Chapter 15 ~ While the Mouse is Away…

Swan POV

Have you ever had one of those days that made you desperately wish for a do-over?

Maybe you’d said something, or…did something that you later realized, might have possibly been a mistake?  

An overreaction of sorts?

Well, I was having one of those, the day I’d left Edward, sleeping peacefully, for once within the past few weeks, finally…to go see my Father over in Forks, Washington.

I opted out of discussing it, trying to make him understand…I didn’t warn him I’d be gone, wake him before I left, I just, wrote a note and kissed his forehead before slipping out of the house.

I hadn’t done it maliciously or anything, I just…had to go.

To make sure Charlie was alright, I’d told myself, but really, it was more than that.

“I’m getting on a plane, right now, Jake,” I’d said as I boarded my flight and even though he told me things were under control, something in his voice sounded happy that I was coming out for a visit.

When I’d left, early that morning to grab the first flight out, I figured I’d make the five hour flight, check in with Charlie and Jake, feel better, take a late flight home and somehow, Edward would never be the wiser and we wouldn’t have to argue…once again…over something that really shouldn’t have been an issue in the first place.

I felt exhausted from the arguing, lately, and I felt like that exhaustion might have been hindering our work on the case.

Might have been distracting us from seeing things clearly.

Things were getting to me…I was getting to Cullen…and Cullen was getting to…well…everyone.

So, you see, in part…I was hoping Edward would be able to take the day that I was away, and find some things out that we hadn’t seen before.

And for the record, ignoring his call hadn’t exactly been my plan for the day but I knew that if I spoke to him, I wouldn’t be able to lie and tell him I was still in DC.

So…by default, I’d decided to avoid.

It was my safest bet…I mean, what was he going to do?  Fly out to Forks? 

Ha!

It wasn’t really in Edward’s nature to abandon a case to go chasing after someone whom he knew would be back at some point in time, anyway.

Even if that someone was me.

But it wasn’t like I’d ignored him, either...even I knew that would have been disastrous.

Which is why I did send him a text, telling him I hoped his day was going well and I just hoped and prayed he wouldn’t catch on until I was back home, safe and sound.

Speaking of which…

“Are you sure, dad?” I asked, one last time before I left the Forks police station and he said, “Bells, I can’t believe you flew out here to make sure your old man was alright, like that.”

I gave him a look, one he knew very well from years of living with me and he added, “I’m fine, honey.  I promise.”

He kissed the top of my head, just like he’d done my whole life when he wanted to reassure me that everything was okay.

“Well, I need you to be careful, I can’t stand worrying about you when I’m so far away.”

“I always am,” he said and then went back to his paperwork for the day.

I eyed him and even Jake was confused a little but I needed the two of them to be aware of the things that were going on over in DC that could possibly have an impact on them.

That I suspected might already be having an impact on them.

I filled them both in on the events that had been unfolding with mine and Edward’s case and even they had to admit, that the things that were now going on in Forks, could have possibly been connected, somehow.

And then, Jake told me about the odd occurrences that had originally gotten his attention within the past few nights.

Police officer’s houses being broken into, only to have, seemingly, inconsequential things taken.

The station getting ransacked.

The thing that had really disturbed me, though, was the latest incident.

Charlie’s cruiser had been tampered with and it wasn’t from any type of irresponsibility on my father’s part, either.

“The break line is so typical, isn’t it?  I mean why not make it something a little more…”

“Extreme?” Jake asked and that made me think.

Like Cullen would.

Someone wanted to keep the police busy in my old home town…they wanted to get Charlie’s attention…maybe even Jakes, and maybe they even wanted my attention, which would mean, someone knew Jake would contact me once things started getting personal.

Maybe we were getting closer than we thought we were.

It had to be James.

He was the only person that knew where I was from, knew Charlie was my dad…my relationship with Jake.

Of course, that was thinking narrow mindedly on my part.

It wasn’t like Aro couldn’t have gotten that information from James and done some investigating of his own.

But why would he bother?

“You okay?” Jake asked and I snapped back into the real world.

