Bluebeard Read Free

shuddered.
     
    That wasn’t the Blue she’d met that night. He wasn’t crazy or out of control. The man who had courted her was reserved, almost to the point of being laconic. And yet, thousands of people knew that blue-bearded, wild-eyed man as the lead singer of a band they once followed from town to town, groupies who stalked him like prey, or who attached themselves, like remora to a shark.
     
    There were still fans who came to the front gates, who waited. The paparazzi, too, like vultures, hovering. This house had been their sanctuary since their wedding day, and she understood that it had been his, too, in the years since the group has disbanded.
     
    “Surely Max or Mrs. Ribya…?” She reached for the key he held out to her, frowning. What could she possibly use it for? He had always made sure her every need was met.
     
    His fingers brushed hers, lingering, and she met his eyes, surprised at the frequency of his touch this morning.
     
    Blue winked. “In case you want to go for an early morning swim or something.”
     
    She blushed. Before she’d known that the entire house was monitored by closed-circuit motion-detector cameras, she had once woken before dawn, flushed and aching, full of a longing she didn’t understood, but could do nothing about. Instead, she had crept down the stairs in her nightgown and made her way to the pool for an early morning swim.
     
    Nude.
     
    Ever since, Blue insisted she had to ask to have the pool unlocked when she wanted to go swimming. He didn’t want any more “accidental” nude swimming tapes recorded.
     
    “I don’t intend to give Max another show.” Max was Blue’s butler, driver, and head of security. She soon discovered that the older, gray-haired man who used to haul sound equipment and stand guard outside Blue’s stage room door, who had run his concerts like a well-oiled machine, now ran his household the same way.
     
    “Good.” He gave a satisfied nod, a knowing smile playing on his lips. “Oh and Pet, remember… don’t go into that room I showed you.”
     
    She swallowed, remembering the first tour Blue had given her of the house, Max and Mrs. Ribya in tow. It had been a whirlwind, all so new to her, and she was sure she wouldn’t remember how to get to the bathroom let alone the kitchen. But there was one room she remembered. Yes, she remembered that one very well. All the doors in the house were old, heavy wood, but this door had also been ornately, intricately carved.
     
    “What’s in here?” She couldn’t help touching it, her fingers tracing over the snake-like tongues of gargoyles.
     
    “No.” Blue had reached out and grabbed her hand, his formerly casual, light demeanor gone in an instant. “It’s… dangerous.”
     
    Her eyes had widened as she stared at her new husband, expression dark, mouth grim. They had gone on without a word, Max showing her the garage where Blue kept his cars—there were fifteen of them stored at the house—but she hadn’t forgotten that moment or that room.
     
    “Is there a monster you keep down there?” Petra tease, a smile playing on her lips as she fingered the leather fob, turning the key over in her hand.
     
    “Sometimes,” he replied, cryptic. He was standing close now, his words urgent. His presence alone made her feel dizzy, like she had to sit or she just might faint. “Just please. Trust me. Do what I ask.”
     
    “Of course I do what you ask,” she assured him, putting a hand on his arm. She heard his slight intake of breath as he shied away from her gentle touch
     
    “Thank you.” He breathed a slow sigh, leaning in to brush her cheek—the other one this time—with a goodbye kiss. She closed her eyes, savoring the prickle of his beard, breathing in his earthy, dark scent. More than anything, she wanted to throw her arms around him, kiss him fully, properly, like a wife should kiss her husband.
     
    Instead, she sighed, opening her eyes to see him looking at her with that