I just want to give a s/o to all of you who have read and reviewed my little story! Thank you all for the kind and encouraging words!
Chapter 6 whooohooo!
Sometime in the middle of the night Belle awoke with a start.
He was there.
Her eyes scanned the moonlit room from her pillow perch, which long grown dark and cold since the fire had died, and caught a faint glittering from the far left corner.
Belle wiped her sore eyes, kicked herself from underneath her cocoon of blankets, and inched to the end of her bed.
Her wavy auburn hair caressed her shoulders and had now retained all the lost shine that it had before.
Belle squinted in his direction and called, "I know you're there."
There was a sort of rustling noise followed by another brief flicker of metallic in the darkness.
"Hiding in the shadows is a little pointless you know," she brushed a loose curl over her shoulder, "...when you glow in the dark."
She knew that would gall him.
Belle heard him scoff from his cover across the room and before she knew it, he had the fireplace ablaze; thus illuminating the room.
She couldn't help but cover her sleepy eyes in defense as the light assaulted her.
Rumplestilskin stared at her from a chair against the wall.
His leather clad legs crossed one over the other and his arms were laid casually over the rests; his hands dangled loosely over the edges, his tar-like blood dried on to the palms.
His face was expressionless.
Belle rubbed her eyes and blinked as she adjusted to the new light, "Is there something you need Dark One?"
"No." he snapped curtly.
"Then I suggest you leave my chambers immediately." She replied with identical annoyance.
His face suddenly became animated and a wide grin stretched across his serpentine features as his hand flew up to his mouth, feigning disbelief.
"Your chambers?" he crowed, in a chilling high-pitched lilt.
"Since when did anything in my castle become yours?" he pointed one long, green finger at her and snickered.
Belle swallowed and looked down at the floor;there was no sense in arguing with him now.
He had slipped under the pretense of the Dark One….
The Dealmaker...
The Beast...
"Very well." Belle bit out, not meeting his gaze.
"Will you please leave?"
He chuckled and raked a slender, bloodstained hand through his ratty hair.
"I really don't understand you dearie," his brow wrinkled in mock confusion, "you're ordering me to go, from my own room none the less, when only just a moment ago you were begging me to come." He rested his chin on the heel of his hand and winked at her.
Belle felt the shame creep across her face as she stared at the orange flames leaping in the fireplace.
Her scalp prickled under his viridian glare and the cavernous room felt vaguely like the eye of a hurricane, as if a monstrous storm was brewing right there between them.
"What's the matter dearie?"
He giggled, "Cat got your tongue?"
Belle remained silent, her eyes glued to the white marble in front of the fireplace.
"You know dearie, I am technically still your master."
His lips curled over his decayed teeth in a displeased snarl, "Sooooo, that means when I ask a question," he paused and narrowed his gaze, "you answer me."
Belle's eyes flew up from the floor and locked with his in a defiant glare.
"I do not answer to cowards."
The shrill peal of his manic laughter rang in Belle's ears as she watched him push himself from his chair and cross the room in a graceful stride.
"And yet you parted your lovely legs for him."
Rumplestilskin smiled smugly at Belle, who was now gripping her bed clothes so tightly her knuckles had gone white, and leaned leisurely against the footboard.
"Perhaps you would be willing to part them again…" he cooed as he ran his filthy hand up Belle's exposed calf.
"Perhaps…" Belle whispered, stopping his hand from roaming any farther beneath her gown.
He grinned, crookedly, and watched Belle untie the sash at her waist.
She flung it over the footboard and pulled the cool silk from her shoulders, letting it crumple around her hips, like fallen petals.
"So, which have you chosen tonight Belle?" he mocked as his voracious gaze raked over her naked body.
"Love or Pride?"
"Does it matter?" she said, lying back against the satin pillows and cool silken sheets.
"Either way I chose, you always win."