First of all, thanks to everyone that reviewed. You're amazing!!!!
Second, I have another story started if you guys want to look at that one...*hint, hint* ;) It's called Parade Of The Damned.
Let this be a warning to those of y'all (yes, I'm a hick and I know it) who don't like lemons. This story is rated M because of the LEMON ASPECT. That means that there is and will be frequent lemons in here. So if you don't like that, I'm sorry. But that's the way the story goes.
Anyway, hope you guys have a wonderful day and enjoy this chapter!
- Funeral of Wedlock -
BPOV
I was awaken by a velvety voice purring in my ear. "Bella...Bella, I must go."
"What?" I demanded sleepily, managing to open my eyes a crack. A dazzlingly beautiful face swam only inches from my own. I forced my eyes to focus on the dream before me.
"It's time for me to leave. The sun is rising." His soft voice enveloped me as I struggled for coherency. Slowly, I sat up and focused on the man sitting beside me. The weak sunlight fell over his skin and I gasped. His skin sparkled as if he consisted solely of diamonds. They reflected the light and specks of bright sun danced around my walls as he moved.
"You......sparkle," I breathed.
He cracked a smile. It was a crooked smile that created butterflies deep within my stomach. The stifling heat was back and I began to perspire under my arms.
"Yes vampires do that in the sun," he replied, amused.
As if he would vanish if I moved to quickly, I slowly took his left hand. I turned it over, inspecting the tiny faucets that seemed to be embedded in his skin. I couldn't get this wonder out of my head. Was I dreaming? Surely this must be a dream for something this glorious couldn't be perched on my bed beside me after spending the night with me. I remembered my dream last night and blushed twelve different shades of pink. Just the feel of his hard, cold body against mine last night had sent me into a frenzy in my dreams. I had dreamt that we met in the garden a week ago. He led me behind a tall oak and began kissing my lips, my neck, my chest. I had wound up riding him on the soft bed of grass, hidden amongst the shrubs and flowers in the garden.
Now, I couldn't bring myself to look at him. I was too embarrassed by my dream. I don't know if he heard me talking last night in my sleep enough to guess what I'd been dreaming about, but I sincerely hoped not.
He noticed my mortification.
"Why are you blushing?" he asked gently.
Just the thought of telling him caused me to flush hotter. I shook my head to show him that I wouldn't tell him.
He unleashed the full power of his eyes on me. "Please, Bella?" he asked softly. I shook my head again, but he persisted. "Please? Won't you even give me a hint? Bella, love, please tell me," he breathed into my ear when I wouldn't look at him so I couldn't forget to breathe and blurt out everything. His breath on my skin sent heat launching towards my core. He reached up with his fingertips and played with the skin just below my ear.
"Nope," I managed, gasping as he took my earlobe into his mouth. I wondered vaguely where this side of him had come from. I would have more than welcomed him last night when we had more time to be alone together.
"Won't you tell me just the tiniest part?" he purred, moving his hand up my waist to rest just below my brfeast. Everywhere he touched invoked fires within my skin as I craved to get closer to him. He pulled me into his lap and I was no longer sweating from the summer heat, though a new kind of heat ignited within me, consuming my thoughts.
I hadn't realized until now that my nightgown had ridden up nearly to my waist. However, I couldn't bring myself to feel embarrassed about that now with all the pleasure overwhelming my weak body at the hands of this god. I moaned deeply as his thumb grazed my erect nipple through my nightgown.
"Bella, if you don't tell me then I'm just going to assume it's something worse than it actually is," he warned darkly, moving away from me. I stifled the groan of disappointment I felt at his distance. I wanted him close again. "Bella," he said firmly, almost scolding me. I glared at the no-longer perfectly made up bedspread, not meeting his eyes, knowing that if I did I would blurt out the truth. That would be disastrous.
His voice was suddenly soft and pleading. "Bella, love."
Without thinking, I glanced up and our eyes locked. My breathing grew ragged as I tried to focus on inhaling and exhaling. His large topaz eyes were only inches from my own and my thoughts went crazy, swirling so quickly in my mind that I couldn't catch one. "Please tell me," he pleaded.
"I was blushing because of my dream last night," I blurted before a single thought crossed my mind. Mortified at the realization of what I just did, I blushed deeper than ever before.
He grinned smugly. "And why would your dream cause you to blush?"
"Well...I might have...I seem to...you...I..." I sputtered unsuccessfully, grasping at straws, searching for an explanation. He waited patiently. I decided to just get it over with since he would never leave it alone. "Idreamedaboutyoulastnight," I in one breath.
