.
TLS Lyrics and Lemons Contest
Song: Lullaby by The Dixie Chicks
http : / / tinyurl . com / 639jflw
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 4, 600
Pairing: ExB
Summary: How long do you want to be loved? Is forever enough, is forever enough? Because I'm never, never giving you up. A legend, a siren, and a mere mortal who is her destiny.
Disclaimer: I do not own the song or the characters.
.
Is Forever Enough
The hot July sun peeked out from between the hills in distance as it slowly set, and I squinted at the clear blue sky and the thin, cotton clouds. The weather was just as I remembered it, and I smiled as the feeling of home surrounded me.
"It's good to see you again, Edward," my grandfather, Carlisle, told me as we clanked down the dusty road, the old truck spluttering and choking as it rocked us from side to side slightly in the cab.
I looked away from the open window and at his weathered face, the wrinkles and gray hair giving him the look of wisdom rather than age. His blue eyes twinkled with youthful mischief, and his lips were stretched up into a smile.
"It's good to be back," I responded with complete honesty. I had visited my grandparents every summer up until I turned eighteen and went off to study music in college. My grandparents' place was a safe haven for me – a place away from all the trials and stress of my normal life – and I still grasped onto that chance of escape, even at twenty-three.
"Your parents doing well?" he asked, and I sighed, my mood dampening.
"I think they are finally getting a divorce," I told him quietly, and his lips turned down as his brow furrowed.
"They have to do what's right by them," he said sagely, placing his hand on my shoulder and squeezing it gently. We sat in silence for a while after that, just enjoying the breeze that drifted in through the window, cooling our heated skin.
We turned the corner, making the trees and fields part enough to see their house and the lake next to it.
"You know there's a legend about that lake," Gramps murmured, readying himself to tell the story he had told me many times before. We both knew the story by heart, but it was more to distract us from our thoughts than anything else. My lips twitched up slightly, and I rested my head back against the headrest.
"A girl-I forget her name now, it's been so long - lived in the very same house that your grandmother and I own, with her father. Now, the legend goes that every generation the oldest daughter would drown in the lake. A mythical curse was bestowed upon them centuries ago by an angry faerie creature would be carried out when she turned a certain age. It is why it's called Lake Luckless. The amazing thing about it, though, is that the bodies were never found, just their clothes..."
"I always wondered why they just never left that place," I interjected, like I did every time.
Gramps rolled his eyes good-naturedly, most likely knowing that it would happen. "You always have to add your little bit, don't you?"
I laughed. "It wouldn't have the same buildup without it."
He chuckled and pulled the truck to a stop outside the house. "You're right about that, kid. Now go say hello to your grandmother before she gets any more gray hair."
I pulled the handle of the truck door and rammed my shoulder against it. It stuck sometimes, so it was best to assume that it would stick every time, or you would have to sit there shoving and pushing at the door until it opened.
The dust around the truck settled, and my grandmother, Esme, walked over from her perch in the doorway. She wrapped her arms tightly around me, and I buried my face in her salt and pepper hair, inhaling her apple pie and lavender scent.
When she finally pulled away, her eyes damp and a smile crinkling on her face, she patted my cheek affectionately. "Don't stay away for so long next time," she admonished gently, and I nodded, wondering why I had stayed away in the first place.
"I won't, Grams. You know your famous apple pie always calls me back."
She slapped my arm lightly and chuckled as Gramps came around with my duffel bag which I had left it in the bed of the truck.
"Come in from this heat, and I'll give you some nice, cold iced tea." She ushered me inside to the kitchen like the mother hen she was and smoothed down her apron before pouring me a glass of her sweet, homemade iced tea.
Gramps joined me, rubbing his hands together as Grams brought us each a slice of her apple pie. We dug in happily, and my teeth tingled from all the sweetness. Gram's food was enough to bring on the worst cavities, but it was something you could never regret.
"What took you boys so long to get here anyway? I've been waiting years to see my favorite Grandson and you go and add another hour onto it." She crossed her arms, slightly put out with Gramps.
I snickered quietly as he swallowed carefully, eyeing her like she was a dangerous animal about to pounce. You couldn't be fooled by Grams' sweet, motherly personality - mess with her and you'll wish you'd never been born.
Gramps cleared his throat and gave her the famous Cullen smile.
