When she stopped laughing and sighed deeply, he wished he hadn’t asked. Hadn’t broken this spell.
“I cried. When I wasn’t aching for you in one way, I was in the other way,” she said, her words quiet in the stillness of the morning.
“Oh, Belle.”
“You’re here now, though. It’s OK.”
“I missed you desperately, as well. I tried everything, I did.”
“I know. I believe you. Turns out it was me that didn’t try hard enough. I didn’t even try at all, once the beast took hold. I just… I didn’t know that I could…”
“Shhh, it’s ok. We’re here now. It’ll all be ok; the spell is broken.”
“I’m so very glad.”
After a beat or two Belle repeated his words, but in a different tone, “The spell is broken!”
“Umm, hmm,” Gastard said, drifting toward sleep.
“That means I’m not a shifter beast anymore. I can go outside and not shift!”
She pried herself off of him and threw on some clothes.
“Come with me, hurry! I haven’t felt the sun on my real face in ages!”
Belle
Belle ran down the hall with Gastard following behind her, more enthralled by watching her run than in any hurry to go outside. She knew he would’ve been just as happy to linger in bed longer and do this later, but he wasn’t the one who’d been stuck in this damn manor all this time.
She was finally free!
Gastard is here and he can most definitely come again, she thought.
They did it, they’d broken the curse!
She grinned with delight as she ran, snippets of memory flashing in her mind as she raced through the house, spiraling around corners and bouncing off walls. How far they’d come in just twenty-four hours!
She’d been so despondent just this time yesterday, then Eva had talked all that sense into her, convincing her to go to Gastard. Seeing him in that bar, running from him, getting tackled by him and then getti
ng tackled by him again, in a completely different way, all night long, she grinned.
She barreled down the stairs, taking them two at a time, not even sure how far behind her Gastard still was.
She needed to thank Eva the minute she saw her, she realized. It was because of her that she had the courage to try again. It was because of her that she’d been able to reunite with Gastard, first bringing him here when he’d been walled out for so long, and then getting to lay with him and love him again.
Where is Eva, anyway? She wondered.
She started listening for voices as she ran through the lower rooms, aiming for the front door. Surely their curse was broken, too. If they were no longer objects, this manor should be full of people again. But she didn’t see anyone. She didn’t hear them either, so maybe they’d just made themselves scarce somewhere else in the manor, so she and Gastard could re-unite in private.
Oh, and what a re-joining it had been!
She was already looking forward to going back upstairs and reuniting with him again, just as soon as she spent a few moments feeling the warmth of the sun bathing her body. She’d soak it all in. She’d spin, her arms spread wide, her face turned up to the sun, until she got dizzy and fell. Then she’d lay there, letting the finally normal world spin on around her, feeling the grass itching her back.
Then, after that, she’d take Gastard back upstairs and they’d celebrate the whole day away.
Or, she thought, we could be completely wanton and naughty, and do it outside!
We could christen the gardens, and the pool. And then we could go down to his bar, and do it right there in front of everyone. After how they teased and harassed Gastard when he couldn’t come, they’d show all of them just how ‘swole’ Gastard, was. When he filled her full right there, bent over that bar, they’d see just how No one’s balls are as incredibly full as Gastard’s! when he came all over that damn place!