The Fairy Tales Collection (4 page)

“He touched what is mine and only mine to
touch,” he snarled again at Bennett.  “I should have killed him.”

“Leave, Duncan,” Bennett said.  There was a
mild note of alarm in his voice and Belle pressed her mouth against Ella’s ear.

“Is it just me or is Duncan getting
bigger?”

“I – that’s impossible,” Ella whispered
just as the seams of Duncan’s t-shirt tore with a soft purr.

“Duncan!”  Bennett said sharply.  “Control
yourself!”

“She is mine!”  Duncan hissed at him.  “Do
you hear me, Bennett?”

“Yes,” Bennett said.  “But you need to go
before you do something you regret.”

“I will not leave her,” Duncan snapped. 

“I will see her home safely, my friend.  I
promise you,” Bennett said softly before resting a cautious hand on Duncan’s bulging
upper arm.  “Go home.  We will speak tomorrow.”

Duncan glanced briefly at Ella before
shaking off Bennett’s hand.  “Do not touch her, Bennett.  We are friends but if
I find out that you placed so much as a finger on her, I will tear out your
throat.”

“I’m not going to touch her,” Bennett said
calmly.  “You know I won’t.  Now go, you’re scaring her.”

Duncan’s gaze snapped back to Ella and he
seemed to shrink a little at the sight of her pale face and trembling lips.

“Fuck!”  He stalked out of the hallway.

Bennett sighed deeply before bending and
snagging Belle’s glasses from the floor.  He handed them to her and she shoved
them onto her face before blinking up at him.

“Hello, Ben.”

“Hello, Mirabelle.”

* * *

Belle stepped out of her car.  Bennett had
insisted on following her home and she waited nervously by her car as he shut
off his truck and climbed out.  Belle had driven Ella home but she had been
quiet and withdrawn.  She had squeezed Belle’s hand before leaving the car and
climbing the steps to her apartment over her stepmother’s garage.

“Mirabelle?  Are you sure you’re not
hurt?”  Bennett was standing next to her now and she craned her head to stare
at him.  He was massive with broad shoulders and a thick neck and she swallowed
down the trickle of lust that went through her. 

“You’re so big,” she whispered.

I bet he’s big everywhere.

Her face flamed and Bennett gave her a
curious look.  “I’m sorry?”

“I uh, I said you’ve grown a lot since the
last time I saw you.”

He shrugged.  “Yeah, I started sprouting up
when I was about twelve.  Come on, I’ll walk you to your door.”

They walked silently up the broken sidewalk
to the front door of her trailer.  She was suddenly ashamed at the state of
it.  It desperately needed repairs but they just couldn’t afford it.  Not with
her dad spending all of his money on booze.  Her librarian salary had barely
kept them fed and paid the bills.

“This is, uh, nice,” Bennett said.

She laughed.  “Yeah, it isn’t but what are
you going to do, right?”

They stood awkwardly for a moment before
she smiled at him.  “When did you get back?”

“A couple of weeks ago,” he replied.

“Are you just visiting or…”

She trailed off and he shook his head. 
“No, I’m back for good.”

A fierce little rush of pleasure went
through her. “Good, I’m glad.”

“Are you?”  He asked.

“Yes, why wouldn’t I be?”

“I almost got you killed when we were
kids.”

“No, you saved my life.”

He started to protest but the light touch
of her hand on his arm made him stutter to a stop.  “Thank you for the roses, Bennett. 
I looked forward to them all year.”

“You’re welcome,” he said gruffly. 

“How did you know I worked at the
library?”  She asked.

Now it was his turn to blush.  God, this
was awkward.  He should have realized she would ask him that but, of course, he
hadn’t actually planned on seeing her again.

Right, because she would have been easy
to avoid in a town of twelve hundred people.  Idiot.

Fairly confident that Belle wouldn’t like
knowing that he had basically Internet stalked her for years, he said, “Uh, I
remembered you liked books.  Figured you’d get a job at the library.”

She frowned at him.  “But how did you even
know I was still living here?”

Starting to sweat, he groped desperately
for a believable answer.  “I kept in touch with Duncan.”

“Oh, right.  He never mentioned it to me,”
she said.

He cleared his throat as she smiled up at
him.  “Why did you come back after all this time?”

“A year ago my parents were on holiday in
Panama and they did a sight-seeing tour in one of those smaller planes.  It
crashed and they died.  I found out in my father’s will that he had never sold
our house here.  I missed living here so after the estate stuff was finished, I
decided to move back.”

