I was absolutely frozen

Title: Oh, Sweet Temptation

Author: Lyra Nezvanova

Genre: Romance/Humor

Rating: T, for sensuality. May go up later, but maybe not.

Author's Note: Hello, all. This is Lyra N., and this is my first attempt at a Twilight fanfic. I've been a fan of the Twilight series for quite a while, but I never thought I'd write a Twilight fanfic because I revered the characters Stephenie Meyer gave us too much to try to put them in my own meddling situations and ponder, "What would happen if…?"

But a scene from this fic popped into my head yesterday morning as soon as I awoke, and it amused me enough that I decided to write about it.

This will probably be a very short fanfic. I'm estimating it will only be a two-shot, unless I get a miraculous burst of inspiration…

As usual, I own nothing. Everything belongs to the phenomenal Stephenie Meyer.

Chapter One

Change

I was absolutely frozen. The shrieking cry of locked brakes echoed through my absent-minded stupor, and I just managed a glimpse over my shoulder. The hulking mass of the van was hurling over the black ice, a monstrous, whirling blur. I turned to scream out his name-

But he was nowhere to be seen, until…The wind lashed my hair around my face like a myriad of cracking whips. I teetered on the precipice, tempting the hungrily lapping waves below with my life. I shut my eyes from the all-too-real vision of the achingly angelic face before me, begging me not to do this.

I whispered a goodbye that I knew he would never hear. Then I jumped-

Now he was sitting by my side. His face, though no less beautiful or youthful, had been carved into a Michelangelesque mask of exquisite, heartrending sorrow. His once lustrous golden eyes were now endless pools of obsidian sorrow. And I was drowning in them.

My shallow breath caught in my throat. I wanted so very badly to reach out to him, to stroke that ashen porcelain visage.

But my hand was limp and powerless in his gentle but fierce grasp as he leaned forward and pushed back my hair.

His frigid, tender lips brushed my ear as he whispered, "Bella, please, please…Don't leave me."

And then the impossible happened.

I felt the hot tears of my beloved Edward sear my skin with my last, escaping breath-

"NO!!"

I ripped free from the warm cocoon of sheets around me as I bolted upright into cold, marble arms.

Startled, Edward caught me in his protective, soothing embrace before I could fly out of my bed and away from the horror of that hideous dream. Instantly, his lips were at my ear, murmuring a low, soothing song of solace as he slowly eased me to lie back down.

His comfortingly cool arms around my torso and the thin, sweat-soaked cotton balled between my trembling hands felt like fragile lifelines. My heart pounded in my ears and nearly drowned out the echo of my scream until his gentle, susurrus voice coaxed it back to a low, ominous thud.

I wrapped my arms around him and crushed my flushed face against his chest, which emanated a glacial chill even through his thin, button-up shirt.

"Edward, Edward…" I mumbled shakily into his flawless skin, "Please change me right now. Change me now. Please, you have to. You just have to."

I felt a hot tear roll languidly down my cheek and fall onto the cool linen beneath between my skin and his. Gently, he grasped my arms and rolled me onto my back, gazing down at me with those infinitely pensive and penetrating golden eyes. Edward looked down at me, lying on his side propped up against one elbow. His chiseled face was unreadable.

"You're crying again," he said finally, "because of me."

"No! Well, yes. I mean no," I stuttered frantically in protest.

He raised an eyebrow. "Yes, you mean "yes"? Or, yes, you mean "no"?" he asked in that infuriatingly serene, logical way of his.

I felt my flushed cheeks smolder with a new throb of blood.

"I mean, yes, I mean "no"," I replied quickly. Perhaps a bit too quickly.

I saw the brilliant glint of his teeth in the moonlight as he quietly chuckled at my tongue-tied speech.

"What I mean is," I protested hurriedly. My now slightly steadier voice poured out semi-coherent words in a babbling stream of thought. "I wasn't crying because of you or because of something you did, but I was crying because, in my dream, you were crying. For me. Because I was dying.

