Lazily, Rumald opened his eyes and blinked a few times, allowing the foreign interior of the room to come into focus and his fuzzy mind to catch up with him. Easing off of his front and rolling partially onto his back, he swung his gaze around the room, spotting a few items of their clothing on the chair and some discarded on the floor. A smug grin was born as he dropped onto his back, lying askew on the bed, idly rubbing a hand across his bare chest. He could feel her ghostly touch on him, mapping warm paths of pleasure over his skin. Remembering, he was on her side of the bed, Rumald angled his head up to her pillow, pushing his foot into the mattress, he strained to smell it, becoming inebriated with the familiar smell of her. He relaxed, letting his leg flop out onto the bed, enjoying the peace before his troubling thoughts took root again.
Outside of the door, the jangling of keys perked his attention. Dragging her pillow down to cushion the back of his head, Rumald heard the key slide into the lock, the jangle of the keys as she turned the lock and watched the door handle turn before the door was pushed open. The door swung open and then closed, revealing Belle as she threw her purple hat to the armchair, joining their clothes, her keys jingling in her hand. She reached to the zip of her jacket, whilst she tossed the keys to the small table, near the door, with a clunk, and pulled the zip down, opening the flaps of her jacket.
Her gaze finally settled on him. "Hmm…" She murmured in appreciation, smiling at him. "Just how I like to see my boyfriend."
"I think I'm too old to be called your boyfriend." Rumald remarked, while she toed off her sneakers, removing her jacket from her arms.
"What would you like me to call you then?" Belle questioned, perching her weight onto the foot of the bed with her right knee. "My admirer?"
His eyebrow raised at her vixenish tone as she crawled up the bed to him, posing different titles for him. "Beau? Suitor? My…" She braced herself over him, lowering her head to press a kiss to his left hip through the thin sheet, and looked up with hooded eyes at him. "Old man?"
Rumald swallowed at the hot look in her eyes. "You're insatiable!"
"What can I say?" Belle clambered further up his body, pausing to place random hot kisses to his stomach and chest, breathing the words onto his skin. "You've awoken an unappeasable hunger." She kissed the shallow indent in his chest, smirking up at him.
Hooking his arm under her arm, he flipped her onto her back, rolling with her, nestling himself between her thighs, the thin sheet and her leggings the only layers between them. "What else could you call me?"
"My beloved." She stated as he skimmed his hand over the front of her Lycra running top, fleeting his touch across the apex of her breast.
"A degree in 'English Literature and Language', I'm convinced you can do better than that, Miss French." Rumald teased her with his words and with a purposeful rock of his hips, pressing his hardness into her soft core.
Stifling her moan by sinking her teeth into her lower lip, she laid beneath him, gazing up at him, and said. "Dearest…"
He leaned back onto his knees and slipped his hands under the hem of her top, the tension in the Lycra forced his hands to splay on her skin, as she sucked in a breath, saying. "Paramour…" Lowering himself over her, he worked her top up her body, revealing the smooth skin of her stomach. "Wooer…" Rumald dipped his head, feathering a kiss to the sensitive skin covering her ribs, while she hissed out. "Infatuation!"
"You can't introduce me as your infatuation, sweetheart." He admonished, tracing the tip of his nose up the silky smoothness of her belly. "I'm more than an infatuation."
Raising her arms above her head and arching her back, allowing him to lift her top higher, while she continued with her list. "Inamorato."
"I hope you're not making words up." Rumald gently rocked his hips into her, using the movement to push her top up, exposing her breasts, protected from him behind the thick fabric of her sports bra.
"Inamorato means a male lover." Belle explained, while grabbing her top, hauling the clinging material up and over her head, flinging it somewhere in the room. "It's Italian and is a direct descendant from the Latin word 'amare', meaning 'to love'."
Softly, he smiled at her, stroking some of the hair from her face that she had dislodged free of her ponytail. "I don't know what turns me on more, your beauty or your intelligence."
"Shut up and kiss me." Belle took a hold of his face and urged his face to hers, clamping her lips over his, slipping her tongue straight into his mouth.
Carefully sinking himself down onto her, his slightly tanned skin pressing to her creamy skin, he languished in her kiss, in the feel of her against him, the smell of her enveloping him. His left hand travelled down her side, leaving a caress in its wake as he snuck his hand underneath her, cupping the curve of her backside in his hand. He could feel the hotness of her core through her leggings and the thin sheet, and wanted to feel more of her, grinding himself into her hips. The murmur of her moan entering his mouth, made a shiver chase down the path of his spine, encouraging him to do it again. Lifting his hips, Rumald's pulled the sheet out from between them and lowered his hips, pushing up on his toes to thrust himself into her, whilst stroking his hand further down her leg to hook the back of her knee, drawing up her leg, giving him more access.