“Oh, Bennett.”  She was giving him a clear
look of sympathy and his dick twitched when she stepped forward until her
breasts were brushing against his arm.  She squeezed his shoulder.  “I’m so
sorry.”

His bear made a soft growl of happiness and
he was about two seconds from picking her up and carrying her into her run-down
trailer.  She could show him exactly how sorry she was in the sweetest way
possible.  She would be soft and warm and those lush curves of her would
cushion his body as he took her – again and again until she was his and only
his.

He bit the inside of his cheek until he
tasted the metallic tang of blood and took a step away from her.  Shit, he
needed to get control.  She was trying to comfort him over his parents’ deaths
and all he could think about was getting her naked.

“Bennett?  Are you okay?”

He nodded and she squeezed his shoulder
again.  “I really am very sorry.  You must miss them terribly.”

“I do,” he said hoarsely.

She reached for his hand and linked their
fingers together.  He squeezed it tightly and cursed inwardly when a grimace of
pain flashed across her face.

“I’m sorry.”

“That’s okay.”  She smiled at him.  “You’re
pretty strong, huh?”

He shrugged.  “Yeah, I work out a lot.”

A complete lie but he had to say something
to explain his size and his strength.

“Why did you leave, Bennett?”  She suddenly
whispered.  “I got out of the hospital and my dad said you and your parents had
packed up and left without saying anything.  Why?”

“Uh, there was a family emergency,” he
said.  “We had to leave and we just – it never worked out for us to come back.”

“A family emergency,” she said softly.

He nodded and she cocked her head at him,
biting at her bottom lip in a way that made him want to lean down and nibble at
it instead.

“So it wasn’t because I told everyone that
you were a bear?”

He cleared his throat again.  “Uh, no. 
Why, uh, why would you think I’m a bear?”

“Because you are,” she said softly.

“I’m not,” he replied.  “That day in the
woods, you were injured and scared and confused.”

“No, I wasn’t,” she said steadily.  “I
remember everything about that day, Bennett.  I remember Kevin and his gang
beating you up and that we walked through the forest together.  I remember the
rose bush.”

A small smile crossed her face.  “You
picked a flower for me and pricked your finger.  The bleeding stopped after
only a few seconds.  Then, when the cougar attacked us, you turned into a
bear.”

“I didn’t,” he rasped.  “Mirabelle, I’m not
a – a bear.”

She tugged her hand free and gave him a
look of such unbearable sadness that it made his chest tighten.  “Do you know
that this entire town thinks I’m crazy?  Even the children at the library know
the story of crazy Miss Vale who thinks that people can turn into bears.  I
spent the first five years desperately trying to convince anyone who would
listen to me that you had turned into a bear.  I was teased at school.  Hell
even adults teased me until I finally stopped talking about it.  It was too
late though.  People in small towns never forget, do they?  I’ve spent most of
my life being laughed at and called crazy behind my back.  I told myself I
didn’t care because I knew the truth and so did you.”

She closed her eyes as pain flickered
across her face.  “Now, eighteen years later you’re back in my life.  Only,
you’re telling me you’re not a bear after all.  All this time I really have
just been crazy.”

“Mirabelle,” he whispered.  “You’re not – “

“MY BONNIE LIES OVER THE OCEAN!  MY BONNIE
LIES OVER THE SEA!”

Bennett turned and stared at the man
staggering up the sidewalk.  He moved instinctively in front of Belle as his
bear growled angrily.  The man tripped and fell to his knees, his singing
cutting out abruptly and he heard Belle sigh behind him.

“Oh, daddy.”

She ducked around him and walked quickly to
the fallen man before squatting next to him.  “Dad, are you okay?”

“Just fine, baby Belle!  Just fine!”  The
man bellowed cheerfully.

She winced and squeezed his arm.  “Dad, be
quiet.  It’s late.”

She helped him to his feet.  Bennett rushed
forward to help and she shook her head as the smell of whiskey drifted to him. 
“It’s fine.  I’ve got him.”

“I can help him into the house.”

She shook her head again.  “No, don’t worry
about it.  I’m used to it.”

“Hey,” Belle’s father stared blearily at
him, “I know you.”

“Hello, Mr. Vale.”

“Bennett Saxby, what are you doing here?”

Before he could reply, the old man lurched
forward and clapped him hard on the back.  “How’s your new roof doing?”

He grinned at Belle.  “Bennett here hired
me to fix his roof, didn’t you, son?”

