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Mr. Gold trusted no one in the world more than his manservant Dove, but he also trusted no one less. Dove’s primary job was to intimidate and occasionally push around the denizens of Storybrooke, but apparently he’d learned nothing in the last ten years of following Mr. Gold around, as just last week he’d been caught offering a one-day extension on the Tillman’s rent. Such undignified generosity could only mean that his ‘leash’ was too long; Gold had given the gentle giant too much freedom.
It was time to remind him who truly held the power.
So he decided to do something that, while entirely unsavory in nature, was perfectly within the legal limits of Dove’s contract. Gold put a spy cam on the man’s tie pin.
He expected to find one or two minor discretions which, when he forced Dove to watch the incriminations on film, would mortify the larger man and put him back in his place. He was certainly not expecting anything… explicit.
And yet, Gold suddenly found himself leching at the tiny screen in the back of his shop which he had configured to display the stream from his spy cam. And of course, of all the people in this God-forsaken town, he had to be leering at her.
When he had started this little spy venture, Gold had not known that Dove spent his mid-morning break with the librarian, Belle French, in her (horrendously decorated) above-library flat. He had not known that his loyal manservant was gay, had not known that it was their daily ritual to sit in her living room and talk as old friends, and he could never, EVER have guessed that their little gossip sessions would revolve so firmly around him.
After nearly ten minutes of Dove sharing the ins and outs of his relationship with someone called “Manuel,” the conversation got interesting.
“And how is our dear crab this morning?” the brunette asked, presumably about Gold.
“Same as always. Cold indifference until he told me to go out on rounds.”
“I’m sorry, Dove. He can be quite the bear.”
Gold scoffed at her mixed metaphor.
“It’s nothing to me, Miss Belle. You know that.”
“I do. Still, you’ve spent so much time with him! More than anyone. I should think he’d treat you with more respect.”
Scoffing again, Gold couldn’t resist the urge to chide that troublesome woman through the telly screen. “I respect him as my subservient, no more than his due!”
Dove shrugged, making the video jump briefly. “He doesn’t see people the way you do, Belle. He sees the world as class and money, not people.”
The woman sighed, uncrossing and recrossing her legs. “I don’t believe it’s that simple. I think it’s a defense mechanism. Years of isolation have been hard on him; he works hard to keep everyone out. It must be terribly lonely.” She stroked the rim of her cup and frowned, the sweetest melancholy appearing in the lines of her lips.
“You can’t change him, Belle.”
She looked up. “I don’t want to change him, Dove. I want to know him. I want to know the man beneath the mask.”
Gold felt his heart thud traitorously, and he glared at the image of Belle with suspicion. What did she mean?
“You already know him as well as I do, and you’ve only been at it a few months.”
“More like a year,” she said.
Yes, it had been a year, at least a year since the nosy librarian had started coming into his shop uninvited. At first she pretended to be shopping for a present, but he knew better. The shy glances in his direction were all too familiar.
That’s what people did when they wanted a deal but didn’t know how to ask.
He kept waiting to hear what she wanted, but after her fourth visit, when she brought him coffee, he almost forgot to be suspicious. She didn’t seem to want anything other than to bother him and waste his time with idle chit-chat, asking about his work and his hobbies and the little pieces of obscurity he kept on the back shelf. Most people would have asked about the things in the case, the shiny, pretty things, but not Belle. She had watched him push aside a partially repaired pocket watch as she walked in and had immediately asked about its origin.
Nosy, inquisitive girl.
And then she’d started coming around more often, twice a week, and she brought tea and he started leaving a stool out for her because if she had to stand too long in those heels, she’d shift her weight from foot to foot in discomfort. And she always stayed too long (sometimes an hour) whether or not he left the stool out, so why not just let the poor girl sit?
And when he’d refused to answer questions about his home country, she’d launched into the most tedious descriptions of hers. She painted Australia in a palette of golds and blues, the sun setting across azure waves. She spoke of the foods and smells that could always sent her right back to that red soil, and of its native plants which withered in the Maine climate. He’d considered buying her a plane ticket home just to shut her up… besides, she’d love to go home to see her father.
Then it had felt… well, not quite ‘natural’, but close enough, for him to talk about his own birthplace. The green meadows, the sheep that nipped your fingers if you tried to feed them by hand, the dogs he’d loved and lost as a boy. She’d listened to him speak with the most irksome interest, as though she hung on every word, and he found it rather unnerving. But somehow, he knew that if he didn’t talk at least as long as she had, she’d never leave. And in the end he’d told her everything.
