Free Seven Kisses: A Beauty and the Beast Dark Romance by Giselle Renarde Page A

a weird feeling, knowing her muscles wouldn’t cooperate.  She’d carried two cans of paint home last week and now she couldn’t even lift a window.
    Wait—was it locked?
    No. There were locks, but she could see that they were unlatched.
    Tracing her finger along the windowsill, Gabrielle noticed that she couldn’t get her fingernail in the gap that should have been between the casing and the window itself. They’d been painted together, over the years.
    She was trapped.
    Just my luck .
    The wooden door moaned, and Gabrielle’s synapses kicked into gear. She snapped her head around so fast her spine made a clicking sound.  She looked up, to where a face might appear behind the door, but saw nothing.
    “Who’s there?” she asked, in a panic.  She had no underwear on beneath her nightgown, and the cotton was thin enough to see through.  “Who is it?”
    “Ooo. Ooo. Ooo?”
    Gabrielle clasped her hand to her heart as she spotted the monkey at her bedside.  “Oh my god!”
    Hopping up on the chair beside the bed, he extended a shiny pink hand.  “Eee.  Eee. Ooo?”
    He was real. All those dreams, all those encounters, that tiny white room… it was all real?
    Gabrielle slumped against the headboard as the monkey took her hand and tugged.
    “I don’t believe it,” she said.  “I can’t… no, I can’t handle this, Samuel.”
    He looked up into her face, and for a second she worried he would slap her because she’d confused the monkeys again.  But there was a striking amount of care in his face as he tugged her hand.
    Her body slumped as she eased toward the edge of the bed.  “What now?”
    He held her hand to his cheek, and it reminded her of the beast.  The beast is real.  All that stuff… it really happened!   Then Samuel turned his head and nuzzled her palm. Gabrielle couldn’t help giggling.
    “Don’t make me laugh! I have to pee.”
    Nodding as if to say, “I know,” he said, “Eee! Eee! Eee!” and pulled her toward the open door.  If that was a hallway out there, it was an exceptionally dark one.
    Gabrielle gulped as the monkey butler led her over the threshold.
    “What fresh hell is this?” Gabrielle asked, as her eyes latched on to a sliver of light.
    A lamp clicked on, and Gabrielle screamed as a grotesque face showed itself bathed in the subtle light.  Her heart pounded and she tried to flee, except her legs were barely supporting her as it was and, anyway, where could she go?
    “Ooo. Ooo. Eee?”
    “Oh, thank goodness,” she said, breathing a sigh of relief.  “It’s only you, Gerard.”
    Laughing without making a sound, he moved his little shoulders up and down in an exaggerated show of mirth.
    “You got me,” she said.  “I almost peed myself.”
    Climbing down from the large wooden dresser, Gerard took the hand Samuel wasn’t already holding. 
    “Where are you taking me?” she asked as they led her into the relative darkness of a small alcove with a little door.
    “Eee! Eee! Eee!” Samuel pointed up the wall, and she trusted him enough to touch the tile.  It felt cool and clean, and when she traced her fingers across it she found a button and pushed.
    The lights popped on and the monkeys left her alone, closing the door on their way out.
    A bathroom.
    Inexplicable tears filled her eyes as she lifted her night dress and fell down on the lav.  She’d never been so happy to see a toilet, even if it was a very old-looking one.  It even had that English-style pull above it to flush.  She’d never seen one in real life, only on TV.  She didn’t think they even existed in this country.
    As she relieved herself, Gabrielle glanced down at her bare legs.  She’d waxed fairly recently, so at least they weren’t hairy after days of no shaving— how long have I been here ?—but that wasn’t really her focus.  The red marks, the bruising where she’d been secured to her stirrups—that’s what caught her eye.
    Everything felt real when she saw the