“Yes, sir,” Bennett said quietly.

Belle wrapped her arm around her father’s
waist.  “Come on, dad.  Let’s get you into the house.”

She unlocked the door and her father
staggered his way inside.  There was the sound of a lamp tipping over and she
winced before giving Bennett an embarrassed look.  “You shouldn’t have hired
him to fix your roof.”

He just shrugged and she sighed before
asking, “Did he even finish the job?”

“Uh, well…”

“He didn’t,” she said.  “How much did you
pay him?”

“Two thousand,” he said.  “It doesn’t
matter, I – “

“Of course it matters,” she said. 
“Although you really shouldn’t have paid him up front.  Of course, you wouldn’t
have known he would go on a bender with it.” 

There was another splintering crash and a
muffled curse from her father and she closed her eyes for a moment.

“I have to go.  I’ll get the money from my
father and stop by your house tomorrow afternoon with it, okay?”

“Mirabelle, you don’t have to – “

“Good night,” she said before shutting the
door gently.

He hesitated on the doorstep and his heart
sped up when it opened and she stepped out into the cool night air.  She
studied him carefully for a moment before standing on her tiptoes and pressing
her lips against his cheek.  “Welcome home, Bennett.”

She was gone before he could reply, leaving
only her sweet scent of books and cinnamon and a burning warmth where her lips
had pressed against his skin.

He spent all morning gardening.  His father
had loved to garden. He had used to gently tease his mother that it was the
only thing that soothed his savage bear and he had taught Bennett to love it as
well.  Eighteen years ago, the back yard had been a lush, colourful garden of
brightly-blooming flowers and he was determined to return it to that.  As he
hacked away at the weeds that were choking out the bed of wild daisies, he
sniffed the air before dropping his shears and wiping the sweat from his
forehead.

“Hello, Duncan.”

“Hey, Bennett.”

He grabbed the jug of water sitting on the
ground beside him and drank nearly half of it before joining the lion shifter
on the small deck. 

“Why aren’t you painting?”  He asked.

Duncan shrugged.  “I took a personal day. 
It’s not like I need the money.”

“True.  Does anyone in this town know
exactly how rich you are, Duncan?”

“Nope and they don’t need to know.”

“Why not?  What’s the big deal?”

“You think the people in this backwater
town even know what art is beyond a Norman Rockwell painting?”  Duncan said
bitterly.

“You think they’ll treat you differently if
they know you’re a damn millionaire?”

Duncan scowled.  “I don’t care what they
do.  Besides, you’re one to talk – how many of the good town folk know you’ve
got money falling out your ass?”

“Point taken,” Bennett said.

He glanced cautiously at Duncan.  It wasn’t
like him to be so angry.  The lion shifter had always been easy going with a
sarcastic sense of humour, even as a boy.  He watched as Duncan reached into
the bag at his feet and pulled out a six pack of beer.  He handed one to Bennett
and opened another before taking a long swallow.

“Go ahead,” he said when Bennett didn’t
open the can.

“It’s not even noon,” Bennett said.

“It’s almost one,” Duncan said.  “You’ve
been out in the sun too long.  It’s fried your brain.”

Bennett rolled his eyes before opening the
can of beer.  He sipped at the cold liquid as Duncan stared moodily at the back
yard.

“You gonna tell me what’s wrong or just get
drunk on my patio?”  Bennett asked.

“Tell me I didn’t do what I think I did
last night,” Duncan said.

“Do you mean when you threatened to kill a
man for touching Ella Cinders, or announced that she belonged to you right in
front of her?  Or maybe it was when you nearly shifted in front of her,
Mirabelle and that redheaded waitress.  Wait – maybe it’s the part where you
threatened to tear out your best friend’s throat if he touched your woman?”

“Fuck,” Duncan said.  “I was hoping I had
imagined all of that.”

Bennett laughed.  “Afraid not, my friend. 
What happened last night?”

“I don’t know,” Duncan said miserably.  “I
heard Ella scream and then I saw that asshole Marty touching her and I just –
lost control.”

He took another drink of beer.  “I don’t
know why I said what I said.  Hell, I’m attracted to her – always have been –
but the woman hates me.  She won’t give me the time of day.”

He paused before giving Bennett a sheepish
look.  “Do you know I hired her stepmother’s cleaning company to clean my
house?”

