Page 136 of Beau and the Beast

Once Violetknew, she wondered how everyone else at dinner didn’t justsee it.

The fact that Wolfram and Beau were together was so blatant to her now as she watched them interact, leaning in to hear what the other was saying, paying such close attention to every word.

Beau’s spirits were the highest they’d been since he’d arrived, and she’d never seen her boss so happy. Their smiles and laughter were infectious, and in some way it was as if the final barrier to the staff’s happiness had been lifted. Without really knowing it, they’d all been holding their breath, waiting for the day when Wolfram’s smiles might come easily.

By all accounts, their days had gotten better and better since Beau arrived.

But Wolfram’s days, she reminded herself, were numbered.

And as the days had stretched on, she’d felt an anxiety gnawing at her bones until it was impossible to ignore.

There were only a few more weeks until the tenth anniversary of Wolfram’s curse.

Since the incident with Beau that morning in the week before, Wolfram had stopped wearing the cursed golden watch completely.

Years ago, Violet had begged him to put it away somewhere safe so that there was no chance of their timeline being altered by a mistake—just like what had been about to happen that morning with Beau. She’d said it back then because she didn’t want to be reminded of the thing.

But now she worried that Wolfram had forgotten the deadline completely—or was at the very least willfully ignoring it.

The watch ticked down the days that they had left to solve the riddle of the curse. None of them knew what would happen when the time hit midnight, but judging from the witch’s fury and the gravity of the riddle, they had all come to assume that it would mark the end of Wolfram’s life.

The cognitive dissonance, then, that it required to sit at the table and laugh with Wolfram was incredible. Unless Beau broke the curse, Wolfram’s days were quite literally numbered.

She watched Beau as he smiled and stood to retrieve more wine for them, going around the table to top off everyone’s glass.

It was wrong that Wolfram hadn’t told him. She knew in her heart that if Beau had been armed with all of the information about the curse, he wouldn’t be happy, wouldn’t have instituted the nightly dinners and spent so much time trying to make everyone in the penthouse value their lives again… But that wasn’t the point of Beau being in the penthouse, she reminded herself. He was there to break the curse—to free them all and save Wolfram’s life—not to make them all happier about their cursed existence.

And though she wanted to trust Wolfram, to let him enjoy the modicum of happiness he’d finally secured for himself, she also wanted her freedom. She didn’t want to die there in the penthouse without ever spending a day on the ground again, without swimming in a lake or brushing her daughter’s hair.

She would speak to him, she decided. Maybe not tonight, but sometime soon. Before it was too late.

* * *

Wolfram had promisedtodiscussthe idea of having sex after dinner. Beau made it clear that he wasn’t coming back to Wolfram’s study for discussion, however.

The minute they were behind the heavy door of the study, Beau was pulling him, kissing him, his hands quick at the waist of Wolfram’s breeches.

“What happened to talking more?” Wolfram demanded.

“I thought about that,” Beau said in between desperate kisses as he walked Wolfram back toward his bedroom. “I decided I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

They entered the bedroom and Beau kicked the door shut behind them before kissing into Wolfram again, his mouth hot and demanding.

“Beau, I—“

“You talk too much,” Beau said with a smile, barely taking a moment to breathe.

Wolfram smiled into their kiss but drew back.

“If you want me to compromise, you’ve got to as well,” he reminded Beau. “I won’t do this unless you’re going to communicate with me. Thewholetime. And you must be patient.”

“I can be patient,” Beau said, frowning.

“I’ve seen very little evidence of that.”

“I can be patient when I want something as badly as I wantyou,” Beau clarified. “I just wish we were at my apartment.”

Wolfram snorted. “Why’s that? I don’t think you’d enjoy me as much if we only had 500 square feet to work with.”

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