Disclaimer: Again, I am not Stephanie Meyer
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Sigh. Well that didn't last very long, I mused. Then again, I was never mad at Edward for very long.
Edward. I turned my head slightly to look over at him. The sight of him really was something I thought I could never fully prepare myself for. Though they had been married nearly a year, and together for longer, it was like I was seeing him for the first time, every time. He lay next to me, his strong, pale legs tangled in the pure, white sheets of their expansive bed. From the waist up, he lay entirely exposed, his chest white and glistening in the rays of sunlight that snuck in through the open windows. My eyes roamed up his body to his bronze-tinged head, his tousled hair slightly wild across the satin white pillow underneath. His eyes were closed, his long black eyelashes standing in stark contrast to the almost porcelain brilliance of his eyelids, yet his lips were turned upward in a slight smile, as if he were enjoying his own private joke.
Sensing my gaze on him, he turned toward me again, our bodies entwined amongst the mess of sheets. I stretched toward him as well, running my fingertips up his arms and across his broad, pale shoulders before finally crossing my arms tightly around his neck. As we came to face each other, he kept his eyes closed, the same smile splayed across his unnaturally beautiful face.
"If you're going to mention Mike Newton again, you shouldn't expect any more of this," I wiggled my eyebrows suggestively, "for a week." Even as I spoke the words, I knew that neither of us believed them. I would be lucky to get through one hour without touching Edward, let alone one week.
He chuckled lightly as he dipped his face toward mine, and begin tracing my features with his lips, lightly kissing each of my eyelids, the shape of my jaw line, and eventually my mouth. I responded enthusiastically, as I always did, parting my own lips and breathing in his scent, splaying my hands across the powerful muscles of his back. Though I was no longer human, these moments had not ceased to have a head-rush inducing affect on me. The only difference was that now I could actually enjoy the moment, rather than passing out, for example, as I had in the past.
He began to bite lightly on my lower lip, and, in an effort to get even closer to him, I shifted so that I was now lying on top of him, the warm skin of our bodies fused together in as many places as possible. I cupped one hand under his jaw, holding his face to mine, as he continued kissing me fiercely. As I placed my other hand on the satin like smoothness of his chest, he broke his lips from mine and maneuvered slightly, so that our faces were now several inches apart. I was about to protest, but before I could utter a word he had gently but deliberately tipped my head upward so that he could place his lips on the underside of my own jaw, his lips trailing downward until his tongue finally found the hollow at the base of my throat.
I inhaled sharply, my own eyes fluttering closed in pleasure, the fingernails of my left hand curling into the skin of his chest. Spurred on by my reaction, he flipped us again, so that his weight was now on me. With one hand tangled in my hair, and another gripping the curve of my hip, he seemed to be trying to meld our bodies together, his own breathing accelerating as he kept his head underneath mine, now kissing the curve of my clavicle. I threw my head back even further, arching my back so that I was driving my body upward to meet his lips, which were now tracing a line down the center of my chest, toward my navel.
I had always thought Emmet was kidding when he said that he and Rosalie literally did not leave the bedroom in their first year together. Well, perhaps not kidding entirely, but at least exaggerating a bit. I knew now that he was not. Nothing could distract me from this moment. At least, I thought nothing could.
"JESUS, EMMETT! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"
Emmett? Edward moved so quickly that for a very brief moment I was stunned, not knowing exactly what was going on. He still lay above me, but his face was now level with mine, the sheets pulled tightly around us both. He was no longer looking at me though, his face was turned upward toward the glass doors at the back of the room which opened onto our small, private garden.
Taking in his furious expression, I threw my head all the way back so that I too was looking toward the garden. Even upside down, there was no mistaking the bulk of my new brother standing between the open doors, a huge grin spread wide across his face.
"And here I thought you two spent all of your time reading Chaucer and playing backgammon."
"EMMETT!" I shrieked, shaking with fury. "GET OUT!" My still red eyes burned crimson in his direction.