Bennett shook his head and Duncan sighed. 
“I did.  I tried to tell myself it wasn’t because I wanted Ella in my house but
that’s a damn lie.  The ironic part is – it’s not even Ella who cleans it. 
It’s her stepsister, Ana.  Who, by the way, is a real piece of work.  I can’t
be home when she’s cleaning or she spends the entire time hitting on me.  I
found a pair of her underwear tucked under my pillow with her cell number
written on them.”

Bennett burst out laughing and Duncan gave
him a wry grin before staring at his can of beer.  “What the hell is happening
to me, Bennett?  How do I explain what I said to Ella?”

“You probably won’t have to.  If she hates
you like she says she does…”

Bennett trailed off and Duncan nodded. 
“Yeah, you’re right.  She’ll just completely ignore me like she always does.  If
she doesn’t, if she wants to know what the hell I meant, I’ll just tell her I
was drunk.”

He rubbed his forehead.  “God, I never
thought I would fall for a human.  Did you?”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, Duncan, but
I never thought you’d fall for anyone.  You’re not exactly the commitment
type.”

“Thanks, but I was actually talking about
you.”

Bennett gave him a startled look.  “What do
you mean?”

Duncan rolled his eyes.  “You’re in love
with Belle Vale.”

“I am not.”

“Oh please.  You just look at her and you
get this puppy dog look in your eyes like you want to curl up in her lap while
she pets you.”

“Shut up,” Bennett said.

“Try and deny it but it’s ridiculously
obvious.  You came back here for one reason and one reason only and that reason
has gorgeous blue eyes and a seriously magnificent rack.”

Bennett growled at him.  “Talk about her
rack again and I’ll gut you like a fish, Duncan.”

Duncan laughed.  “I’m not after your woman,
relax.”

“She’s not my woman.”

“Not yet she isn’t.  But I’ll bet you a
thousand bucks that by this time next week you two are making the beast with
two backs.”

“Nice, Duncan,” Bennett muttered.

“Yeah, I’ve never been much of a
wordsmith,” Duncan said cheerfully.  “Now, do we have a bet or not?”

“I’m not betting with you on sleeping with
Mirabelle,” Bennett retorted.  “Besides, it isn’t going to happen.  Humans and
shifters aren’t meant to mate.”

“Says who?  Your father?  Just because he
was old-school about keeping separate from humans doesn’t mean everyone is. 
Hell, my cousin in Trenton is married to a human.  She’s been mated to him for
nearly five years now and no one cares that he’s not a shifter.”

“Are you serious?”  Bennett said.

Duncan nodded.  “I am.  His parents don’t know
she’s a lion shifter but she’s pregnant with her first kid so that’ll change
soon.  It’ll be difficult to explain why in a couple of years their grandbaby
is just randomly turning into a lion from time to time.”

Bennett couldn’t help but grin.  Shifters
started to change to their animal form when they were toddlers and it took at
least a good two months before they learned to control it.  Shifters had
learned long ago to keep their toddlers away from humans during the time it
took to teach them to control the shift.

“You know what I think?”  Duncan said
thoughtfully.  “I think way more humans know about the existence of shifters than
most shifters realize.  The High Council are fooling themselves if they think
our existence is as secretive as they want it to be.

Bennett stiffened as a car door slammed and
the faint scent of cinnamon wafted over him.  He stood up and yanked Duncan to
his feet.  “You need to go.”

“What?  Why?”

“Mirabelle is here.”

Duncan grinned at him.  “She’s visiting you
at your house?  You sure you don’t want to bet – “

“Knock it off!”  Bennett hissed.  “Hey –
how do I, uh, look?”

Duncan snickered loudly.  “Seriously,
dude?”

Bennett flushed and Duncan laughed again. 
“Truthfully, you’re pretty sweaty, you’ve got leaves in your hair and,” he
sniffed in his direction, “you’re not smelling all that great.  You want me to
distract her while you have a quick shower?”

“Hi there.”

Bennett groaned inwardly at the sound of
Belle’s soft voice before raking his hand through his hair.  A few leaves fell
to the ground as Duncan swung around and grinned at Belle.

“Hello, Miss Belle.  How are you today?”

“Good.  I heard voices so I just came
around back.  I hope that’s okay.”

“It’s fine,” Bennett grunted.

They stood in awkward silence before Belle
smiled faintly.  “I’m sorry.  You have company and I’m interrupting.  I’ll come
by later.”

“Don’t leave!”  Bennett said quickly. 
“Duncan was just leaving.”

“That’s right I was,” Duncan said.  “It was
lovely to see you again, Belle.”

