Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 74631 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74631 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
This time, when I knock, there is only a short pause, and then she calls, “I’ve put my blindfold on.”
I go into her room. “I’ve brought dinner for you, my beauty.”
Elle’s smile and blush that come with it make the hours of waiting worth it.
I feed Elle from my hand on the rug before her fireplace, the two of us seated on comfortable cushions the house has provided. Elle hardly stops smiling. I feed her a sweet bite, then a savory one.
She enjoys my company; I’m sure of it. That pleases a piece of me that’s desperate for her love. I want her to crave every bit of me that she can. I want her to need me so that if the day comes where she sees me, she will stay. She must. I do not know what I will do if she cannot find it in herself to…
“It’s all delicious.” She sighs after pulling her lips away from my fingers. The slight suction reminds me of the pleasure she provided earlier. I fucking love it. “Every bite.”
“Then why are you making it harder to feed you?”
Her mouth drops open. “Am I?”
“I can hardly fit this bite between your lips.”
Elle opens her mouth wider, her cheeks pink underneath the blindfold.
“That is better.” I grin wickedly, enjoying the sight of her before me. I tease her and feed her and relish the moment.
The more she eats, the more relaxed I feel. The more relaxed Elle feels as well, or at least the magic in the castle is warming to this. My heart pounds with feeling. I did not intend to let any emotion I feel about Elle become so strong, but how could I prevent this?
She has come into the castle that has been my prison for so long and treated it like a home. She has awakened the magic in all the rooms, even the ones I allowed to become the most forgotten. The halls that used to be occupied with life and celebration have come back to life, although they are vacant when I pass…unless she is there.
I stroke the side of her cheek, and she smiles at my touch. Brightening and leaning into me.
It is late when I banish the tray, sending it back to the kitchen for the dishes to be cleaned and put away for the night. What I should do is get up and leave her to the rest of her evening, but my eye catches on something sitting on a table near the chair by the fireplace in her room.
“What have you been reading?”
Confusion crosses Elle’s face, but then it is replaced with excitement. I wish I could see her eyes. I can’t, as they are covered by the blindfold.
“Oh,” she begins, sounding delighted. “A book about a man who sails across the sea and has many different adventures when he arrives.” Elle smiles. “I find them thrilling.”
It has been years since I have read but I vaguely remember the tales of adventure. The memories bring back much emotion, but I suppress it, instead focusing on her gorgeous face.
“Read to me,” I request before I can help myself.
Her shock lasts longer. “Read to you?” she asks.
“Yes.”
I turn her around on the cushion, facing her toward the fire, then retrieve her book and rearrange my own cushion so I am seated behind her. I place the book in her hands, then touch the knot at the back of the blindfold.
“You will not turn around, my beauty,” I murmur as I tap the knot of the blindfold.
“I will not turn around…I promise,” she whispers in agreement.
Then I take the blindfold off.
She flips through the book, her head bowed, perhaps finding another place to start. I think she is scanning through the words because she lifts her head and starts to turn to look at me, inhaling as if she’s going to speak.
I’m halfway out of my seat before I can see her eyes. Elle jerks her head forward, and I freeze, waiting to make sure she won’t turn around again before I settle onto the cushion.
“I’m sorry,” she says. “I’m so sorry. I’m just…are you sure you want me to read to you?”
“I would love for you to.”
She smiles, and though I can’t see her face, I can see it in her body and the ease that she settles into.
Then Elle tells me she’s just got to a place in the book that would be perfect and asks if it’s all right or if I’d like to start at the beginning.
The tale is a thrilling one and the cadence of her voice is entrancing as she reads to me. I think she has returned to a part she has read before, because the words fall smoothly from her lips. It is all so beautiful that I am lulled into relaxing. Slowly, she rests against me and her touch and her voice…they are everything.