Music recommendation: Youami by Riopy

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Belle was that child who often fell down doing something or the other and if it weren't for Lucas, she would have had more wounds that she had come to acquire. With the gentleness he used the cotton on her skin, Belle somewhere felt shy over the attention she was receiving right now.

When the carriage had tumbled over four times, Lucas hadn't found the time to react quickly as it was very unexpected, it had resulted in Belle hitting her head and hurting her leg. If she were a human she would have hurt herself more as a human's body wasn't as strong and durable as the vampires.

He noted how she wasn't looking at him anymore and had her eyes cast down. Once he let go of her chin, she finally looked at him to see him place the cotton on the box but didn't close it.

"You don't mind, do you?" he asked when his hand reached for her leg.

"No."

Belle's first thought was that he was going to run his hand over her dress again and that itself brought the heat in her face. As outspoken she tried to be when it came to her thoughts, her head was all muddled with the thought of what happened earlier on the road and Lucas knew just what was running in the little rabbit's mind.

"What do you think you are doing!" Barron shouted with his face turned to look at the wall. This reaper was not to be trusted! Though Barron was no less in character when it came to the comparison between him and Lucas. After spending some alone time with the vampiress who often kept talking to him, explaining unneeded things he didn't have to know. He didn't know what that butler was trying to do with that girl that he had made him turn to look at the wall.

Barron's words fell deaf on Lucas' ears as they were ignored and he used both his hands to bring Belle's legs up on the bed. Lucas took the liberty to sit on the bed and when his hands reached the hem of her skirt, Belle stopped him, her hand on his own hand with her heart thudding in her chest.

"Wait," she had never shown her legs to anyone and she looked at him anxiously with a small gulp, "I can do it myself," she spoke quickly.

Belle was easy to read for Lucas. She would chase him but once he would turn around, it would have her hide somewhere out of embarrassment. What a funny girl, thought Lucas. But Lucas was no good man. His very bones were made out of cunningness and cruelness that he enjoyed seeing her like this, after all, it wasn't often he found the bold and outspoken girl to not meet his eyes.

"Scared, Miss Belle?" he provoked her with his eyes on her and her eyes snapped to look at him. His eyes looked at her tauntingly and she pursed her lips.

"I am not scared."

Belle stared back with her beautiful red eyes and she then said, "I am not scared of anything. Be careful with the wound," she informed him, putting up a face of bravery that didn't stay for long when Lucas pushed up her skirt until her knee to show it wasn't just one side where she had hurt herself but both her legs appeared to be bruised.

One leg had trailed down with blood that had dried with the amount of time that had passed since their accident.

With her legs exposed down from her knees to the tip of her toes, Belle placed both her hands on either side of the surface of the bed she was sitting on. No one had ever seen her bare legs before and here she was on her bed with the man she had harbored feelings for with her slender legs for his viewing. She tried to keep a calm composure as Lucas started to clean the dried blood on her pale skin. He started to move the cotton from her ankle to the top, moving it until most of her wounds were cleaned.

With Lucas touching her legs, it was enough to keep her quiet from asking any more questions or trying to test him.

"Did you hurt elsewhere?" asked Lucas and Belle quickly shook her head. When Lucas placed his hand on her ankle, he squeezed to ask her, "Let me know if it hurts," Belle was sure she was going to pass out now. She gulped the tension she could feel around her with every touch of his and he finally let go of it to put the hem of her dress back until her ankle.

Though his hand was gloved, she could feel his touch turning every fiber in her body alive like light lighting from inside her.

He closed the first-aid box and placed it back in the bathroom.

Belle's heart squeezed, biting her bottom lip she let it go when he returned. Her head felt dizzy. Not because of the fall in the carriage but because of how her emotions were errant at the moment.

"Lucas," Belle called his name with sweetness which even had Barron give his ears to it. Seeing she had his attention, she asked him, "Can I ask you something?"

"You already did. What is it?" he asked her.

She was still gathering the right words when she asked, "What kind of people do you admire?"

Lucas titled his head, giving it a thought he replied, "I never thought about it. People can be very disappointing. I am guessing that is not what your question was," and he was right.

"What kind of women do you...spend your time with?" this was a question Lucas wasn't expecting.

Lucas raised his brows, "Spend my time? Are you asking who I sleep with, Miss Belle?" with the way he put it, her question felt even more intrusive than what she had asked.

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2 chapters have been posted as an advance for 1 coin access. Scroll to find it.