AN: Continuance to One Shot, If You Ask Me… finally. Thank you to those who have stuck with me and especially everyone who asked for this story to continue. See AN below for more
With great admiration I thank Jessica, jkane180, my Beta, for being priceless. Thanks to my adorable pre-reader and friend who was too sweet to make any negative comments, BettiGefecht. Visit my blog linked to my profile for the 2nd very pretty banner designed by the lovely and talented Lindz.
Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Stephanie Meyer for all the characters of the Twilight Saga, particularly Bella and Edward. My sincere apologies for having them endure my imagination.
Chapter 2, Decisions
Playlist: What Are We Gonna Do by Dru Hill (listen to the song on blog)
BPOV
...Have you ever had a day that was just too spectacular to end?
Previously:
We pick up our carry-on bags; he wraps his arm across my shoulders, and I place mine around his waist as we begin to head out of the concourse. "Isabella, dare I ask? Are you sure?" he asks but squeezes me tighter to him.
There's no need for me to answer him, but maybe he needs to hear it. "I can't return to a life without you in it."
He smiles.
"What will you say to Jane?"
"What will you tell Marcus?"
We look at each other, as if we need to think more than the second it takes, and say, practically in unison, "Kiss my ass!"
Present:
"Edward, how's your driving while conversing skill – can you do both?
"I can. Why?"
"Before we arrive at the Hotel, I think we need to have a conversation."
"A conversation… all right?" We're at the first stop sign leading out of the airport's rental car garage. He turns the left blinker of the car on to signal that we're going to make a U-turn. "Should we park here, at the Airport, to have this conversation?" he asks with trepidation clearly in his voice.
I gently give a squeeze to his hand holding mine. "We just need to talk about some things before we get to the hotel… since I doubt we'll want to talk when we get there, assuming you don't count me screaming your name as talking. I could try to be quiet…"
He glances my way and lifts my hand to kiss my fingers. He coughs and chuckles, caught off guard. "You're funny and sexy and no, I think screaming will be acceptable …and your namewill be my reverent prayer." A hum resonates from his throat, and his eyes glaze with desire before he turns his attention back to driving. "No, there won't be any more conversations once we get there. So tell me what's on your lovely mind - you have about 35 minutes."
Trying to calm myself, I inhale and exhale while considering where to begin to make him understand. He has to know. I have to know. Decisions need to be made. I wish he could read my mind.
"Isabella, you're making me anxious; I wish I could hear your thoughts. You can tell me anything, say anything – just be honest with me." Well, saying my full name like that doesn't help my anxiety either – he has no idea what that does to me. Can it be that he's just as afraid as I am?
"I hope this shared attraction between us isn't just love at first sight or loneliness or merely for intimacy for you. If it is, I don't know…"
A horn beeping from behind us alerts us both that we have yet to turn. After a glance to the rearview mirror, Edward makes a right turn, leaving the parking and rental car garage. "I'm parking somewhere. This is not a conversation for over-the-road and certainly one that will take longer than 35 minutes."
He parks the car just outside the entrance of the Airport and turns in his seat to face me. He collects my fidgeting hands from my lap. "Isabella, look at me and listen to me." It's dark outside, but a clear and present moonlight seems to shine over his face only. I can see the expression of seriousness etched across his furrowed brows. His hands trapping mine within his grasp are pulling me almost over the console to be closer to him. He's so close to me that my fallen bang flies back when his breath sweeps across my face.
"My heart is open before you. I promise…no, I swear to you, I've never felt this excruciating longing for anything or anyone. I want and need you, every part of you, for all the same reasons I breathe right now. Yes, I'm lonely, but I didn't realize it until I met you. This isn't because I'm lonely, or running away, or looking for someone to fill my emptiness. I'm in love with you, Isabella, and it wasn't just love at first sight, it was also at first touch." Breaking through the seriousness, he chuckles.
"The thought of never being able to touch you again and feel… I've never felt so deranged. If you hadn't turned around before getting on that plane, I would have charged you and dragged you off somewhere." His other hand appears from the shadows to caress my face. "I couldn't allow you to leave me. I would've tied you up and held you captive until your acquiescence. Do you know that?"