Belle pulled her lips away from him and crossed her arms, covering her chest, and removed her sports bra in one fluent movement. Possessed to have them, now that she had given him access, Rumald descended onto her breasts as she stripped the bra from her arms. He palmed one of her breasts, while taking a mouthful of her other breast, sucking hard at the flesh, while the tip of his tongue duelled with her nipple. Moaning and clutching at the back of his head, she brought her other leg up, framing her legs around his hips.
"My keeper." Said Belle breathless, peering down, watching him suckle her breast.
He flicked his gaze up to her, grinning as he pulled back on her breast, making the mouthful of flesh pop from his mouth. "I can't be doing a very good job, sweetheart, if you're still able to think."
Smirking at him as she lovingly scraped her fingers down the back of his head, she uttered. "Honey bunny."
"Oh, no, no, no!" Rumald declared, giving her a small shake of his head, whilst he shifted his position to impart some needed attention to her other breast. "You can't call me honey bunny. I've got a reputation to uphold." And engulfed her left nipple with his mouth, giving it the same treatment as her other breast.
Her back arched at the sensation, causing her left breast to mould his chin and her right breast to bulge in the constraints of his hand. Anchoring his toes in the mattress, Rumald slid himself against her, hunching his back, continuing to suck on her breast and knead the other. She clutched at his hair, tugging the tuffs, forcefully guiding his head down, crushing his face into her chest. Easing his head back, even with her firm grip, he teased her nipple with his teeth, grating the sensitive bud until it escaped him.
"God, I want you so much right now!" Belle told him, directing his face up as she lunged up from the bed, capturing his lips.
Gently pressing his hand on her chest, he directed her to lie back down as he pushed himself up and sat back onto his heels. With a sly smile, Rumald clawed his fingers into the waistband of her leggings, peeling them down her legs, bringing her underwear with them, exposing her sex to him and baring her legs. She helped by pulling first her left leg free, then lifted her right, allowing him to completely strip her of her leggings. Catching a hold of her leg, he discarded her limp leggings to the floor, while he ran his eyes down her right leg, appreciating the sight of her naked.
"Gentleman caller." She mentioned, laying her arms to lazily rest about her head.
Crooking an eyebrow at her, Rumald lifted her leg as he stooped forward to meet her leg, pressing a light kiss to her ankle before he said. "You're scratching at the bottom of the barrel now."
"I'm just getting started, dearie." Belle shrugged her eyebrows at him, when she used his own condescending address.
"Are you?" He smirked and placed a kiss near the top of her shin. "How many more you got, dearie?" Emphasising the 'dearie'.
"Lover." She stated, observing him as he came towards her, arching himself to kiss the inner part of her thigh.
Pausing in his descent, his cheek touching her inner thigh, he confessed to her. "I like that one."
Belle lifted her left leg and poked him in his ribs. "I thought you might."
He caught her foot and manoeuvred her legs to encircle him, while he gradually moved to cover her, kissing and nipping her skin as he journeyed up her body. Her fingers delved into his hair, while he kissed the skin in the valley of her breasts, smelling the salt on her skin. Trailing kisses up her chest, Rumald snuck his right hand down between them, reaching down to the junction of her thighs, and slipped his finger through her slick folds, brushing his fingers over her sensitive pink pearl. Belle's chest heaved suddenly with the hiss of a breath she took in and slowly moaned as he circled his finger around her tender bud.
Daring further, he probed his finger into her entrance, easily slipping his finger inside of her, groaning at her being so wet and hot for him. "Oh, sweetheart…. You're so wet and ready for me!"
"What do you expect," She began to tell him as he lifted his face to look at her, slowly withdrawing his finger to delve into her again, trying to vainly to fill her with his fingers. "I was thinking about my 'soulmate' being naked in my bed!"
"I ought to stay here more often, if I have the pleasure of making love to you again in the morning." He said, pulling his finger out, and added another finger before he thrusted back into her, while saying. "I'm not keen on 'soulmate'. Do I need to remind you about my reputation?"
"You? Darling? Have a reputation?" Her strangle voice uttered as she threw her head back.
He lifted an eyebrow at her, whilst he slid his fingers partially out of her and quickly surged them back into her, encouraging a deep groan from her. Her fingers clutched at his skin of his shoulders, digging her sharp nails into him. Coating his thumb tip with her pleasure, Rumald repeated the same tortuous stroke and added his thumb, lightly soothing his thumb over her clit, tracing around her clit. Belle tossed her head to the side, the pillow bellowing either side of her head, biting down hard into her lower lip, arching her back, pressing her breasts into his chest. Keeping a steady rhythm, he ducked his head into her neck, licking and nibbling her throat, while she moaned in time with his fingers.