He chuckled softly.
"It's not funny," I said darkly, daring him to laugh at me again.
He quickly set his face to neutral - blankness - but the corners of his luscious lips quivered, struggling to stay grim. "Yes, I found that out last night," he finally replied.
"Found out what?" Now I was confused.
"That you were dreaming about me."
I gasped. "How?" Had I been talking in my sleep as usual?
"You were...extremely friendly...last night whilst you slept," he said, amused.
"What?" I screeched. "Oh no," I moaned, throwing myself at my pillows. "Oh no, no, no, no, no!" I was so mortified that it seemed I would never be a normal color again, I would always be beet red. What had I done in my life to deserve such humiliation? Maybe this was my punishment for disobeying mother when I was younger. Maybe this was my punishment for cringing away from Eric York and his vile breath.
Strong, icy arms encircled my waist, pulling me back up into a sitting position. I kept my hands over my eyes. "Don't be ashamed, please, my beautiful Bella," he murmured softly into my ear. "You have no idea what it took me to keep from claiming you as mine last night." He paused. "Even though it's been such a short time, I feel as if I've known you for years. Your face is more familiar to me than my own. I have grown fond of your endearing blushes, the way your hair shines when it's pulled from its hairpins, and your strong emotions. I can't fully explain it, but it's as if you've bewitched me."
Before I had any time to be either pleased or shocked at his words a high voice yelled outside the door.
"Miss Swan?" a young voice called outside the door irritably. "Why is yer door locked. Are ye okay?"
I jumped, startled by this sudden intrusion. "Um...yes. I'm quite alright," I yelled back, jumping off the bed and meeting Edward on the balcony. He put on gloves to hide his skin and took out a cap from his coat pocket that shielded a little of his face from the already strengthening sunlight.
"Goodbye," I whispered, so the maid didn't hear me.
Edward turned to me, his topaz eyes grim. "I will see you soon," he promised. "I'll make sure of that."
"When will I see you?" I asked, glancing nervously back at my locked door, not sure if Prissy would open it by force or wait for me to unlock it.
(If you've ever watched Gone With The Wind, you'd know that I took the name of the annoying black maid that Scarlett has. Prissy in GWTW actually gets on my nerves so bad. Anyway, enough with my rant. :)
"Soon."
And he disappeared.
"Miss?" the maids voice screeched. "Will ye unlock dis door?"
I hurried to my door, unlocked it, and threw it open. The black-faced girl stood outside looking extremely agitated, holding my breakfast tray. The War had been over a decade before - The Civil War - but many former slaves, even though they were free, continued to work for their masters for little pay. After all, what other life had they known? What could they do to earn money except work for others as they had for centuries?
Prissy set the breakfast tray on my desk, pushing aside scraps of paper.
"Yer mother wants ye to come down right quick after ye eat. There's a guest a-waitin'."
"What?" I started wolfing down the biscuits and jam, then continuing onto the strawberries. I was hungrier than I thought. "Is it a gentleman?" I asked, envisioning Edward. Is that what he meant by "soon"? I couldn't imagine him sitting beside my parents.
"Yes, miss," Prissy said eagerly. "A Mr. York has come. He's ever so handsome."
My first emotion was disappointment at the visitor not being Edward. The second was disgust that caused me to curl my lip. She thought Eric York was handsome? She would really be shocked if she ever laid eyes on Edward, then, I thought with a small smile. I imagined how her beady eyes would widen and her mouth would form an O of shock. But my amusement was short-lived. Disappointment soon overwhelmed me once more as I realized Edward wasn't coming.
I tried to reason with myself that he had only just left and it wasn't logical for me to mourn his departure so quickly. I remembered what he said earlier.
I can't fully explain it, but it's as if you've bewitched me.
My heart soared at the memory. A ridiculous grin broke out on my face. Prissy eyed me suspiciously while she gathered my corset from its corner and laid my dress on the bed. I ate the rest of my breakfast in silence. As soon as I was laced up, the pale green dress pulled on, and my hair suitably done, I went carefully down the stairs, still remembering Edward's caresses that morning, hoping there would be more to come.
When I entered the sitting room, I saw father and mother sitting on the love seat while Eric sat on the horse-hair settee looking extremely uncomfortable. His face only looked more awkward at my arrival. I couldn't say I was pleased to see him either.