“Dad, if you don’t mind, maybe Jake can take me around to some of the crime sites?  And I could…you know, take a look around?”

“Sure thing, honey, you stayin’ for dinner?” he asked as he continued cleaning up his desk area.

And I smiled because Forks was soooooo not Washington, DC. 

“Yeah, maybe…I’ll see, okay?”

“Okay, talk to ya later, you kids have fun.”

Being at home, at first, seemed…like a breath of fresh air. In more ways than one.  And I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed the small town I had spent so much time trying to run away from.

On a short term basis, that is.

But the longer I stayed, the more I longed to be with Edward.

Get his input.

Maybe even get a glimpse his that stupid cocked eyebrow he liked to give me, so often.

At first glance, I could see why the police force in Forks had overlooked some of the subtleties that I picked up on as Jake took me through the day.

I didn’t know if it was just me, being a fresh set of eyes, or maybe the time I’d spent in Cullen’s shadow, picking up on his tactics of police crime scene investigations, but I noticed some things that Jakes hadn’t and for once in the past year or so, I felt like I was the big fish.

“Do you think maybe they chose cops houses because they knew the attention would steer you away from what they were really doing?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean maybe they were taking care of their actual business while you all were busy wondering why they were breaking into your houses.”

Jake’s brow knitted together, tightly.

“We haven’t gotten any reports of anything else, Bella, I can’t imagine what they could have been doing that wouldn’t have been called in.”

“Unless what they were doing involved people that wouldn’t want to call it in.”

“Or couldn’t.”

And apparently, Aro had contacts all over the damn place.

Including Forks.

Which shouldn’t have been a surprise, considering that’s where James was from in the first place.

“I hate this,” I said, searching my mind for that missing piece of information.

“I know,” Jake answered and put a hand around me, squeezing tight.

Who knew how far back this whole thing went.

But Aro was smart, he didn’t do mass kidnappings…just one or two…here and there, over the years.

And to make things more interesting, when we checked in with my dad, he’d found that there were a couple of files that were missing from the filing cabinets.

Missing persons reports.

There were only two that were gone but what struck me odd was that they were both women, single, in their twenties.

Just like most of the girls that Cullen and I had seen in Seattle at that poker game.

I gave dad some of the details on what we’d seen and he promised he was going to follow up with some of his contacts over there and work on busting that underground but I was fairly certain, it would have moved by the time Cullen and I had gotten home.

That Jane bitch would have seen to that, considering she’d played the two of us for fools that night anyway.

It wasn’t until we were checking out Charlie’s cruiser that I noticed it.

Well, more like, felt it.

“We’re being watched,” I said to Jake and he knew how to look around without…you know…looking around, so he did and then he pointed out to me that, “It’s a chick,” as we continued looking interested in the mechanics of what was under Charlie’s hood.

Hmmm.

Nah.

It couldn’t be.

She wasn’t that stupid.

“Does she have blonde hair?”

“Sure does,” he said.

“Short, like a teenager?”

He frowned, as though he was trying to figure out how the spark plugs worked.  “I’d say, five foot, tops.”

“Oh, ho ho….”

“What’s up, Bells.”

“She is all….mine,” I said and Jake warned me as I made a move for my Hechler.  “Bella…this is dangerous, you can’t just...”

“No, Jake…I’m the dangerous one,” I said, and with that I sprinted in the direction he’d told me she was hiding out and she didn’t take long to retreat, either.

She knew she was done for.

Jane was fast, but being that I’d been training with Cullen, I’d gained some speed recently and I tackled her within a mile of where the chase had begun, before she could escape to tattle on Jake and I, or give away my location to someone…

James, maybe.

And this bitch was going…down.

She grunted as I landed on top of her and spun her over but she kicked me off of her, forcing me to stumble a little, backwards.

Then she smiled at me.

“Still jealous, Ms. Swan?”  she teased me with her stupid fake as shit southern accent that she’d been pulling with Cullen.

“I don’t get jealous, Jane…I get even.”