"Rumald! Please!" She begged - He loved it, when she begged. "We don't have all morning!"
"I do." He turned his head and murmured, putting his mouth by her ear.
"I don't!" Belle insisted.
He purred into her ear. "What else could you call me?"
As she moaned into his ear, she muttered. "Bastard!"
"Ooo…" Rumald leaned back to see her face. "I love it when you talk dirty."
"If you don't…" She did not get to finish her statement, interrupted by him removing his fingers and thrusting his hardness into her, breaking her train of thought.
He smiled, whispering into her ear. "Remember, sweetheart, I can be ruthless."
"Still a bas...!" Rumald plunged himself into her, a deep thrust that caused both of them to groan and moan.
Deliberately receding back, he cupped his hand to her face, turning her head to him, pressing his forehead to hers, as he dove himself back inside of her, grunting at the exquisite feel of her surrounding him. Retracting his hips back, his eyes closed at the intense sensation of moving within her, the silkiness of her, and thrusted inside of her, feeling her raise her hips and clench her muscles around him, pulling him further into her, wanting him to fill her. Rumald moaned, stroking his thumb over her cheek, whilst he slid out, nearly all the way out of her, to sink himself back into her, her hips meeting his, grinding herself against him for the added pleasure. Repeating the same motion, he dug his fingers into her hair, firmly holding her forehead to his, whilst he delved back into her, hunching himself to grind into her hips, when she lifted them. She moaned, clutching her arms around him, panting her hot breath into his mouth, over his face.
Increasing the pace, Rumald raised his head from hers and kissed her, while descending his right hand down her body, dragging his nails lightly over her skin, and tucked his hand under her, groping her backside, raising her hips to him the advantage. She let out a long moan, her pitch getting higher, as he thrusted into her, tugged by her walls constricting about him. The feel of her wanting him, pressed him to quicken his pace again, making her moan his name into his mouth.
Breaking the kiss, his brogue was thick as he confessed to her. "I love you, Belle! I love you more than anything!"
"Oh, God, Rumald, I love…!" He cut her short, painfully smashing his lips into hers, kissing her like it was the last time, he was ever going to see her.
Together, they ravaged each other, fiercely kissing, lips wet and inviting, hips gyrating wildly together, Rumald keeping a relentless pace, desperate to hear her call his name out. From the way, she was tensing and randomly grabbing at him, he knew it would not take much to make her come. He tore his lips away from hers and hungrily fed on her right nipple, sucking her deep, flicking her nipple with the tip of his tongue. Her nails clawed into his shoulders, her hands pushing and pulling at him, torn between wanting more and overcome with the sensations, whilst her inner muscles fluttered and spasmed around him. She sucked in a breath and held it, painfully sinking her nails into his shoulders, her chest pushed up against his face as a sudden hotness rushed over the length of him.
"Oh… Rum...ald!" Belle's cry spurred him on.
Leaving her breast, Rumald raised himself up on his arms, moaning at the change of angle, and gazed down on her, thinking how beautiful she was in her afterglow. Her hands had slid down from his shoulders to his chest, lovingly she looked up at him, her hands caressing his chest, while she mildly scored her fingernails on his skin. He closed his eyes, focusing on the feel of himself inside of her, gliding effortlessly, her hotness imploring him to seek his satisfaction within her. Hammering his hips into her, Rumald strived to bury all his troubles deep inside her, wanting to forget about everything, pretending the world only consisted of them, locked up her small room, their objective to screw each other senseless.
"Come for me, Rumald." She whispered to him, skimming her hands down his sides to his butt, encouraging the movement of his hips. "Come for me, my true love."
The term of endearment caught him a little off guard, causing him to miss a beat in his rhythm. Belle was smiling up at him. Overpowered with the need to kiss her, he swooped down and took her lips captive, messily kissing her, whilst her hands came up to clutch him closer. The pressure of her hands on his back, the warmth of her, the different sensations of her - were all of his undoing.
"Oh… Belle!" Rumald groaned loudly, pressing his forehead to hers, wrapping his arms awkwardly around her, so he could hold onto her, keeping him grounded, while he rode through his wave of rapture, drowning himself in euphoria.