"Which is really stupid, because I'm not going to die if you change me, and I know I'm really accident prone, but even if I did somehow manage to die before then, you really shouldn't cry, because- Well, you can't, and-"

I felt the mattress beneath me suddenly tremble violently, and Edward had to seize me again before I bolted downstairs to save Charlie from the rare but still possible threat of a Forks earthquake.

When he wrapped me in his arms, I felt his body tremble, and I realized that the low, melodious rumble vibrating through my body was his restrained laugh at my nonsensical reasoning. Once my head had sunk back to the pillow, the hint of glittering teeth was a breath-taking flash of a smile. I almost stopped breathing again.

"Silly Bella," he chuckled beneath his breath as he traced the crimson blotch of my blush with one cool, electric finger. "First of all, you aren't going to die any time soon. I think you should know me well enough by now to know that I simply won't allow it to happen.

Teasingly, he tapped my nose gently with a wagging finger. "You've made it quite difficult, granted, with your propensity for constantly attracting mortal peril, but I believe I've taken into account nearly any situation that might threaten your safety before the wedding."

Edward ticked off a list of possible scenarios on his fingers, "Ill-intentioned vampires, vengeful werewolves, careening vans, Mike Newton, flash flooding, you tripping and hitting your head on the pavement, you walking beneath an air-lifted grand piano on your walk down the aisle… "

Still grinning, he gave me a mock solemn glance. "And not necessarily in that order of likeliness. Bella, I am more than prepared to deal with anything that may happen to you, if or when it arises."

Before I could think of another brilliant argument, his fragrant lips brushed mine. The tip of his tongue gently flickered across my parted lips. I froze. My heart was instantly racing again.

I was so thankful that it was still fairly dark in my room, despite the radiantly full moonlight streaming into my room. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure I would have died if he could have seen the new hue of crimson embarrassment my face had created for an entirely different reason.

"But in the dream, I was dying!" I gasped in a low hiss with the breath I drew when our lips parted.

His seraphic smile dimmed slightly as the ghost of a crease furrowed his brow.

"Bella, I would never let anything happen to you, now or ever," he murmured. His radiant eyes met mine with palpable concern as he clasped my hand. "In the dream, were you frightened of dying?"

I shook my head. "No. I wasn't scared at all of dying," I said vehemently. I made myself meet the concentrated power of his gaze, even as I felt my poor defenses melting away beneath its breathtaking intensity. "I was only afraid of leaving you alone, behind."

I emphatically squeezed his hand with all the strength I could muster, and still I knew it would never be enough to let him know.

"The only thing I'm afraid of is going somewhere you can never go, Edward," I whispered, swallowing hard. "I never, ever want that to happen to us. Ever.

"I love you, and I know you would do everything in your power to protect me, but, still, I can't bear living even one more day under the shadow of a possibility that the life we want could be taken away from us in an instant.

A shaky sigh rattled through my chest. "And that's why I need you to change me now. I know we said we'd wait until the wedding, but now, honestly, I don't think it matters if it happens now or a month from now. I know what's going to happen, and I swear I'm ready for it."

Edward's glittering, pallid face was a mere breath's width away from mine now, hovering over me like the most devoted guardian angel. As he leaned over me, I could feel the solid press of his body, and the tantalizingly close chill of his sculpted torso played through my cotton t-shirt. He was setting every nerve in my skin ablaze with a cold, heatless fire, and I knew I had to speak now or never before my mind was gone in his sweet, heady scent.

My voice was barely louder than a whisper as I gazed into the aurelian eyes looking into my soul.

"I need you, Edward. I need you to change me now. Please. I'm begging you to change me."

For a moment, he said nothing. My heart stuttered viciously, and for a terrible moment, I was afraid that I had made him angry by bringing up this long-argued subject. His long lashes cast shadows over the delicate jut of his cheekbones and cloaked his orbs from my tentative glances.

I shivered suddenly as I felt the silken caress of his thumb sliding over my jawbone.