"I was just telling Edward about the legend of the lake," he supplied, and she rolled her eyes with a huff before tucking a few stray strands of hair behind her ear.
"I really do not see what enthralls you so much about that legend. If that hussy came anywhere near you, I'd send her back to the depths."
Gramps hushed her. "I hadn't gotten to that part," he said like I hadn't heard the story a million times. He gave me a look that said "women, eh?" before leaning back in his chair.
"Where was I in the story anyway?" he asked as he rubbed his chin in contemplation.
"I'd just interrupted you," I told him, and he nodded, his eyes lighting up in remembrance.
"That you did. So...all these women drowned in the lake without a trace; only their clothes were left behind...until the only daughter of the local police chief disappeared. It was said that she was one of the most beautiful girls to ever have walked the ground we sit on. She had the greatest voice ever to have been heard in these here parts. Many men called for her, begging her father to allow them to court her, but she refused all of them."
He paused, making sure we were all listening before continuing.
"But there was one young man who was able to befriend her. He bid his time to make his real intentions known, and one evening when the moon was high in the sky, he came to the house and called her down from her room. Now, she had the room you have, Edward, and as you know, there are stairs that lead from the room to the lake. So that night, she came down those stairs, and he told her his true feelings, thinking that she would return them equally...only she refused him.
He became angry at this, begging for her to see reason. When she refused him again, he became so enthralled with rage that he grabbed her and dragged her into the lake, holding her under the water until she drowned. Once he realized she was dead, he ran off, but it wasn't her time to die yet. Fate and Fortune knew that she was meant to marry and have a daughter of her own before she died, so they gave her a choice: Go on to the next world or wait for the man who was meant to be hers. That man that should have been my great-great grandfather."
He looked incredibly proud of himself, and Grams snorted disbelievingly.
"You have no proof of that, and if he was, why did he marry your great-great grandmother, Elizabeth, and move to Connecticut? Answer that one."
He frowned and shrugged. "No one knows the answer to that question. Maybe it just wasn't the right time. Anyway, the legend says that the man she chooses will hear a song in the middle of night, and she'll call to him like a siren. Nothing else is known."
He waved off the rest of the story like it wasn't important. The mood was ruined by Grams' interrogation. I stood up and stretched, tired from a long day of travelling.
"Great story, Gramps. I'll head on off to bed now, if that's all right?"
I gave them both a quick kiss on the cheek before going up to my room. I glanced out of the balcony doors to the lake before shaking my head. Stripping down to my boxers, I slipping into bed.
It's just a story.
...
My eyes blinked open, my breaths slightly uneven as the heat wrapped around me like a blanket. The faint buzzing of insects filled the quiet night, and I wondered what had woken me up. My eyes searched the room, fruitlessly trying to find the source of my awakening as I kicked off my sweat-soaked boxers. The moon shone through the balcony door, bathing the room in silvery light as the thin curtains danced in the breeze.
"How long do you want to be loved..."
My breath caught in my throat, and my body seized up in shock as the words filtered into the room. The voice was decidedly feminine as she continued crooning.
"Is forever enough, is forever enough..."
The lyrics were soothing like a lullaby, and yet at the same time, hypnotizing and compelling, gripping you by the heart and pulling you up. I pushed the sheets aside - no thoughts of my naked body registering - and quietly got out of bed. The floorboards creaked under my weight as I moved toward the balcony.
"How long do you want to be loved..."
I stepped out through the open doors and moved to the railing that overlooked the lake. It looked beautiful at night, the water still and sparkling like little diamonds. It wasn't what had caught my attention in that moment.
It was the woman emerging from it, her alabaster skin glowing as she swayed and twisted, her bare hips moving seamlessly as droplets of water trickled down her wet, naked skin. Her hair fell in long, silken waves around her waist, falling over the globes of her breasts, hiding the taut flesh of her nipples.
"Is forever enough, cause I'm never, never giving you up..."
She looked up at me, her heart-shaped face expectant as she held out her palm. My feet moved without my conscious thought, walking down the stairs that wrapped around the house until my bare feet hit the dirt. I moved through the short grass toward her, and a breathtaking smile spread over her face as my calloused hand slipped into her soft one.
