The Beast And His Belle

Chapter 12

All day Jackson had thought about Belle and wanted nothing more than race home and ask her about her day. He wondered if she liked the assortment of books he had chosen for her, if there was anything not to her liking he'd change it right away. He wanted to do anything to make her happy. He knows he behaved so badly towards her but it was all in a defense. He hadn't opened up to a woman since Charlotte and for a while, he had forgotten how to. He didn't want Belle to see how broken of a man he'd become but there had always been something about Belle that struck a cord inside him he thought had died.

Jackson had been on edge all day dealing with Marcel hounding him about this and that. His uncle was always hard on him on how to run the company but lately, he'd been even more forceful. Adamant that Jackson had no idea what he's doing and if it were up to Jackson he'd probably run the company into the ground. Marcel had always been demanding in his ways and opinions and even now so more than ever. By the time he realized Andre had stood him up for their dinner meeting, Jackson nearly had smoke coming out of his ears.

The entire ride home he tried to calm himself calm down so he wouldn't be a raging mess in front of Belle. He closed his eyes and pictured her reaction from that morning entering the library. Her effortless beauty is so striking and she has no idea what she does to him every time he's around her. She's shyly quiet and reserved and yet out of nowhere she has a fierce bite of sass to her. It fascinated him that she can be those two spectrums at once and to have a woman that can bit back and put him in his place is immensely sexy. The fact that she hasn't given into him physically made his desire for her that much greater and unholy and he'd already accepted the challenge.
A challenge not to get her in his bed like an easy achievement he was used to; but the challenge with himself to be better a man, for her. Every time he looks at Belle, he sees a gentle light in her eyes; he sees a rosy glow radiate against her cheeks, and it fills his heart making it beat twice as fast. She brought him back to life and had started to fill the cracks and crevices within him with purity and goodness.

By the time the car pulled into the driveway, his heart had swelled to the nth degree with Belle on the forefront of his mind. But when he stepped out of the backseat and noticed the front door to his house was wide open, his heart gave way and he felt sick. "Belle!" He dashed through the door calling out her name in a panic and didn't hear anything back. When he stepped into the kitchen he saw the mess of shattered glass and roses all over the floor, and his mind was spinning assuming there was a struggle. Is she ok? Is she hurt? The mother fucker who did this- he thought to himself before he saw the back door also wide open.
"Belle!" He stepped out on the patio and his eyes scanned the grounds for any sight of her. He did a double-take seeing the snow around the fountain had been disturbed and that's when he noticed the break in the ice over the pool.
"Jesus Christ!" His legs couldn't run fast enough down the slippery steps as he threw off his jacket and without hesitation, ran and slid his body across the ice and plunged into the cavity of the ice-cold waters.

Her body was limp and blue when he pulled her out.
"No! No! No, Belle!" He didn't know how long she's been under there for but he felt no pulse and she wasn't breathing. He plugged her nose and pressed his mouth to hers cold blue lips.
"Come on, Belle, breath! Please!"
Giving her every ounce of breath he had until finally, her body reacted and she coughed out the water that filled her lungs. She was weak and practically already frozen with her thin layer of clothing that was soaked. Just from the time he had pulled her out of the water, her hair had started to freeze and bits of ice crystals lined her beautiful long lashes. He covered her with his jacket and carried her into the house.

Immediately calling his private doctor to drop everything and come now he carried Belle to his bedroom. He never once worried about himself and his own soaked clothes as he stripped her of hers and dressed her in the warmest pair of pajamas he owed, then laid her in his bed covering her with every blanket in the house he could find. He quickly threw some wood in the fireplace in his bedroom and once it started blazing, he never left her side. The doctor came and examined Belle. Because she was asleep he'd have to come back for a full examination once she woke but he gave Jackson the okay that she'd be well enough to recover where she was.