Finally, he met my nervous gaze again. I let out a shuddering gasp in spite of my resolve. The usually mellow gilded color of his eyes had changed, shifted subtly and suddenly into something I had never seen before. Those empathic gilt orbs narrowed and turned emphatically darker, richer. His eyes burned through the darkness between us like two smoldering embers and traced a palpable line from my eyes to my pulsing throat.

"So you're ready now? Edward asked.

I'd never heard his voice this way before. It was still the same melodiously low, baritone voice I knew, but it was imbued with a profound emotion I'd never felt so strongly from him before. Need…Anticipation...

He brushed the tangled strands of hair away from my wide-open eyes as he murmured words into my already flaming skin. "You're ready for the seemingly endless days of unbearable pain?"

I willed myself to stare at the blankness of the ceiling and tried to ignore the way Edward whispered gentle words too low for me to hear, occasionally tracing the hint of a letter with his tongue against my skin. I prayed he would bite me now, or I was afraid my clumsily skipping heart would forget to beat again.

Especially when I felt the infinitely delicate prick of teeth against my exposed neck.

"You managed to bear it," I wheezed. "What's a few days for all eternity?"

"Mmhmm. You're ready to live like an animal with a relentless addiction to-"

His marble lips brushed ever so lightly against the vigorous throb of blood at my throat. A violent shiver wracked my body. It wasn't from the cold.

"Hot."

A soft tongue flickered over my frantically fluttering pulse.

"Fresh."

An eternity's pause. For a frantic, hysterical second, I wanted to thrust my back into a violent arch and pierce my throat against his teeth before he could refuse, before I could die, before it could all be over.

"Blood."

He locked me in the crosshairs of his now blazing orbs. For once in my life, I knew exactly how his prey felt when my beautiful, wild Edward hunted for blood. I knew I was utterly paralyzed.

"Yes," I whispered.

My entire body was shivering in a light sheen of sweat, and I felt his sweet, cool breath whisper the moisture away, only to lick with a painfully languorous hunger at the exposed skin.

"You're ready right now?"

"Yes," I breathed. My lips were trembling, and when I opened my eyes, fiery tears spilled out and seared tracks of desperate, quavering need down my pale face. Need, want, desire…I need this…

"Are you absolutely certain you are ready right this very moment, now and forever?"

"Yes!" I hissed vehemently.

Arduous, burning, throbbing blood was hurling around inside my swelling veins and capillaries right now, and it needed to be set free. I needed to give it to him, or I was certain I would combust. I needed him to take it. All of it. All of me.

For a moment, he pulled his tantalizing lips away from my carotid to look once more into my paralyzed eyes. His absolutely solemn, dazzling visage broke into that gleaming, perfectly imperfect, crooked smile I loved so very much. I almost cried from the heartbreaking beauty of it-

Only now I saw exquisitely pointed, glistening teeth in the wan moonlight. He was still smiling when he touched them to my wildly heaving pulse-

Only to instantly purse his lips over them and lay a soft, sucking kiss at the base of my quivering throat.

"Well, I'm not," he murmured seductively, nuzzling his closed lips against my throbbing artery.

I exhaled explosively and immediately gasped again. I did not die. And I did not spontaneously combust either. I could still feel the crook of Edward's stupidly, astoundingly beautiful grin nudging against my inflamed flesh, and I knew he was smiling triumphantly in the dark.

When I regained the ability to fully breathe, I immediately conked him over the head with my pathetically flailing fist. He didn't even budge.

"You- You-!!"

"Ouch! You-terrible-crazy-human-girl," he scolded teasingly and sucking tiny, delicate, absolutely toothless bites from my skin. "Now I'd hate to imagine what you would have done to me, had I actually turned you. I imagine I'd be through a wall right now."

But no words could express my embarrassment or indignation. Or wild hysteria. I giggled frantically, and he immediately withdrew from my neck to press a firm finger against my lips, glancing pointedly at my door to remind me of Charlie, sleeping downstairs.

