It was a beautiful star lit night with a huge luminous full moon lighting the way. As I opened the French doors to the patio, the warm night air flooded the house encircling us. The dark water before me shimmered as it crashed into the stark white sand of the beach. It seemed to invite me to enter its tranquility. I knew that I needed to give Bella a moment. We had been traveling all day and I knew there were things that she needed that I did not anymore. I stepped out on the patio and used one foot to slide the first shoe off and then I did the same with its mate. As I placed my foot on the dry sand I could feel each warm soothing grain. I slowly walked letting the air and the sand relax me even further. I reached for the top button of my shirt and slowly unbuttoned it and then I let one sleeve followed by the next fall off my shoulder and then I draped it over my arm. Bella was watching from the house, I could feel her and it made me a little apprehensive to say the least.

I knew that I should have been strong and never agreed to this. Not until after her transformation. But Bella wanted this one last human experience. It had been a huge part of our compromise. She had lived up to her end and married me and now I would have to try because I would not deny her what she wanted. If she had asked for the world, I would have found a way to give it to her. All she ever had to do was ask. I love her far too much to ever deny her of anything.

I had spoken to Carlisle about what I should expect tonight and he was just like the way I would have envisioned my own father being. He told me that love and passion were two things that were stronger than anything and that I would have to be very careful. Carlisle trusted me and knew that above all things that I would never hurt Bella. Emmett had been basically useless as all he could tell me was about how many houses he and Rosalie had destroyed in their time together. His skills simply mimicked the way he lived: rough and tumble. Jasper was only the slightest bit more helpful as he understood my level and love and devotion for Bella as he was hopelessly in love with Alice. But he had not had the experience of being with a mortal woman after he was turned. Jasper only knew Alice. I myself had never been with a woman, human or vampire. Call me old fashioned but I had waited, saved myself if you will, for my blushing bride on our wedding night. But I would have thought I would have been on equal playing fields to say the very least. After my change some 80 years ago I thought myself destined to be without anyone. To never know loves sweet embrace. Eternally alone. That was before I saw Bella's beautiful brown eyes staring right at me from across the crowded cafeteria.

I stood at the edge of the water holding my pants up to keep them from getting wet, feeling the sand shift between my toes. As I walked back from our private cove, I unfastened my belt and undid my zipper. Then I slid them off and lay them, along with my shirt, across a palm tree that had grown out in more of a curved shape. I turned back to the water again. Once there I stepped in ankle deep and stopped to notice the warmth of the sea. It was almost like my Bella. She was so warm against my icy skin. I thought about how since I met her I could not possibly imagine my life without her. Bella was as much a part of me as I was of her. In all my 80 plus years on this Earth, I had never felt this way before about anyone. I had never been this consumed before. That was it: Bella had consumed every part of me. It was as if she was the predator and had been the one who was tracking me. Now I was hopelessly under her spell: Bella had bewitched me. I, Edward Cullen, immortal who was not susceptible to the law's of man. None of that mattered; I was a slave to her. A man possessed by her power.

The waves licked at my sides as I was now waist deep. It did very little to calm my fears. I was afraid: of losing control and having the monster within me do something horrifying. I was also afraid that her expectations of me were too high. What if I was not everything that she wanted in a man, a lover? I chuckled as that thought came to me. Me, a vampire, worrying about if I will be able to pleasure a woman. But Bella was my wife and all I wanted was for her to have it all. The worst of all fears was what if she was afraid, left and never returned. I had already had to live with that dread, I had almost lost her and it had been unbearable. I then noticed that Bella had been in the house for a very long time. Maybe she had changed her mind. Maybe she really would not make me do this, even though part of me badly wanted to. Maybe I actually had nothing to worry about. But I would try for her. I had to control the animal instinct that I knew would rear its ugly head. I would have to be ever so careful with her delicate body, her perfectly shaped mouth. In my mind I could see the way her deep brown eyes caught the light and made it dance. I could see the way the blood rushed to her cheeks giving them a slightly pink glow. I thought long about the way she smelled and the taste of skin.

It was then I took in a long, slow, deep breath, even though I did not need to. I had to calm myself. I was now very aware that Bella was outside and stood at the water's edge. I could smell that she had taken a bath and brushed her teeth. I smiled and tried to act like I did not know she was slowly slipping through the warm waters to where I was waiting for her. I suddenly had a very strong human desire to touch her, to engulf her body in my arms and pull her close to me and rain kisses on her. I kept my arms by my side and played with the water as it lapped at each of my fingers. Bella's hand reached out to touch mine.

"Beautiful," she said as she looked up at the moon.

"It's alright," I replied.

I turned slowly to face her and then I entwined my hands with hers under the water. Her being this close was making my breath hitch which was funny since I did not really need to do so anyway. The moon was just a dead body in space. Bella was a living breathing angel standing before me waiting for me to make the first move. How could she see beauty in something dead when she was the most beautiful creature ever?

"But I wouldn't use the word beautiful. Not with you standing here in comparison," I said.

Bella gave me a half smile and slowly slid her hand to where it was placed over my heart. She did not tremble as she did so but I shuddered the least bit at the contrast of her warm skin on my cold body. It was like a fire where she touched me, not painful but something more. My breath came rougher than it had before.