"Sheesh I was only trying to deliver a message." He raised his hands defensively, still smiling. "Though I guess I should know better than to mess with the lady of the house. There's still a dent in the garage wall by the way."
"We have a front door, you know!" Edward yelled again. "You could have knocked!"
"I tried! And I know it's not like you can't hear that, so I figured you guys were out hunting or something. I just came back here to make sure. Now I realize that you were just…distracted."
I jerked against Edward's body, preparing to leap toward Emmett and throttle him. Edward felt me tense under him, and he looked down at me sharply, his golden eyes annoyed. As soon as he saw my expression however, and realized what I was planning to do, his eyes quickly softened and he raised one eyebrow in amusement.
Oh right, I remembered, I'm not wearing any clothes.
I sighed and looked back up at Emmett. "Well what then?! What did you come to tell us?"
"On second thought, maybe I should just leave and let you two get back to business," his grin, impossibly, only seemed to grow wider. "Lord knows you have a lot of work to do if you want to catch up with Rosalie and I."
"EMMETT!"
"Fine fine. Carlisle thinks we all should talk after what happened yesterday. You know…plan our next move," he said, relaxing and putting his hands in his pockets. "He figured we could all meet up at the house in about an hour."
I sighed again and returned my gaze to Edward's face. We knew we would have to have this discussion eventually.
He looked down at me too, his eyes soft, and he turned the corner of his mouth up in a reassuring smile. "Fine," he snapped, lifting his eyes up again to stare hardly at Emmett, though I knew he wasn't really angry anymore. "We'll get ready and get Nessie up. We'll meet you up there soon. Now please get out of our bedroom."
Emmett just laughed in response before turning away and whizzing out of sight on his way back up to the house.
"I'd say that we could put locks on our doors, but we both know that wouldn't work" Edward whispered in my ear and laughed lightly, attempting to break the tension.
I couldn't help but smile in return as I looked back at him, relaxing under the warmth of his bemused gaze. I reached up to kiss his lips, before sighing and leaning back to look at him again as his arms wrapped around me and under my back.
"Well I suppose we better get up then. Nessie will be awake soon anyway," I said, though no part of me wanted to move away from him. No sooner were the words out of my mouth, however, than I heard a cry from the next room.
"Mommy!" Our daughter's delicate voice sounded from down the hall. Edward chuckled softly and leaned down to kiss my neck one last time before rolling to the side.
"I think she has a special sense," he smiled, and stretched briefly before rolling to get out of bed. I watched him go as he walked toward the massive closet to get dressed.
Everything about her is special, I thought to myself. Not wanting to delay in getting to her, I quickly grabbed a bathrobe lying on the floor nearby and wrapped it around myself. I padded out the door and down the hall, stopping at the door closest to the living room.
Though Esme hadn't had time to prepare the room in time for Nessie's rather sudden arrival, she and Alice were determined to get started on it as soon as the excitement of the Volturi conflict had died down. Edward, however, had graciously but forcefully demanded that they let it alone, as he insisted on decorating the room himself.
The pale wooden floors had already been in place, but my heart melted as I remembered Edward sitting in here for days - painting the walls their current, sky blue color, crafting a beautiful crib, and not long after, a small bed, out of light pine wood, seeking out the perfect arrangement of dolls and toys and positioning them just so.
Renesmee had spent relatively little time sleeping in her own bed for those first few months. Mostly, I mused, because everyone had been so reluctant to put her down. But I vividly remembered the day that Edward had decided to "unveil" Nessie's new room to her, carrying her in on his shoulders before setting her down to explore and look for herself.
Renesmee, mature and curious as she was, had walked around and inspected each thing closely, as if she knew how hard her father had worked on it for her. As she finished her tour, she had walked back toward Edward, who was kneeling in the middle of the floor with anxious eyes to watch as she explored. I smiled as I remembered the way that Nessie had reached up to touch Edward's face with her hands, saying "Daddy", as she used her gift to show her father how she was feeling.