I pointed the gun at and I may as well have been holding a bubble blower as she round kicked my hand out of nowhere, knocking the Hechler to the ground and I figured, what the hell…I could beat the shit out of her just as easily with my hands, I didn’t need the gun.

So I made a move for her and she swayed out of my reach.

I made another move and she swayed again, laughing.

“You’re a little too slow for me, I’m afraid, Ms. Swan.”

Son of a…

I paid attention to her reactions to my punches and suspected where her next move would probably go so I faked her out and made to go to the right but then went left at the last moment and finally was able to deck her with nothing but solid contact to her jaw.

“That’s for groping Edward, bitch,” I warned her as she spit the blood out of her mouth, feeling her jaw for broken bones, glaring at me.

And man, that felt good.

Her lip was already swelling and I smiled.

“What’s the matter,” I asked, smugly, holding my hands into fists in front of me as I bounced around a little.  I was just getting warmed up.  “Is that gonna screw up your botox?”

She came at me, then, screaming and I ducked as her leg flew over my head.

I grabbed her foot and flung it back over her own body, throwing her to the ground and I sat on top of her, pinning her there as she squirmed.

But she wasn’t going anywhere.

“What’s the plan, Jane, divide and conquer? Is James around?  Does he think he’s gonna hijack me again or something?”

She laughed, showing me all of her blood stained teeth, manically, almost and I thought of another option, suddenly.  “Is he tailing Cullen?”

More laughter and my mind started spinning.  Wondering what it was that Cullen and I were missing.

Because she wasn’t reacting like someone who was worried about my finding out what she was up to.

“Why don’t you ask him that when you find him, Ms. Swan,” she told me.

Jane took my distraction at her words as an opportunity to push me off of her but instead of continuing the fight, she fled.  And I just didn’t have the energy anymore to go after her.

I decided, it didn’t matter, anyway.

She wasn’t there to harm anyone.

She’d been there to gather information.

If not, she would have shot me, when she’d had the opportunity, instead of just watching.

But what information?

Cullen and I weren’t any closer to finding Kate then when we’d started, it felt like and her boss was the one holding the hostage, not us.

I was working it through when I saw Jake.   He was almost laughing as he approached, bending over to pick up my Hechler for me.

“Geeze, Bells, I hope she wasn’t a buddy.”

“Not even close,” I said and then, content with the message I’d sent her, “She won’t be trying anymore of her crap with Cullen anymore, I don’t think.”

I took the gun back from my best friend and holstered it.

And we walked back to the station, Jake offered to take me back to the airport once we got back, knowing that there was just no way, or need for me to stay any longer than absolutely necessary.

“Edward would kill me if I let you take off on your own, ya know,” he’d said and he was right.

I laughed and he said, “No, really, he’d kill me.”

He was right.

And okay…

Maybe I hadn’t needed to fly all the way out there.

Maybe I should have told Cullen where I was going, despite the argument that would have ensued.

But I needed to touch and feel and see my father…and Jake….and make sure they were okay.

And maybe I just needed to re-group a little, too.

Somewhere, familiar…somewhere, where I felt like I knew what I was doing for once.

I sighed a little.

“So,” Jake said and I scrunched my eyebrows at him.

“So…what?”

Jake laughed and crossed his arms.  “So…why are you really here, Bella? Because I know it’s not just because you wanted to make sure Charlie was okay.”

He waited and I spilled.

About everything that had been going on with Edward and me, lately, the baby scare, the case, the stress, my increasingly roller coaster type paranoia over the balance of our relationship…all of it.

And he laughed.

“What, Jake, it’s not funny.”

“Yes it is,” he said and I punched him in the arm.

“No…it really isn’t.”

“Bells.  Do you even see the way he looks at you?” 

“What?”

“The man is totally gone for you, and it’s not even just on a physical plane…he adores you…looks up to you…you’re like…that guys’ voice of reason.”

I listened to what he was saying and it felt odd.

“It’s kinda gross,” he teased but I was too busy processing what he’d said to give him crap about it.

Cullen…looked up to me?