"I promised that we would try. If . . . if I do something wrong, if I hurt you, you must tell me at once," I begged her.

She nodded at me as she had her eyes locked on my and I could see the moon dancing around and felt the water move around us as she took a step closer to me. Bella laid her head on my chest and I could smell her, and my throat did not burn with the thirst I used to have for her. But my body was burning with this new overwhelming feeling now.

"Don't be afraid. We belong together," Bella whispered.

I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into my body as close as I could.

"Forever," I finally agreed as I pulled us into the deeper waters.

I stopped when the water was to my shoulders and Bella held on to me, her body clinging to mine. The warmth of the water was enough that my frigid skin did not keep her from me. Her skin ignited mine where she touched me and it was far different from anything thirst I had ever felt before. It was more powerful, much more so. Bella lips were on mine and she kissed me and caressed my back. Her hands sent blazes all up and down my spine. It made our kisses that much more intense. My head swam with her scent and the thoughts of what she was possibly thinking and of what I was thinking. I thought I was not as afraid anymore. I knew I wanted her with ever fiber in my being. Not as a vampire wants a victim but as a man wants a woman. I was able to hold her this close and taste her lips and know that what I was doing was natural and something that pleased her as much as it did me. It was our love now in a physical sense. Where it had always been feelings, it was now more tangible. More real.

I lifted Bella up and proceeded to carry her back into the house. I walked straight to the bedroom and lay her across the white bed spread. I knew we were wet and should have dried off but the sense of urgency was far too great to do something so trivial. I was now aware that I had a strong desire to complete her. To make her feel all the things she wanted to. We continued to kiss with all the passion as before only now it was even stronger. It seemed that our bodies were getting closer and closer and that they knew what they wanted. They wanted for us to be one. And then we were. It was like nothing I had ever known. It was almost like my blood that I had long since been dead and cold was now living and flowing like liquid hot lava through my veins. It was nothing short of miraculous. I knew it had to be Bella; it had to be her love that did this to me.

There was something about the way my name rolled off her lips in the heat of passion that was causing me to slip even further into this blissful euphoria. I could almost feel human again. Bella said my name often but in the throes of our love making it was so very different. We did so many things that I had only dreamed about. But my undoing came when she was on top of me. Her dark brown hair flipping all around her, her ample breast heaving as she felt the passion course through her veins. It was then the monster began to make its presence known. It was waking from its dark depths. I had to keep it down for if I failed in my quest, he would take my Bella away from me. The one who was warm, breathing and had a heart that beat so full of life and replace her with one that was cold, dead. I could not allow this to happen. I slowly rolled Bella back below me. I was afraid she would see this as a sign of my wanting her to submit to my needs. But no, she only saw it as my loving her even more than I had before. Seeing her like that was too much for me to keep the beast reigned in.

While keeping the inner demon inside, I had momentarily let the feelings I had been having slip from me. Bella said my name again with more urgency and I was right back again. She kissed my neck and licked at where my pulse should have been. She nibbled at my neck ever so lightly and it sent a new blaze from my head to my toes. I could feel her heart beating against my body but even more than that I could feel her love. A love that I had not always been sure that I deserved but I knew since she had chosen to marry me, I had to be worth something to Bella. She gave me hope and a new life. I wanted to give her everything she wanted: I wanted her to have all of me. Passion was so new to me in the physical sense. It was all that Carlisle had said it would be and so much more. My hands intertwined with hers again above her head and I kissed under her chain right at her pulse point. I knew that she was close to her end as her breathing had become very erratic. I too could feel a change coming as well. Part of it was good and part bad. The monster wanted to do something more. But I would not let him foul this up. I would never allow him to spoil such a beautiful moment in our lives. Bella was mine and he would not have her. Never.

The end came quickly for her and me as well. She arched her body high off the bed and took me with her. She washed over me in waves and pulled me even deeper into her. I was lost; it crashed over me, over and over again. It seemed to go on without end but I did not want it to. The monster wanted me to finish her. But I would see to it that Bella lived through this. While Bella cried out my name in the throes of passion, I bit down into the duvet cover and ripped it to shreds beside of her head and the head board crumbled where my hand had been. She was unaware the monster wanted her. I won in the end. The cries she heard from me were mine, she had completed me as much as I had her. It was like nothing I had ever felt before. It was like I almost felt tired, like I could actually sleep.

Bella pulled me into her and kissed me softly and held me there until her body subsided around me. I would have stayed there but was afraid my weight would prove too much for her. Bella rolled over next to me and snuggled into my side. Our bodies were still entangled and I could feel her sigh contently beside me. I knew she would sleep peacefully tonight. No nightmares to plague her. As I played with her hair, I started to worry if I had actually been careful enough. Could it be possible that I had hurt her? If I had, would she be completely honest with me? No matter how much pleasure I may have derived from tonight, if I hurt her I would never be able to live with myself. As I felt her finally succumb to sleep, I wondered if she was really okay. I would have to wait until morning to see. To see if the monster had won or if I had.