Eventually tea escalated to lunches and now he was forced to eat Granny’s twice a week just to appease the little zealot. And if eating those salty burgers wasn’t bad enough, the little minx always nicked his fries, as if she didn’t have a helping of her own! He’d even slapped her hand once as it retreated mid-air, just for good measure, and the bubbling laugh that erupted from her chest had him convinced that she actually liked the bit of contact.
But that was preposterous. She, like all others, wanted something. He’d assumed that her desires were mundane; perhaps she wanted his money, or wanted to steal something, or simply wanted the reputation that came from walking into his shop twice a week. Never, NEVER would he have supposed that she wanted him.
Or, as she had said in her own words just moments ago, that she wanted to know him.
What an unusual girl.
“Don’t give up your little dates, Miss Belle-”
Gold spluttered. “Dates?!”
“-I think he looks forward to them.”
“What makes you think so?” the librarian asked, biting her lower lip.
“He wears his blue ties on days he expects you. And if you don’t come, it’s all black for days. Plus, he’s not as stern on Belle days.”
God be damned, the giant wanted Gold to be distracted by her. They were in it together! He felt himself snarling, the word cahoots rolling around in his brain, but then Belle said something which drained the blood from his face.
“…I think I’m falling in love with him, Dove.”
If there was still oxygen in the world, it did not exist in the back of the pawn shop. He could only watch in stunned amazement and uncertainty as the scene unfolded before him.
The librarian began to tear up, her blue eyes watering and her full lips aquiver. “Is that even possible? Can you love someone you hardly know? No,” she said, shaking her head, “no, it’s more than that. Can you love someone whose affections are so… so small, so murky… that they might be mistaken for cordiality? I mean, some days I’m not even sure he likes me, let alone…”
She did not say the word again, and Gold silently thanked whatever deity had stopped her mouth.
He saw Dove extend a hand, and Belle take it.
“He is not indifferent to you, Miss Belle. Trust me. I have seen his ruthlessness in action, I have seen every shade of anger on the spectrum from utter loathing to mild contempt, and I have seen the cold mundanity with which he regards most people. And you… you provoke a different reaction. I think he’d rather fight with you than hear praise from anyone else.”
Belle smiled, squeezing the behemoth’s hand. She did not, could not know that Dove had spoken only the most divine truth.
Even as he sat there, Gold realized the depth of his affection. He left a stool in the middle of his shop in case she wanted a seat. He ordered extra fries so that she could steal some and he’d still get his share. Her favorite flower was the unassuming carnation, her favorite flavor the sweet tang of a mango, and all she wanted in the world was to be able to order a cup of tea in Maine and get something that didn’t come out of a bag.
Or at least, that’s all he thought she wanted. Apparently he, too, was on that coveted list.
He loved her. Gods, he loved her! Her smile, and her grace, and her intelligence, and her sharp humor –the only in town even remotely a match for his- and her endless kindness which seemed to radiate from her very being. He had been hopelessly in love for months now, probably, and he had never even held her hand.
How many times had he seen a piece of auburn hair fall into her face and longed to push it back? How many times had he quelled that urge and then immediately erased it from his memory, too afraid to confront the feelings bubbling up from his ancient heart?
Too many.
And Dove had spoken truer than even the manservant could guess – if Gold had to choose between a screaming Belle and an effusive Mother Superior, he’d pick Belle every time. He so loved pressing her buttons during their little chats, debating the merits of Gothic literature or Pablo Neruda or whatever she was reading that week, and the angrier she got the more delight he drew from the conversation. Besides, she never stayed mad for long. By the end of the argument she’d realize he was just being an ass, sigh, give him one of her looks, and say, “I can’t believe I let you draw me in again.” To which he always replied, “Miss French, it’s been my pleasure.”
By the time the weight of realization was done settling, the conversation between manservant and librarian had quite moved on.
“-torn between the blue and the white. You’ve seen the blue before… can I show you the other?”
“Sure.”
Gold didn’t know what they were talking about, but the camera jumped and fuzzed as Dove apparently stood and followed Belle to another room.
And then the accidental lechery began.
When the image quality finally evened out, Gold realized that Belle had removed her shirt. Furthermore, she was slowly sliding an unhooked bra down off her arms, all while in view of the camera.
