Beauty and the Goblin King (Fairy Tale Heat Book 1)

by Lidiya Foxglove

  “It’s perfect,” I said.

  For a moment, I almost forgot how upsetting it had been to lose the brave knife and battle the waters. But the merry mood was fleeting. Time was ticking away, and I didn’t know what to do. I wandered through all the rooms again, searching for clues. The goblins were everywhere, hopping and rolling around, but they could not answer my questions.

  The sun set so fast, and before I knew it, I had to return to my bedchamber to wait for Nyar. I picked at my food. Each hour lost felt like a physical pain within me, like I was dying for not being able to save him.

  As soon as he appeared, I knew he had no idea one of his subjects had died. They all seemed to know immediately that they had lost one of their own, but not him. They must be able to communicate amongst themselves, but the curse shut him out.

  “Sabela.” A small smile crossed his face. “What happened to you today? It appears my people have had some fun.”

  “Yes, but first…I have to tell you something. One of the—the kitchen knives—fell into the river. Before I could reach it…it…”

  “What?” He pounded his fist into the door. “You were down at the river?”

  “To get water for the rose.”

  “And…” He seemed to realize something. “You’re still here.”

  “Yes, I am, but—“

  He looked at me, pained. “So you encountered her, did you?”

  “She’s the one who cursed you.”

  “Yes. But…” He put his hand to my face. He wasn’t wearing the gloves today, and his touch was careful. “She didn’t hurt you.”

  “She certainly tried. She might have pulled me in if the knife hadn’t slashed at her, but…then it fell into the water and…I couldn’t do anything…! Will it die? Or be lost forever?”

  “Truth to be told, I don’t know. But it did what it intended to do. I know that much.”

  Nyar put an arm around me, his claws slowly tightening around my bodice until I felt the pinprick of them digging into my skin through the fabric. He cursed. “The worst of it is, when the curse happened and all my subjects were cursed with me, I never knew who was who, and they’ve never been able to tell me. I don’t even know who I’ve lost. But I have my suspicions… Garor was my loyal friend and bodyguard. It seems like something he would do. I can hardly mourn him when I’m not sure, though, can I?” He covered his face with a hand. “All of this, and my curse is unabated. I still need you as much as ever, but it seems disrespectful to even think of it.”

  I placed my hand on his arm. “Why don’t you relax and let me ease your suffering rather than your taking me?”

  “Ease my suffering…” He scoffed.

  I drew him down onto the bed, giving him a little shove toward the pillows, ignoring his protests as he would have ignored mine. I unbuttoned his trousers myself and, knowing that it would only pain him to be teased, I took his cock into my mouth right away. It felt so good when he had done it to me last night, I thought he might like the same. I wasn’t used to having something so large in my mouth; it was hard not to gag, so I couldn’t go as deep as he might have wanted, but nevertheless I tried to use my lips and tongue as best I could, and judging by the sound of the pleased little growl in his throat, it was working. Encouraged, I stroked my mouth over him, going a little deeper each time.

  His hips started to move with my rhythm, and then he put his hands on my head and started trying to take control of it, and I was forced to stop, with an embarrassed laugh.

  “I can’t do it yet; I’ll choke.”

  “Then, come here and we’ll finish as we always do. I can’t wait for you any longer.”

  Always. I liked that word, it made it sound as if we had been doing this forever and would keep doing it forever. And that was how it felt to me. I could no longer imagine my old life, before I had been seduced by a goblin king every night.

  He was still on his back on the bed. I hitched up my skirts and climbed onto him, immediately starting to ride him. He lifted his legs, putting his feet down, so he had more leverage to encourage my rhythm to go faster. I liked the way my buttocks and thighs felt nested where his legs met his body. I felt safe with him.

  “They’ve tried their best to make a goblin maiden out of you, hmm?” he asked me.

  “I’m afraid I’ll never look quite as…dangerous.”

  “No, but…” He reached up to flick his claw at a lock of my hair. “You still look ready for trouble.”

  “I think I’m in trouble right now,” I said, with a grin. I reached for the buttons of his shirt and unbuttoned a few. “I never get to see much of you like you’ve seen me.”

  “I suppose I’m in too deep to deny you anything,” he said.

  But then I sobered, thinking of the night before. “Last night…when you suddenly got so rough with me…”

  “Let’s not speak of it.”

  “I know it scares you, Nyar. It scares me, too, knowing I might fail. If I think about it too much…” I clenched my hands around his shirt before shoving it off his pale shoulders.

  He pulled me against his bare chest and kissed me. His tongue in my mouth, his hardness inside me…it was almost too much to bear. I wrapped my hands around his back, beneath his shirt, my fingers digging into his slender muscles. With our bodies and legs tangled, he rolled me over, which was just as well because I was starting to get tired. I had never realized how much strength it took just to make love.

  This time, we reached our climax at almost the same time, our mouths still locked together, our sounds of pleasure mingling, and even after it was over, he didn’t withdraw right away, but held me close.

  “Are you wicked enough to be a proper goblin, I wonder?” he asked me.

  “How wicked to I have to be? It isn’t true that goblins steal babies, is it?”

