The Beauty and the Beast

The Beauty and the Beast

Leigh Wilder

Copyright Leigh Wilder 2012

Cove
r art copyright Meckfisto
at Dreamstime Stock Photos and Free Stock Images

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In the scene Kate
had been called '
Beauty' for so long
she
didn’t thin
k anyone k
new her real name.
She rarely remembered it herself—since she had become a professional
Dominatrix
after getting laid off
the real world seemed so very far away.
Sometimes she thought she
lived in
a fantasy land of leather and
chains, and there was nothing else out there.

The
castle
sh
e pulled her car up in front of didn’t seem real
either
.
It wasn't really a castle, but a massive Victorian house with a wrap-around por
ch
festooned in deep red climbing roses, like Sleeping Beauty’s castle. A
lovely turret room
jutted out from the second fl
oor.
When
young
she dreamed of being a princess in a round room just like that.
As she grew up it became obvious she wasn't going to be a princess.
She was a
queen
.

Kate
got out of the car and walked up to the house with the strong, confident st
eps of someone who not only got
what they want
ed
, but expect to get it every time.
She had no idea what to expect here.
The house belonged to a man almost a
s notorious in the scene as she. W
omen called him 'The Beast,' but they tended to flutter and sigh as they did so, and the moniker was not a negative one.
They said he would take submissive flesh and devour it, and titter like schoolgirls.

Kate
did not submit for anyone or anything
.
B
ecause the Beast did not play in public very often, she could only guess at his abili
ty to devour.
She stepped up
to the huge porch
, pausing to finger one of the rose’s silky petals and breathe in the fragrance.
Not really thinking, just wanting the rose, she snapped the bloom off the stem and tucked it behind her ear, careful to let the tiny thorns catch in her hair instead of her skin.
She approached the door and
rang the bell.
He had invited her to dinner in his home.
She just wished she knew why she had accepted.

The Beast himself answered the door.
A bit beast-like in looks as well as in manner,
h
e wa
s a tall, broad man and
wore a beard.
F
or one fright
ening moment
Kate
felt like Red R
iding Hood confronting the wolf.
She didn't let it show.
“Hello
Nathan
,”
she said, having dug up his real name in the depths of a
memory filled with names like 'Shadow' and 'Baby Kitten
' (one of her male clients) or ‘Phoenix.’

“Kat
e,” he greeted her, and she blinked,
taken aback that he knew her real name
as well.
“I’m so happy you made
it this ev
ening.” He
s
poke
with an easy smile, and stepped aside so she could enter the house
, glancing at the stolen rose but not commenting
.
The hallwa
y was painted in cool greys paired with
pale wood and little color.
If this were my place I’d warm it up a bit
, she thought. She had always wanted a big old house
(impossible with the money she made)
, and her favorite color, of course, was red.

“Thank you for the invitation
,” she said
.
Forget the niceties
, she thought.
Tell me what you want
.
He had to have an underlying motive for inviting her to dinner.
They moved down the cool hallw
ay to the dining room, decorated
slightly closer to the period correctness the house craved, with striped wallpaper and a heavy oak table, set wi
th rose
patterned dinnerware
.
She stared at it and imagined sweeping all of the fine china to the floor and tying him down to it, taming the big beast of a man at her side.

She had these thoughts about
most men she encountered, but
Nathan
wa
s nowhere near her type.
Too big, too masculine.
Like Kate, h
e had the look of someone who liked to be in control.
She wanted to
yank that control away
.
He pulled her chair out for her and she thanked him, pretending she was not having dirty thoughts about his table.
She placed her napkin in her
lap and waited for an explanation
.

She was surprised
he served her salad and soup on his own—not a submissive or pet or slave in sight, and he didn’t really settle into
his chair until the main course.
Dinner was
prime rib—
suita
ble for the flesh-hungry beast across from
her.

“No doubt my invitation to dinner tonight perplexed you,” he said, not touching his own meal.
She had her fork raised to her mouth and stopped, setting it down again, waiting.
He continued.
“I have a proposition—a proposal, if you will—for you.”

“I’m listening.”

“Beauty, will you marry me?”

She nearly stood up at the table in shock.
“
Excuse
me?”

“I love
you.
I love
everything about you.
I want you to be my wife.”

