one. However what held up the completion of this chapter was when Belle would get told by Hook why he hated Rumpelstiltskin. In the original draft, he would reveal Milah's murder at rumple's hands...and it just turned everything so sinister...ultimately I want to keep her in the dark a little longer. I think it would make for a more interesting feel to the story, if Belle started having feelings and attraction to Hook before learning about Milah's messy fate. I actually imagine Belle so disturbed by her attraction to Hook, she tries to escape, and thus we get the porthole scene of the original Restraint!
But who knows how it will be as I try to write this...Still trying to maintain a fun flirty feel to Hook without too much menace. So hard! X_X
But I am determined...!
Not sure when the third chapter will happen. Depends on how my muse feels I guess. Am thinking chapter three will be a POV that checks in on Hook's thoughts. But we shall see..again how the writing and inspiration goes. Sometimes I try to write a POV one way, and despite my wishes, it becomes apparent it would work better as the other person...so we'll see how it flows!
-Michelle
Ms Jones, thank you! I am trying. Just so slow and too much a perfectionist when I am not perfect. X_X Plays havoc on being a quick writer...but I am trying for a quality read! Just wish I could do a quicker output all the time!
Once19, thank you! Ooh if you ever do publish on this site, let me know what your pen name would be! I'm a bit behind on my Captain Beauty reading, but I am trying to make an attempt to read them all. Slowly but surely!
I'm glad you liked the original Restraint so much (And my other stories from the sound of it.) I really enjoyed Restraint too, even with the glaring errors that inspired me to try and overhaul the story. It's my hope people will like the revamp too!
Charbrose, hi there! And thanks! Yeah, it figures another writer would understand about revamping an older work. Personally, and I hope this doesn't sound conceited, I think I get better at this with every year I continue to practice writing...so I hope I learn from my mistakes, and can do a better over all job at the revamp for Restraint! I've got cringe worthy examples for other fandoms I would like to rework from scratch someday too...but who knows if I will ever have the time for THOSE. But I loved restraint too much to let the parts that bugged me so badly keep me from working on it...even if I had to start over to fix the mistakes! XD
Thank you again! Captain beauty forever! Fist bumps and high fives!
Corinna, yes that is the plan, to continue! I'm just very slow most of the time at writing. X_X