I only manage a nod and hope he can see my face. I feel his hand in mine loosen to caress the other side of my face. I try to further explain. "You have no idea how …simply…free and complete I feel right now. I barely have words to express…this joy inside of me is just threatening to bubble over. I've been so lost, so very lost. Even though we were miles apart, living separate and false lives, I've managed to find you. I wasn't searching for you or a life different from my own. I wasn't waiting and hoping for my prince to come and take me from the castle – I accepted my life and everything in it, good and bad. For me… it's you. Always has been. I'm in love with you too. Can you understand that?"
"I wasn't looking for you either, and I, too, feel complete and whole. I've found my soul mate. That explains it all; we're soul mates who have found each other now."
His lips meet mine, soft and sweet. His gentle kiss turns into parted lips, our tongues meeting and languidly exploring each other's mouths. We suckle bottom and top lips breathlessly - all heat and quiet flickering sparks. "I completely understand that."
"So since we understand each other, that leaves us with a few other important things to talk about - three things actually."
"Okay, continue please."
"You know why I collect First Editions?"
"Your books? No."
No, I wouldn't expect you too either, I admit internally. Most people derive that all collectors collect things for their value. No one can understand how priceless their value is to me, and that I can never dream of reselling them. You'll learn me once we get to know each other better.
"My books are in pristine condition. The binder spines are all rated 'very fine.' The book pages are unstained, though the paper of some, due to age, is more fragile than others. I keep them in a special case to preserve them from the elements and any other harm that might come their way. I have carefully read from them, with hands gloved of course." His facial expression shows contemplation of their value to me but not quite where I'm going with this story.
"They're rare and delicate to me, but they're still books…stories. Every story has a beginning and an ending. My First Editions are no different, but they're mine. I sought them out, purchased them, and now I own them. I had neither control over my beginning, nor some of the things that occurred during my life, but I have control over my life's ending…now. Edward, what I'm trying to say is - I have to return to Seattle to end that life in order to begin this new one and…"
"Collect your First Editions." It was more a statement than a question as if he already knew I would need to go back to end things.
"You don't sound surprised. Are you angry with me?" I hope he understands. My fingertips brush past his cheek to, and through, the hair above his ear, noting that we're always, in some way, touching each other.
"Of course not, Isabella." He turns to tenderly kiss below my wrist. "I understand because I have to return also… to Philadelphia. It would be very irresponsible of us to ride off into the sunset like teenagers in love - what will they say about us?" He's doing his best to hide his amusement, and I want to make it burst free.
"What would my noisy neighbor report in our regular Monthly Neighborhood watch meeting – that I had runaway to some foreign country?"
"I've got a better explanation; they'd post our pictures as missing persons simultaneously along with video from Airport Security. They'd say I compelled you into leaving with me - or better yet when you hit me with your bag, I became so delusional I forgot who I was and you took me…somewhere…" His guffawing died down, noticing my countenance change and apparent wince. "Hey?
"Edward, what are we going to say to them? What are we going to do when they find out? Your wife, she'll make your life a living hell. Your daughter will hate you. My son wants me to be happy regardless, I think. Oh God, Marcus and his… I don't know. What are we going to do?"
"Love, Love, first, you need to calm down. It's just us right now. We don't have to involve anyone else until we settle things back there. You're right that we have to end things and to them… be damned if I let them interfere." He didn't have to specify who 'them' was: Jane and Marcus.
"My daughter loves her mother, but she loves her Daddy more – she'll understand. I don't want to return - leaving you, and I don't want you going back either, but we have to."
"I need to be back by Sunday evening, Marcus will most likely return Monday, and I'll need to be in the office Monday morning. Oh. I'm not assuming or saying you..."
"Three days. I have you for three days then?"
"Yes. That is… if you can be away that long?"
"Hmmm. You know a lot can happen in three days – I could change…" His lips drift from my cheeks, the corner of mouth, then intently to my lips in rapture. "…your mind, and we may never return. You'd better sit back and buckle your seat belt so we can begin our three days – I drive really fast."
"Ahem. Daytona 500, one more topic of importance."
"Jamie McMurray's my idol; he could use you in the pit. Boy you're thorough, aren't you?"
"Comes with my profession. Seriously, I do have one more question." With upraised palms, he set back to hear the last of my questions. "Where shall our love nest be? Some place cold or hot, sunny or wet, small or large population?"
