Brenna climbed up on the bed, her eyes roaming over the solid form outlined so intimately under the sheet. She knew from personal experience Garren slept nude since clothing hampered him in the night. She knew from the few times she'd climbed into bed with him and pressed her body against his own.
His body was a study of tactile pleasures, soft, silky fur, resilient skin, hard muscle and bone. She loved to rub against him, to knead his flesh under her searching fingers. She yearned for the day she would grow brave enough to touch that certain piece of rock hard flesh, to wrap it in her hand and stroke him as she'd watched him do. She wondered what it would feel like, and if Garren would enjoy her touch as much as he seemed to enjoy his own.
Perhaps she could ask him to teach her. Perhaps she could coax Garren to change his mind and make her his own. Perhaps she'd wake tomorrow and find that the sun had risen from the west and would now set in the east. She shook her head, sighing heavily at the thoughts.
"Is something wrong, pet?" Garren asked, using the name he gave her when he was in a fine mood. He smiled, showing off the sharp fangs that caused so many to fear him.
"No, Garren, nothing but my thoughts coloring my mood. I'm fine." She lifted the book in her hands, wishing she could throw it on the floor. Who cared about whether Melissa and Nathaniel would be happy when her own happiness was in such jeopardy?
"You do seem rather tense, pet. Perhaps you'd like to forget reading tonight?"
"What would we do then?" she asked him, her eyes lighting up as she thought of a number of different ways for them to entertain themselves.
"Well, I thought you'd go to bed and I'd do the same." Garren watched as that wonderful light that made her blue eyes sparkle seemed to dim and her face to fall. He knew what was in her head, for the thoughts rang through his own, swirling into a confusing mist that had kept him awake the night before, long after her soft breathing told him she was asleep.
"No, I'd much rather read to you, Garren, then find myself in my room once more. Please, may I?" she asked him, holding up the book.
"Yes, on then, let us find out if Nathaniel and Melissa shall have a happily ever after." He shifted down further under the covers, moving his legs.
Brenna looked lovely this evening, her bright blonde hair streaming freely over her shoulders in thick, lush waves. Her eyes were huge and bright in a small oval face that seemed inordinately delicate. She had a tiny stubborn chin and a long thin nose that had an aristocratic bent.
Her mother had been a slattern, walking the streets at night to make enough to keep her fed and sheltered. She must have run afoul of some lord or another who paid her the few coins to sample her generous charms and was thence gifted with Brenna, though that ungrateful wench hadn't considered Brenna a gift nor the joy she should have been to her.
She lost Brenna when Garren had spotted the filthy little ragamuffin living in an alley, getting scraps and handouts from the other whores on the streets.
She'd been half starved and half wild, but had come right up to Garren when he'd approached, tilting her head and staring up at him in his disguise as a man. She studied him, as she might an insect under a magnifying glass, before reaching up with one horridly dirty hand and touching the thin silk of his white shirt.
He'd taken her with him, coming back to repay the kindness of her mother for the way she'd taken such proper care of the poor dear. He had scared her so badly that the woman had been sent to the institute at Bedlam.
That had been Brenna's lucky day. Now she lived in luxury, her every need met as long as she read to her master every night.
Her fingers reached out for him now, as they had that long ago night, touching his chest gently, her knuckles brushing against the hard flesh under the soft fur. "I will read to you, Garren," she said quietly, before sitting back and lifting the book. She rested the edge on her legs, reaching between the marked pages with delicate fingers and opening it upon her lap.
"Chapter Three," she began her voice slightly huskier than usual. "The Man in the Body of the Beast..."
****
Jeffrey returned from the village, stopping along the way at a small shack and picking up some things he needed from the old woman there. His heart was heavy as he made his way along the long road and past the ancient cemetery, pushing through the small side gate and into the yard just as the sun was beginning to set.
Melissa's parents had shown mixed emotions when told that their daughter was needed to live-in as a maid now, instead of coming home as was her habit. Melissa's mother had been ecstatic, more so when given the pouch of coins Jeffrey had been instructed to deliver to them. There was enough money there to have paid for a maid's salary for a year, but it was the master's wishes that they receive it.
