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Ramble, Bramble
He lay on his back, staring at the far away ceiling. It was all
he had ever known, but
to someone else, the vaulted ceilings, marbled oors and vast
halls must have
either been intimidating or ridiculous. He imagined how she must
feel, lying in thisbed, swallowed up by miles of sheets, staring at
a ceiling so far away that it seemed
an extension of the night sky. Suddenly feeling very small, he
shifted uncomfortably,
causing her sleeping head to begin to slide o his chest. He
froe, loath to wake her,
and focused instead on what else she would see, lying awake at
night. !n enormous
set of "rench doors took up the entire eastern wall, revealing
the early glow of a
rosy sunrise. He briey wondered why the curtains had not drawn
themselves last
night before further wondering at the stupidity of the architect
for positioning the
glass paned doors as he did.
He abandoned this line of thought in favor of watching the rosy
light creep across
his dark hair, pulling out glimmers of reds and golds, before
reaching her sleepingface. #he small spray of freckles across the
bridge of her nose looked like copper
against her milky skin$ her auburn lashes shone like threads of
gold as they lay
softly on her cheeks$ her curly, tousled locks wreathed her brow
like ames, warm
and wild all at once. He marveled at her and realied that he had
stopped breathing
to watch the steady rise and fall of her chest. %etting out his
breath, he resumed his
surveillance of the room, disliking the tight, uttery feeling in
his stomach.
&eyond the four posts of the bed lay a grandiose room, 't
for any lady, heiress or
princess. ! mahogany vanity faced the bed, too far away for him
to see his face
reected clearly. (laced on the vanity was a wash basin crafted
from a large shell of
the softest pink. #here was no pitcher as the basin was always
full of clean water,
warm or cold, depending on the current guest)s preference. He
wondered for a
moment what temperature the water would be for her when she woke
up and began
her morning ritual. #his errant thought caused him to look at
her face once more, a
poor decision.
#earing his eyes away with a little more di*culty, he took in
the pillared doorway to
the sitting room attached to these chambers as well as the
polished wooden oors
and ornate area rugs. +ach rug was thick enough to serve as a
bed itselfas he
knew she had used them, that 'rst night in the castleand each
was also ornately
wrought with hundreds of varieties of roses. #he colors were
indistinguishable in the
early half-light. ost of the room/s features were
indistinguishable and he realied
that it was a room of shadows and glimmers in the night, not at
all the inviting
setting it was by day, but a strange and foreign landscape that
swallowed her up at
sunset. 0verwhelmed with a desire to do somethinganythingto stop
feeling like
an alien in his own home, his eyes wandered to her face
again.
Her eyes were open. 1ot wide open like they normally were,
taking in everything
and anything, analying it and spitting it back out. 1o, they
were half-open, full with
sleepy, unspoken thoughts. He blinked in shock and realied that
the dierence
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most likely lay in the fact that she was not wearing her
spectacles which always
seemed to magnify her already large green eyes until she looked
like a curious owl.
0f course, she didn)t wear her spectacles all of the time, only
for reading, but it was
how he had come to think of her, and the change was surprising
and appealing.
She yawned widely and blinked as well, unsure of what to think
about her currentposition. #he sleep that still pervaded much of
her brain convinced her not to worry
about it and to en2oy the silkiness and warmth of his fur
beneath her cheek. 3ather
agreeing with the sleep, she looked up at him, opening her mouth
to say something
but she stopped. She never ceased to be arrested by the humanity
in his large hael
eyes. 0ften it was 2ust the intelligence that caught her
attention, the knowing spark
that seemed to say 4I see and understand you better than you
know4, but this
morning she was spellbound by something newa tendernessan
emotion that she
couldn)t place.
(erhaps she couldn)t place it because he couldn)t 5uite place it
himself. &ut her
expression, her full lips parted slightly as if in expectance,
her eyes searching,
yearning, caused something to stir deep inside of him that he
had not been
expecting. He could not remember when he last felt desire for
something other than
a return to his own human form, desire for another person. He
did not know he
could still feel that way, did not know that things were 2ust
the same inside of this
larger body. &lushing somewhere beneath his dark hair, he
sat up, watching her
slide onto the bed. Her expression was unchanged, still
searching, still waiting for
something. "eeling an ache that had nothing to do with his tired
muscles and
5uickly healing wounds, he searched her face back, begging for
the desire to leave
him, to let him look at her again as he had before6 easily,
where he could still
breathe. &ut there was no breath to be had. He thought he
remembered how to
react and gingerly placing a heavy paw on the silken sheets next
to her, he drew
himself onto his side, still watching her, watching him.
She lay there, vaguely aware that she should move, should shake
herself awake7
but his face was fascinating. #he bright eyes set in the midst
of all the dark hair
shone, the velvety nose that barely moved as he drew in slow,
steady breaths, the
mule that was sleek and stout, tight-lipped enough to house all
of his glistening
teeth without showing them. It was not the face of a monsternor
that of a man
and she could not look away. !s she was watching him, he reached
out and brushed
a strand of hair o of her cheek.
Her gae stopped tracing his face and moved back to his eyes at
the instant of his
touch. 8hatever she saw there caused her to take a deep, shaky
breath, the 'rstsound she had made since she opened her eyes. #he
uno*cial truce ended. ! low,
throaty sound broke over his lips, too hungry to be a growl, and
suddenly he was
over top of her, his scent was everywhere around her, the forest
and pepper and
musk, his face blocking out the morning.
!s 5uickly as he had engulfed her world, he was gone, leaving
her uncertain and
cold and alone. She rolled over onto her side and gaed at the
imprint he had left on
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the mattress, smiling 5uietly at the dark hairs remaining,
mundane reminders that
he had been there only moments ago.
#he &east stood outside the now closed door to her suite and
looked at his shaking
paws with disgust. He was angry with himself for losing control.
It was the anger
that he decided to focus on, that he could handle. He knew how
to be angry, how tothrow vases and rend pictures and smash mirrors.
It was better to dwell on his
anger than to remember the way she had looked at him, the fear
in her eyes. 1o
one wanted him, a monster, in their bed. He couldn)t let her see
how much he
longed for her, lived for her, loved her, terri'ed that the fear
in her eyes would turn
to fear in her heart and he would lose her, the only beauty in
his life.
