Betty’s laughter was a balm to his rattled nerves, she kissed his cheek nonchalantly, and then flew to Briley’s side and did the same. Her kiss excited Gerard, sizzled electric, rocked him to his core and pissed him off all at the same time. Gerard didn’t like this, didn’t like wanting her in this way. As a dying man desperate for water.
“That was hilarious, Gerard,” Betty’s electric blue eyes touched off a firestorm in his blood. “I’ve never seen her so pissed! I’ll remember that forever, stupid Gargantuan, always throwing her big, fat weight around. Serves her right.”
Briley frowned. “You said a bad word, Mr. Gerard.”
“Sometimes a bad word is the only thing you can say, Briley.” Gerard grumbled, but it was impossible to resist Betty’s teasing light, or Briley’s infectious laughter. Gerard laughed, and for the next two hours forgot just how badly he wanted to maim something.
***
Betty curled around him. The room danced with shadow, starlight shone in the navy canvas of sky, and Gerard felt his world closing in on him. He’d read to her for hours, his throat raw from repeating over and over stupid nonsensical phrases of ‘See Spot Run’ and ‘Run Jane Run’… though he knew his abilities were improving, it was slow and irksome all the same. And though the very notion of cuddling had induced a riot of bile in his gut before, he found this was the part of their day he most enjoyed.
“That was fun today,” she said, her smile evident in her tone.
He rubbed her back and she moaned. “Glad you thought so. I found it a detestable act of nature.”
“Oh, it wasn’t that bad,” she giggled and sat up, her warm brown eyes seared him, and his heart clenched. Her skin was so silky soft, so smooth, sliding along his hairy one. He squeezed his eyes.
“Why do you work in a library, Cherie?”
She tilted her head. “Where did that question come from?” Her fingers framed his face.
“You’re so smart. You have a degree. I know what that means. Why are you stuck here? Why do you work for so little, when you could have so much more?”
She thought for a moment and then smiled. “Briley. That’s the simple answer. When Kelly got divorced I knew he’d need help. Our parents died years ago, we only have each other. He needed me and I came.” She shrugged.
Why could he not find one flaw in the woman? Why was everything about her so good, so nice? It would be so much easier to leave if there were even one thing wrong. “Didn’t it make you angry? To be forced to put your life on hold? Resentful?”
She shook her head. “It hurt. I worked hard to get that degree. But all I’ve got to do is look in Briley’s wide guileless eyes and I know I did the right thing. I’d do it again.”
She said it so matter of factly, and he knew he’d never be half as good as her. Hadn’t been. Gerard was a beast, a man who got what he wanted, when he wanted it, and he wanted her. Now.
“Tell me about your world, Gerard,” she asked hesitantly.
He sighed, knowing for some time this conversation would happen. “What do you wish to know?”
She smiled. “Do you know the Beast?”
He growled. “Dog face, oui, I know him. Next time I see the arrogant bastard I’ll punch him in the face.”
She laughed. “Okay, let’s not talk about dog face then. Who else do you know?”
Gerard thought of the bad five. She might as well know the crowd he ran with. “I’m particular friends with Hook, Jinni, Hatter…”
Her eyes widened. “Oh man, that’s awesome, tell me more!”
Gerard chuckled at her child-like enthusiasm, and wanting to continue seeing her smile, told of some of their raunchier exploits. Betty cried with laughter at some of Hook’s debauchery, winced in sympathy at Wolf’s unfortunate problem, and sighed happily when he’d told her of Hatter’s successful mating. They talked for hours, and the more they talked, the more aware Gerard became of her. The way she sighed, how she would unknowingly curl closer to him, how her tiny hands touched him constantly, her scent, her warmth-- Betty Hart flooded his senses and his mind, and he could no longer remember stories.
“Betty,” he said, urgency lending a hint of violence to her name.
She shivered, as if sensing his mood. “Yes?”
“I need you.” The words tore from his soul. Vulnerable, exposed, Gerard sat up, pushing her away. “I cannot touch you each night, and pretend it isn’t so. I want to slip inside you, Cherie. I want to lick you, touch you,” make love, he refused to say the last.
Her eyes widened, as her breathing grew ragged. “I want that too,” she admitted softly.
With a groan, Gerard rolled on top her. Grabbing her by the waist, digging his fingers into her firm flesh, he pulled on her blouse with an impatient tug until her breasts popped free.
Her moans spurred him on.
She had the most amazing breasts. His hands shook a little as he traced the swell of each one. Pink tipped nipples poked like tiny daggers into the air. Leaning down, he blew a moist breath across one tip. The darkened skin puckered and her legs spread. Gerard lay between her spread legs, even through her shorts, the warmth of her body speared his.
He trembled, never remembering a moment he’d ever felt this wild, this crazy with wanting.