AN: I wrote this story as a whole but had to break it down into chapters for the site. I tried to make the breaks in appropriate places, so I hope it works!
(Stephanie Meyer owns Twilight.)
'Did you pack your bags yourself?'
Bella listens for the answer from male half of the young couple in front. By the way the female counterpart pushes him forward slightly, inclining her head towards the spotty easy jet employee, she'd say he never packed a bag in his life. The half grin, half grimace on Bella's face says it all. Men. Inferior species of the human race, and one Bella certainly could do without for at least one week.
She shoves her hand deep into the side pocket of her carry on, confirming once more that that she'd packed her passport and ticket confirmation.
The young couple move on and Bella heaves her luminous pink suitcase onto the scales, hoping against hope that the forty books she'd pilfered from Rose and Alice's mammoth collection in their shared apartment really weren't that heavy.
Bella holds her breath as the spotty one confirms her bag comes in just under the strict limits of the world's worst cheapass flight company. Good thinks Bella relaxing visibly cos I'm not taking any of them out.
She'd only booked this holiday last week, needing desperately to get away and indulge in some self-medication. Namely sun and solitude. Both would do plenty to ease mind and soul, at least until the arrivals gate at Heathrow in six days, twenty one hours and thirty nine minutes time. Not that she was counting.
Once her suitcase was safely flung into the depths of the luggage underworld, Bella made her way to the departure lounge for a quick spot of window shopping. The flight was due to leave in an hour and so she had plenty of time to browse through Boots, flick through Roxy, coat herself with all the expensive perfumes she had no intention of buying in the duty free and maybe even peruse Waterstones for that last minute eye catching fairytale, guaranteed to lose you in its pursuit to convince that love really does exist and will sweep you off your feet like you try not to desperately wish for.
Bella had had her fair share of disastrous relationships. The last being the sole prompt for her need to 'get away from it all.' Men were selfish, lazy and a constant drain on your emotions. When they weren't keeping you up at night wondering whether or not they were screwing some blonde's brains out behind a club, they were calling you every five minutes demanding your attention at no cost to themselves. Unfortunately Bella's last boyfriend, Mike Newton, had done both. Not content with being caught in the throes, he continued to stalk Bella, pleading for another chance. She hadn't given in, just left the country for a while.
Finally, the flight appears on the board indicating the departure gate. Bella picks up her carry on, the bottle of water and huge bag of Haribo (for essential ear-popping relief of course) and starts heading towards the tunnel on the opposite side of the departure lounge. On the way a group of girls her age distracts her and she sighs, momentarily wishing she had her two best friends with her.
When deciding it was time for a break, Bella had fully intended on going somewhere on her own by herself. It was what she needed, she convinced herself and anyone else listening. Bella's friends, confidantes and flatmates -Alice and Rosalie - had been flabbergasted.
'Bella you've never even been to the loo by yourself in a pub let alone a foreign country.' Rose had pointed out gently, but Alice shook her head.
'I think if this is what Bella wants then she should do it.' she said proudly, whilst thinking secretly that she'd have quite liked the idea of a week in the sun. Bella had hugged them both and apologised, again, and then promised them they would have a proper girly holiday later in the year all together. They had reluctantly waved Bella off this evening, jokingly threatening to gatecrash the hotel if it was too awful on her own.
Suddenly, the air is filled with excitement and loud deep voices. Bella stands to one side to allow the mob, belting out rugby songs if she isn't mistaken, to pass her by. One of them wolf-whistles at her and his mates slap him on the back accompanied with raucous 'whey-heys!'. Irritated that they think she's fair game, Bella finds herself almost yelling back an insult. Instead she rolls her eyes dramatically for no-one in particular and continues down the tunnel towards the gate. Yep a week without men is definitely what the doctor calls for.
'Hey Emmett it's the next gate.' Edward calls out knowing its pointless as another girl comes into view and the wolf whistles start all over again. He sighs again, wondering why he agreed to come away and spend a week getting wasted to the point of medical attention, ogling girls in skimpy bikinis and trying to save the majority of the team from being thrown in a foreign prison. He loves his team mates on and off the field but they can get a bit too much even for him.