“You as well, Duncan.”  A devilish little
gleam appeared in her eyes.  “I was just visiting Ella.  She’s at home if you
were thinking you’d like to continue your discussion with her about how she
belongs to you.”

Duncan’s tanned skin turned bright red and
he cleared his throat. “Uh, I was very drunk last night, Belle.  Very,
very
drunk.”

“Oh, right, of course,” Belle said with an
innocent smile.

Duncan grinned uneasily before waving at Bennett
and walking out of the backyard.

“Do you have a few minutes to talk, Bennett?” 
Belle asked.

He nodded.  “Yes, why don’t you come into
the house.”

As she followed him up the deck to the
patio doors, he was acutely aware of how sweaty and smelly he was.  In
contrast, she was looking cool and crisp in a jean skirt and soft pink shirt. 
Unlike her clothing from yesterday, the shirt dipped low at the neckline
revealing a deliciously pale hint of cleavage.  He clenched his fists and tried
not to notice the way her long hair fell down her back like a dark waterfall. 
God, she was gorgeous.

“The back yard is starting to look really
good,” she said politely as she followed him into the kitchen.

“Thanks.  I like to garden,” he said.

She smiled but didn’t reply and he poured
them both a glass of water.  He handed one to her and couldn’t stop a shiver
going down his back when their fingers brushed briefly.  She gave him a curious
look and he blurted out, “You’re not wearing glasses.”

She touched her face self-consciously. 
“Yeah, I normally don’t anymore.  I just hadn’t picked up my contacts yesterday
so, you know…”

She trailed off before taking a small sip
of water.  He searched frantically for something to say as silence filled the
large kitchen.  “How’s your dad feeling today?”

She closed her eyes briefly before smiling
at him.  “Hungover, but that’s nothing new.  I,” she paused and gave him a
heartbreaking look of shame, “I spoke with dad about your money.  He hasn’t
spent all of it but he’s refusing to give me the rest of it.”

“That’s okay,” he said.

“It isn’t,” she insisted.  “It’s not okay
at all but I - the thing is - I lost my job yesterday and I don’t have a lot of
extra money.”

“Mirabelle, it doesn’t matter.  I don’t
need you to pay me back the money.”

She glared at him.  “I don’t need your
charity, Bennett.”

“That’s not what I meant,” he said
quickly.  “I just meant that – “

“I was thinking,” she interrupted, “that
maybe I could pay my father’s debt to you in some way other than money.”

An image rose in his mind, one that was
darkly inviting and utterly intoxicating.  Mirabelle, naked in his bed, moaning
and gasping as he buried his face between those pale thighs of hers.  He drank
the glass of water in four large gulps.  Somehow he didn’t think Mirabelle
would accept his proposal of bringing her to orgasm repeatedly in exchange for
her father’s debt.  The coolness of the water did nothing to drown the fire in
his belly for her and she took a nervous step back when he raised his gaze to
hers. 

“What did you have in mind, Mirabelle?” 
Even he could hear the dark desire in his voice and he watched as she flushed
and the heady scent of her arousal filled his nose. 

Oh fuck, she wanted him just as badly as he
wanted her. 

She made a nervous little noise in the back
of her throat and his desire deepened when he glanced at her breasts.  Her
nipples had hardened.  He could see them clearly through her bra and thin shirt
and it made his cock stiffen until it rubbed painfully against the front of his
pants.

He turned around quickly, staring out the
window over the sink and tried to ignore his bear’s demands that he take
Mirabelle to his bed and fuck her repeatedly.

“Bennett?”  She said uncertainly.

“Sorry,” he said hoarsely.  “You don’t have
to do anything.”

“I want to,” she said.  “I was thinking
maybe I could do some cleaning for you.  This house is huge and I’m sure after
eighteen years of sitting empty that it could use a good cleaning.  I could
come by every day in the morning and – “

“What will you do for money?”  He
interrupted.  “While you’re paying back your father’s debt, how will you buy
groceries and pay your bills?”

“I – that’s nothing you have to worry
about,” she said hurriedly.  “I’ll be fine.  What do you say, Bennett?  I’ll
clean your house from top to bottom in exchange for the money my father owes
you.”

He didn’t reply and she took a step
closer.  “I realize that won’t cover the entire amount but I’ll be starting my
new job in a couple of days.  I’d be willing to um, do regular housecleaning
until you feel the debt is paid off.  I could come by once a week as long as
you don’t mind me scheduling it around my new job.”