Questions bubbled on my tongue, begging to be spilled, but some unknown force held me back, making any and all thoughts not surrounding her dissolve into the moonlight. She pulled me to her so that our naked chests were pressed against each other, and I shivered at how cool she felt against my hot skin.
"They didn't have you where I come from...," she sang, her rose-tinted lips moving almost seductively as the words wrapped around me, pulling me deeper into her. "Never knew the best was yet to come..." She ran a hand through my hair, brushing it through the strands before slipping it down to cup my face. "Life began when I saw your face..." My eyes flickered, threatening to close, as the soft pads of her fingers trailed over my skin, trying to memorize the contours of it. "And I hear your laugh like a serenade..."
Her hands trailed across my jaw before dipping down to my throat, stroking over my Adam's apple. I swallowed while her hands dragged down along my collarbone. She spread her hand over my heart and closed her eyes briefly, listening and feeling it pound against my chest. "I slip in bed when you're asleep..."
Her eyes reopened slowly, the thick eyelashes framing her eyes casting dark shadows on her cheeks. She started walking backward, tugging me along with her as she entered the water, making it ripple around us as we interrupted its peacefulness. I wasn't aware of anything around me; the only thought entering my mind was that of following her wherever she took me. She pulled me into her small arms once the water reached my stomach and whispered in my ear. "To hold you close and feel your breath on me..."
I shivered in her grip, and I felt her drag her leg up mine until she hooked it over my hip. My hand immediately wrapped around the soft skin of her thigh, holding it to me as I felt the heat of her center burning against my own flesh.
"Tomorrow there'll be so much to do..." she murmured as I skimmed my free hand up her side, grazing it cautiously against the side of her breast. She arched into me, and any hesitation vanished from my mind, almost as if it had not been there in the first place. I took the supple flesh into my hand, feeling its weight in my palm before sliding my thumb over her swollen nipple.
"So tonight I'll drift in a dream with you..."
My breaths were shallow as she placed her hands on my shoulders and gracefully lifted herself up to wrap her legs around my waist. The hand that had been on her thigh slid past the curve of her rear, held her up by her ample flesh. I angled my face up as she cupped it between her hands and brushed her lips against mine so lightly it was like the touch of a butterfly, so fleeting and soft.
"As you wander through this troubled world..." She breathed the words into my mouth, making me inhale them and draw them inside me so I could taste the sweet ambrosia of her breath against my tongue.
She trailed one of her hands down to where my own was settled on her breast and entwined our fingers together. She brought them up to her mouth, her eyes never leaving mine as she dragged her lips across the skin. "In search of all things beautiful..."
She moved our entangled hands down, grazing the skin of her stomach before dipping into her hot center. I groaned quietly, not wanting to disturb the peacefulness of the night but unable to hold back the desire that pulsed through every vein and throbbed against my skin.
She guided our hands across her hot flesh, stroking and caressing it languidly.
"You can close your eyes when you're miles away..." she hummed, her eyes fluttering closed as her head swayed back and forth, her hair floating in the water around us.
She pushed our hands away from her and grasped me instead, guiding me inside of her. All the air left me as I slipped into the hot caverns of her center. She clung to me like a survivor on a shipwreck, her nails digging into my skin without repentance.
"And hear my voice like a serenade..."
We started to move, our bodies pushing and pulling at each other as our hands mapped out dip and curve on one other. I lowered my mouth to her neck, sucking at the skin there before drifting down and taking one of her breasts into my mouth.
"How long do you want to be loved, is forever enough, is forever enough..."
Every part of me was consumed with a fire I had never felt before, the burning sparked by her touch, her words fanning the flames, coaxing them to ignite further. Standing in the middle of the lake, the cool water stinging against the heat of my skin, there was no tomorrow, no worry about the future.
"How long do you want to be loved, is forever enough..."
The only imperative was that moment in time, that second and perhaps the next. I wanted her touch, her tongue, and her body, to never relinquish their power over me. She was my question, my answer, key to the world unknown and untold.
'Cause I'm never, never giving you up..."
I willed for her to drive me to the brink of what every nerve and cell in me could bear, knowing that this siren, this goddess, had the power to give me exactly what I wanted.
It took me a few minutes to notice that I was slowly sinking, my body descending below the water, blocking my senses as she continued caressing my body.