I mean, I knew he loved me, without a doubt but…he was so far ahead of me in terms of talent and knowledge and …

“Hey! Bella!”

It was Ben Cheney, an old friend from school that Jake and I knew and I was suddenly having all kinds of de ja vu moments, seeing all the people I’d grown up with but hadn’t seen in so long.

I felt like it had been forever since I’d been back and made a tiny mental note to not let time slip away from me so much in between visits going forward.

“Ben, hey, how are you?”

“I thought we’d lost you forever, the way Jake put it, what are you doing back here?”

What was I doing back there?

I should have been home.

With Edward.  I looked at the last text he’d sent me again and felt…horrible for taking off, again.

“Bells?”

“Hmmmm? Oh, sorry, I’m just…distracted.”

“What’s the problem, is it Edward?”

“It’s just, I think he’s figured out I came out here…he was a little cryptic with me, the last text I got from him.”

“Well, what’d he say?” Jake asked and Ben was interjecting with, “Who’s Edward?”

“That he couldn’t talk and…”

“What?”

And just as I realized, he’d said the exact same thing to me, that I’d said to him in my note that I’d left him, I saw him.

Edward was coming at me from across the street and…

“Uh oh.”

“What’s wr…” Jake started, as he followed my line of sight and then he slumped a little. “Oh.”

Then Ben noticed what we were both looking at and he checked out what we were gawking at and asked, “Who’s that guy, looks like a psychopath.”

He had no idea.

And how in the Hell did he get there so fast?

What time was it?

I went in to full on panic mode for a few minutes, until I realized what he was doing.

He was pulling his caveman, I’m Edward fucking Cullen and you’re coming home with me, bullshit...

Then I got pissed.

I narrowed my eyes at him as he approached and I watched as he eyed Jake.

“Edward, what are you…”

“Did you think I was that stupid, Swan?” he asked and then pointed at me. “Don’t answer that.”

Then he looked at Jake.  “’Sup, Gargoyle.”

He ignored Ben.

Jake nodded a hello, annoyed, of course, but still…he nodded.

I barked a sarcastic laugh at Edward, trying to hide my honest amusement at how he even knew he’d fallen for it…at least for a little while.

Served him right.

Okay, not really.

“Settle down, Edward,” I started to say and Jake took a bit of a protective stance.  I still wondered why he thought he needed to do that.

I could take care of myself.

Clearly.

“Do you have any goddamn idea the…bullshit you put into my head by leaving like that?”

Yes.

“What I…?  You…”  I could feel Cullen’s babble mode coming on, before I’d even got the second word out of my mouth.

“I….was following our lead…Swan,” he said and part of me felt bad about it…leaving him to fend for himself and try to find Kate on his own… “You know, the one where we were hoping to find a fucking kidnapped daughter of the airline dick weed who may or may not be in on the disappearance of his own fucking flesh and blodd?  Or did you forget about that?”

Then it all made sense.

The case.

“You didn’t come here for me…you’re here for the case…”  I point back over my shoulder, where I’d just had my run in with the mistress of madness herself.  “Maybe you were chasing after Jane again, huh?”

He gave me the most incredulous look, pulling his head back a little.  The crease in his forehead was deepening and I realized, even before he’d said anything, that he hadn’t known what I was talking about.

“Do I look like I give a two bit piece of ass about Blondy?” he asked me, and then informed me with zero emotion showing on his face…except for the confusion that it was still resembling, “I came here because I can’t get shit done when all I’m thinkin’ about is whether you’re fucking alive or not.”

And at that, I relaxed a tad bit.

Because that had to have been the sweetest thing he’d ever said to me.

Sort of.

Then I straightened up again. 

Because it wasn’t like he owned me.

“I told you I needed to…”

“I told you…we’d talk about it,” he said and I could feel his…stupid…superior, I’m the one that calls the shots attitude spewing through.

UH!

“And who exactly do you think you are anyway, Cullen…my fucking father?”

Jake looked uncomfortable and Ben, who had yet to even meet Edward, looked…scared.

“I think I’m your fucking partner…and…”

He was searching for the word.