"Isabella," mother said, motioning for me to sit on the stool next to her for it wasn't seemly for me to sit so close to a man. I suppressed a smile at the thought of her finding out how close I had been to Edward last night. Hopefully, that would forever stay a secret. "Eric has come calling on us," she continued.
Father spoke next. "He's asked for your hand, Bells. And I've accepted. I dare say, you've found yourself a wonderful and suitable fiancee," he finished with a laugh.
And my stomach dropped through the floor.
No.
No.
This can't be happening, I screamed inside my head. No! What about my choice of a husband? Don't I get a say in it at all? It wasn't fair! Tears formed in my eyes and I struggled to hold them back for the sake of my family's good name. It wouldn't do for me to start sobbing in front of a guest. I envisioned the marriage - me cringing away from Eric throughout the service only to have to kiss him by command of the minister and later...give him my virginity. It was too horrible a prospect for me even to harbor.
"Aren't you thrilled?" mother asked, plastering a smile to her face. She could see the struggle within me and she was relentless. Her eyes were hard and commanding, ordering me to acquiesce and act as if I was delighted by Eric York's proposal. The message in her eyes was clear - say that I was thrilled and smile at my new fiancee.
It took a tremendous amount of strength, but I pulled my features into a semblance of a smile and turned my face to Eric. He smiled hesitantly at me and it was all I could do not to dissolve in a wave of tears. "I am honored, Mr. York," I whispered with what I hoped sounded like gratitude or fervor. Eric glanced at his pocket watch and stood quickly.
"I'm sorry, but I have to go," he said shortly before walking out the door. As soon I heard him walk out our front door, I exploded.
"How could you do that without asking me?!" I demanded, jumping up. I glared at my parents. Father was unforgiving and mother seemed as if she could careless. "Don't I have a say in my own marriage?"
"Darling," father said patiently. "You must think of others before yourself. You need to marry to help your family." His eyes grew sharper, almost glaring at me. "Our financial situation isn't what it once was. We aren't the well-endowed family we were thirty years ago. The War has depleted us, Bells. I can barely even find work anymore. More and more jobs are going to the Negros and the Northerners are refusing to let hardly any whites have jobs now. The Union soldiers are patrolling and will arrest someone who so much slanders a Negro."
(The situations I have stated here were very real in the aftermath of the Civil War. Union soldiers were sent into the South to enforce that African Americans got jobs and they almost never gave them to whites. This time was called Reconstruction. Soon, however, the soldiers pulled out and blacks were once again discriminated against. So both blacks and whites had a hard time in this era, short as it was.)
Mother interrupted. "Times are much harder. We need your help more than anything now. Are you willing to damn your family to save yourself?"
I stared at my parents.
They were making me choose between my heart and my family. I was trapped. And I knew what I would choose after all was said and done. I was loyal to my family first before myself. I had to look after them whatever I did. I would marry Eric York. And mother knew it. She looked smugly at me, knowing what was going on in my head.
"I'm sorry," I muttered. It nearly killed me to say it, though, I said it through clenched teeth.
"It's perfectly alright," father said. "It's a phase all girls go through when they first get engaged."
Probably because most girls objected to the idea of their futures destroyed for them, I thought grimly.
The rest of the day was eventful. My impending marriage loomed in my future like my funeral. It was a date draped in black that I would mourn for the rest of my life. I sat numbly through lunch and the day of calling with mother as father went to find work. We were living on his savings that he had carefully kept in the bank ever since my birth. Thank goodness it was all in gold and not in the Confederate dollar because those weren't worth the money they were printed on. Dinner passed by like a dream and I still didn't see Edward.
I felt like I was betraying him by agreeing to marry Eric. I felt as unfaithful as a lecher. I was no better than the woman who slept with a different man every night. How soon was soon? When would he come to see me? Maybe he wanted me to see him? But how would I know where he was?
That night I sank into a fitful sleep. My dreams were filled of my marriage to Eric York and Edward's tortured face as he watched our wedding. My face was marked by tears as I was led down the aisle by my father into Eric's slimy grasp. Instead of white, I wore black. For I was attending my funeral as well as my wedding. The bridesmaids dresses were blood-red and I flashed back to the vampire that led me into the alley. The dream turned to Edward's glorious form as he rescued me.
My life was in ruins and there seemed no way to save it.
SO!!! What did y'all think?!?!? Please let me know what you guys thought b/c I practically live off reviews. I've got a quota to meet. I figured that I would post the next chapter as soon as I got at least 4 reviews. So PLEASE REVIEW!!!!
I hope you enjoyed it.
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- Oriana
