My clothes snag on something and I pause. "Wait. I'm stuck." I release his hand and run my fingers down my skirts, then pull back with a hiss when I encounter a thorny branch. A faint scent touches me - roses. "Oh. I think I must have walked into this rosebush."
"Mmm," is all Ruari says.
The scent is deep with floral notes, sweet and fragile all at once. I free my skirt and then slip my hand into his waiting one once more. We continue on a few more feet, until my skirts snag in another bush. This rose has a heavier, darker scent, thick but still lovely. "Your roses smell wonderful," I tell him. "What's this one called?"
"Moira," he says flatly. "And the one before it was Caitlin. Further up the path will be Dorcha."
I go silent. Moira...that was the girl chosen at the Harvest Stone last year. I seem to remember a Dorcha from years ago, but the Caitlin name is new to me. "Are there...are there more roses?"
"Dozens and dozens," he says in a sad, sad voice.
"What happened to them?" I whisper.
"The curse."
"How...how do we stop it?"
He laughs, a broken, hollow sound. "If I knew that, I would have done it already and spared these girls their fate." He pauses. "And you."
Oh. I feel a little sick to my stomach. "What can we do?"
"We can hope that the curse is lifted after the three days." His tone is abrupt. "Now. Come. We approach the castle."
There is no lovely greeting for me at the castle. The interior is cold and musty, and Ruari casually mentions that he builds no fires, for he never has visitors. His hand is warm and gentle as he guides me down the echoing, empty halls and up the stairs to the chamber that is to be mine.
For three days at least.
"You will be safe here," he tells me abruptly. "Food will be brought for you if you wish it."
"I have food," I tell him, holding my bag close. The room feels large, based on the way my voice sounds, and I wish I could explore it, but I'm too afraid to take my blindfold off. Even after Ruari departs, his heavy form thudding and clicking back down the stairs, I don't remove the blindfold.
I can't stop thinking about those roses.
Or the fact that I only have three days.
3
WILLOW
"Why are you here?"
Even in my dreams, the beast sounds sexy. Commanding. I catch my breath, letting the autumn leaves swirl around my skirt. I'm blindfolded and in the forest once more. And there are no wolves this time. We're alone. Completely and utterly alone.
He's waiting for my answer. Even though I can't see him, I can feel that the air between us is fraught with tension. My nipples are hard and I'm full of excitement and anticipation. I want to run my hands up the bodice of my dress and cup them, but I force myself to stay still for now. "I want..." to break your curse is what goes through my mind, but what comes out is "you".
I hear him suck in a breath. Clearly he's as astonished with my response as I am. But the moment it comes out, it feels right. There's an attraction between us, him and I, and it doesn't matter that I can't see his face or that he's a beast or that I'm some poor, uneducated peasant girl who's never been further than her village. My skin tingles with his nearness.
Ruari approaches, and I can feel the brush of his fur against my skin as he comes nearer. His hand glides up and down my arm, and I can feel the bite of his claws through my chemise. "You want me to touch you?" he asks in that smoky voice of his that gives me goosebumps. "You do not fear the beast?"
"I know you're just a person, just like me. You weren't born a beast."
"Maybe the beast is who I've become." He grabs at the neck of my dress and the fabric tears. It rips away from my body, revealing my heaving breasts. "Maybe that's who you want after all."
And I should be frightened, but I'm aroused by the thought of him seeing my body like this. I can't see his face, can't see what he's thinking, but I know he wants to touch me desperately. I can feel it in him, as much as I feel how tight my nipples are, how they strain to be caressed. Why am I so attracted to this stranger? Is it because of what he represents? Am I fascinated by the beast?
Or is it because I sense a kindred spirit under that mantle? That maybe he's as lonely and restless as I am...
"Shall I touch you?" he asks, and his voice is in my ear. "Or shall you touch yourself?"
My hands slide up and cup my breasts...
I wake up with a gasp and a surge of disappointment. Why did I wake up just then? It seems cruel. I wanted to see where the dream was heading. I wanted to see what it'd be like to have the beast - Ruari - touch me. To feel his hands on my skin. To see what he wanted to do next.