The man had never touched her for more than a second, but now he knew exactly the shade of her nipples. And oh, what sweet nipples, just begging to be kissed and drawn into his mouth! Furthermore, her breasts seemed be the perfect size for his hands. He wondered if she’d moan as he held them, fingers kneading the soft flesh.
Hang on, why was she stripping for Dove?
“The blue one always scratches my sideboob, but I think this one is too… well, I don’t want to say slutty…”
She disappeared from frame, and when she returned she was fastening a white brassiere over herself, and Gold felt the loss. Not too terribly, though, as the lingerie was something he might have chosen himself. Structured but delicate, with a line of cream lace that played over the swell of her breast… he quite liked it.
“I see what you mean. It does push them out, doesn’t it?” Dove helped her straighten a fussy strap, and Belle turned for him. “No, it isn’t too much. You should wear it to the shop.”
“I think it would go nicely with my red dress.”
“I meant you should just wear that. Nothing else.”
Belle laughed, whacked him on the arm, and disappeared again. “You’re such a doll, Dove. Don’t you ever get tired of me going on and on with my pathetic pining?”
“I just want you to be happy. The both of you.”
Gold grabbed the remote and smushed the power button with his thumb. He did not feel remorse as a matter of principle, but he was no longer sure that this invasion of privacy was the right tactic with his lenient manservant. And he certainly didn’t feel good about spying on Belle, although his pants seemed a bit tighter than they had been twenty minutes ago.
He wasn’t sure what he was going to do. About anything.
It was probably a first.
He was still sitting in the back when Dove returned nearly an hour later, all the friendliness he displayed with Belle wiped clean from his demeanor. Gold looked at him.
“Something the matter, sir?”
“No. Yes. What time does Miss French start her shift at the library?”
“Uh… Around this time, sir.”
“Good.” Gold stood, took his cane, and Dove followed him into the front of the store. “I’m going out. You can lock up the store and take the rest of the day off. And,” he added, pulling the door open and looking back over his shoulder, “give Manuel my best.”
He smirked at the incredulous look on Dove’s face before he flounced out the door.
Gold enjoyed the crisp air on his walk to the library. Maine was lovely this time of year. He pushed open the door and relished the frightened looks of its few patrons. No one looked more surprised than Belle, in her stellar red dress with her impeccable cleavage, whose red lips parted in shock.
She stood. “Mr. Gold. Hello!”
“Hello Belle,” he said, walking to the counter. He could feel the bravado slipping away like sand between his fingertips, and knew that he had to act before he lost the nerve altogether. “I would like to buy you dinner. No, scratch that, I want to make you dinner. What do you say?”
“I… uh… yes. Yes! When?”
“How about tonight?”
“Okay.”
“Shall I pick you up at 7?”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
“As am I.” Gold started to leave, then paused. “You look marvelous, by the way. See you later.”
“See you…” she mumbled to his back as he walked away.
Once outside, he took in a deep gulp of air, and then he smiled. This day was shaping up to quite wonderful, indeed.
“How do you know where I live?” Belle asked, flinging open the door.
“Well, hello to you too.”
“Sorry. It’s been bothering me all day.”
“I believe you’re quite close with my man Dove, a fact I’ve only recently discovered.”
“And he told you?”
“No, but I’m very clever. Besides, you must be close to your books.”
She rolled her eyes.
“The chariot awaits, my lady.” He offered an arm.
She winced. “I don’t want you to think I’m vain, but I haven’t quite finished getting ready.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You look incredible, Belle.”
“Thank you” she said, blushing the sweetest pink color. “Why don’t you have a seat, and I’ll be right back.”
He stepped in, and Belle closed the door behind him. He took in her apartment and its perfectly endearing amount of clutter, grinning as Belle squeezed his arm.
“I have to say, I’m thrilled that you asked me out, but I’m also confused. I didn’t… I had no idea...”
“Coy doesn’t suit you, Miss French. You must be aware that you’re the most beautiful woman in town.”
She popped her head around the doorframe. “Don’t you “Miss French” me, Mr. Gold. You will use my first name on this date.”
He grinned. “Yes, Belle.”
“Now, back to the point. Why today of all days?”
Gold pressed his lips together. “I’m not sure I’m ready to divulge that mystery. Can’t I just enjoy the pleasure of your company without any emotional vulnerability or intimacy?”
She laughed at his joke. “Oh come on. I’ve been flirting with you for months. How long did it take you to notice?”
