An Altered Fairy Tale #1

In this altered tale, Hunter Fox is the young agent who saves Red Ryder from the clutches of Wolf Lupino, who's been sentenced to 25 to life for two counts of attempted murder, assault and battery, and attempted rape. Grandma won't feature here, either - the state put her in a nursing home the minute they left the forest, and gave Red to Hunter's family as a foster child. But Red is no "child" in my tale... (Not sure I like where I left it...)

THE FOX HUNTER

Today she turned twenty-one. It had been five years. Wolf Lupino languished in a maximum security prison, Grandma was still muddling along at the old folks' home, and Hunter... Red sighed as she raised her arms to rinse the shampoo from her hair. She had only dreamed about today for five years, because today she would get Hunter. She'd fallen for the tall, broad-shouldered protector of the weak almost from the day he saved her from Wolf. At first, she didn't hide it, but everyone laughed and found it cute that a teenager would have such a crush on a grown man. No one took her seriously.

She lathered her skin with shower gel as she thought back to the first time she knew he felt something too. It had been her eighteenth birthday party, and his mother had asked him to take her shopping for a beautiful dress for her party. She had chosen a deep emerald green gown, that floated around her and made her feel beautiful. And she had seen the spark in his eyes when she walked into the room to cheers and wolf whistles.

"What big eyes you have, Hunter!" she had said to him, laughing a little so he wouldn't get spooked and stop looking. "D'you like my dress?"

Hunter had swallowed and nodded, smiling in lieu of an answer. "Thank you! Wanna take a picture with me?"

She knew he wouldn't refuse such an innocuous request, but she managed to get him to encircle her waist and she snuggled up against him, and looked into his face with a bright smile. That was one of the best pictures from the party. She rinsed the soap from her body, and reached for a towel, wrapping herself in it as she stepped from the tub. She used the edge of the towel to wipe away the moisture from the mirror, and set about blow drying her hair.

"Red!" Hunter's voice sounded outside the bathroom door. "Hurry up! I'd like a shower before people start coming!"

"Sure thing, hon...Hunter!" She caught herself on the endearment. She hadn't been taking lessons at The Charming School, patronized by no less a personage than the Princess Snow White herself, for nothing! She had studied all the tricks for getting round obstinate men, seducing them, and then winning their affections, and she wasn't about to give away her plan before it even got off the ground.

She hurriedly finished the drying and walked into her bedroom as Hunter walked out of his.

"Sorry!" she mumbled as she hurried by him.

In her room, she dried herself, rubbed the jasmine-scented lotion that she knew Hunter loved into her skin, spritzed herself with the same scented perfume, and then set about making up her face. She knew Hunter liked her "innocent" look, so she wrapped her hair in a sleek, elegant chignon at her nape, and kept the color on her face to a minimum. Besides, the red dress she was planning to wear would more than compensate for any lack of color anywhere else. Barely there lip and cheek color, eye makeup only a little darker than her green eyes, light mascara, and her face was ready. Next came the silk stockings, held in place by lacy white garters attached to a sweetly feminine corset that pushed up her full breasts.

The dress was last. It was a long, slender sheath, falling to the tops of her feet when she put on the stiletto heels she had bought to match. It fitted her breasts like a glove, swirling around her middle before falling in soft folds down to the floor. There were no straps, but she carried herself with such panache that straps would have been superfluous.

Red looked at herself in the mirror, and whistled. "What big boobies you have!" she said in a deep voice, and chuckled, waggling her eyebrows before adding, "All the better to catch you with, my dear!"

Still chuckling, she took one last look at her reflection in the mirror, added the simple gold chain Hunter had given her when she turned eighteen, a jingle of bangles to her wrist, and she was ready to face the world, and the man she loved.

The doorbell rang as she stepped out of her room. She walked to the top of the stairs and looked down. People were beginning to arrive, and she and Hunter had decided that she would mingle with them until the hour set aside for dinner. She moved to go down the stairs when Hunter's door opened, and she stood transfixed, watching him walk toward her with a quickening heartbeat. His smile left her rooted to the spot, and when he stopped in front of her, she found she could not speak, either, but could only stare at him in his dark blue suit, his crisp white shirt and dinner jacket stretched over impossibly broad shoulders, the scent of his cologne weakening her already shaky knees.

"You look incredible, sweetheart!" he said, and bent to kiss her. Despite her surprise at the endearment, she presented her cheek, still intent on following the formula, and was therefore knocked for a loop when he turned her face back to his and dropped his lips to hers. It was a gentle kiss, and quickly over, but Red knew something had changed. Hunter had turned the tables on her, and she didn't know how to proceed. This was NOT in the manual. She blinked when he added,

"I've always loved a good hunt!"

He put his arm out for her to take, and she took it, smiling, regaining her composure. They walked down the wide staircase together, and on the last stair she said,

"What a handsome man you are, Hunter!"

He didn't miss a beat. "All the better a match for you, my dear!" he said.

Red knew, as she walked into the family's living room, that this would be the birthday where all her dreams would come true. She smiled as Hunter released her, and went to mingle with her guests.