Chapter 3 – Love is Stronger Than Anything

"Please Edward, we have to move!" Bella demanded, tense and shaken. I wound my hands around her waist. "They can't be far away."

"What was that?" I asked her, struggling to understand her haste.

She was moving in my arms, anxious to leave heaven, hell, wherever we were. At least we were together.

"We're not dead, not dead. Not yet! But we have to get out of here before the Volturi…" she trailed off, and suddenly, I comprehended what she was saying to me.

I glanced at our surroundings. They had not changed, for I had been marveling in her radiance the entire time.

The Volturi! They would have me murdered for certain now. I had tempted them far across the line.

What was even more disturbing was that Bella was once again in danger, because of me.

I grabbed her and pulled her out of the sunlight into the shadows and pushed her against a stone wall to protect her.

Bella was right. As I studied her perfectly soft features, I could see the blood in her cheeks and I could taste the scent. The hunger that motivated me for the hideous creature that I was, and the unbearable thirst crept into my lungs, compelling me to want her more.

I struggled to ignore the horrible temptation. I fought my instincts, and I was winning.

I gawked at Bella, as the fact that she was still alive slammed me into a near shock. She was not dead. Bella Swan was alive.

I couldn't stop starring at her. The way the familiar yearning in her gaze when she looked up at me made me swear I would take her as my wife if we were to survive this next feat.

We had to live, for we still had a reason. I had never fallen out of love with her and I would make her understand how I wanted her.

If she would have me back, I would ask her to marry me, I promised myself.

I noticed how she still had that sensitive, yet strong demeanor when she touched me. The admiration was still present in her glassy eyes. For a second, I thought she may be crying.

Thirst slammed into my senses as I realized that it was there—that trigger, her blood.

I was so thirsty, and had not fed for so many days…I had lost count.

She smelt so appealing, and I was more ravished as ever, though I could not think about her that way any longer.

Bella's life meant more to me than my own.

She struggled to pull me to her and I complied. I could sense the panic in her mind. I knew she still cared for me, but how much?

Had she forgiven me?

So many thoughts raced through my mind.

I cut me deep when another impulse hit me as I smelled her tantalizing aroma of her blood. As I remembered the sorrow I had experienced when I had believed that Bella was dead overpowered the thirst.

The love I still had for her made me have willpower over my mind, my body, and now my soul.

Bella gave me the strength of mind and I obeyed my heart, not my thirst.

I forced myself to put out the flames that arose in my throat because the agony that the thought of hurting her made me strong. I would never want to hurt Bella ever again. I swallowed hard, and the sensation to kill her vanished as I stared hard into her eyes, so trusting and so full of love…