Beast to your Beauty

CHAPTER 17

Hannah opened her eyes and looked at Julian after their kiss. She looked away shyly. They sat there in silence for a couple of minutes, admiring the lights and the beautiful star-filled night sky. After a while Hannah managed to muster up the courage to look over at Julian just as he was turning to look at her. They smiled at each other and then started to laugh.

"We're like high school kids or something," Julian says grinning and shaking his head.

"Right?" Hannah laughed.

"Shall we go back inside? Erma and Alfred must be wondering where we've gone."

"Oh," Hannah said and quickly nodded. "You're right. Yes, we should."

She stood and they both walked back to the house, both a little disappointed that they had to leave their privacy behind. Both, however, would never dare to admit it to each other.

"Where did you kids run off to?" Alfred asked with a twinkle in his eyes when Hannah and Julian returned to the dining hall.

"Julian took me out back to see the lights, they're gorgeous!"

"They are," Alfred nodded. "I saw them before you and Erma got back."

"They bring such life to the place," Erma nodded. Hannah saw her and her father were sitting close to each other at the table sharing a slice of cake. She looked over at Julian and smiled, giving him a look. He nodded and grinned.

After another hour of more cake and food and listening to music, they all decided to call it a night.

"Don't worry about cleaning anything up, Erma," Julian said to her when he saw her start to clear out the table. "I've hired people to do that tomorrow morning. They're also going to make us all a nice big breakfast."

"Oh!" Erma exclaimed happily. "That sounds wonderful, thank you, sir!"

Alfred laughed and rubbed his belly, "I think I'm going to have to go on a strict diet after my stay here."

Erma retired to her room and Alfred, Hannah, and Julian rode the elevator up to the second floor. Hannah and Julian left Alfred in his bedroom before Julian showed Hannah to hers. They stopped outside the door and Hannah turned to him.

"Thank you for this beautiful night," she told him.

Julian grabbed her hand and ran his thumb over it gently, "Thank you for making it wonderful. This has been the nicest holiday I've had in a long time. First my birthday, now Christmas ... you seem to be having quite the positive affect in my life."

Hannah's cheeks turned red. She looked down at him and surprised Julian by throwing her arms around him, hugging him tightly. He hugged her back, a smile appearing on his face. When they parted she gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Goodnight," she said to him.

"Goodnight, Hannah."

Julian watched her open the door of her room and disappear inside. He turned away from the room and sighed, his smile turned into a wide grin just as he started to wheel himself down the corridor to go to his room.

Once inside her room, Hannah leaned back against the door, sighing.

What a perfect night, she thought. Her eyes took in the large guest room. The room was beautifully decorated with expensive furniture, the large queen sized bed stood at the end looking like it was made for actual royalty. The tiny room she'd been sleeping in while working as a maid was a broom closet compared to this room. Hannah walked deeper into the room and saw that it had its own bathroom with a shower and a tub on the other side. Hannah went back to the room and gasped when she opened the closet. It was practically the size of her old room downstairs! She saw a few of her clothes had already been placed inside it and looked rather funny when there was still so much empty space on the closet wracks.