“And…what?” I asked, hoping to hear a certain word. He looked like he might use it…

But then, Ben, being the sweetheart that he always was, stepped up and confronted my psycho, and broke his concentration.

Dammit.

“I think maybe you should back off, there, pal,”  Ben said, as courageously as he could.

Jake put his head in his hand and Edward, whose attention had previously been solely on me, now turned his attention to Ben.

Which was not going to go well.

I wondered if Dad could hear all the shouting and whether he’d be coming out side to get involved, too.  But no such luck…so far.

“Do I fucking know you?”

“I…I’m Ben, and you shouldn’t be talking to Bella like that,” he said and I could hear the shakiness in his voice.

Oh lord.

The scowl on Edward’s face said it all, and the step he took toward Ben was not a good sign.

He was losing it.

So I pulled his attention back to me.

Which wasn’t hard to do, considering I could feel the sexual tension boiling off of him like heat from a stove.

The thoughts that were racing through me were probably not conversation appropriate and considering the fact that I was still peeved with him, I decided not to give him the satisfaction of knowing what he was doing to me, internally.

“Leave Ben out of this, Edward, you’re in Forks, Washington…not…”

“Don’t goddamn remind me, Swan, an entire day’s time is gonna be wasted now, because you…” he started to say and then I told him, waving a hand at nothing, “Well if you hate it here so fucking much…why don’t you just…go home.” 

Did I really want him to go?

No, of course not.

But he was so big on being able to blend in when he needed to…he needed to realize that what he might want to consider doing, was blending in to a town that didn’t take to cursing up a storm every time someone breathed wrong.

He stood there, staring at me.

Or rather, through me, for a minute or so, then he said, “Fine,” and I worried for just a moment, whether he was going to go.

And possibly not want me to come back with him.

I was working through what I was going to say to make him stay  when…

Edward got this…look in his eyes and before I could even knit my eyebrows together to question him silently about just exactly what in the world he was doing, he bent down, and grabbed me, hoisting me over his shoulder, telling Jake, to, “Tell papa Swan his daughter went home, for me.”

“Edward! Put me down!” I screamed but he didn’t bother answering me.

Ben Cheney started to follow us but Jake held him back, almost laughing.

Thanks for nothing.

“Edward!” I yelled again as he pulled a key out of his pocket and opened a door to the motel that sat across the street from Charlie’s offices.

“See ya, Bells,” Jake was saying and I scowled at him.

“Put. Me. DOWN!” I said and then, he did just that.

Tossed me, actually.

Down onto the queen sized bed in the musty room he’d rented, apparently, then he closed and bolted the door shut behind him.

“Ouch.”

“Stop being a fucking baby, Swan…” he said and he was…angry…

Or…

Worried?

They both seemed to be the same emotion, when it came to Cullen.

His jaw was tight as he rubbed his face with his hands, pacing in front of me, trying to think of something to say.

“Edward…I had every right to….”

And with my words, he spun to face me, finally, and ran a hand through his hair before starting in on me.

“You have the right to shut the fuck up while I tell you what I think of you sneakin’ off like this.”

“Edward…”

“Do you have any goddamn idea what could have happened to you?  What would the outcome have been had something happened and I didn’t know where the fuck to look for you?”

“I…”

Hadn’t thought of that. Obviously.

“You don’t answer your fucking cell…you don’t text me…what in the hell were you thinking, anyway?”

I stood up and walked toward him as I defended my actions.

I mean, it was still a free country, right?

“I just wanted to make sure things were okay here, then I was coming right back, Edward, you weren’t listening to reason last night.”

“I wasn’t listening to…”  His hand flew across the air in front of him.  “Swan…everything you do and say lately is unreasonable.”

And.

Oh.

No.

He.

DIDN’T.

Just pull that fucking card with me, again.

We stood there staring at each other for a few minutes, it felt like and then I couldn’t take it anymore.  I was either going to jump him or kill him so I went a whole nother route.