Having played with most of them through school and now through college, they had a bond like no other and the mad stories they could tell should be illegal even to repeat them. Edward had been a fully fledged member of the team until he met the love of his life Tanya, and when she didn't approve of the drinking games and constant stream of women hanging around, he'd quit. He was only happy if she was happy. Until recently, when being happy for Tanya meant blowing her university lecturer whilst dancing topless on a bar. Those picture had stayed in Edward's mind for a long time after they had circled the internet. Emmett's invitation to this week of debauchery followed swiftly, as was a direct summons back to the team. A week away with the lads was the space he needed to get over his heartbreak. No clingy, whiney women to fuck with your head
Edward looks at the tiny dark haired girl now subjected to their attentions and feels sorry for her and every other female on the island. He might be avoiding the opposite sex like the plague but these boys were like heat seeking missiles latching onto anything with a pair of breasts. But the girl plants her feet firmly, squares her shoulders and then looks as if she might belt seven bells of hell out of the lot of them. He recognises that look on her face and it makes him smile briefly before being pulled along in the crowd. That tiny slip of a thing was going to open fire on a group of horny, over-excited, well muscled lads who'd had a fair bit to drink already this evening, without even batting an eye-lid. He was sort of sad she'd not followed through with it.
Finally they reach the gate only to be informed the plane is now delayed because of short staffing. Fucking Easyjet. As Emmett introduces himself to everyone in the room, Edward takes a moment to study a young bloke about his age receiving an earful about the delay from the attractive yet harsh looking blond facing him. The feeling is definitely one of relief as he remembers why he's sworn off women. But then he looks up and comes face to face with the girl from the tunnel. You were saying Edward?
'Excuse me, can I squeeze past?' Bella mutters strangely entranced by the piercing green eyes she's trying desperately not to look into. When she'd watched the pack of guys walking straight to her gate she almost wished she'd never thought of booking such a stupid holiday. Just ignore them, just ignore them its only on the plane she'd chanted to herself, as much to keep her irritation in check as it was to stop herself staring at a particularly firm pair of buttocks walking just ahead of her in the group. Imagine her surprise when the buttocks stopped their eye pleasing flexing, completely blocking the entrance to the room and forcing her to speak to them.
'You can squeeze me if you want to sugar.' A voice behind her bellows and Bella can't help but notice how the green eyes wince a little.
'Ignore him. Please.'
'Oh I will.'
Bella steps through the small gap and finds an empty seat next to the young couple at the check in desk. She doesn't look back at the green eyes or the firm buttocks or even at the woman now having a complete hissy fit because her meticulous schedule will be completely ruined. Instead she pulls out her I-pod and sticks the ear pieces firmly in her ears, and then roots around in her carry on for the novel she packed for the flight.
Edward watches the girl with interest. Yes he knows its against the 'no girls' rule, and not to mentioned rude to stare, but there's something about her that makes it difficult to turn away. Maybe it's the way she's positioned herself right in the middle of the chair so there is a visible gap between her and the rest of the world, or the way she's nervously chewing on her bottom lip as she intently reads her book. Maybe it's the contrast between her annoyed glares as the bitch of a girlfriend next to her continues to screech louder and more high pitch, to the fact that she's reading a book entitled 'Dreams Do Come True' with a picture of a dashingly handsome man holding a stunningly beautiful woman on the cover. Whatever it is, Edward has little time to contemplate as Jacob leans in and whispers.
'She's mine.'
Disturbed by the anger and indignation bubbling inside him at Jacob's words, Edward watches the cocky son-of-a-bitch waltz over to make his move and has to sharply remind himself he's off women of any kind. Despite his better intentions, it comforts him greatly to see Jacob being completely ignored by the raven haired beauty. 'Plenty more fish in the sea.' Edward pacifies as he makes his way back, but Jacob winks back mischievously.