Jeffrey would deliver another pouch of coins in a fortnight and then another after that until Nathaniel tired of Melissa or the poor girl ended up dead, as Nathaniel's mother had. If only that lovely lady hadn't gotten pregnant, if only she hadn't made the mistake of being seduced by Nathaniel's father during one of his saner moments, she might still be alive today.
Another child, perhaps another son to be persecuted by this curse would have been an atrocity, at least in Nathaniel's mother's eyes. So she'd taken arsenic, a fitting ending as it was the king's poison. Nathaniel had been the one to find his mother's twisted and convulsing body, lifting her in his strong arms and racing to try to save her. But the poison was too fast, and he was too late. She perished in his arms, her last sight her son's tortured face.
Jeffrey could only pray that Melissa would not conceive. If she did, the consequences could serve to drive Nathaniel over the edge and into the beastly madness he fought against so desperately.
****
"Beastly madness?" Brenna asked, her nose wrinkling at the term.
"Oh it is a fine madness," Garren said, his teeth flashing as he laughed. "Madness as black and deep as the depths of the ocean."
"You're teasing me," she laughed, her eyes sparkling.
"If that is what you wish to believe, Brenna pet, then yes, I am teasing you. Now read to me please," he ordered her in his usual raspy growl.
"Hmmm, oh yes ...fought against so desperately..."
****
Jeffrey opened the back door of the manor, passing into the kitchen and setting down his packages. He fed the fire, putting on a pot of water to make tea before turning back to his packages and opening them.
Quickly fixing the herbs he needed, he put them into a bowl and set it carefully aside, washing his hand and throwing the wrapping and stems into the fire where they bloomed with flames wreathed in black. Taking down another bowl, he carefully mixed up enough herbs for tea, placing it into the kettle and pouring in the water that was now hot to let it steep.
He set about making up a platter of frytours, fried cakes that he'd gotten yesterday, setting it upon the big tray service and pouring the tea into the pot, adding milk and sugar and cups to the tray.
With a sigh, he picked up the heavy tray, carrying it up and into the library and setting it down in front of the sofa. That done he went to find the master.
****
Nathaniel sighed, breathing in the sweet scent of Melissa's hair. She was snuggled against him, her back resting against his chest, curved into the shape of his body. His arm was over her waist, his hand entwined with hers.
He sighed again; feeling relaxed and at peace for the first time since the curse had taken his body.
"Are you well, Nathaniel?" she asked, looking back at him, her eyes wide. "All those sighs sound so sad."
"I've never been happier, little one, than I am right now," he pressed a kiss to her cheek, tucking her head back against his shoulder. "I cannot remember a time when I felt so at ease."
He felt Melissa snuggle back against his furry form, feeling the heat and softness of her body as it rested against his own. She'd been such a surprise, beyond anything he could have imagined, responding to his body with a joy he'd never known.
His gaze grew warmer remembering all she'd done, the words she'd used, the things she'd done to him. He smiled as she gave a small sigh of her own, watching as she closed her eyes. Dipping his head, his lips touched her hair and he tightened his arms around her, wanting her to feel safe in his furry embrace.
Nathaniel knew the moment she fell asleep, for his beastly senses were attuned to her breathing, to the sound of her heart beating, to the slightest sound that came from between her sweet lips. Gently pulling his arm out from under her head, he laid her against the pillow, sitting up and staring down at her.
She was exquisite, but her beauty was not just on the outside. Inside, she was sweet and good and caring, everything that he desired but knew he should walk away from. He would end up hurting her, as his father had his mother, until in the end, she would either leave him or kill herself.
The thought of Melissa's lovely body contorted in pain as his mother's had been sent a shiver of anguish through him. Was it his lot in life to be alone? Must he bear this curse with no recourse and no hope of happiness?
No answer seemed forthcoming as he stared at her and he sighed once again. He was about to lie back down, to gather her into his arms once more, when he heard a scratching at the door. Rising, he threw on the dressing gown he'd brought when he went to her, and pulled the edge of the duvet cover up to shield Melissa's nakedness from the man at the door. He hurried over to answer it before Jeffrey decided to pound upon it and wake her up.
"Did you talk to them?" he asked with no preamble as he threw open the door.
"Yes, Master Nathaniel, I did. I also gave them the coin you authorized."