With a final thrust, sinking as deep as he could, filling her one last time, chasing after the fleeting sensations of his ecstasy, he slumped his weight down on her, keeping some of his weight supported on his right arm. Her hands gingerly stroked across his back, whispering sweet nothings into his ear, while he panted for breath, his face hidden into the crook of her neck, getting drunk on the smell of her. Shifting his legs, Rumald slipped himself out of her and nestled himself into the cradle of her hips, drowsily enjoying the comfort she gave him.
Her head lifted to see the clock on the bedside and then fell back into the pillow, with her saying. "We need to get showered. It's just after eight."
"We could just stay here." Rumald mumbled into her neck.
Belle crooked her head enough to kiss the side of his head. "I'd love to, but I've got work and you've got so much going on, we can't stay in bed all day."
"I'm not getting off you." He told her, raising his head up, so he could see her face. "You can't go anywhere, if I don't move."
"Rumald, I'm sweaty and icky, I need to shower." She said, carding her fingers through his hair.
"I don't mind." He grinned at her. "We can be sweaty and icky together, in bed, all day…" His sentence trailed off as Rumald leant into her and gently kissed her.
A loud shrill of ringtone and an insistent buzzing sound intruded on their private moment. Snatching his lips back from Belle, he glared at his phone on the bedside table before clambering himself over Belle, to reach for his phone, bearing the lower half of his body down on her, keeping her exactly where he wanted. She grumbled at him, smirking, as Rumald answered his phone, seductively eyeing her as he rolled back to his previous position.
"Gold." He barked and leant his head down to kiss the top of Belle's chest.
"Morning, dad." Neal greeted brightly, sounding very cheerful compared to the last time he spoke to his son.
"Neal?" Rumald jumped up onto the heel of his right hand, throwing his gaze around the room, feeling as though his son had caught him doing something naughty. "Are you alright?"
Neal chuckled. "Yeah, I'm fine, dad. I was actually calling to see, if you're alright. You didn't come home last night."
"Erm…" Climbing off of Belle, Rumald sat heavily onto the edge of the bed, Belle's right leg lay over his right thigh. "Sorry, I didn't know you were coming home. Otherwise, I would've told you I was staying the night at Belle's."
She sat up and hugged him, kissed his cheek, and then nuzzled her nose into the side of his face, whilst Neal said. "It was a last minute thing. I'll tell you more when I see you. Do you want to meet for breakfast?"
He nodded his head, absently caressing his hand up and down Belle's bare leg. "Yeah, that'll be nice." Turning his head to look at Belle, he suggested. "Meet in Granny's in about half an hour?"
"Sure. I'll see you in a bit, dad." And Rumald ended the call, dropping the phone down from his ear, squinting his gaze at it. "That was Neal."
"Is he okay?" She asked him, her breath tickled his ear.
"Yeah," He tossed his phone to the foot of the bed. "Sounded happy."
Belle inclined back from him, saying. "Maybe him and Emma have sorted things out."
Taking in a deep breath, he turned his head to look at her and smiled. "We'll see."
"I'm getting in the shower." She informed him as she threw her leg off his lap and used his shoulder to support her as she stood up.
"Okay, I'll be in a minute." Rumald helped her to stand, a supportive hand on her butt, a cunning grope of her butt cheek, which earned him a flat look and a smirk.
Showered and partially dressed, he stood in front of the small mirror in the bathroom, brushing his hair back with her hairbrush, smoothing down his hair with his other hand. He put the hairbrush back on the small shelf, above the sink, careful not to knock the other items off, turning his side to side, checking the back of his hair. There were red marks on his shoulders, which caught his eye in the mirror, when he twisted to see more of the back of his head. He smirked, admiring the small angry fingernail marks, she had branded into his skin.
It was this moment, he caught his own in eye in the mirror and straightened himself, facing himself head on, the content he felt slowly drained away. Cora's visit and her ultimatum came back with full force, pushing it way straight to the forefront of his mind, shoving aside all the happy thoughts he had been having about Belle and him. Casting his gaze down into the sink, Rumald leant onto the edge of it with both of his hands, cursing his stupidity, Cora, for life, for every bad decision he had made in his life. His anger at Cora's threat was simmering back to the surface and he tightly gripped the rim of the sink, turning his knuckles and fingertips white. Rumald had no clue what he was going to do, how he would be able to protect them all and get what he wanted at the same time. Though, one thing he was positive about, was he wanted to make Cora pay for all of it by the end of it. Make her pay for breaking his heart, for helping to drive the wedge between his and him, for threatening three people he cared about and were innocent. There was no need for her to bring them into this. Yet, he was still asking himself, why the hell now?
"Hey, your phone's just beeped." Belle called through to him.
