(This story is written strictly for the free enjoyment of fans of the "Beauty and the Beast" television series. No copyright infringement is intended.)

Silver Spoons

Angie

Through the friendly silence of the soundless moon

-Virgil

Vincent awakened to find himself bathed in adamant. The moon was shining down through the skylight, making their bed seem ethereal, mystical against in the dark room.

As he always did, he looked beside him and saw the sight that never ceased to amaze him. Catherine’s naked hip rose outside the covers, a smooth hillock in the moonlight, emphasizing the sensuous dip of her waist above it. Her hair, glistened like a silver waterfall.

He had never thought much about Fate. After all, Fate had made him what he was – and that didn’t bear thinking about for long. On the other hand, that fate had also made him ignore many of the strictures forced upon him – and he had thus found Catherine one night and changed his life forever.

Fate was obviously a double-edged sword. It imposed limits in one area and granted freedoms in another. Catherine had once reminded him that there was no life without limits. Many people, he knew, suffered greater limits than himself. They were disabled, or poor, or unloved. He was none of those things. In fact, he had a full and rich life, a community and family who loved him as much as he loved them, and was healthy and fit. The one stricture - and it seemed very small now – that he could not walk the streets in daylight, or see first hand some of the wonders of the planet, seemed inconsequential in the light of all his blessings.

Yes, he was fortunate. He the felt a familiar urge within himself that, this once, he decided to indulge. Perhaps it was time. He rose smoothly from the bed, walked to the French doors and looked over the brownstone’s darkened garden. Leaves flickered with silver reflections in the soft breeze and their garden path looked fractured and mysterious, as if, tonight, it led to Rivendell, the home of the Elves.

Carefully, he felt along the bond and realized Catherine was awake. He was grateful he did not have to wake her. She would be surprised, but she would understand. There was seldom need for words between them about what they felt.

He raised his arms high, put his legs wide apart to brace himself and lifted his head. Then he filled his eyes and his soul with the moon and roared to the universe.

This was not the roar he used to frighten invaders or the one wrung from him when he was upset or in pain – but something he had never before dared to vocalize. It was a roar of triumph over Fate, gratitude for a full and rich life made possible only because it had Catherine in it. How often he had wanted to do this!

His roar was deep and rich, just above a rumble, from deep in his gut, his heart. It was the sound of a happy man who knew himself blessed – and it thanked the careless fates for allowing him this joy, whether he believed in them or not.

He let the roar diminish to a whisper and then stood silent and still. A feeling of delight was running through him, feeding the almost overwhelming happiness that washed over him as he watched the moon travel across the sky.

Vincent suddenly realized that part of the joy he was feeling was coming from the woman he loved. He turned a little and she was suddenly in his arms, stretching so she could trap his newly-aroused manhood between her legs. The warmth he felt there wrung a groan from him. He clutched her close and flung his head back to roar again, to leave no doubts about how he felt. He could feel her arousal like fire over his manhood and felt himself stiffen further in response.

Catherine gently pushed him, in a crablike shuffle, backwards over the thick straw carpet, until he was stopped by a long woolen tapestry on the wall. He felt its softness against his back and sighed. She had not let go of his manhood, forcing him to keep his legs akimbo. Then she used her hands to gently slide him into her moist passage, with an ease which was almost dreamlike.

Vincent found himself suddenly boneless. He put his hands under her buttocks to keep her close against him, slid down the tapestry to the floor, then turned so that he could lay down with her atop him.

He held her as she moved sensuously against his body, making his skin tingle in her wake. Her desire intensified and hot flashes pulsed along their bond.

He lifted his legs and clasped them over her back, lifting his hips to get her closer yet. Catherine looked up at him and met his lips with a kiss that sent a shiver of delight to his groin. He felt her melt into him and they became one in the moonlight, their love inseparable. She slid her lips down his hirsute chin and onto his naked neck. The sensation was erotic and he lifted his head to giver her better access and shivered with delight as her tongue found his Adam’s apple.

He could feel his roar starting again and released it. Now it was very soft, sensuous, deeper in tone. Catherine nipped his throat lightly, sending a shiver down his muscles that lifted his groin and plunged him into her a little deeper. Then she was still, melting into him, her hands along his hips, her breasts with their hard nipples pressed against his chest.

Vincent relaxed and reveled in the sensation of himself inside her, swelling to fill her, felt her happiness as he did so.

Their crescendo was inevitable and Vincent waited, felt it build. They were, he mused abstractly, like Mozart’s famous woodwind concerto, the one Salieri had once admired. Their lovemaking began slowly, softly, low and sensuous. Then gradually another phrase, another element was added, and another, until their bodies were a harmonic symphony. Nothing mattered then. The world retreated as they reveled in the love that flowed along their bond, made them one.

Vincent sighed and held Catherine close to him. His legs were now wrapped around hers, a tangle that joined them and warmed them.

Catherine moved her mouth from his neck to his shoulder and lay her cheek against it. He gazed across her body and saw the moonlight limning her calves, creeping up until it touched the curve of her hip. He watched as it moved higher and knew it must be caressing that warm, dark place where he and she joined, from the back. That, he thought, was the ultimate benevolence of the Fates, allowing him this intimate delight.

Suddenly his arousal flared and he felt her tighten around him in response. They gasped as their orgasm captured them then sighed as they were carried together on waves of passion. They floated down softly, found themselves deposited in the silver glow, replete.

He lifted his legs and pushed Catherine closer to him, so he could nuzzle her face. She opened her eyes to gaze at him, and then closed them, a smile quirking her lips as he explored her cheeks and nose. When he reached her mouth, he captured her lips and felt her joy at the contact. For long moments, the silence in the room was a counterpoint to their kiss. Then they broke to breathe and Catherine put her hands on both sides of his face and they looked at each other, his azure eyes melting into her green ones.

"I felt something different. What were you thinking?" she asked him softly.

He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her. "That we were like a Mozart concerto, subtly different every time, but always in harmony."

"Yes," she whispered. "We are the completion of each other. There is only us."

"Yes. And the moon being soundless, I voiced our love."

Catherine lay still, feeling his purr run along her skin, like silk rippling in a breeze. It seemed smoother than ever before and she sensed something had changed in him.

"Your roar, Vincent. I’ve never heard anything like it from you before. It seemed to sing in my blood."

There was only one answer possible to the unspoken question.

"That roar was possible because of you, Catherine. I had to let the universe know this, thank it, if you like. You felt it because that exhilaration is in you as well."

"Will you do it again, Vincent, do you think?"

He looked down at her and kissed the top of her head. He spoke so softly she barely heard him.

"No. The universe heard my cry of aloneness, long ago, and led me to you. Now, a whisper of a moment later, I have given my thanks."

Catherine ran her hands up the soft fur of his ribs and around his neck. Silently, she thanked the universe for the man who had given her so much, who could still surprise her.

The moonlight slid over the end of the bed and the room darkened as it touched the floor and found nothing to reflect its gleam.

The moonlight slid over them and the room darkened as it touched the floor and found nothing to reflect its gleam.

The two lovers, spooned on the carpet, filled the moonlit silence with their soft breathing

END