Page 35 of Cinder (MC Fables #2)
E lla
I’m losing my mind.
I must be.
Melting like an ice cube against him.
Silently begging him to touch me.
Kissing him.
Wanting him.
I’m losing sight of why I am here.
And it’s dangerous.
Any more fuckups and Lucretia will have you to thank for what comes next.
Remembering Luca’s words makes me shiver.
That’s why after Lars leaves, I slip into the library and walk straight to the book of fairytales.
This will be the last time I’m in the clubhouse.
This is goodbye.
Tomorrow, I won’t show up for my shift. I’ll call in sick, then I’ll take the bus to Abbottville in the next county over to visit one of my mom’s rare book dealers. And I will sell this book.
Then, I will smuggle Lucretia out of the mansion, and we’ll escape Luca for good.
I will be free.
Sad to never see Lars again.
But free.
“Now there’s someone who knows exactly what she wants to read.” The soft female voice breaks into the silence of the library.
I swing around and come face to face with a woman sitting on the couch with a baby in her arms.
Belle.
Beast’s old lady.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” she says.
She’s sitting cross-legged, her thick blonde plait pulled over one shoulder .
I smile to hide my guilt. “I didn’t realize anyone was in here.” Then I remember this is her library. The one Beast gifted her when they were married. “I didn’t mean to interrupt. I hope I’m not trespassing.”
“Trespassing?” She laughs. “No, this library is for everyone. Not that anyone but me usually uses it.”
“It’s beautiful,” I say, looking around the lamp-lit room. “I think it’s the most beautiful room in the clubhouse.”
She smiles, then indicates the space beside her on the couch. “Come join me.”
I cross the room to where she is sitting in front of the fireplace.
“You’re new,” she says.
“Ella,” I say, sitting next to her.
“I’m Belle. And this is Lucy.”
I look at the baby stirring in her arms. “She’s adorable.”
“Thanks.” She smiles. “She’s teething, but this room seems to settle her.”
“And why wouldn’t it? There’s something special about it.”
“That’s what I told Beast when he first brought me in here.”
I think of the fierce president and wonder what he was like when he pursued her.
“It’s unusual for a biker clubhouse to have a library,” I say.
“So is having an old castle for a clubhouse, I suppose,” Belle says, patting Lucy’s back to settle her when she starts to fuss. “ Apparently, when the Knights originally brought it, the library was left behind by the original owners. It sat gathering dust for decades until I came along.”
Lucy settles and falls into a contented sleep in Belle’s arms.
“Have you and Beast been married long?” I ask.
“A little over a year and a half.”
“How did you meet?”
She chuckles. “Now that’s a story. But maybe one for another day. Let’s just say when my husband knows what he wants, he goes after it.”
I can imagine it.
I’ve seen the way he looks at her. Like she is the only woman on Earth.
And the love of his life.
“So, you and Lars…” she says out of the blue.
My eyes dart to hers. “Let me guess, Mya is your best friend too.”
She laughs. “She’s determined to find Lars his happily ever after.”
I think about my encounter with Lars in his bedroom this afternoon.
About his warm lips on my skin.
About the way his touch sent tiny shivers of bliss skating across my skin .
How I was surrendering beneath his warm touch.
“Lars is a good guy. Scary as hell, and I wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of him. But you only need to look at him with Lucy to see how big his heart is.”
I picture Lars with baby Lucy in his powerful inked arms, and heat flares at my core.
“We’re just friends,” I say.
She gives me a warm smile. But her eyes twinkle with knowingness. “I think you and I both know that’s not true.”
I don’t know what it is about Belle, but I have the sudden urge to confide in her. How I feel about Lars. How much I want it to be something more than friends. But why it can’t be.
“Is it that obvious?” I ask.
“Maybe not to others. But I’ve seen how you look at him.”
“Which is how?”
“Exactly how I used to look at Beast when I knew I shouldn’t want him, but I couldn’t help myself.”
Her words linger long after she leaves to put Lucy to bed.
And I sit with them for a while in the soft glow of the library, wishing things were different.
But I don’t have a choice.
Luca has ensured that.
I quickly rise to my feet and cross the room to the bookshelf before I lose my nerve and pull the book from the shelf .
Forgive me, Belle.
And slipping the book into my backpack, I leave the library and disappear out the front door.