He sighed. “I didn’t. It was pointed out to me.”
“And when did you realize that you… that I…?”
“Belle, are you trying to ask if I like you?”
“No, I’m pretty certain that you like me,” she said, and he could hear her smile from the other room. “I was wondering when you realized.”
He sighed again, fist clenching around the handle of his cane. “Uhh… Actually… that had to be pointed out to me as well.”
“What? No!”
“Yes.”
“Mr. Gold, I do believe you’re quite hopeless.”
“I am. Surely you knew that before.”
“I did. So, tell me Mr. Gold, what changed your mind?” She stepped into view again, and Gold felt once more seized by her beauty. She had put on a pair of very high heels so that now they stood eye to eye. She draped her arms around his neck, leaning very close, and he felt his heart stuttering.
Bravely, he put his arms around her waist. Her lips were just inches from his, and as he spoke, they were drawn together. “Well, someone pointed out that I have a better time fighting with you than I do having pleasant conversation with anyone else.” He could feel her bottom lip grazing his when she suddenly pulled back.
“Hang on,” she said, eyes closed. “That’s really familiar.”
Gold felt his stomach plummet.
She stepped away, her hands raised to put up invisible barriers. “Dove said that. Dove said that to me, today, in this apartment.”
“M-must be a coincidence.”
“And you knew where I lived.”
“That’s not so strange!” Gold felt panicky. He must have looked panicky as well.
“Were you spying on us?”
“My management practices are none of your concern!”
Belle glared at him. “You did! You spied on him! And me!”
“Look, Belle-”
“Get out.”
“Let me explain-”
“No! No, I don’t want to hear another word. Please leave.”
Gold obeyed, letting himself out. He couldn’t resist one last look back to Belle, who had followed on his heels, but all he saw was a glimpse of chestnut curls and the door slamming in his face.
Dove texted-in sick the next day. He had no doubt that the behemoth would be back in a day or two, sulky and righteous, and Gold would give him easy assignments for a few days until the relationship between them balanced back out. It wasn’t like this was the first time he’d done something unscrupulous.
Belle on the other hand…
He had no idea how to approach that situation.
An apology was no doubt in order, but how did one tackle such a delicate situation? I’m sorry that I accidentally spied on you while I was surveilling my employee without his knowledge. I’m sorry that I saw your perfect breasts and overheard a confession of your feelings. I’m sorry I used that knowledge as the upper hand giving me the confidence to ask you out.
Really, none of that was likely to help him. Plus… he wasn’t sure how much she’d figured out. His curiosity was quickly satisfied when she came banging into the store, arms crossed.
“…Hullo.”
She nodded, chewing the inside of her cheek and stopped a few feet away from him, on the other side of the glass counter.
“Can I-”
“Shh. I’m thinking.”
He pressed his lips together.
It was nearly a minute before she spoke. “How much did you hear?”
“Well…”
“How much!?”
To omit the truth now would certainly bury him, but he had never been a particularly brave man and this was no exception. He couldn’t meet her eyes; the words caught in his throat. She saw his panic (of course she did, she wasn’t an idiot) and she became livid.
“Gold, you tell me this instant or I swear-”
“It... It was also a visual feed.”
Belle covered her face with her hands. “Oh God.”
He wasn’t sure if she had quite realized the full implication, but he began the apology regardless.
“I’m sorry,” he said, voice plaintive and brogue thick. “I’m so, so sorry! I didn’t know you and Dove were so well acquainted! I was trying… he’s been sneaking around behind my back and I wanted to catch him-”
“What, being nice to people?”
“Yes!”
She sighed. “That’s atrocious.”
“I’m sure you think so. Your moral compass is perfectly rigid.”
“I know that it’s wrong to spy on people!”
“I didn’t mean to see you.”
“No, you just wanted to catch Dove in a trap rather than discuss your issues with him face to face.”
Gold scoffed… twice. “That’s… That’s none of your business!”
“It is, actually! Tell me, were you hunched over a monitor watching our garbled coffee talk for very long?”
“The quality was excellent,” Gold said, latching onto the urgency in her voice. A talent of his, to find people’s weakness and exploit it. “You really want to know what I heard, don’t you?”
She flushed, scowling. “You like being difficult, don’t you?”
“For you darling? I love it.” He bared his teeth, leaning across the counter. His more rational side hated the childish, impish anger rising in his gut, the need to provoke her in order to get a response. Her disdain was better than nothing.
