Page 113 of Beau and the Beast

“That it’s an erogenous zone?” Wolfram asked with a raised eyebrow.

Beau’s hands stilled. “Is it?”

“Apparently. It was news to me.”

“Oh my God—I wouldn’t have—“

“It’s fine,” Wolfram insisted, holding up a hand. “I enjoyed it—and though it perhaps wasn’t exactly the right venue to make a discovery like that, I’m happy to know it nonetheless.”

Beau smoothed the fur under his hands and then set Wolfram’s tail gently back on the floor. Wolfram flicked it back and forth a few times before withdrawing it and curling it around his body, smiling at Beau.

“Would you like to stay here with me tonight?” Wolfram asked, taking a sip of his brandy. His big golden eyes caught the lamplight and flared like lanterns. Beaudidwant to stay with him—but there was more on his mind than that.

“I need to talk to you about something,” Beau said.

Wolfram’s face fell. “Of course.”

“Geoffrey took me aside before dinner to tell me about my brother,” Beau said. “Thank you for making sure our bills were paid, by the way.”

Wolfram bowed his head to acknowledge him.

“I can’t stop feeling strange about being so happy here,” Beau said, struggling for words to explain the way he’d been feeling all evening. “I’ve never been away from my brother for so long and I worry about how he’s doing without me. I feel like I abandoned my kid to go have an affair with someone.”

“I see,” Wolfram said, his expression inscrutable.

Beau had been planning on drawing out their conversation longer, but wasn’t it better just to be honest with each other? He decided not to mince words anymore.

“Can I please call him again, Wolf?”

“Absolutely not.”

Beau was taken aback by the firm and immediate answer. Wolfram’s posture didn’t even change. He didn’t even set his brandy down. Wolfram didn’t do anything to soften the blow of it, to offer something else or try to explain himself. It was shocking coming from someone he thought he understood so well.

“Please—“ Beau began.

Wolfram shook his head. “I can’t risk it.”

“Jesus, it’s not like I’m going to tell him anything,” he protested. Beau could feel himself getting angry and he hated it. Why would Wolfram deny him this?Howcould he? “I care about you—I wouldn’t do anything to endanger you. You know that—right?”

Wolfram was still frowning. “Youwouldn’t. I can’t say the same about your brother.”

“If I tell him that everything’s fine, he’ll leave us alone until I’m home,” Beau said.

* * *

“Until I’m home…”The words hit Wolfram like a slap—and though he knew that Beau didn’t mean them as anything other than a statement of fact, Wolfram couldn’t help but to curl in on himself in anger and fear.

Beau would be leaving, whether he broke the curse or not. He wouldn’t stay a prisoner of the penthouse like Violet and the rest.

Beau had ahome. And it wasn’there.

Wolfram set his jaw, angry at himself for his cowardice, for his inability to let Beau have something that he wanted, for the fact that he was feeling so much in the moment and couldn’t put any of it into words.

Why did it make him so furious to be reminded that Beau had had a life before he’d come to the penthouse? Why was it so unacceptable to think of a future where Beau would gobackto that life?

“He’s a risk. Any contact with him puts us all in jeopardy—“

“You really don’t think you can trust me?” Beau cut in. “You think I would do something that puts you in danger?”

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