Page 87 of Beast

“Why?”

“Because I know you like it.”

I gnaw at my lip.

“Come here,” he says.

“I think I’ll just go to bed.”

I climb onto the bed and pull the sheets over my lap. Which doesn’t perturb him in the slightest.

He makes a show of how delicious the pie is, scooping a heap onto the spoon and devouring it. I watch him slowly slide the spoon from his mouth.

My stomach rumbles.

My mouth waters.

Fine.

If he wants me to eat, I suppose I should. After all, I have decided to be more compliant.

I climb out of bed while Beast pulls another scoop onto the spoon.

Before I reach the chair, he grabs it and positions it so it faces him.

“Sit,” he says.

I eye the plate of pumpkin pie. It’s a huge piece. I could break some off and take it back to bed with me. But the crumbs…

So I sit, and Beast offers me a spoon. He holds the plate between us and we start to eat.

“Want to tell me what that was about?” he asks casually, taking another spoonful of pie.

“What?”

“It cut you when I said you wouldn’t be a real old lady.”

I slice into the end of the pie with my spoon. “Are you a mind reader now?”

“One of my many talents,” he says, spooning up more pie. “Wanna tell me why?”

If I only knew why.

I look away.

“Look at me,” he says.

But I can’t look at him. Because I feel vulnerable.

“Belle.” My name sounds good on his lips when he rumbles it in his deep, throaty voice. “Look at me.”

Fuck it.

I put my spoon on the plate and look up at him. “Because when you kiss me, it feels real.”

His eyes twinkle across from me. Dark and feverish.

“But I know this is fake?—"

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