Belle nearly stomped her foot, shifting her weight. Her voice cracked, her misery apparent. “Mr. Gold, I implore you. What did you hear?”
The weight of his betrayal dropped into his gut, sitting heavy and pulling the dealmaker’s mask from his face, leaving only the raw and uncertain man beneath. He took a long moment to craft his words.
“…I heard, Belle. I heard your… your feelings.”
He saw the devastation in her face as she exhaled.
“I mean, my God, did you think I got the confidence to ask you out on my own? I could never… No. I needed the certainty, and once I, once I knew… I used it against you.”
Belle wiped a hand across her cheeks and looked up. “That’s what you think? That you manipulated me?”
“Of course. Don’t you?”
“No. I… Well, you know how I feel. And you… you feel similarly, correct?” Again, the crack in her voice.
He lingered once more over the words, wanting to convey his sentiments perfectly. “I have done little in the past year that wasn’t aimed at garnering your favor. I am…” he took a deep breath, “I am entirely yours.”
“Then I can’t waste time regretting how we came together… Well, I regret it a little.”
“It was cowardly.”
“We’re all fools in lo-… like.”
Gold shifted uncomfortably. “That may be, but….”
“But what?”
“High-quality visuals.”
Belle took a moment to process and he could see her thinking. “Oh? Oh… Oh!” She crossed her arms again, covered her chest, looking properly horrified and furious.
“I’m so so sorry.”
“You should be! I… I changed…”
“You changed your bra. In front of Dove. I’m not really sure why that was necessary, but it happened and I saw and I shouldn’t have and I’m very, very sorry!”
“How, how much…?”
He swallowed. “Everything. My God, I saw everything.”
Belle flushed, not making eye contact with him. “You know, I had really hoped for something more special the first time you saw me topless.”
“To be honest it’s probably better this way. Had I ever seen… you… in person, I most certainly would have died of shock.”
“…Really?”
“Yes, of course. Are you crazy? You are perfect. I spent last night sleepless, plagued by…” he cleared his throat. “Well, you get the picture.”
She paused, hesitant. “Tell me more?”
It was a question, not a command, and the husky voice was enchantingly uncertain.
Gold stuttered. “I… I don’t think that would be appropriate. Given our situation.”
“What do you think that is? Our situation?”
“I don’t know if there’s a word for it. Strangers, I suppose.”
“We’re hardly strangers.”
“I violated Dove’s trust, and yours, and I behaved very poorly. I should have been honest with you instead of-… What are you doing?”
Belle walked around the counter and didn’t stop until she reached him. Her hands cupped his jaw and pulled his face down to hers, capturing his lips in a kiss. He took a moment to respond, and then his lips were pushing back against hers and his hands were gripping her sensible blazer.
She pulled away just slightly, and Gold was afraid to open his eyes. He pressed his forehead to hers.
“Don’t you ever, ever do something like that again,” she said. “To anyone.”
“But-”
“Never. Deal?”
“For you, deal.”
“I’m still a little mad.”
“I’d expect nothing less.”
“I still want to hear about your restless night.”
“…Okay.”
“Dinner on Saturday?”
“Yes.”
“Yes what?”
“Yes, Belle.”
Her hand stroked upwards into his hair and gave it a soft tug. “That’s a good lad. Another kiss before I go?”
He responded with his lips, kissing her fervently, desperately, and this one parted with a wet smacking sound.
“Pick me up at eight thirty.”
“For Storybrooke, that’s a late dinner.”
“I know.”
He thought he detected a smirk on her lips as she backed away, striding out of his shop with a flourish.
He would be counting the minutes until Saturday.
Gold hovered at her side as Belle twisted her key in the lock.
“Would it be too forward, asking you in?”
“It is very late. I might get the wrong idea.”
“Or the right one,” she said, her voice still carrying the low but distinguishable sultry tone that she had used all through dinner. Well, not constantly – but any time an innuendo could be made, it was, and always in that same irresistible voice. She was a stimulating conversationalist, and they’d wound up holding hands beneath the table.
She opened the door and stepped through, holding it wide with an expectant gaze until he followed her.
“Perhaps a coffee… for the road?” He offered it like a get-out-of-jail-free card.
“I don’t really care what the excuse is,” she said, shutting the door and slipping out of her coat. “You’re here, now.”
“I am… indeed.”
“Am I being too forward? I’m being too forward.”