'Playing hard to get mate.' He nods. 'She'll be in my bed before sundown.'
Luckily or unluckily for Bella, the plane is delayed a further 2 hours and as darkness falls she starts debating whether or not she can get a refund on this crappy holiday. Even though Alice would take away her hair straighteners for thinking it, she really wishes the cute muscled guy with the dark hair would stop harassing her. He'd said his name was Jacob, not that Bella was listening, and that he was here with his team mates. See it was rugby songs. And ok so his muscles were quite impressive and maybe he had that dark eyed, dark skinned thing going on, but seriously he was a man and all men were bad news.
Back to your book Bella and the amorous flirting between Brad and Sophia across a crowded room. Bella was quite pleased to find that said casual flirting soon turned to rampant fucking over a reception desk, which consequently made her all hot and bothered. Fearing she was being watched, Bella quickly put down the book and her eyes hastily swept the room before stopping dead on an eerily familiar pair of green ones. His eyes were wide and there was a twitch to one corner of his mouth as if he was trying hard not to smile. Was he laughing at her?
Feeling indignant Bella shrugged it off and reopened her book, but could no longer concentrate on Brad's imminent orgasm or Sophia's third. She was wholly focussed on those sodding green eyes and whether they were still watching her. She was about to give up reading the same sentence fourteen times when she realised people were moving around her. She looked up again to find a queue was being rapidly formed at the door to the boarding platform. But she couldn't move. Not just yet. All around her people were rearranging themselves, pushing past her, stretching and gathering belongings and right in the centre of it all was those green eyes, pinning her to her seat and allowing her to look right into his soul.
Edward was spellbound. He had never watched someone read a book before and it should have been the most boring five minutes of his life, except it was her reading, and her eyes growing wider, and her cheeks getting pinker, and her bottom lip being sucked almost completely into her mouth. If he didn't know better, he would have said she was reading porn. Oh Edward if only you knew.
But then she'd clapped her book closed and looked straight at him, not even giving him time to wipe the dirty smile off his face at the thought she was getting turned on by her book in a room full of people. She narrowed her eyes at him looking for a second like she might just come over and slap him, but then she shrugged nonchalantly and turned back to the book, almost daring him to suggest what he was thinking. God she's a feisty thing, Edward thought fleetingly before instantly trying to block all the thoughts that followed a thought like that.
An announcement at the desk by the door informed everyone they were now ready to begin boarding, but the girl didn't move a muscle. When people started moving towards the door and collecting their children strewn around the room, she still didn't look up from her page. Wondering what was so damn good about that book Edward stayed in his seat too and watched her. It was only when the queue for boarding reached her seat did she notice there was something going on. She met his gaze again, but this time instead of giving him attitude she stared right back, opening up like a flower under the sun. Right then Edward knew he was in trouble.
The flight was blissfully short and dark which meant Bella could get some shut eye. Thankfully the seat next to her remained empty, though not for the lack of trying. Jacob had spied the empty seat, climbing over his friends in a desperate bid to claim it. As predictable as a Bond movie, he'd whispered 'Is this seat taken?'
To which Bella had replied 'Yes.' only just stopping herself from adding the obligatory 'So you can fuck off.' She felt euphoric as she watched Jacob slink back to his mates, and even more happy when no-one else challenged her for the seat, meaning she had enough room to curl up in. She also couldn't stop the inappropriate thrill that zipped through her when she caught Mr green eyes chuckling with almost admiration in her direction at Jacob's knock back.
By the time they had landed Bella wanted nothing more than to crawl onto a relatively flat surface with something resembling a pillow and duvet, and sleep deeply. Collecting her un-miss able suitcase from the carousel, Bella turned and almost stumbled straight into no other than gorgeous Mr Green eyes. She felt an arm reach out to steady her but barely had time to register it before Jacob stepped between them and deftly took her case from her outstretched hand.
'Hey Babe, what's the rush? You leaving so soon? Why don't you come join us for a drink at our hotel, what's it called again Edward?'