When I had stifled my insane, insensible laughter and protesting, I clung to his shirt collar and whispered with suppressed hysteria, "Edward, why didn't you do it?"

He pecked the tip of my nose. "Because this is neither the time nor the place," he answered seriously as he ran his careful fingers through my damp hair.

Then he looked at me very solemnly for a moment as he absently let his mind wander through the scenario, tilting his tawny head to one side. "For one thing, there would have been blood everywhere- all over your nice sheets and bedspread. Which would be all right, except for the fact that, once the venom entered your bloodstream, you would indubitably start screaming.

"Which would then waken Charlie, who would come running up the stairs to see his half-murdered daughter in a blood-splattered bed with her vampire boyfriend, who would have to take the poor, transmuting girl and fly out the window, pronto.

"Which would then cause your terrified father to run and gather a posse of torch and pitchfork-wielding residents to come chasing after the unnatural, evil Cullen family. It would be quite a traumatic event for all parties involved, I'm sure, what with the blood and the screaming and the pitch-fork waving.

"Although that last part wouldn't be quite so hard to deal with," Edward remarked thoughtfully as he sank back against the pillow, his nose buried against my throat. He sighed blissfully as he remarked ruefully, "After all, it's not the first time the monsters have been driven away by the pitchfork wielding village people."

I heaved a sigh, but for a different reason.

"So you're just going to leave me a vulnerable human until the wedding night?" I asked resignedly.

A hesitation. "That depends," he said cautiously.

My poor heart jumped again in my chest once more with hope, and I grabbed his hand. "Depends on what?"

He peered into the darkness as though he were examining an exquisite work of art painted on my ceiling. I waited in breath-baited silence as I watched his upturned eyes flicker from side to side, carefully choosing and arranging each word before he spoke.

"It depends on how well you can manage temptation," Edward said at last.

And once again, my overworked heart almost skidded to a halt.

"What does that mean?" I whispered, trying not to betray a quiver in my voice. I turned into his side and buried my head against his chest before he could see my reaction.

"It means," he said slowly, turning over to face me, "I want to see how well you can handle real temptation, Bella. Once I turn you, you will experience wild and compelling temptation and urges like you've never had before. At first, you'll feel completely dominated by them- like a senseless animal."

He held my hands in his own, and I almost felt they had turned as cold as him with heart-skipping nervousness and suppressed anticipation, hoping, wondering what he meant. If he meant what I thought he meant-

"Bella, I love you, and I never want to see you do anything you never want to do," Edward whispered, running his smooth thumbs over my clasped hands. "If I'm going to change you before the wedding, I need to know that you are in control of your impulses, that you're not going to fall prey to temptation."

My throat suddenly felt tight and thick with bittersweet emotion. "Edward," I breathed, tracing his seraphic profile glowing in the pre-dawn light, "I swear that if you change me, I'll do whatever it takes to be in control. I know I can do it."

My living Adonis gave me a small, jagged smile as his hand drifted and settled in the small of my back, suddenly drawing me closer. I blinked, and all rational thought ceased.

He purred into my ear, "I don't know about that, Isabella Swan. So far, I think you have proved yourself of questionable ability to resist temptation."

I was going to retort that I would show Edward Cullen what real temptation was when he suddenly flung the sheet between us up, hoisted my leg over his lithe waist, pulling me entirely on top of him, and drew my head down to meet his parted lips.

I decided I'd argue the specifics of our arrangement at a later time.

So what did you think? I would very much appreciate reviews.

Also, if you are a really bored Twilight fan (like yours truly) who is eagerly anticipating Breaking Dawn and have already watched all of the Twilight trailers and behind-the-scenes interviews, I have a Bella/Edward, super fluff-filled Twilight music video that I made and posted on Youtube that you could watch in the meanwhile to stay away the boredom…

It is called '"I Surrender"- Bella and Edward', and I posted a link to it in my profile if you would care to watch.

Thank you for reading, and please review!

-Lyra N.