“No, well… No. It’s just… I don’t understand why you want me. Here, that is,” he said, adding the last in haste.
Belle took his coat, draping it over the couch. She stood close to him, and every fiber of his being hummed with anticipation.
“I care for you. I’m attracted to you. Aren’t those things… mutual?” Her fingers ghosted over his wrist.
“God yes,” he whispered, his lips brushing softly against her forehead, a shadow-kiss. She leaned against him and their contact was realized.
“Will you say it?”
“I adore you. I worship you. I desire you as I have desired no one else. I see your strong heart, your independence, your fire, and I am in awe.”
She kissed him, burying a hand in his hair. It was passionate and hard, and when she finally pulled away they were equally out of breath.
“You’re a good man, though for some reason you hide it. But you can’t fool me… You’re good and you’re smart and you have the most delightfully biting tongue! Sparring with you is my favorite hobby.”
Feeling bold, he said, “My tongue can do more than talk.”
He was rewarded with a widening of her pupils. She kissed him, then his neck. “Show me?”
“If you really want me to... it would be my pleasure.”
Belle grabbed his hand and hauled him into her bedroom. She grabbed the hem of her blouse and yanked it over her head, shimmying out of her skirt to reveal a most elegant white satin slip. It matched her bra, the same Gold had seen while spying.
“Hey hey there lady, slow down. I want to enjoy this.”
Belle grinned at him. “Sorry, I’m not very patient.”
“I’m getting that.”
“I’m also not used to someone… wanting to go slow. Usually it’s… bing bang boom, done,” she said, gesticulating.
“Usually?”
“Not usually, just… in my experience.”
“I assure you, I provide a very different experience.” Gold stepped closer, shrugging out of his jacket. Belle set her hands to work undoing his tie.
His hands rested lightly on her sides, hesitant, and his fingers played over the waistband of her slip. “This is… beautiful,” he said, clearing his throat.
“Thanks. I thought you might like it.”
“You’re beautiful.”
Belle dropped his tie to the floor and buried her fingers in his hair. “When do I get to see you shirtless? You’ve already seen me.”
“Well… technically.” He trailed his hands up her sides slowly, moving to cup her breasts. She leaned into his touch, sighing. “But I’m not sure I’ve been penitent enough, yet. Perhaps, with the help of my clever tongue…?”
He slid one hand down, the palm on her sensitive stomach, moving beneath her slip but not beneath her panties. She gasped as he cupped her, eyes asking for permission.
Belle grinned, a red heat flooding her cheeks, and she moved to sit on the bed.
“I would like that very much.” She laid back, and Gold, left in his dress shirt and waistcoat, rolled up his sleeves. Belle groaned. “Do you know how attractive that is? The whole formal thing, but with your forearms bare?”
“Maybe,” he said, kneeling at her feet. “Would it be wrong of me to try to impress you?”
“You don’t have to impress me. Those cheekbones, and your smile, and your hair… Your fingers and hips… I want every part of you.”
“My hips?”
She bit her lip, nodding. “Your whole… You. I want you.”
Gold gave a small smile. “Ready?”
“Mhmm.”
He settled himself between her parted legs, and his hands stroked over her thighs. She sighed. He pressed his lips to a spot just above her knee, and she moaned.
“You’re divine,” he whispered as he began a trail of kisses further and further up. “You are the stuff of dreams.” Running his hands up the outside of her thighs, he hooked his fingers into the white lace of her undies. Before pulling them down, he placed one kiss to her core through the damp fabric.
Belle shuddered. “Oh!”
Gold let out a soft growl. “You smell like heaven, pet.”
“You don’t need to do that.”
“Do what?”
“Act like this is something you enjoy. I’ve been given to understand that it’s quite perfunctory.”
Gold growled again, differently this time. “Then you have been seeing entirely the wrong type of people. I will enjoy every second I spend lapping at your sweet little cunt,” he said, yanking her underwear down and gently pulling them off her legs. “And it smells sweet, indeed. I’m dying for a taste.”
Belle gripped the comforter in her fists and dug her heels against the mattress as she spread her knees apart. “Oh God… you’re too good to be true. You’re too- Ooh… OH!”
He pressed a kiss to her labia before extending his tongue, getting the taste he wanted. He dragged it up and down through her folds, tracing her clit and observing all the spots that made her squeak.
She really was a vocal little thing, and her legs positively quaked. He wrapped his arms around her thighs to steady them. One hand couldn’t resist stroking up over her hip and the sensitive skin of her abdomen.