  “Oh, it’s true.”

  “You’re joking.”

  “No, we have been known to steal an unwanted babe here and there. Humans have some useful qualities. Sprinkling in a few of them keeps our bloodline strong. I’ve never done it, though. I have been known to steal a pig for the feast of the harvest moon. But, only from men who deserve it.”

  “How do you know the babes are unwanted and the men deserve it?”

  “Observation.”

  “I might be willing to help you steal a pig someday,” I said. “Only if you swear to me that the farmer is rich enough to manage without it. Even if he’s a nasty sort of man, he might have children who could go hungry.”

  “No, I’m not sure you are wicked enough yet.”

  “Maybe I’ll have to tame your wickedness instead.”

  He kissed my forehead, his golden eyes growing shadowed, and now I knew he was thinking of the unknown but loyal goblin he had lost.

  “Will you come outside with me tonight?” he asked. “To light a fire and honor the dead?”

  “Of course! You know I’ve been wanting to spend the nights with you.”

  “It will be no easy task to restrain myself, but for the sake of a funeral…I don’t want to be alone. That is, I won’t be alone,” he added, gesturing to indicate all the inanimate objects that would probably follow us. “But I’d like another voice.”

  “I want to be there,” I said. “I can’t help but feel that it’s my fault.”

  “It wasn’t,” he said. “The witch is a formidable foe.”

  Hand in hand, we walked through the halls of the caverns and out to the moonlit fields and hills. The moon was a half circle in the sky tonight, still quite bright in the cloudless black sea of stars. He left behind all the lanterns and candles, so it was just the two of us and the silvery light shining down. His subjects followed us out, all except the few larger pieces like the clock. There was something faintly comical about seeing dishes, brushes, and fireplace tools moving through the grass, but as soon as I considered that they were actually people it wasn’t funny at all.

  The whole night was, indeed, tinged with a sense of tragedy, the king and all h
is subjects reduced to a farce by the curse. I still wondered what he had done to deserve it. Tricked a girl and broken her heart? I knew he wouldn’t be able to answer questions about it, but…I thought he had probably made a mistake more so than an unforgivable act. The fair folk didn’t care much for goblins, in any case, so if he had tried to seduce a water faery’s daughter, her vengeance might have been tenfold what was deserved.

  He stopped at the site of a fire pit. The charred remains of past fires marked a large circle. Benches circled the pit, but the grass was quite overgrown, up to my knees and almost hiding the benches, and I started stomping down an area around the fire while he gathered brush and twigs, then crossed a few logs like a tent above the kindling.

  “We used to have sheep and goats to keep the grass cut, but they’ve mostly gotten lost or stolen by now,” he said. “My castle defenses aren’t what they used to be. Well, here we are.” He flicked his hands at the fire a few times, murmuring a spell. The kindling caught fire, the flames quickly spreading, lending warmth to the night.

  I moved to Nyar’s side, and he put an arm around me. I looked up at the stars. “Looks like my bedroom ceiling.”

  “The stars in your bedroom will move, just like the sky does,” he said. “We are nocturnal creatures, so stars are important to us. We use them for navigation, for inspiration, for fortunes…”

  “Can you tell me my fortune?”

  “I don’t dare.”

  We stood there together a moment, his arm around me and my arm around him, watching the fire grow more steady as the first blaze of the kindling seeped into the larger logs, providing low, long-burning flames.

  “How do you honor your dead?” I asked.

  “Without a body…without my people’s voices…the options become a bit more limited. But we could have a song, although I’m not the best singer in the kingdom.”

  “No one’s here to judge you.”

  “I hope not.” He raised an eyebrow at me before clearing his throat.

  His ragged voice may not have been pretty, but it had a pleasant character all the same, as he sang of the goblin’s body nourishing the land while its soul sailed upon the stars. When he came to the chorus a second time, I sang with him, although I faltered on a few words I had not quite caught the first time.

  His hand slipped to clutch mine.

  “So strange,” he said, “not to know.”

  Something about the size of an animal rustled in the grass, coming our way. To my surprise, it was the lute, followed closely by the pipes, a small drum, and a flute. The instruments began to play of their own accord, rendering the mourning song in a beautiful way. We didn’t try to sing with them this time, but simply let them play, as the goblins gathered closer.

  Then they began to play a merrier tune, and Nyar bowed to me, holding out his palm. “I do believe they’d like us to dance.”

  “Then, we must oblige them.” I carefully fit my hand to his in a dancing position, avoiding his claws, and he pulled me close. He was already hungry for me again, but I knew this was not the time for that yet. This was a moment to savor the deeper connection that was developing between us. He spun me around, my bare feet twirling in the dewy grass, the firelight casting a glow on our skin.

  I didn’t know goblin dances and he didn’t know human ones, but I followed his lead easily. Our bodies understood each other so well. The ghostly instruments kept playing, reels and jigs and frolics, some of them meant for crowds and not for two lonely people, but we did our best with them all the same.

  I didn’t know when I had ever had such fun in my life. A cruel voice kept whispering in my mind, This might end! I would quickly tamp it down, trying not to let any tears spring to my eyes and disturb the happiness of this perfect night.