His laughter surges out, rocking the car. It's infectious - like everything about him; I can't suppress the giggles overtaking me. The mood is lighter now between us, as it was when we left the terminal. I haven't laughed so much in a long time. He brings that out in me, among other things I want to completely unbind.
"I don't have a climate preference – I can adapt. Besides, that's what vacations and getaways are for." He turns back to me, coming closer, nuzzling my nose before placing a slow, singeing kiss on my chilled lips. "I'm looking forward to our getaways – a cave perhaps – a love cave." Then he rears back in his seat. "But I guess because of my profession I need to be some place largely populated with businesses." His contemplation turns more thoughtful.
"Balancing big checkbooks… yes, I suppose the larger populated the better," I quip.
"Major and international checkbooks, I'll have you know," he says, turning to start the car. "Are we done conversing? It's getting cold in here. Or I can drive while we talk more…"
"Yes, I think we're done here; we can go." An open mouth kiss to my forehead electrifies me before his lips meet my skin. "I'll have you warm in no time." He winks.
§§ IYAM §§
The 35 minute drive becomes 26 minutes and is done in comfortable silence until our eyes meet the small gathering of three women, two with long burgundy coats with silk dresses trailing underneath. They surround one in all winter white with the same fashion – she looks like a winter wonderland princess. Her coat has a hood, and her dress is even longer, a train held up by the one of the ladies surrounding her. "There's a wedding at the hotel? Where are they going so warmly dressed?"
"So it seems. There's a garden near the rear of the hotel; I saw them setting up from my suite Tuesday. It's perfect…Isabella." Edward turns my face away from the princesses to look into his smiling, yet hesitant, eyes. "Isabella, I love you; marry me."
"What? Here, tonight? This is someone else's wedding, Edward. What are you, some sort of wedding crasher?" Funny, but not completely amusing; he's crazy.
"I've been here for nearly a week, and they've had a wedding nearly everyday. This is the first evening one. I'm sure the minister can stay for one so small as ours."
"My God, man, you're serious?" I ask, looking for him to burst with laughter.
"Very. Please?"
"Problem here." I lift my ringed hand to his view while reaching to bring his left hand up as well. "These are still in effect, you do realize that, you irrational and spontaneous beautiful man?"
He tugs at my hand, and my last hold to Marcus slides down my finger. I look down in time to see him removing his bond to his wife, placing them both in the console hidden compartment. "What do you say to that?"
I repeat the question from the Airport. "What are they going to say, Edward, when they find out about us and this?" I wave my hand between us and more flourishingly toward the hotel before he takes my hands firm in his grip. He knew who I meant.
"No, not caring right now. I only care about what we're going to do. Say yes?"
I turn a little in his grasp to look back toward the women at the entrance of the hotel, sighing and fogging the windows as I do. "Park the car, Edward; we need to get to the enchanted, lit forest before they do - it's just poor taste to enter after the bride."
§§ IYAM §§
What are We Gonna Do?
Whispers passed in silence
Two lovers passing in the night
A love thats left and hopeless
That can never survive
1 What are we gonna do
What are they gonna to say
Where are we gonna to go
When they find out
What are we gonna do
What are they gonna say
Where are we gonna go
When they find out
Sing your song sing your song sing your song
Really don't know you well
Got to get to know me too
So see, we can make this work
Through your friends wont approve
See, we can't let them know
Exactly what's going on
Cause they wont understand
What we have between us
I know we may be rushing
There's no time to think it through
Cause when love overcomes your heart
There's nothing you can do
Misery loves company
By now you should know
People always have advice about being together
When they're all alone
I cry
I cry, I cry, late at night baby
Inside
Inside my heart babe
I was all alone
Don't you let no God damn body come In
And tear our love apart
Cause I love you girl
You're all my world
So what are we gonna do
What are we gonna do
I feel so afraid, babe
Feel like a baby
Just hold me darling
And let me know
I need to know
I've got to know
What are we, oh baby
What are we gonna do
AN: This chapter was sweet and chaste; the next chapter will be sweet, but lemony.
Remember to visit my blog on my profile for the link address for the song and banner for this chapter. Enlarge it so you can see all the detailed artwork of Lindz.
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