“G-G-Gold…Oh that feels amazing! Wha- What’s your first name?”
He didn’t answer, instead painting her clit with broad strokes of his tongue. She cried and squirmed. Gold brought one hand down to help hold her open, allowing his tongue to delve more deeply into her folds. He flicked it up and down her labia, teased her entrance, and then danced back up to her clit.
She rocked, her hips tilting. “Oh God, oh God oh God!”
“Angus,” he whispered in between kisses to her clit. “My first name is Angus.”
“Angus!” She screamed it, fists tugging on the comforter. One look at her face, screwed up as if in divine contemplation, was all he needed to know that she was coming apart.
Gold lapped up his prize, but avoided touching any of her more sensitive areas. As her breathing steadied, he nuzzled her thigh. “May I continue?”
“Oh God… You want to do it again?”
“Unless you need a break. Some women are more sensitive than others.”
“No, no I’m fine.”
“Good.” He grinned up at her, wrapping his lips around her clit once more. He sucked the little nub, moaning as she slid a hand into his hair.
“Oooh… Don’t ever stop,” she panted, his tongue making a slow procession around her vulva before covering her entrance with the flat of his tongue. He licked her from stem to stern, slowly. He repeated the gesture, letting the tip of his tongue flick over her clit each time he reached it.
He followed the map he’d created in his mind of all her sensitive places, exploiting each in turn. He’d find one and run his tongue there for a moment before darting away, always shifting tactic, always keeping her on edge.
Eventually he managed to pull her over the precipice again, and she came with his name on her tongue and her back arching off the mattress.
He pulled away as she came down, sitting up on his knees. He began to unfasten the buttons of his waistcoat, pulling it off over his shoulders and letting it join his jacket on the floor.
Belle moaned softly, eyes blinking open. “Hey hey there Mister,” she said, parroting him, “slow down. I want to enjoy this.”
“Ah, I’m putting on a show, am I?”
“I’m not sure I have enough patience for that at the moment. But I do want to watch you,” she said, biting her lip. She pushed herself up to lean on the pillows, hands sliding back to unclasp her bra. With a wicked grin she held her bra in place, arms crossed over her chest.
“Alright.” He began to undo his shirt, slipping button after button through their holes. Belle’s tongue slipped out to wet her lip as he pulled the shirt off, silently thanking any and all deities that he’d forgone an undershirt today. He wouldn’t have missed the look on Belle’s face for anything.
“Pants next.”
He laughed. “I still don’t understand your attraction to me. I’m nothing special, pet.”
“I intend to show you shortly just how attracted to you I am. In the meantime, kindly remove your trousers.”
“In case you forgot, your slip is still around your waist and that’s a brassiere clasped to your chest.”
“I thought I might leave the slip on.”
“Ooh, tempting, but I’d hate to see it ruined,” he said, rasping the words.
Belle sighed, biting her lip.
Finally Gold pushed down his layers, pants and briefs and all, and he tried not to wince as her eyes focused on his cock.
“Oh, Angus! You’re so pretty!”
“….Pretty?!”
“Straight like an arrow, and what a lovely color… Not to mention the size,” she purred, reaching out a hand.
He did wince as she wrapped a hand around him, stroking softly. “Oh lord. You’ll be the death of me, Miss French.”
She tightened her grip. “That’s Belle to you.”
“Belle!”
She released him so that he could move to step out of his bottom layers. He crawled back onto the bed when he finished, hands grabbing for her slip. She lay back, wriggling her hips as he pulled it off and tossed it aside.
He moved into place atop her with a grin. Belle’s expression matched his as she leaned up for a kiss.
“May I please take that beautiful bra off? I am dying to test out a few theories.”
“Such as?”
“I’m nearly certain that your breasts are the perfect size for my hands, and I’d wager my fortune that we’ll both enjoy the way you moan when I suck one of those rosy nipples into my mouth.”
Belle laughed, leaning back against the bed once more. She peeled the bra off and dropped it to the floor with a flourish, where it sat next to Gold’s jaw, his mouth open wide enough to catch flies. She laughed again at his dumbfounded look as he lowered himself atop her.
“Good lord, Belle. Every inch of you is perfect, isn’t it? …May I?” He looked up from her chest like an eager schoolboy, the question in his eyes.
“Of course!”
He growled with pleasure and immediately buried his face between her breasts. He licked a long stripe up the valley between them, sighing. “Salty, and sweet.”
