Enchanted: Erotic Bedtime Stories for Women by Nancy Madore Page B

bring bad luck upon us both."
    The girl was reluctant to agree to this condition, for a private interview with her mother was precisely what she wanted. But finally she consented, as she was now anxious to see her family, and thought perhaps there would come another way to find the answers she sought.
    Servants were immediately called upon to pack her bags, and then she was once again whisked away on the back of the white bear. In a very short time they appeared before a huge mansion.
    "You have arrived," the bear told her. "This is where your family lives now."
    She was very pleased by this, and hurried to be with them. But the bear held her back a moment longer with the stern admonition, "Heed my warning! Do not go off alone with your mother, or it will fare badly for us both."
    Hers was a happy homecoming indeed, with none of them wanting for anything, and she did not forget her promise to the white bear. As the bear predicted, her mother made many attempts to get her alone, but each of these she managed to elude.
    But her mother was not to be easily put off, and finally that persistent lady succeeded in arranging a private interview between herself and her daughter, where she posed many questions to find out how things really were in the castle of the white bear. It was not long before the girl had confided in her mother about the mysterious man that entered her bedchamber each night.
    Her mother was deeply alarmed by all her daughter said and, giving her a candle, instructed her to take it with her on her return to the castle and hide it beneath her pillow.
    "When the stranger is asleep, light the candle that you might learn his identity," her mother instructed her. But she added, "Take care not to tip the candle, letting the tallow fall upon him."
    With this advice the young woman journeyed back to the castle, hiding the candle amongst her belongings.
    Evening came soon enough, and it was the same as it had been before; as soon as the darkness enveloped her bedchamber, her anonymous lover came to her. She had missed him while she was away and longed for his touch in the darkened chamber. He did not leave her waiting, for he had yearned for her also during her absence.
    As a lover, she knew him well, and yet she still wondered whose tongue it was that tasted her lips. Whose hot breath seared her delicate skin? Whose strong and nimble fingers stroked and explored the many soft and hidden places of her body, and whose unyielding arms held her in their strong grip? Whose body filled her so completely, in so many ways, and with such violent frenzy?
    And still, she could not hold back from participating wholeheartedly, dubious though it was.
    At last her lover slept beside her. She felt under her pillow for the candle she had placed there earlier and, disregarding the bear's warnings about bad luck, lit the candle and placed it before the stranger's face. There she beheld the most beautiful prince she had ever dared to imagine, and she immediately fell so deeply in love with him that she felt she must kiss him that very instant. She bent over him to gently touch her lips to his and, as she did so, a drop from the burning candle fell onto his chest. He immediately awoke, demanding, "What have you done?"
    The lovesick girl could not fathom his displeasure until he explained that he was indeed a prince, who had been promised at birth to marry a princess whom he did not love. When he refused the marriage, his stepmother had placed an evil curse on him, wherein he would appear as a white bear by day, and return to his human form by night. His only chance to escape the unwanted marriage and the curse was to remain unseen by his true love for an entire year.
    "Now I must go to the castle that is east of the sun and west of the moon, and marry the dreadful princess," he told her.
    She wept bitterly when she heard this, but neither tears nor pleading could change their fate, and they spent that evening clinging miserably to each other