I kept my eyes opened as her lips continued moving, small bubbles of air releasing into the water as she did so.
"Is forever enough..." she whispered, the words reverberating inside of my head.
Her hair surrounded us, dancing in the water like brown seaweed as she stared deeply into my eyes.
My lungs burned, screaming at me to take in oxygen, but I ignored it, my mind too transfixed on the woman in my arms. I barely noticed when my body hit the lake bed, dirt swirling around us as she straddled my body.
'Cause I'm never, never giving you up..."
She placed her lips against my own, breathing her sweet scent into them, and making my lungs release as oxygen filled them. She moved over me, her hips rocking gently against mine as my lips yielded under the pressure of hers.
Her tongue swiped along my lips, and I opened them easily, willingly. She caressed it against my own, coating it in the sweetness that was all her. My hands palmed her supple breasts, rubbing over her nipples, trying, as a mere mortal, to bring pleasure to my goddess.
The coil, that had been binding itself tighter and tighter with each thrust, sprung and released, while liquid fire leapt through each muscle and molecule, sending me skyward. My back arched and our mouths separated, sending wave after wave of water into my lungs as I cried out silently to the heavens.
'Cause I'm never, never giving you up..."
I sank back down, my mind dazed by the intensity of my orgasm. Sharp pain radiated from my neck as her teeth clamped down on it, slicing through my flesh like butter. I took one last glance of her before my eyelids closed and I sank into darkness.
...
Something itched at my nose, tickling it as it buzzed noisily in my ears. My heavy lids opened slowly, unwilling to pull my clouded mind from its dream. I squinted at the sun as it shone down on me, making my body sweaty and sticky.
I sat up slowly, my limbs feeling like weights, and glanced around me. I was on the bank of the lake, naked and dazed. I ran a hand through my dry, dirty hair and blinked rapidly to try and work out if the night before had all been an elaborate dream and if I had simply sleepwalked out of my room.
I stumbled to my feet, cupping my hands over myself as I looked around to make sure no one had seen me. I dashed up the stairs to my room, slamming the balcony door closed behind me and walking into my bathroom.
I immediately headed to the sink and splashed cool water onto my face.
"It was just a dream. It wasn't real," I chanted to myself, the cool water doing its job as it revived me and swept the heavy cloud of mist from my mind. I glanced up at the mirror above the sink and froze, my muscles locking into place as I stared at my neck.
Shaky fingers rose and traced the crescent shaped silver scar there. My breaths sped up, and I was quick to grab the sink in front of me before my legs gave out and I collapsed.
This wasn't possible. The goddess that had visited me last night had been a figment of my overactive imagination and the story Gramps had told just before I went to bed. Nothing more and nothing less.
The evidence goes against that, the small voice in my head told me, and panic started to sneak up on me.
"No, no, no, nooo..." I whined, raking my hands through my hair and tugging at it as my breaths become shallow. I turned around and stumbled into the shower, switching it on. I gasped as freezing cold water hit me and laid my head against the cool, tiled wall.
How was this even possible? I had heard that story time and time again, and never had something like that happened.
My shoulders shook and my teeth started chattering as flashes of last night went through my head. My eyes closed, and I sunk into them willingly.
"Edward," Grams called and my eyes shot open, "Are you all right in there? I heard some noise."
I cursed, switching off the shower, nearly slipping in the process, and got out, wrapping a towel around my waist.
"I'm fine, just had a bit of a slip," I called out as I pulled on a pair of worn jeans under my towel. I heard her pause outside the door for a second longer before going back downstairs. I let out a sigh of relief because fuck, here I was, my sanity unraveling, and she would be able to spot that a mile away. I needed to regroup.
It took me a good hour before I managed to get downstairs, looking as alive as possible and not like I had an amazing sexual experience with a ghost...spirit? Whatever she was.
For some reason, I was unnaturally hungry, and I noticed both Grams and Gramps giving me strange looks as I almost shoved a whole plateful of pancakes drowned in syrup into my mouth and poured myself a second glass of orange juice.
I froze and swallowed loudly. "I'm really hungry," I supplied, and Gramps started laughing.
"I hadn't noticed, kid," he muttered as he went back to his newspaper.
"You sure you're okay?" Grams asked, and I nodded.
