Romance Writers Behaving Badly

Doesn't everyone love #Beauty&theBeast? #excerpt

Sigh. I published this under my other pen name because I felt the world needed more Beauty & the Beast.

Slake himself on her. How romantic. But then what did she expect? Roses? She’d been kidnapped, albeit legally, from her village for her body, not because he’d seen her in the distance and fallen madly in love with her. “Yes, my lord.”  She walked to the wall, gathering her skirts in her hands.

 “I will do that.” Grabbing her hands away from the fabric, he pressed her hands to the wall over her head. “Interesting hair arrangement.”

“It was not of my choosing.” Serena stiffened her lower lip to stop it from shaking. His face hovered inches from hers, his eyes glittering coldly as he stared into her. Did he need to pick at her too? If only she didn’t find herself wanting him to see her as beautiful. The clean masculine scent of him, carried by the heat of his skin, enveloped her.

“I disgust you, don’t I? Just the sight of me makes you tremble with fear,” he said softly. His voice held a deadly note.

Serena shook her head. “No, my lord.”

“Am I expected to believe that you are trembling from eagerness? That you desire me so that you shiver from wanting?” he snapped. He caught both her hands in one of his so he could pull the diamond tipped pins from her hair. “Tell me the truth, Sweet Serena. I’m a beast and I frighten you like a tiny rabbit is afraid of a hawk.”

Serena bit her lip. His eyes were drawn to the slight motion. “No—yes. I am a little afraid of you. I don’t know you yet.”

“Surely my reputation speaks for me. Maidens like yourself have thrown themselves from the walls to escape me. They run through the halls screaming from my attentions. They slash themselves open with perfume bottles and run off cliffs. They go mad when they have been with me for just a few months.” He loosed the last pin and buried his hand in her hair, shaking it over her shoulders. “Will you go mad, Sweet Serena? Or will you throw yourself from the parapets?”

“Perhaps neither.” Serena met his hard gaze. “Perhaps I will grow to love you.”

Lord Damen laughed and it was the sound of icy rain falling on unharvested crops. “Love me? And what will you do when I turn into a beast with the legs of a goat, the chest of a bull and the head of a lion?"  
“I expect I will tie a blue ribbon around your neck and enter you in the large livestock judging at the fair.”

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