He was, if it could be believed, even more handsome when he was laughing.
“I still need to go to my room,” she told him and his hand came up to pull her hair away from her the side of her face to hold it at her back.
“Why?” he asked, still smiling.
“I need a change of clothes,” she told him.
He shook his head. “No you don’t.”
Belle blinked. “What am I supposed to wear?”
His fingers slid through her hair at her back, came up then plunged in for another pass (and she distractedly registered she liked his hands sifting through her hair, quite a lot) as he answered, “If you need clothes, I’ll get you another shirt.”
Belle didn’t mind wearing his shirts. In fact, she liked it.
Still, for some reason only known to someplace deep in the back of her anxious mind, she knew she needed her stuff. She didn’t know why but she felt somehow exposed without it. Not to Jack but to everyone else in the castle.
She didn’t want to emerge from Jack’s room sometime in the afternoon with the remnants of her makeup from the night before on her face and either Jack’s shirt or her dress on her body.
The very idea was the definition of mortifying.
Therefore she kept trying to find a way to get to her room. “I need underwear.”
His smile turned wicked as his eyes caught hers. “No you don’t.”
Her belly did a flip before it dipped at his words (and his smile) but she kept trying. “I need something to pull my hair back.”
He moved a thick tress over her shoulder and twisted it around his fingers against her chest. “I like your hair down.”
“Jack!” she exclaimed in frustration.
“Belle.” He grinned, totally disregarding her frustration and seemingly having the time of his life.
Belle tried yet again. “I need my cleanser, moisturiser. I need my stuff.”
The amusement in his gaze gentled, he lifted his head and touched his mouth to hers again. “All right, poppet. I’ll call Elaine and get her to move your things in here.”
Belle’s body went solid and almost at the same instant she felt Jack brace under her but she didn’t pay any attention even as his hand left her hair so his arm could wrap tightly around her back.
“You can’t call Elaine,” Belle declared even though she had no idea who Elaine was. She didn’t want anyone to know she was moving into Jack’s room except her and Jack.
“Why not?” Jack asked.
“Because she, whoever she is, will know I’m with you.”
“And?” Belle felt her eyes grow wide at that question, thinking the “and” was obvious but Jack kept talking. “Belle, people are going to know, very soon.”
“They’re going to think –” Belle started but Jack cut her off with a squeeze of his arms.
“I don’t give a fuck what they think.”
“Well, I do,” Belle told him.
“You shouldn’t.”
He was right. She shouldn’t.
Perhaps there was still some Old Belle hanging around.
“I know,” she admitted softly. “I still do.”
He studied her face and then he sighed.
Belle instinctively felt she’d forged an advantage so she took it.
“Can we please have a little time?” she asked quietly. “Just for, you know, ourselves?”
She watched his face grow soft before he replied, “Of course,” and Belle relaxed on top of him for half a second before he spoke again. “I’ll go get your things.”
She went solid in horror before declaring, “You can’t get my stuff.”
His mouth did that twitching thing again before he asked, “Why not?”
She had no ready answer. She just didn’t like the idea of Jack gathering her stuff, of which there was a lot. She was very girlie. There were tons of bottles and tubs and things.
He might think she was high maintenance.
She didn’t want him to think she was high maintenance (even though she was).
And worse, what if he missed something?
“You just can’t,” she returned.
This, bizarrely, made him start chuckling. She felt the sound in her belly and the feeling had nothing to do with his body shaking with laughter beneath hers.
“Poppet,” he said. “If you don’t like the idea of people knowing about us yet then I don’t like the idea of you roaming the halls in the morning looking like you’ve been thoroughly fucked.”
Belle gasped and her hand flew to her hair.
Was that what she looked like?
What did that even look like?
Oh goodness gracious! Her mind breathed in horror.
“It’s a good look,” Jack went on, his eyes smiling again as he watched her face. “But it’s my look. I gave it to you. I’m the only one who gets to see it.”
He had a point.
And what he said made her feel all warm and squishy inside.
She still didn’t want him to go get her stuff.
Belle looked to his bedside table and saw it was early. The party undoubtedly went late. Belle knew a bunch of people were spending the night (they had, like, a gazillion bedrooms). Still, she couldn’t imagine anyone was up yet. Belle was an early riser. By his instantly alert behaviour, she could tell Jack was too.
She looked back at Jack. “It’s early. No one will be up yet. I’ll hurry.”
“Belle –” Jack started to protest.
She broke in, “I promise, I’ll be really fast.”
“I’d prefer –” he began again but Belle leaned closer to him.
“Please, Jack. I’ll be quick.” When he seemed unrelenting, she got even closer and repeated, “Please?”
At her plea, he lifted a hand to the side of her face, his thumb moving to slide along her cheekbone and she knew she’d won.
Therefore, she smiled.
His eyes dropped to her mouth right before he smiled back.
At the sight, she knew she’d been wrong.
The smile in his eyes that didn’t reach his mouth wasn’t the most beautiful thing she ever beheld.
His returning her smile while giving into her crazy, neurotic wishes was.