"Yeah, I guess the air down here brings out my appetite." I gave her a wry smile before ducking my head and going back to eating. I was still feeling slightly panicked and nervous when Gramps drove me into town, and I was sure he noticed, but thankfully he didn't question me about it.
I went to the library, heading straight to the records, flipping through newspaper clippings dating back to the early seventeen hundreds. I knew that there had to be something about her in there. There had to be.
I was there for a few hours, flipping through the articles, unsure of what I was really searching for. It wasn't like it could give me any real answers as to why I had seen her last night.
I sucked in a deep breath when I found it.
ISABELLA MARIE SWAN MISSING.
Chief Swan's eighteen-year-old daughter, Isabella, was found missing yesterday morning when her father went to wake her up, only to find an empty room. None of her belongings were missing, making us believe that her disappearance was not premeditated or planned. Kidnapping is high on the list of causes for her disappearance, but nothing so far is confirmed...
Along with the article was a picture of her. She looked younger, her face more round and childlike than the woman who had seduced me last night. I flicked to the next clipping, seeing that the man who had killed her, Jacob Black, had confessed his crime and been hanged a week later.
Her body had never been found, and it seemed her father remarried and had more children. Nothing more was said about Isabella, and looking at the family tree only showed that there had never been a daughter born in her family since.
I rubbed my temples, furiously trying to keep the frustration at bay as I replaced everything and exited the library. I was almost blinded by the sun as I stepped out into the street. The library had been dark and damp, nothing like the dry heat that flittered through the air outside.
"Edward! Edward Cullen, is that you?"
I turned around, wondering who was calling my name, to see Jasper Whitlock, one of my best friends, with Alice Brandon on his back, her legs and arms wrapped around him loosely as he carried her.
"Well, I'll be darned. If it ain't the elusive Ed. Long time no see, brother." Our hands clasped together, and I gave him an awkward "man hug" since Alice was still on his back.
"I see you finally got the balls to ask Alice out," I told him with a grin.
He shrugged sheepishly, and Alice piped up, "Actually I asked him out. He took too long, and I wasn't going to wait around for him to get the balls. He did manage to propose by himself though."
She waved her hand at me, making the small, delicate diamond shine on her finger. She pulled her long, brown hair back, her dimples visible because of the huge grin on her face.
"Well, I for one am glad," I told them as I spotted Gramps across the street in his truck. "You two better send me an wedding invitation, and I better be the best man. I don't care if my hair won't match your theme. It's my right. I gotta go now. I'll see you two another time."
Alice rolled her eyes at my lame joke. "You are really not funny. Now get, before I set Jasper on you."
I grinned and gave them one last wave before jogging over to my Gramps' truck.
"About time you showed up," he grumbled irritably.
"You didn't have to wait for me," I informed him as he started up the engine, used to the banging and popping as it started up. We headed back toward the farm, and I held a deeper sense of longing, hoping that she would be there again.
...
Seven moths later.
New York.
I ran across a crosswalk and ducked into a nearby Starbucks as rain pelted down on the unsuspecting public. After quickly ordering a coffee, I settled into a corner near the back, booting up my laptop so that I could check my e-mails. A lot had happened in the last seven months. I had attended Alice and Jasper's wedding as the best man, started up my own music store, selling both instruments and records, and my parents had neatly divorced with no hard feelings on either side. But all this while, I had remained single.
I would like to say that I saw Isabella again and that I spent every night in my goddess's embrace, but that would be a lie. I never saw her again after that first night. I waited up every night, yearning to hear her song calling to me, but I never got a thing.
I would end up sleeping outside by the lake, hoping and waiting for her to show up until the day I left. She never did, and I just picked up the pieces and tried to move on. It had been a great night, but maybe that was how it was meant to be.
I rubbed the scar on my neck absentmindedly, the only tangible reminder of her.
A coffee appeared beside me, and I looked at it, confused. There was an arm connected to it, a feminine arm, and on the inside of it were the tattooed words that made me freeze in my seat.
Is forever enough, 'cause I'm never, never giving you up.
I slowly raised my eyes, my eyes sweeping past the pale arch of her neck to the heart-shaped face and the rose-tinted lips of a woman that haunted me for the last seven months. She stood by my table, a smile playing on her lips as her brown eyes danced. "Hi, I'm Bella."