“Like me?”
“Oh yes.” He turned his head, capturing a nipple between his lips. His tongue licked over the peak inside his mouth. It hardened as he toyed with it, then he let it go with a pop. He turned to its sister, giving it the same treatment, but adding a gentle nip before the release.
Belle squeaked. “Oh! I think I liked that.”
Gold grinned. “Good.” He raised a hand to her right breast and cupped it. He moved to squeeze it tenderly, letting his grasp contract and then expand, dragging his nails across her skin. She shivered as he continued this teasing touch, his mouth wrapping around her left nipple. This time he sucked the bud, his tongue circling ceaselessly.
“A-Angus, I hate to interrupt you, but I’m ready to move on.”
“Oh?”
“Mhmm.” She grinned wickedly, sliding her hands down his body. One wrapped around his cock and he cursed, dropping his head to her chest.
“You are literally going to kill me, aren’t you?”
“Death by coitus? I can think of worse ways to go,” Belle said, smirking. She released his member, guiding him to lie on his back. She moved to straddle him, her wet folds pressed against his hot, straining erection.
Gold tipped his head back. His fingers dug into her hips. “My God, I don’t deserve this.”
“I think you’ve been very penitent, Mr. Gold. I reward good behavior.” She rolled her hips and he cursed again.
“C-Condom?”
“Birth control. Ready?”
“Lord, yes.”
Belle raised herself up slightly and took him in hand again, drawing his head to her entrance. After two orgasms she was more than ready, her body enveloping him easily. He gasped, fingers tightening as his hips jerked upwards of their own accord.
“Sorry,” he hissed.
“Don’t be.” Belle sucked in ragged breaths as she worked their connection. Soon he was totally inside her. She rocked, slowly at first, placing the flat of her hands on his chest. “Is it everything you hoped? Being with me?”
“Oh God yes, more. So much more. So much – oh fuck! Belle!”
She moved with vigor now, riding him in earnest. Angus’ hands wandered upwards, mapping the skin of her sides, her back, finally sliding around to her breasts. She moaned as he squeezed, his thumbs rubbing over her nipples.
“I won’t last long at this pace,” he rasped.
“I don’t need you to last.”
“Want you… to enjoy… t-this.”
Belle slowed, leaning down to press herself to his chest. “Angus, I am enjoying myself. I think it’s your turn to come.” She dragged her lips across his. He kissed her greedily, desperately, snapping his hips, plunging his cock into her at a breakneck pace. Belle cried out, clinging to his shoulders.
“Is this…. Okay?”
“Oh God yes!” she gasped, raising her head to kiss him again. “Oh fuck, oh yes!”
He slid his arm around her back and tightened it, keeping her body trapped against his. He alternated between spurts of hard fucking and long, tender strokes; it was during these that Belle took her advantage. She rocked back, clenching and rolling her hips.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” she whispered, her nails scoring the skin of his biceps. Her head dropped to his shoulder.
“Hey,” he said, nuzzling the side of her face. “Look at me. Look at me, Belle.”
She raised her head, eyes blinking open. He pulled her lower lip between his. She kissed him back, ardently, and they kept eye contact until Belle’s cries interrupted their lips, her head falling back. She cried out his name as she came again. He thrust into her, the squeezing of her muscles draining him of every last drop.
Belle sagged against him, boneless. As Angus regained his focus, he wrapped his arms around her.
Belle giggled. “That was… Outstanding.”
“It was.”
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m almost glad you spied on me.”
“I was spying on-”
“Dove, I know. But after a performance like that,” she said, lifting herself up just enough to roll to his side, “I’m thinking your proclivity for film might come in handy.”
“Oh?”
She nodded, biting her lip. With one hand she grabbed a quilt from the end of her bed and unfurled it to cover them. She snuggled closer to his chest. “With performances like that… It’d be a shame not to preserve them. For posterity,” she said, tapping his rear.
Gold grinned, capturing her lips for another kiss. “You’re an odd woman, Belle French.”
“I am. I’m your odd woman.”
Gold groaned, rolling towards her. He kissed her like he was starving. Only once his old lungs begged for air did he stop, pressing his forehead to hers and relishing the way she pressed back. “Can I ask you a question?” he mumbled, fingers stroking over her hip.
“Anything.”
“Have you met this Manuel? Because whoever the fuck he is, he’s not good enough for our Dove.”