A/N: To my beloved juju, who has been there for me through all the drama, I hope this makes you feel much better. To my guest reader Ashley, I am definitely going to start kicking it up a few notches in the next chapters. I know I've been neglecting, and thanks for the prod in the right direction! To Miss Twyla Mercedes, you are right on target as always. I do plan on exposing the relationship Rumple had with Cora, and we shall see how Miss Belle fares in fairyland now. Enjoy! Love, Joanne.

Trust issues. That, I knew of quite well. I also had trust issues with men ever since the incident with Monsieur Favre, so I kept men at a distance, or not had them at all. I preferred the latter mostly, until Mr. Gold had whisked me off my feet and landed me inside his pink, girly house presently.

I knew better than to press him further, knowing that he would soon snap at me, or do worse. "I'm sorry for saying this is all far-fetched, but please, you have to understand why I think this way. From my point of view, never seeing magic in my whole entire life, and for someone to tell me it exists is a bit out of the norm…"

He pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead. "One day, I will show you that it exists. I promise you."

In spite of everything, I wrapped my arms around him, and closed my eyes. Somehow, I felt both safe and unsafe here with him. I hugged him, his form surprisingly rigid and stiff, and I wondered if he had ever been shown any affection to like this. I felt his hands slowly caress my hair and back, and I began to slowly pull away. I looked into his eyes, and saw a reflection of disbelief and astonishment. "I-I'm sorry for being so forward," I said nervously. "It-It just-"

Before I could spit my words out, his lips crashed onto mine with a sense of urgency and need. I pressed myself against his warm body, meeting his growing bulge in his pants and pressing myself against it playfully. His mouth was hungrily devouring mine as I began to unbutton his shirt quickly, and threw it to the side. Grabbing his gold tie, I started to loosen it, and pulled it up over his head, breaking our kiss. "It appears, my little submissive, that you are trying to switch the roles," he chuckled to himself. "But I do like a woman who knows what she wants…"

I lifted my nightgown above my head, and dropped it several feet away from where we stood in the hallway. "I want to wear this," I said as I placed his loosened tie over my head. It slid between my breasts, silk against skin, and it made me feel even more aroused than I was before. "Only this…"

Mr. Gold smirked as he cupped my breasts in his palms, gently fondling. "Dearie, you are going to be my undoing, I'm telling you now."

Rumplestilzkin was so overwrought with grief that he did not even notice the hand that started to tremble on the bed, the eyes that began to slowly flutter open, or the sad smile that washed over the beauty's features as she awoke from the spell. All he could think about was his cursed state, and how unfair it was that he was to live forever while the only light in his life was taken away. He sobbed heavily at her bedside, mourning his beloved, until he felt someone softly caress his hair. He looked up, tears still in his eyes and dripping down his gold and green skin, and saw that his beauty, his Belle, was alive.

His eyes widened as he jumped up from the side of her bed. "How is it possible?" he asked. "You were dead. I placed a spell of protection around you, and it didn't work. What happened?"

"I was foolish," Belle said as she looked down at herself. "I let myself get taken advantage of by a beggar woman. She offered me this beautiful hair pin, but I knew I could not afford it, nor would I take your gold from you to pay for it, but she insisted I take it for free. And when I placed it in my hair, I-I fell…"

"The spell must have been washed out when I washed you," Rumplestilzkin murmured to himself.

"Before I succumbed to the spell," said Belle, her eyes nervously looking back at the Dark One. "I saw the beggar woman shift into that woman. It was that woman from the mirror. I don't remember her name…"

"Regina," he hissed angrily. "I should have killed her when I had the chance. I could have let precious Snow White shoot her dead in the forest but NO, I had to bargain with Prince Charming to save her precious little soul from becoming a monster like me."

"Please, don't," Belle got up from the bed, and walked carefully towards him. "Don't kill anyone for my sake. Please, Rumplestilzkin."

She tried to meet his eyes, but he refused to look into them. He was so consumed with his rage and hatred that he longed to disembowel the Evil Queen alive so she could feel the same bitter pain he was feeling. "Please, look at me, Rumplestilzkin."

Her soft plea startled him from his dark plot, and he met her gaze. Tears in her eyes, Belle cupped his face and brought his lips to hers in an innocent kiss. "Please, you almost lost me forever. Don't make me lose you."

"You could never lose me," choked Rumplestilzkin. "Gods, forgive me!" He wrapped his arms around her before kissing her passionately, her warm, creamy skin clashing against his warm, almost reptilian skin. He held her tightly, almost afraid that she would run away or disappear somehow. Belle ran her hands through his hair lovingly, urging him on. Her touch sent him over the edge.

"My sweet Belle," whispered Rumplestilzkin in Belle's ear. His voice, like a lover, made her shiver with delight and tingle in anticipation of ecstasy. His right hand caressed her cheek as it slowly trailed down her slender pale neck towards her breasts. The beauty waited with bated breath, waiting for her lover to tease and massage, but he settled his hand between her breasts. "Your heart is beating like a hummingbird's…"

The beauty blushed, and met his eyes. "It's because of you." She gasped suddenly as both of their clothes disappeared, leaving them standing and completely bared to one another. Embarrassed, Belle tried to cover herself, but Rumplestilzkin slowly took her hands away, gently easing each to his lips in a soft, sweet kiss before gently guiding her to the bed. The beauty laid on her side, wrapping the soft, silken bed sheets around her as he got in, and lay facing her. His eyes searched her face, looking for any impending sign that she did not want this as badly as he did. Although Rumplestilzkin was indeed the Dark One, and most people deemed him a monster, even he wouldn't dare take a woman by force.

"I thought I had lost you forever," whispered Rumplestilzkin as he ran feathery light caresses down the curve of her body. "Never to touch your soft skin, never to kiss your perfect lips… to feel your body against mine…"

Her sex clenched, his mere words making her wet and near climax. Belle hushed him with a kiss, pressing her hips against his and rubbing her slit against his thick, hard member. He growled softly as he brushed her wet slit. "My beauty… So wet and ready for me…"

"Please," Belle gasped, her hips rising and falling as she pleasured herself against Rumplestilzkin's fingers. "I need you. P-please…"

Kissing both of her breasts and leading a hot trail of kisses up her slender neck, Rumplestilzkin guided himself into her awaiting slit. The animal inside him longed to rut her until she bled and screamed, but he fought it back as he gently eased himself in and out, finding a perfect rhythm.

Their intermingled moans and cries of pleasure echoed through the room as the lovers became intertwined with each other. As she met her climax, Belle began to glow brightly, almost as if she were an angel. Rumplestilzkin came hotly and deeply as she clenched around him, burying his face in her hair. Before he felt the heavy pull of sleep come upon him, he saw Belle's body glowing, but, being so sated and warm, thought nothing of it. Belle was alive, and she was his, and that was all that mattered.