"Okay." He mumbled, raising his gaze to look at himself, throwing one more insult at himself before he left the bathroom.
As he came through the doorway, Belle was sat in the armchair, wearing only her underwear, working the crumpled material of her pantyhose up her left leg, stretching out her leg as she pulled the material up her leg. He could not help himself, watching as she got so far and then collected the leg of the pantyhose between hands, and fed her foot into the clump of material. Bending to collect his shirt from the bed, where she had left it for him, he smirked as the silky material covered the cream skin of her leg. Rumald slipped his left arm into the sleeve of the shirt and reached round behind him, catching his shirt, to feed his other arm into the sleeve, shrugging the shirt up and onto his shoulders.
"Have you got much going on today?" She asked, standing to finish putting on her pantyhose.
"Just the usual." 'And then some.' He added the other comment in his head, wanting to get a head start on whatever Cora had planned, laying the foundations for a plan he had not yet conceived.
Belle came over to the bed and collected the skirt, she had left on the bed, and stepped into it, fastening it into place as she said to him. "Shall I call you about lunchtime? See if you're free?"
"Oh, Miss French…" He purred at her, moving swiftly to join her at the end of the bed, yanking her against him. "I'm more than willing to appease your hunger for me."
"I was thinking more of food…" She let her comment trail off, giving him a pointed look, the threat of a smile at the corners of her mouth.
"Maybe…" Rumald nuzzled her nose with his. "We can satisfy both hungers at the same time."
Slipping her arms around his waist, she rested her forehead against his forehead. "Maybe…"
He smiled at her, reaching up to gently stroke his thumbs across her cheeks before he kissed her. "I love you."
"I love you too." Belle returned his smile, tugging at his waist, nudging him into her.
There was short beep and buzz from the foot of the bed, making both of them look down, to where he had discarded his phone earlier. Bending over, his left hand lingered on her shoulder as he picked up his phone, tapping a button to wake up his phone, showing Neal had messaged him. A simple and direct message, 'I'm here'.
"Neal's downstairs." He shared with her as he pocketed his phone.
She pushed him away and snatched up her blouse from the bed. "Oh, I'm going to be late at this rate!" Then craned her neck, to see him beside her. "You're a bad influence, Rumald Gold!"
"I do believe, dearie," Rumald put his hands on her hips and directed her round to face him, pulling her closer, as she put her blouse on. "It was you who instigated things this morning. I'm the innocent party here."
"You're never innocent." Tiptoeing up, Belle kissed him, while her fingers pushed the buttons through on her blouse.
Faking, he had been hurt by her comment, he flourished his hand and laid it on his chest, his mouth agape at her. "I can't believe you would say such a thing to me."
She raised an eyebrow at him as she tucked the tails of her blouse into her skirt. "Don't you think you should finish getting dressed, so we can go and meet your son, who's waiting for us downstairs?"
"If I must." He grumbled, taking a step back from her, and buttoned up the front of his shirt, grinning at her.
Pivoting away from him, Belle angled herself to get a better view underneath the bed, looking for something, as she said. "I might have to leave you two to your breakfast and grab something and run."
"No one is going to care about you being late." He remarked as he tucked his shirt into his pants.
"Easy for you to say." She threw back at him, moving across the room to the armchair. "The Mayor's been keeping close tabs on me lately. Turns up out of the blue or someone from his office does, like Arlene, who told me there's been a lot of talk about the library."
Rumald stopped feeding his cufflink through this sleeve, his brow riddled with deep lines of thought. "What sort of talk?"
She made an a 'Ah' noise before sitting down heavily into the armchair, slipping on her shoes as she answered him. "Before I got the job, they were talking about closing the library. Guess they're still considering it."
"Hmm…" He fastened his cufflink and tugged on both his sleeves. "You should've told me, I could've looked into it."
"Rumald," Belle was smiling at him as she got up from the armchair. "I don't need you running off and fighting my battles for me."
"If only you knew…" He mumbled under his breath, snatching up his suit jacket from the bed.
As he put on his suit jacket, Belle was telling him how she appreciated him wanting to help, but she had the situation in hand. In hand? She barely had an understanding of the situation, so there was no way she had it 'in hand'. Roughly straightening his suit jacket, yanking the end of his sleeves, Rumald could feel it in his bones that Cora was behind this. The bitch already had her claws in the Mayor, disrupting Regina's exhibition, it was not too much of a jump to conclude she was behind this as well. He damned himself for being in New York with Jefferson and missed the last council meeting, because of it. Closing his eyes, Rumald cursed Cora and himself. Her for being a manipulative bitch and himself for not having the foresight to see this coming.