A little frustrated moan escapes my throat and I put a hand over the blindfold I'm wearing even for bedtime. I want to rip it off in frustration, but I don't dare. Instead, I kick the heavy blankets off of my body and lie flat on the bed, unable to go back to sleep. Not with my body throbbing with unfulfilled need.
After a moment's hesitation, I hitch up the skirt of my nightgown and spread my legs atop the quilts. I'm still thinking about Ruari as I slide a hand between my thighs and touch myself. I'm slippery with arousal, my pussy hot and wet from the dream. My breath catches as I begin to stroke myself, moving my fingers up and down my folds before sliding deeper to caress the sensitive skin around my clit. I moan at the sensation; it feels like my entire body is vibrating with erotic tension. I've never been this turned on before when I touched myself. Never. My fingers move faster, swirling around the nub of my clit, dragging my juices over it back and forth in a delicious torture.
As I stroke my flesh, I hear a low, animalistic groan.
I go still, resisting the urge to snap my thighs together. Somehow, I'm not surprised to hear the beast, not after the dream I had. "Are you watching me touch myself?" I whisper to the darkness.
"Why?"
He asks one simple word, the sound ragged and beastlike.
I swallow hard, feeling both naughty and desirable all at once. If he was disgusted, he would have turned away without a sound. But he doesn't sound disgusted. In fact, he sounds like anything but. I begin to stroke myself again, my fingers drifting through my wet folds. "Because I dreamed of you," I say in a soft voice. "I dreamed of you and it made me wet."
Ruari growls low again. "Dreamed of the beast?"
"Of you, actually." I rub my clit again, arching my back with how good it feels. "You're never quite beast or man in my dreams. You're both, and neither." I glide a finger down to my core and dip it into my heat. A ragged little breath escapes me.
Panting fills the room. I realize after a moment that it's not mine, but his. He's not leaving. He's...aroused by watching me. That makes me even wetter, and I stroke myself a little quicker, picturing the show I'm putting on for him. "Are you touching yourself?" I ask him.
He makes a sound like a snarl.
"That's not a no," I tease, and then my breath catches as I continue to rub my clit and pleasure bursts through me. My toes curl into the blankets and I arch my hips. I'm so close to coming already, but it seems unfair, especially if he's touching himself while watching me. We just got started. I don't want this to end already.
"Take the mask off and find out for yourself," he commands me. His breathing is rapid, fierce.
I'm not going to do that, though. No matter how badly I want to see his face - and to see what he's stroking. I bite my lip and ignore him, focusing in on myself. I want to come, and that need is pushing past all others at the moment. I decide to put on a bit of a show, even though my cheeks are scorching hot with embarrassment. I ignore it, though - who is here to see but Ruari? Who will ever know but Ruari?
If I'm to die by the curse, I'm going to live freely these last few days. I have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
So I push my legs apart boldly. I spread them wide and with one hand, I hold the lips of my pussy apart and stroke myself with my other hand. I want him to see everything. Let him look at how wet I am, how pin
k and soft.
"Take. Off. Your. Mask." Ruari growls each word out in a fierce demand. He's losing control himself, as if the sight of me is making him even wilder. That turns me on more than I could even imagine, and I arch my hips as I rub myself, imagining him and all the naughty things he might be doing to himself. Is he stroking his cock? Is it big and beastly like his form? Or as perfect - and human - as his hand was in mine?
Do I have the courage to ask?
But then my orgasm surges through me and I cry out, rubbing myself hard as I'm lost to my own pleasure. I gasp and shudder on the bed, wringing it out for as long as I can. His voice is in my mind, his hoarse breathing, the sound of his hand slapping against his own flesh. I hear him come with a growl a scant second later, and then something hot spatters across my hand.
Is he...is he that close to my bed? Close enough to touch? I lift my hand from my pussy, reaching out--
But he gives a feral snarl and in the next moment, he's gone.
Despite the fact that I only have three days to break this curse, Ruari leaves me alone all day the next day. I'm both angry and frustrated, because how is this helping anything if he ignores me? Does he not want to break the curse?