Beauty and the Bear (Werebear Shifter Billionaire Paranormal Romance Standalone) (4 page)

Taking charge, she led him back to his study. Her eyes
flicked at first to the bear rug before the first, and she hoped his did too.

The Baron hovered by the door, but Bella sat expectantly
in one of the great wing-back chairs.

“I know I shouldn't be here saying this.” She
hesitated, not sure how to continue. There were so many things she wanted to
say, and so many questions, she wanted to ask. Finally, she chose the most
important one.

“Are you the beast that haunts this castle?”

The Baron's eyes widened, their dark depths frightened
and vulnerable for the briefest of seconds. “How did you know that?”

Taking a deep breath, Bella answered the question with
another question. “Do you love me?”

“God!” The Baron turned away. “How can you ask me
that?”

Bella held her ground. “I have to know.”

“I'm a monster, Bella.” His voice was harsh. “You can't
ask me that.”

“Do you love me?”

He scowled. “It doesn't matter what I feel.”

Bella felt as though her heart was breaking. “Of course
it does.” She took a step closer to him. “Don't say that.”

“LOOK AT ME!”

With a roar, the Baron lunged towards her – and began
to change.

As Bella watched in horror, the man before her shifted,
his form lengthening and thickening, his shoulders growing even more broad. His
hair shagged out and became fur, his suit ripping as he exploded from himself.

And then before her stood a bear, snarling lightly.

Bella could see each of his great white teeth, could smell
his musk. Her heart pounded wildly, but she stood her ground. This was the
Baron. Arthur. With a kiss, he had touched her very soul. He would never hurt
her.

“I love you,” she whispered.

Trusting with all her soul, she looked into the bear's
eyes. What she saw there reflected back at her was both beast, and man.

She loved both.

Bella leaned forward and gently kissed his nose. She
could feel the bear's breath on her neck. She had no fear.

And then it was a man before her once more, naked. The Baron
drew her close to him and he was kissing her, holding her so tightly.

“I love you, too,” he whispered.

“I know,” she gasped, and then he caught up her mouth
in his once more, and she was lost.

With a groan, he crushed
her to him. His hands were everywhere, undressing her, and she pressed herself
against his bare form, needing to feel all of him at once. He was at once hard
and soft under her hands, and she could feel his muscles rippling as he grabbed
her and lowered her to the rug where they had been what seemed like a lifetime
ago.

The Baron ripped her
skirt then, and Bella found herself helping him. Her clothes were nearly torn
to pieces with the urgency of their desire, Bella feeling almost like an animal
herself with how badly she needed to fuck him. She had been waiting a lifetime,
it seemed.

And then they were naked
together, their legs intertwined, and the Baron lowered himself onto her, his
cock finding her swollen lips and piercing them, driving deep into the core of
her.

She cried out as he
buried himself to the hilt, pressing deeper into her than any man ever had
before, bruising her cervix with his need.

It was perfect. In that
moment, the world stopped around them. She and her man, beast though he was,
together they were whole.

And then he started to
move within in her, so achingly sweet that Bella cried out. She had thought he
would take her with all of his rough animal need, and she needed him to – but
this, in this moment, was perfect. She luxuriated in the feel of each thrust,
the way his cock curved against the walls of her and making her wetter than she
could ever remember being before.

“Please,” she panted,
“take me.”

With a groan, the Baron
forced himself deep inside her once more, and they began to rock together. He
fucked her with a savagery Bella had never known he contained, taking the
depths of her with every inch of him until she screamed.

The Baron cried out with
her, their voices echoing through the empty castle as they took their pleasure.
Bella could feel all he was doing in every part of her, pleasure cresting
through her, breaking and then rising once more.

“More,” she gasped,
“more!”

Savagely, his teeth
locked on her throat, and she gasped at the pain, brilliant and white. It
blossomed within her, matching the pleasure and crescendoing to an agonizing
high that left her reeling. Another wave of pleasure grasped her as he thrust
again, plumbing her depths with all of his animal need.

“Mine,” he growled.

“Yes!” Bella screamed.
She drowned in him as he took her then, fucking her until she wept for release.
Again and again she came as he took her, his cock pressing into her in ways she
had never imagined.

The Baron groaned above
her, freezing. His cock nudged against her cervix, and he held there for a moment,
quivering, and she could feel his heart beat against her lips.

She saw the wonderment
and love in his eyes, and smiled. He was perfect.

“I want to feel you cum
inside me,” Bella whispered.

With a sound like a roar,
the Baron released his seed inside her, his cock pulsing as he came. The feel
of him filling her brought tears to Bella’s eyes, and her pussy quivered in
response.