“All right,” he muttered and she couldn’t help it (and didn’t try), she got even closer and brushed his mouth with her own before starting to push away but his arms tightened. He brought her back so she was crushed to him.
Then his hand sifted into her hair at the back of her head and he put pressure there until her mouth was on his. Then he gave her an open-mouthed kiss that was hot and wet and sweet and very, very long. So long, he curved her body around so she was on the bottom again, her arms wrapped around him and he was on top.
When his head lifted, she was in a daze. Not only her spine and scalp were tingling but other places where tingling besides and she forgot all about going to her room.
“Hurry,” he muttered his demand in a growl against her mouth, her desire (now significantly muted) to get her things came back to her and she nodded.
She scooted out from under him and got out of bed all of a sudden distressingly mindful of her nudity. She grabbed the first thing she could find which was his shirt. It was still partially buttoned so she quickly pulled it over her head and shoved her arms through. She then snatched up her panties and, back to him, slid them on under the voluminous folds of his shirt.
Her eyes went to the bed and as she feared, he was up on an elbow. The sheets were down to his waist. His broad, hard-muscled chest was on display. His chest was one of the myriad things she liked most about him. In fact, he had a great body which he did, indeed, have entirely at his command, in very delicious ways.
His gaze was on her.
She felt heat in her cheeks and she dashed to nab her dress and shoes.
Then she walked swiftly to the door.
She heard dog tags behind her.
Then she heard Jack demand, “Take Baron.”
She stopped at the door, hand on the knob and looked at Jack then at Baron who was standing halfway between the bed and the door. His head was swinging between them both looking doggie confused.
“He wants to stay with you,” Belle told Jack.
“He wants to go with you,” Jack told Belle.
“No, he doesn’t,” Belle returned.
“Belle, he does,” Jack retorted and went on, “Take him.”
Dress under her arm and shoes dangling from her fingers, Belle still managed to put an affronted feminine hand to her hip.
“You’re very bossy, do you know that?” she asked him.
“I have one hundred and eleven thousand, nine hundred and fifty-three employees. I have to be bossy,” he answered.
Belle’s mouth dropped open in astonishment at that impossible to believe fact.
Belle had only three and they were always driving her straight up the wall (or, at least, Belinda, her young, starry-eyed shop assistant did).
Therefore she asked on a whisper, “Really?”
He grinned but didn’t respond to her question. Instead, he ordered, “Go get your things.”
She turned to the door because standing in his shirt across the room and not in his arms in his bed, she was losing the courage to banter with Jack, and she muttered, “I’m not taking Baron.”
She heard him chuckle before he let out a sharp, short whistle, giving in and calling his dog.
She opened the door, stepped into the hall and started to close it behind her but threw him a grin of gratitude.
Baron was at the side of the bed, tail wagging, getting a head rub from Jack but Jack’s eyes were on her.
He smiled back.
Her belly did a flip, she licked her lips and closed the door.
Then she hurried down the hall.
As she did this, even though it was daylight, she thanked her lucky stars.
Belle had many lucky stars and she thanked them often.
She had a loving family even if she didn’t see her Dad very much and her Mom and Gram were a little nuts. She’d had an interesting childhood, seen many places, met nice people. She had a small cadre of good friends she cared about deeply. She owned her own business and did something she loved. She had a gorgeous cottage that was cosy, inviting, safe and very close to the sea, the sea being something that always made her feel happy and at peace.
Only once in her life had her stars turned. That was when she met, fell in love with and married Calvin.
But now, somehow she knew, with Jack those stars shone brighter than ever before. She also knew in her heart even after only one night that what she and Jack had was good, it was natural and it was right.
It could even be destiny or, at least, that was what her Mom would call it.
And she was ready to throw caution to the wind in order to have it, to hold it and keep it forever.
She was so caught in these happy thoughts she almost missed the murmuring voices as she made to turn from the wing Jack’s room was in to the one where hers was located.
She stopped just in time, took several steps back, away from the voices, hiding herself, and she plastered her back against the wall.
“… seen Belle?” Belle heard the final words of the question uttered quietly by Joy.
“No,” Yasmin answered. “She disappeared shortly after Jack.”
Belle bit her lip with concern that they were talking about her and she was eavesdropping which was beyond rude as Joy mumbled, “Oh dear.”
“Oh dear is right. Miles is livid. He was looking for her all night,” Yasmin went on.
Belle’s stomach pitched and she wondered if she could get back to Jack’s room without them noticing but before she could make a decision, Joy started talking.
“I know. He must have asked me if I’d seen her a dozen times,” Joy told Yasmin.
Belle wasn’t surprised about that (though she was worried).
“He asked me too,” Yasmin replied.
Belle wasn’t surprised about that either.
“Do you think she just went to her room? She looked very uncomfortable. I don’t think she’s a party person,” Joy commented wisely.
“She didn’t go to her room,” Yasmin answered and Belle held her breath in an effort not to gasp.
“How do you know?” Joy asked the question in Belle’s head.