Because I couldn’t think straight, and I was pretty sure I was leaning toward killing him, so…

“I need a shower,” I said and stalked off to the bathroom in his stupid motel room, not giving a crap that I had nothing to change into, I just needed to be away from that conversation.

As I slammed the bathroom door, I noticed it hadn’t actually shut and when I turned to see what the stupid thing had gotten caught on, I realized.

It was him.

Cullen was standing there, his foot holding the door open, as he began removing his jacket.

“What are you doing?” I asked him, still seething from his comments and he said, coldly, “You’re right, Swan, you need a fucking shower.”

He wasn’t casual about it, or even angry looking. He just seemed so…purposeful and once the jacket had been removed, he started to take his shirt off, too.

“I don’t know who you think you’re…”

I couldn’t finish because then, the shirt was gone, too, and his chest was…

“Were you fighting?” I asked him, noticing a bruise there but he ignored me as he looked me in the eyes, leaned passed me and turned the shower on, then pulled the curtain back harshly.

And again, I was back into arguing mode… “I’m not…”

“Oh yes, you fucking are,” he said, now working on removing his jeans while he kicked his shoes off as well and I watched his dick harden as we stood there, having a battle of wills.

I urged my eyes to look away but it was too late, he’d seen me.

And he was smirking.

Jerk.

My heart was beating…really fast and I didn’t have any idea if I was scared or, anxious, or…what with the look he was bearing down on me and when he was finally rid of all his clothes and he was so close that I could feel Eddy Jr. poking my hip, I swallowed.

Edward looked down at me and asked, with a cocked eyebrow, “Are you taking your clothes off, or am I, Swan?”

I felt like I wanted to, I definitely wanted to, but my stubborn nature with him lately had me standing there, defiantly and I crossed my arms in answer…so he just smiled, as though he was glad at my answer.

“Fine,” he said and then he picked me up and put me into that bathtub, clothes and all, pushing me face first up against the wall of it, the water, soaking us both.  Then he reached around to the front of my shirt and felt for the top of it.

I thought he’d just, you know, going to unbutton it…but no, not Edward, he ripped it off as though it was nothing, telling me, “I think I can handle it,” and instinctively, I held my hands up to cover my chest.

Then he laughed at me.

“I don’t fucking think so, Swan,” he said, snapping my bra off and flinging it to the side, too.

I started to turn to him but he wasn’t having that.

Instead, he took my wrists, and pinned them above me, unyielding, with one hand as he kissed my shoulder hard and slinked his other hand around to cup a breast, squeezing it till it almost hurt.

And I loved it.

“Yes…” I moaned.

“I can’t fucking function right when you leave, Swan,” he whispered into my ear and I closed my eyes, trying not to lose my breath even though it was a lost battle, anyway.

The goose bumps formed along where he’d kissed, and under the water, I felt as though I was freezing but in reality, the water was scorching.

His hand slid down to my jeans, unbuttoning them, pushing them down and I did my small part, by stepping out of them.

He didn’t bother throwing them out of the shower because he was too busy making his way back up my legs with his long, talented fingers and when he got to my thigh, he hoisted it upward, roughly, so that my foot was now resting on the bathtub’s wall.

I felt slightly embarrassed at how hard my chest was heaving in anticipation of what he was going to do to me.

How he was going to do it.

And for what length of time.

But he either didn’t notice, or didn’t care as he slid his hand further, up to my folds and I was already so wet that I thought one touch, once single rub against my clit…and I’d be done for.

And I couldn’t contain the tiny moans I let out when he finally did touch me.

“Jesus,” I heard him whisper from behind me as his head leaned against mine and then he didn’t waste any more time sliding those lovely…lovely fingers of his, into me.

I let my body fall completely against the wall then, and couldn’t control the heavy breathing that I was doing as he would alternate between circling my clit and dipping his fingers into me as the shower sprayed us and the steam began filling the room, he asked me, “You won’t do it again, right Swan?”

“Mmmmm,” I answered but that wasn’t good enough for him.

He stroked me again and then pumped his fingers harder, “What?”

“No,” I promised. 