Certain her jaw
had fallen on
her dinner plate, Kate replied with,
“Are you insane?”
He didn’t answer, so she answered for him, getting up from the table.
“There’s so many things wrong with that statement I don’t even know where to begin!”
Her curiosity over the meeting melted away, and she was left with an agitation that would not let her sit still. She paced back and forth along her side of the table, careful not to get too close in case he might bite.
“Forget that we’ve never even been alone in the same room before—you’re The Beast.”

“And you’
re
Beauty.”

She paused before answering.
“I don’t see what that has to do with any of this.”

“We belong together,” he said.
“Isn’t it obvious?
You and I, we understand each other.
We know what it’s like to
dominate
, to take control. You are the only person I’ve ever met that gets as much joy out of torturing some poor soul as I do.”
He stood up too to walk towards her, and she backed away, not frightened by his looming figure, but wary.
“And your grace and
skill.
When you play at the dungeon
I can never take my eyes off of you.
I’ve never met
a
domme
with such lust and zeal.”
He referred
to Club Midnight, the local dunge
on and swingers club.
She was paid
to do
demonstrations
and workshops
at the club
, and she liked to just play
there.
She had noticed him many times in the crowd, watching.

“
That i
s your problem,” she couldn’t help pointing out.
“I’m a
dom
.
And so are you.”

“I want my wife to be my equal.
I don’t want a sub
who
needs direction
from me every time I turn
.
I don’t need someone to worship me.
I can get that out of any sub. I want a partner. A woman who will fight me when we disagree and love me when we don’t.”
He stopped speaking for a moment.
“I can see from your expression that you are not pleased.”

“No, I’m not,” she said.
“
I don’t do
partners
.
I’m in it for me and me alone.”
Even as she said it she felt a little lonely.
She had her clients, she had lovers, but they always left at the end of the night.
She couldn’t relax in bed with them wearing sweatpants and watching TV—it would spoi
l the allure. She would lose control.
Control was important.
If things did not go her way, it meant they could go terribly wrong.

“I understand,” h
e said.
“I do, because it can be
the same way with me. But
I’m getting tired of it.
Aren’
t you
tired of not having anyone
who can truly listen and care?
Wouldn’t it be a relief to have a man you could turn to in a weak moment?”

“I don’t have weak moments,” she said, her voice sq
ueaking
because she was in the middle of one
.
The situation couldn’t get much more
out of control.
“Thank you for dinner, and goodnight.”

She turned to leave
but
he moved fast
,
blocking the doorway.
“Please
,
Beauty.
Kate.
Just hear me out.”

“What?” she snapped.
“Do you think you can dom me into changing my mind?”

“A wager,” he said.
“A bet.”

“I don’t gamble.”

“No,” he said with a smile.
“I don’t imagine you do.
You, Kate, would never let your hair down and take a chance.”

She touched her hair, knotted up in a prim librarian bun
at the back of her head.
He had the gall to challenge
her.
“I’m listening.”

“We sit
down to a lovely dinner.
I have
chocolate for dessert.
And afterwards we will go upstairs.
If you enjoy yourself, you consider my offer.
If you don’t we will never speak of it again.
You can go back to your submissive boy toys, and I will continue to watch from afar.”

“Stalker,” she muttered.
“I’m not hungry any more.
Let’s just get this over with.”

“As you wish,” he said, and let her walk ahead of him back into the hallway and up the stairs.
He caught up to her on the landing and grabbed at the clip holding her hair in place.

“Do
n’t,” she protested
too late, her hair falling down in ripples of dark curls.
His finger’s caught in
the
and she had to hold still or risk having her hair yanked.
Nathan
pulled her hair aside to kiss the back of her neck.
His lips were warm and smooth and as she never had any of her clients kiss her
there
she couldn’t resist shivering under his touch.
The unexpected thrill rushed through her entire body, erupting in an unexpected heat between her legs.

I won’t let you dominate me
, she thought
.
The Beast’s sexual prowess was legendary and he was considered a prodigy when it came to pleasing a woman either with a whip, his mouth or his cock.
She might not mind enjoying the latter two.
He continued to kiss her neck, nibbling his way around until his lips danced across her jaw.
Kate turned her head to meet his mouth.

Some men could not kiss.
Their tongues were invading wet worms slithering in her mouth
and
she had to fight the urge
to gag.