The Baron leaned down and
kissed her deeply, and she felt her body shudder as she came yet again.

“I'm yours,” she whispered.
“For this moment and for always.”

~

“Why did you come back?”

The Baron was trailing
his fingers along her arm, still seeming to marvel at her naked body next to
his. Bella smiled at his incredulity.

“You really didn't know I
loved you?”

He sighed and rested his
hand on her hip. “You don't understand, Bella. I've lived with this... curse...
for so long. I didn't see how anyone could love me. Much less thought anyone
ever would.”

“Can you tell me?” She
propped herself up and looked at him.

The Baron looked away.
“It's not a pretty story.”

She kissed him. “I'll
survive.”

He sat up, careless of
his beauty. Bella couldn't help but drink in the sight of him, the fire
flickering across his naked form. His abs were still slick with sweat from
their lovemaking, and his cock was already stirring once more.

“When I was young, my
father was always taking care of others. It was admirable, and I know he was
well loved for it, but he neglected me and my mother. It hurt her how he would
stay away for so long, and how he seemed to care more about his causes than
her. I was... bitter.”

The Baron's eyes focused
on something far away. “Then one night my father was out, helping in a nearby
town. It was just after my mother died, and I was angry that he couldn't even
stay with me when I needed him.

“That was when the old
woman came.

“I didn't know it then,
but she wasn't what she seemed. She asked for food, and shelter.” He closed his
eyes in pain. “I thought of my father, and I told her no. I closed the door in
her face.

“That was when I heard
it.

“A great voice rang out.
Even though she was behind the front doors, I could still hear her as though
she were before me and shouting. She said that I was selfish and unworthy of
what good life had brought me, and until I could learn to love I was no better
than the bear for which my family was named.”

His voice grew taut and
harsh. “And I began to change.”

He was quiet for so long
Bella wasn't sure he would continue at all. She reached out for him and gently
took him into her hand. His cock leaped at her touch, and she worked him
gently.

After a moment, he
continued to speak, his voice now rough for other reasons. “It was hard. I
didn't know what was happening to me. I thought I was dying.

“I missed my father more
than anything.”

“And then- ” his voice
caught.

Bella smiled to herself.

“It's hard to think when
you do that.” The Baron didn't seem to be complaining.

“Hmm.” Bella smiled.
“What if I do this instead?”

She leaned forward and
took him in her mouth. Bella could taste the salt of him mixed with her own
juices. He sprang to life against her lips and moaned as she took him as far
into her as she could, and then even farther. She gagged against him, wanting
all of him inside her.

“Bella, Bella,” he
gasped, his breathing ragged.

She sucked him harder,
working him with her hand. He quivered under her, tight as a harp string.

“You were saying?” she
murmured as she came up for air.

The Baron groaned as she
drew him back inside her.

“And then... I was
changed. When my father returned I tried to hide it, but...”

His breath caught as
Bella cupped his balls, working him with both hands as she swallowed against
him.

“But... he knew. He found
out, like you did, or guessed, I'm not sure. He told me he still loved me. He
kept me safe.

“When he died, I was all
alone.”

For a moment he was
still, and then Bella drew him deep into her throat, choking on him, wanting to
feel his seed once more, wanting to prove to him, both animal and man, that he
would never be alone again.

His cock pulsed in her
mouth, and then he cried out. She could taste the thick salty fluid of him and
drank him down like water. He was hers now. They belonged together.

After, when his breathing
had slowed once more, the Baron looked down at her. “I have one more question
for you, Bella.”

“Mm?” She smiled against
the languor in her bones.

“I want you to stay
here.”

She laughed. “Of course I
will. As long as you rehire me.”

“No.” His gaze turned
hard and demanding and made her knees weak once more. “No, Bella. I want you to
stay as my wife.”

~

The wedding was to be a grand affair, more spectacular
than the sleepy town had seen for years. Bella’s father would be giving her
away, of course, and many of the Baron’s kin from neighboring countryside would
be in attendance, but what surprised Bella was that it was the Baron himself
who invited the entire town, and at no urging from her.

When she asked why, the Baron had turned serious.

“I have spent too long locked away from the world in
this tower. I want them to see how much you've changed me for the better. And I
want them all to meet you, too.” Arthur gave the crooked, self-deprecating
smile she had grown to love. “They will adore you as I do.”

Bella blushed at the simple sincerity in his eyes.
Arthur always told her she was the first who could see past the beast to love
the man, but for her, it was much the same. Always her beauty had been first in
people's thoughts when they looked at her. Only for Arthur was it most
important what she held in her heart.