awake. I don’t want to miss a moment…
But it’s…so warm…so…cozy…
My eyelids droop.
I fall fast asleep.
When I wake up, I’m curled up in the same chair, but I’m alone, a blanket settled over me and while the fire is still going, it’s dying down. And the Beast is nowhere to be found.
I sit up and look around in confusion, scrubbing at my eyes.
I tug on a long sweater and slippers and go in search of him.
As soon as I start heading down the main staircase, I smell something amazing.
I still don’t know my way around the castle, but I follow my nose.
Gods, what is that? It smells so freaking good and just now do I realize how freaking hungry I am. It’s only today that I’ve really gotten my appetite all the way back after being sick and I feel like I could eat a large pack animal.
The main floor of the castle is beautifully decorated. I only glimpsed it during my mad dash through the place when I ran out into the labyrinth. But now as I go, I take in the antique furniture, some of which looks almost a hundred years old.
I can’t imagine the Beast hunting antique stores to find all this stuff or hiring an interior designer to fill the castle.
But right, he said he inherited the castle from his ‘predecessor’, whatever that means. That word makes is sound like whoever it was wasn’t family, but why else would someone give away a castle in their will to just one man?
It’s one mystery after another with the Beast.
I press my hands to my face and pause by the windowed double-doors to the back garden. My whole life has been upended by a man I know literally nothing about. It’s insane. Completely and utterly nuts.
So why does it feel like at the same time I feel closer to him than anyone else in my life? That he knows me better than anyone ever has before?
The sun is setting, the castle casting long shadows over the huge labyrinth garden in the back, purple and electric pinks spilling across the sky.
I press my hand to the cold glass. You never get views like this in the city. And when was the last time I paused to watch the sunset? To notice anything beautiful?
“There you are.”
I startle, but only a little, as I turn and see the Beast standing at the other side of the expansive sitting room.
“I was just coming to get you. Dinner’s ready.”
His eyes move from me to my hand on the glass of the double doors. The same ones I fled through. Does he wonder if I was thinking about running again?
I step back. “I wasn’t going to—”
“I know. Come. The food will get cold.”
Just hearing his calm, confident voice sends a thrilled little shiver down my spine. Gods, he’s electrifying.
I didn’t know that just being with another person could make me feel like this—like I was a dormant robot out of battery and then he came along and plugged me in. But even as the thought hits me, I bite my lip. That’s not quite true. I felt like this one time before, but it was a long, long time ago and I gave up on ever having it again. Or anyone ever wanting me back in the same way.
I glance up at the Beast as he leads me towards what I assume is the kitchen or dining room. Does he feel the same way as me? Why is he doing all this? Why does he have the Battleman’s research downstairs? Is he— Does he actually feel something for me or is this still all about my dad and Adam?
It all feels so real.
But I suddenly feel sick to my stomach and almost lose my appetite thinking that this all might just still be about revenge. That I’m just a pawn to him, naïve and foolishly giving my heart when he doesn’t—
“You’re quiet. That usually means you’re coming up with a thousand disaster scenarios to worry about.”
I freeze and stare at him. How does he know that about me?
He chuckles. “Stop worrying for once and let’s enjoy dinner. You must be hungry after all our exertions earlier.” He lifts his good eyebrow and smirks at me, then pushes through a door and leads me into the kitchen.
Gods it sends butterflies flittering through my stomach every time he’s flirty like that. And look, the kitchen is on the first floor after all.
I glance briefly around at all