Beauty's Beast

By Rose Wulf

Aurora’s life took a turn for the exciting when she won a four-night trip to Castle Finnegan. A castle inhabited by a sexy stranger with smoldering bedroom eyes and a sinful touch. It was easy getting swept up in his arms, harder to accept that she had to let go.

Daemyn didn’t get attached. There was no point. But he couldn’t keep Aurora out of his heart any easier than he could keep her from his bed. And that presented a problem, because if she ever found out he wasn’t human she would run. Not that it mattered, because he was cursed to the castle for eternity... unless he could get Aurora to love him for what he was.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Evernight Publishing
• Release date: May 24, 2016
• ISBN: 9781772338584

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Published by Evernight Publishing ® at Smashwords

www.evernightpublishing.com

Copyright© 2016 Rose Wulf

ISBN: 978-1-77233-858-4

Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

Editor: Audrey Bobak

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

DEDICATION

Dedicated to you, my wonderful readers.

Without you there would be no point in publishing, so thank you all!

Please enjoy this story!

BEAUTY’S BEAST

Naughty Fairy Tales

Rose Wulf

Copyright © 2016

Prologue

Aurora Linn squealed like a child as she read, and then re-read, her latest email.

Clamping a hand over her mouth and praying no one happened to be walking by her office, she cast a surreptitious glance around. The office was square, painted a light, neutral beige, and three of the four walls boasted tall windows for maximum exposure. But the only person she saw was just slipping into their car, which was parked across the driveway and facing away. So she was free to return her attention, albeit briefly, to the exciting message staring back at her.

I can’t believe I won!

Her light green gaze was still dancing across the large, colorful typeface of Congratulations! when the phone at her left rang, startling her back to the moment. Even though she’d just won a four-night paid vacation to another country, she still had a job to do. After all, the trip was a month away.

Sighing and attempting to rein in her giddiness, Aurora lifted the receiver and put on her professional voice. Evergreen Apartments, how may I help you?

For two years now, she’d been the Resident Manager of the mid-sized apartment community, Evergreen Apartments. It was often a thankless job, but she took pride in her work and enjoyed the opportunity to see all the different aspects of life as they unfolded around her. Most of the time, anyway.

No, ma’am, that was not a typo. You should have a copy of the invoice showing exactly— Then there were the days irate former tenants called complaining about their deposit refunds. Like it’s my fault they never cleaned their oven or they destroyed their carpet. Or, in Mrs. Markham’s case, a little of both.

But it was all in a day’s work and soon enough Mrs. Markham, though no less happy, was off the phone.

Aurora glanced around again, releasing a slow breath to relieve the tension that always built up after being yelled at. Yep, she’d be taking a walk to Starbucks after closing. And maybe she could meet her best friend, who’d jokingly promised to go with her if she happened to win this fantastic trip, and tell her the good news.

The surrounding view of the complex hadn’t changed, with the exception of a couple of new cars parked in the lot on the far right, and one less car in the small parking area in front of her office. The buildings were all a matching shade of light brown with dark green trim and, being the middle of the afternoon on a Wednesday, not many people were wandering about. She only had one vacancy in need of renting and she already had two applications partially processed. Literally all she had to do for the rest of the afternoon, until something came up, was wait by the phone.

So she shot a quick text to Kayla, her long-time best friend, and forced herself to check the rest of her email. Most of which turned out to be mis-filtered spam or Facebook notifications she didn’t truly care about.

Her mind wandered back to the vacation she’d won without any resistance.

Nearly two weeks ago she’d stumbled across an online giveaway promising four nights paid vacation, dinners included, for a stay in an old Irish castle. Castle Finnegan. Aurora pulled up the pictures again and scrolled through them. The castle boasted a large, stone staircase leading up to a wide entrance, framed and covered by a pair of two-story towers connected at the top. Beyond that was a taller, wider single building with front-facing cathedral windows that connected to two side-buildings, both two stories tall. The stone of the castle was probably washed right before the photographs were captured, but care had also been taken to preserve the ivy crawling up the walls of the buildings. And the entire estate was settled on an almost clichéd hillside, with sprawling fields of green grass and large protrusions of boulders. It looked like the castle’s property actually extended all the way to the cliff, which would make for a beautiful picture.

I can’t wait!

Chapter One

Daemyn eyed the approaching group from a third story window. Alastar’s done it again. The latest inheritor of Castle Finnegan, and the last of the Finnegan line if he was to be believed, didn’t use his castle and sprawling estate for personal enjoyment. He neither lived nor vacationed in it. No, instead Alastar Finnegan sporadically listed it online for international travelers. He often listed it at ‘reduced’ rates to get faster, and longer, visitors. He sometimes even just gave away whole weekends to not-so-randomly selected contest entrants.

Because Alastar was a sadistic bastard who loved reminding Daemyn of how limited he was.

This must have been a free weekend group, because Daemyn only counted two women walking behind Alastar. One was walking calmly, her gaze following her friend’s gestures with less enthusiasm than the other woman. And it was that other woman who grabbed tight hold of Daemyn’s attention. Even from this distance she was stunning.

It was hard to judge her height from a third story window, especially when she had barely made it past the front towers, but next to Alastar he guessed she stood at five-seven or eight. She had long, loose, strawberry-blonde hair that perfectly reflected the setting sun. Best of all, she had curves. She wasn’t some skinny piece of flesh stretched over bone like so many of the women in modern society. Hell, that same society would probably describe her as overweight. But they were morons. That woman, whatever her name was, she was beautiful.

Damn Alastar for knowing just how to get under his skin.

They were getting closer now and, as he watched, the woman’s gaze lifted to take in the up-close view of the castle. He ducked out of sight from the window just slowly enough to allow her a glimpse of his movement. He was, after all, the reason the castle was rumored to be haunted.

****

Can you believe how beautiful this place is? Aurora said, beaming, as she unpacked her large rolling suitcase.

Kayla was perched on the edge of the mattress, waiting patiently. Her luggage was already unpacked and resting in her own room across the hall. What I can’t believe is how bouncy you are, she joked. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this excited.

Aurora grinned as she slid her makeshift underwear drawer shut. "I don’t think I’ve been this excited since my trip to Scotland after college." Which had been, hands-down, her favorite vacation ever. Until this one. This one was almost guaranteed to blow it out of the water. She’d never gotten to sleep inside a real castle before!

Kayla laughed. Well, I’m glad I get to witness this. Aurora Linn’s great Irish adventure.

Don’t be jealous, Aurora returned, trailing her fingers along the intricate carvings of the dresser. "It’s our great adventure. Or it could be."

Oh, I’m going to enjoy myself, but I want you to enjoy yourself more. Something about Kayla’s tone assured Aurora that more was coming.