“Say it,” he told me, reaching further inside of me, curling his fingers around, hitting my…

“I won’t…I’ll never leave again like that,” I choked out in between panted breaths and then he pulled his fingers out just when I thought I was getting close. “I promise.”

“Good girl,” he rasped and then the hand that had been holding my wrists above me released them and went to my hair and the tugged on it just enough to make my head fall back as his finger made it to my mouth.

My tongue flicked out of sheer reaction to the offering and I took his fingers into between my lips and sucked as he looked into my eyes, then his forehead met mine and he removed them again, finishing the job he’d started by rub me in just…the right spot for another…

“Oh God…” I moaned and he tugged a little more on my hair.

“In the eyes, Swan, you know I fucking love it when you look me in the eyes…”

And I did, I opened them as I came and my brow furrowed from the perfect combination of pain and pleasure he was making me feel and then he kissed me, making the experience all that more intense for me.

He removed his fingers, just when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore and then he turned me around to face him, moving the wet hair out of my face, placing his hands on either side to hold me there while he glared at me.

I tried reading his thoughts, wondering what he was thinking and I’d given up, when he finally said, “I fucking…” he stopped, looking at my lips for a moment and then back to my eyes. “I love you, Bella.”

“I know, you…”

“I mean it, I don’t want to relive what I fucking felt today when I realized you’d left me.”

“I didn’t…” I started to tell him, confused, wondering if he’d thought I’d actually…left him…but then he continued. 

“My life is shit without you, don’t ever fucking forget that.”

And his words…I didn’t know if it was just my own nervousness that made me tease him, but I smiled, and said “You were living a pretty good life, before I came along, Edward,” and he held my gaze as he answered me.

“I wasn’t living before you came along, Bella.”

And I had no words.

This wasn’t the Edward I’d come to know.

But it also wasn’t the Edward from Seattle, with the flowers and the music and the, sweetness.

It was a new Edward, one that had just torn my heart completely in two with the intensity of what he’d said.

And he hadn’t said them to be romantic, or touching, or bad ass, or…even shocking.

He’d just said them as though they were…fact.

I put my arms around his neck and jumped up into his arms then, not wanting another second to go by without him inside of me.

Not his fingers or his mouth…although that was always nice…but I needed him, all of him and I needed to feel the words he’d just spoken to me, on another level.

And I did.

Because he held me by the hips as I used his shoulders for leverage and he pulled me down onto him with all the passion and emotion and wanting that I thought only I had been feeling and he buried his face into my neck, kissing along my chest bone, making his way to pay close attention to my nipples that had hardened beyond even my own comprehension.

I was still sensitive from cumming in the moments before and the feeling that came over me as he entered was all consuming.

I hissed, arching my back to hint that I needed his mouth on me, somewhere, anywhere…

Everywhere.

It felt so good to have him with me, against me, skin to skin.

And I was feeling something between us that I had missed somehow, before.

Something had changed with him. I wasn’t quite sure what it was but it was good and powerful and I knew there wasn’t anything or anyone that was going to ever come between it.

Or us.

Edward rolled my hips against him and I pushed as hard as I could to feel him deeper, harder…until I heard the familiar in taking of air and exhaling that was harsher than the norm and I knew he was close.

“Jesus…mother of…”

I let myself go as he came, growing harder and deeper and then I climaxed, with him, grasping at his hair, willing him to suck harder at my neck and he did, almost breaking the skin as he bit down some in the process.

And when we finished, he kept me there, holding me up against the wall of the shower, letting the water fall onto us as though it was washing away all of the anger either one of us might have been feeling before our sex fest.

Then he lowered me down and we passed up the towels, falling onto the queen sized bed, exhausted.

Out of breath, I told him, “you’re buying me new clothes,” and he laughed.  “Why me?” 

“Because yours are dry.”

He got a good chuckle out of that one and pulled me on top of him to kiss me, feel me, prepare me and I let him, suddenly glad that he’d come all the way across country, just for me.

And yeah, Eddy Jr. was ready to play again, already.

And maybe I didn’t want a do-over, after all.

At least, not in the sense I’d originally wanted one.