  “My beautiful Sabela,” he said, holding me against him. “That is—my clever Sabela.”

  “I suppose you’re allowed to call me beautiful in such a moment,” I said.

  “I wonder if I will stop aching for you even after the curse is lifted.”

  “I hope not. Well, maybe not four times a day, but at least once. Or twice. The feeling has been mutual quite a lot of the time.”

  “Why did you come here?” he asked. “For coins, yes, but it was more than that, wasn’t it?”

  “I’ve always been curious about you.” I twisted a corner of my apron. “I don’t know why. Even though the other townspeople think you just a lascivious goblin, deep down I knew the real story would be more complicated than that. And…I wanted to know what it was. Besides that, I saw a picture of you in a book, a fair likeness, I might add, and…who knows, maybe I just knew I was meant to come to you. I never cared about the coins.”

  “There is one thing I believe I can tell you,” he said. “There is nothing you can do right now to solve the final test. You can’t search for it. It will come to you, with time. So, there is nothing for us to do now but wait for it, and in the meantime, you might as well spend your time with me…if you are willing. I will have to claim you more often. It’s easier to restrain myself when I’m not near you.”

  “I told you from the start, you can take me as many times as you like.”

  “That is the bargain,” he admitted.

  “I don’t think I’ll mind. I want you, Nyar…”

  “I have accepted that this might be all we have, but—”

  “Don’t say that. I forbid you to talk that way.” I was excited that I no longer had to search the castle in confusion, but so frightened I would fail. The test of the rose was so innocent. The flowers called to me, and I had picked it without thinking. But later, it was the man in the coffin who called to me, and I had resisted him. I wondered if this meant there was something else I must resist. What could it be? When the time came, I would have to know it.

  “We have a few more nights,” he said. “I promise I won’t speak of the curse any more. We’ll just make the most of them.”

  He kissed me again, his claws raking gently down my back. He could have hurt me, but he didn’t and I knew he never would.

  But when he took me, there on one of the benches, he was as rough as he’d ever been, ravenous with waiting. I didn’t want to admit it, but in some ways I would miss his curse if it was broken. Oh, I knew it would certainly get tiresome eventually, but in this moment, I was deeply aroused by the idea that he was forced to fuck me, that he could not deny himself and I could not have denied him if I tried. Surely I was wicked enough to be a goblin for that alone, because I certainly was too wicked to be a human anymore.

  His subjects started to shuffle back to the caverns, some of them not quickly enough, I thought.

  “We are not leaving anything to the imagination if I was to be your bride someday,” I said.

  “Goblins and the fair folk have different views of these things,” he said. “In some kingdoms the marriage of a king and his queen must be consummated in view of the court. We will not be doing that, at least.”

  “We’ve already done it!”

  He chuckled.

  Chapter Eight

  Sabela was destined to be my bride. I was beginning to believe it might truly be so.

  The final nights spent with her were moments I would treasure forever.

  In the past, there had been women who came to my door and passed the test of the rose. Others had followed Sabela’s path and plucked the rose, thus setting the clock ticking, but they didn’t cross the river. That is to say, Sabela was not the first to make it this far.

  But she was the first one that I was so comfortable around.

  “What do you do with your idle hours?” I asked her.

  “My favorite thing is to read,” she said.

  “Do you read aloud?”

  “Oh, yes, I love to read aloud. But usually no one likes to listen.”

  “I would enjoy it,” I said. “It’s been so long since I’ve heard another voice for any length of time.”

  “Of course!” She took my hand, almost tugging me to
ward the library, clearly excited. I loved seeing how eager she was. It made me want to give her something to be eager about every day, forever.

  “What would you like me to read?” she asked, skimming the shelves with her fingers and eyes at once. She gravitated toward the novels. They would make for better reading aloud. The only trouble was my accursed body. The sight of her darting from shelf to shelf, her slim hands, the nape of her neck bared by her short hair…I was already getting hard again.

  She glanced at my face and then at my trousers. “I’ll bet you have a hard time concentrating,” she said.

  “You’re probably right about that.”

  “What if we get in bed, and I read you something naughty, and when it gets to be too much, you can do what you have to do. But—“ She held up a hand. “You have to wait as long as you can stand it. At least I’ll know we aren’t wasting a perfectly good story on you right now.”

  I snorted, but inside I realized she was very understanding, like no other girl I had ever met. She grasped like no other woman had that the curse forced me into thinking of nothing but sex, and so she indulged me as if this was simply the way it was and would always be, without shaming me. Rather than resisting the curse, she flowed with it. She let everything simply be about sex, and in the process, it became easier and easier to open up to her, and let it be more.

  We talked, we joked, we shared stories of our lives. We had feasts that were almost as magnificent as the old days, albeit on a smaller scale, because even my kitchen staff seemed encouraged by our affection for each other. She sat on my lap and let me feed berries into her willing little mouth.

  I could fuck her every hour and she was always willing. If she wasn’t quite ready for me, I would stroke and lick her until she was, which never took long. With every other woman, I had held back, barely sating the curse. This was the first time I had known satisfaction in ten years.