I didn't know what she showed him, of course, but I would always remember the look in his eyes as he looked back at her. If my heart had still beat, I was sure that it would have stopped in that moment as I saw the emotion in his eyes and the love which flowed between my husband and daughter. I remembered that, for once, I had been thankful for the Cullens' extreme generosity - Alice had given me a digital camera soon after Nessie's birth to capture every moment of her growing up, and I had luckily been holding it ready for the moment of the big unveiling. That moment between Edward and Renesmee was now captured forever; the photograph hung in a beautiful frame right above her bed.
I walked over to the bed now, where Nessie was laying on her side with her deep brown eyes open, watching me approach.
"Mommy" she said again as I knelt down next to her, scooping her up in my arms to walk around the room with her. In our usual tradition, she put one hand on each of my cheeks to show me what she had dreamed of last night - I saw balloons, a parade of exotic animals, a man walking across a rope some 50 feet in the air - the circus. Nessie smiled at me when she was done - Edward and I would have to take her the next time the circus came to Seattle.
Though she was technically just over 8 months old, our daughter definitely could have passed for a 3-year-old at this point. She stood about 2 and a half feet tall, and was now walking and talking just as well as most grown adults. I knew that soon, much sooner than I would have liked, she would grow too big for me to hold like this. But, she was special, I reminded myself again - and I wouldn't have her any other way.
I would not have believed that such a wonderful creature could exist if I hadn't known exactly where she had come from. The only thing that convinced me that Renesmee was truly real was just how much of Edward she saw in their daughter. There was no mistaking her origins, a child so beautiful could only have come from one man.
I carried her over to the beautifully-carved wardrobe in the corner and let her pick out her own clothes, something she now insisted on doing herself. She picked out a little deep-blue dress with a white collar and white buttons down the middle, with tiny blue Mary Jane shoes to match.
I couldn't help but laugh - at 8 months old, my daughter had more fashion sense that I would probably ever have. Alice's influence, I supposed.
By the time Nessie had dressed herself, with a little help from me, Edward had finished dressing himself and was now walking into the room as well.
"Daddy!" Nessie exclaimed and raced towards him, jumping into his already open arms. He smiled widely and cradled her in his arms, kissing her on the forehead.
"Good morning, my love. And what did we dream of last night?" He continue smiling as she went through the same ritual with him, pressing her small hands to his face and looking up at him expectantly.
"The circus, hmm? One day soon, sweetheart," He promised, and then looked over her head at me to wink.
I smiled back - knowing Edward, he had probably already bought surprise tickets to the circus just in case.
"Well let's get you breakfast then," he turned toward the door with Nessie still in his arms and headed off toward the kitchen. Unlike the two of us, Nessie still had her meal times. She ate mostly human food, but we did give her small amounts of animal blood as well to satisfy the other aspect of her appetite.
I followed them into the hallway, but turned back toward out bedroom instead of following them into the kitchen. It was my turn to get dressed for the day, and so walked through the double doors of the huge closet to put something together. I looked around at the endless walls of clothing - I still hadn't even had the chance to look at most of the things in here, let alone wear them. Although, even Alice had to admit, I was getting better at dressing myself.
I decided to humor her today, and ended up putting on a casual, light green dress with a pair of practical yet fashionable brown boots. I walked back toward the kitchen where Nessie was just finishing up with her bowl of Lucky Charms.
I had to laugh at little at this. Edward had insisted for a while on making elaborate breakfasts for her - buffets of pancakes, waffles, scrambled eggs, fresh fruit and toast - but every morning without fail she insisted on cereal. It was her favorite, after all. He had tried to coax her into trying something else, something with more nutritive qualities, perhaps, but she was very stubborn and he couldn't deny her anything, so Lucky Charms it was.
"Are we ready to go then?" I asked, clearing Nessie's bowl off the table and dumping it into the sink. Edward had already lifted Nessie out of her chair and was holding her in one arm, reaching out to take my hand with his free one as we walked toward the door together.
"Mommy are we going to see Jacob now?" Nessie asked, turning to look at me hopefully.
I sighed. "I'm sure he'll be there honey, whether we invite him or not."
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