Edward rolled his eyes dramatically in Bella's direction, which caused her lips to twitch in amusement, and slowly repeated the name of the hotel. Realisation dawned in the pit of her stomach as she heard the familiar name, the very same one that was printed on the booking confirmation in her hand. Well there goes my relaxing, soul fixing, mind mending, rejuvenation break. Bella thought, feeling quite pissed off.
Now I'll have to put up with Casanova, his team of hooligans, and an extremely wayward distraction in the form of green eyes here.
She managed to tear her eyes from you know who, and regarded the fool stood in front of her with her suitcase. Without blinking she snatched her case back, snagging Jacob's wrist with her other hand and wrenching it over itself into a perfect arm lock. She moved her head closer to Jacob's and whispered sweetly, 'Don't ever touch my things without my permission, kay?' then she sidestepped the pair of them and walked away, her head held high, not even stopping to consider how a large group had gathered around them and now were applauding her, or how Jacob was blushing furiously and rubbing his wrist hard, or even how Mr green eyes had acquired the title gorgeous in the space of two hours.
Edward watched Jacob rubbing his wrist and sulking and did feel a tiny bit sorry for him. It may have been the funniest thing he would see this holiday, but Jacob's ego was in tatters. The kindest thing was to not mention this ever again.
'I hear she can kill a man with just one flip flop.' He couldn't resist. Emmett overheard and started bawling with laughter again, clutching his sides and tripping over his own cases. Jacob just stared at him.
'What, you think that little stunt will put me off? Oh no my friend, you aint seen nothin yet. That was just a little warm-up, you know, teasing, girls in the playground and all that. I can tell she likes me.'
The snorts of hysterical laughter from Emmett almost made his cock-sure smile waver, and Edward couldn't ignore the feeling in his gut that made him want to injure Jacob or at least send him back on a plane to England. Surely he wasn't jealous?
Bella woke that morning bright and early, ignoring the fact that she'd had a grand total of three and half minutes sleep last night. The first thing she would do today was pay a visit to the front desk and demand a change of room, preferably the opposite end of the hotel where drunken rugby songs mixed with giggling females couldn't be heard. How did she end up with the room in between the loudest group of lads on the island?
Bella gave up being pissed about it and took a long shower to calm her. She dressed for the beach and grabbed her book. Today she was going to sit and just read.
Outside the air was warm already and there were very few people milling around. She grabbed herself an excellent table in the morning sun and indulged in the hotel's fresh fruit and baked pastries. It was bliss. The only noise was a slight bustle of waiting staff in the background and the soothing swell of the sea against an empty beach. Bella let her shoulders fall back and breathed deeply. This was what she came for, this was what she needed.
Feeling revived and ready to head down to the beach, Bella stopped off at the front reception desk. The pretty blonde receptionist was stood perfectly still, her face angled towards the sun. Bella stopped for a moment and wondered if she was real. Then she caught the grin on her face and realised she was staring at something across the way. With a bemused smile Bella turned to follow her line of sight and immediately gasped out loud. There in the open balcony window above the pool was a perfectly formed, butt naked guy, his back to the world and completely oblivious to the fact they were watching him fuck senseless the gorgeous woman whose legs were wrapped tightly round his waist. The receptionist merely glanced at Bella in a 'Hell yeah' kinda way and Bella found herself unable to resist having another look. The guy's back was muscled to perfection, dipping down to his tight waist and impeccable buttocks that clenched and rippled mouth-wateringly with every thrust. For some reason Bella had a feeling those buttocks were a bit familiar, but she hadn't a clue why, she'd never been fucked like that in her life and she would sure as hell remember if she had. Was it wrong to keep watching? Before Bella could answer that, the guy threw his head back and his body jerked forwards, turning in the last throes to collapse on his bed. 'Wow' the receptionist breathed, and Bella would have agreed except she seemed to have lost the power of speech and thought and ability to keep her breakfast down. Incredibly sexy guy was in fact no other than gorgeous Mr green eyes.