“Because Miles told me some of the staff saw her and Jack walking through the kitchens and out the backdoor,” Yasmin answered and in an effort not to suffocate herself, Belle forced her breath out silently and took another short, silent (yet fearful), intake of lifesaving oxygen.
Miles knew she was with Jack.
So did Yasmin.
And now Joy.
This was not good.
“Oh dear,” Joy repeated but this time she sounded worried.
“When I see Jack, I’m going to wring his neck. He should know better,” Yasmin declared fiercely and Belle thought this was odd. So odd she forgot about how rude it was to eavesdrop and she leaned closer to the corner.
“You’re right, darling, he should,” Joy muttered.
“It’s worse than you think,” Yasmin said in a soft voice and Belle inched even closer to the corner so she could hear better.
“I don’t think I want to know,” Joy replied and she sounded like she didn’t want to know. In fact, she sounded like she really didn’t want to know.
Even so, Yasmin told her and what she said made the floor lurch crazily under Belle’s bare feet.
“Miles told me Jack told him to back off from Belle,” Yasmin confided and Belle felt her eyes widen in surprise, wondering why Jack would do such a thing.
“I’m not sure that’s a bad thing,” Joy remarked and Belle wondered anew why Miles’s mother would agree.
“No, except Miles told me that Jack said this because he told Miles he wanted a crack at her,” Yasmin returned.
Belle’s hand went to the wall as her weight pressed into it because her knees had buckled.
A crack at her?
What did that mean?
She didn’t have to wait long to find out.
“Jack wouldn’t say that,” Joy defended.
“Normally, I wouldn’t think so either but you didn’t see Jack when he first met her. As they were being introduced, right in front of Miles, he made a play for her,” Yasmin said.
“He didn’t,” Joy whispered in horror.
“He did,” Yasmin returned. “He knew who she was the minute he saw her. The gorgeous, enigmatic Tiny Dynamo, the ultimate challenge for the Bennett Brothers. And he knew why Miles brought her here, to throw down the gauntlet, to shove her in Jack’s face. And Jack took up the challenge immediately. I saw it with my own eyes. Miles told me Jack threw down when they were talking about her. Miles informed me Jack even said, ‘You’re on’.”
Belle’s heart started racing so fast she felt her pulse beating in her neck and her wrists and she thought surely the two women could hear it.
But she was too astounded to care.
You’re on?
A crack at her?
Her mind flew from memory to memory of the night before, wickedly handsome, outrageously famous, incomprehensibly rich James Bennett determinedly wooing her.
Her, Belle “Meek and Mild” Abbot.
Not because he liked her.
Not because he thought she was interesting.
But because he was competing with his brother to win a prize.
She should have known she’d never capture the attention of a man like that.
She should have known.
She didn’t want to wish that she’d never saved that school bus driver or the children from drowning but in her darkest moments of the last eight months (for instance, now), she had to admit that she sometimes did.
She felt bile slide up her throat and tears stinging the backs of her eyes. She swallowed painfully and blinked back the wetness as the women kept talking.
“I don’t know
what I’m going to do with those two,” Joy’s voice was filled with angry frustration. “This constant rivalry, it’s driving me mad. It started practically the day Miles was born and it just gets worse and worse. But I thought Jack…” She paused for a moment and then went on, “Poor Belle, caught in the middle. She’s such a sweet girl. I should never have left her side. I knew it. I just knew it.” She sounded like she knew it and her certainty made Belle’s heart lurch.
“She is,” Yasmin agreed. “But if I know Jack, it’s too late. He doesn’t often take Miles up on one of his challenges but when he does, he stops at nothing to win. I think he thinks eventually Miles will tire of losing.”
“Yes, but this has gone too far. I’m going to have to have a word with the two of them the first chance I get,” Joy replied with resolve.
“I’m sorry, Joy, but you’re right,” Yasmin gently concurred. “I don’t care if they’re grown men, something must be said. Playing with Belle like that, it’s just cruel.”
“Yasmin, darling, if this hasn’t gone past the point of redemption and you see Belle, you’ll have to look after her. I’ll do the same. She isn’t leaving until tomorrow. We have to protect her from this,” Joy declared.
“Of course,” Yasmin murmured and Belle knew by their voices they were moving down the hall.
As their conversation trailed away, Belle stood plastered against the wall feeling utterly, devastatingly, irreparably humiliated.
The handsome, legendary, born in a castle with a silver spoon in their mouths Bennett Brothers had competed to win her, a human being.
And she’d fallen for it. Not only with James but also, if not to the same extent, with Miles even though she’d always known something was off about him. Now she knew exactly what it was and, in hindsight, it was glaringly obvious.
Worse, Joy and Yasmin felt they needed to protect her like she was some naïve idiot unable to look out for herself.
Worse than that, they were right.
She was a stupid, silly, foolish, naïve idiot.
Belle choked back tears as she peeked around the corner and saw the hall deserted. Joy and Yasmin had disappeared.
Then she ran to her room like the very devil was at her back.
She had to get out of there.
Immediately.
She knew all along this wasn’t a safe place.
And she was right.