45 Nights

Sorry this has been so long in coming. I still think I have a cute idea going here, and probably have one or two more chapters to go. This chapter might not be what you expect, but I felt it was complete in itself, so I stopped. Next chapter will feature a tipsy Bella, on the evening of her wedding shower. So I hope you will find that fun.

Chapter 3

After their exciting encounter in the creek, Edward had place new restrictions on them being close. He said he was nearly out of control. He could have broken her in his fervor. Bella insisted she enjoyed his enthusiasm, but Edward said they must be more careful, and there was still the issue of her virtue…He was not altogether sure he had left that in tact. Well technically he had, but she had hardly remained chaste that day.

One afternoon while Bella was sampling cakes Alice had specially delivered from bakeries as far away as Seattle, Bella broached the subject of their sex life again.

"Edward," She whispered as she slowly crawled across the living room carpet to where he sat with his back against the sofa. "What are we waiting for, really? I think we proved that you could never hurt me; you just don't want to hurt me, so you are careful with me, tender, gentle." She curled up onto his lap and nestled her lips against his neck.

Edward was still shocked out how sexily she had crawled to him, and how she didn't even realize it. Her lips on his neck were sending him flying, but he would control himself. "Bella…you don't understand." He managed to choke out.

He pulled her away from him so her face was even with his. "It took every ounce of my self control not to be too rough with you. When we're married, when we try that again, I want it to be in an environment that I can control. I want you to be comfortable on a bed, with lots of soft objects, and pillows, and coverlets around you so that you are more protected. Even then, I am afraid of what could happen."

Edward was frowning now, lines crinkling between his eyebrows. Bella knew he was torturing himself again, and she would not win this argument today. All she wanted now was to make him happy again. She wanted the strain out of his perfect features.

She placed her fingers at the corners of his lips and pushed them up. "Stop. I love you. We are meant to be."

He finally focused on her and gave her a small crooked smile. "Have you chosen a wedding cake?"

Alice flitted in just then, knowing the decision already, but waiting to hear it from Bella.

"I like the butter cream frosting on the cake from that lady on Division Street, and I like the chocolate cake too, but I think it would be better to have a yellow cake, cause not everyone likes chocolate. So let's go with her, and ask her to make yellow cake."

"What about a filling…did you like the filling?" Alice asked.

"Do we have to have a filling? The strawberry was good, but some people are allergic, and that cream stuff was just too rich."

Edward laughed thinking of how Bella was always trying to make other people happy. He kept silent.

Alice spoke. "Well we want the cake to be special Bella. How about the apricot filling…did you taste any of the cakes that had that filling?"

"Oh, yes…I liked that."

Alice was excited to cross one more task off her list. "OK. So we go with the local baker, the yellow cake, with apricot filling and butter cream frosting! I'm so pleased. I'll call her right away."

Bella smiled politely even though she found all the fuss silly. All she wanted was Edward. Everything else was icing on the cake, no pun intended. "So I am finished for today. Take me to our meadow?"

Edward did not have to be asked twice. He grabbed the backpack with the blanket and supplies for a picnic still inside. Then he scooped Bella up and they ran.

They lay in the fleeting sunlight as clouds floated by blocking it out for a few minutes at a time, their book of Shakespeare's sonnets open and face down on the blanket. Another storm was coming, but that was the Olympic peninsula, never far from a rain storm.

Edward stroked Bella's hair as they lay cuddled together. "Are you happy, Love?"

Bella smiled. He had to know the answer to that. "Ecstatically happy, Edward. You are going to be mine in just a few weeks. No woman on the face of the earth has ever been happier."

Edward smiled, but inside he still wondered if he was doing the right thing. Soon he would take her away from everything she was accustomed to, everyone who loved her. And he would be taking her life. Could he love her enough to make up for that?

"Bella, if you are unsure in any way, even in the slightest bit, of the wedding, or me, or giving up your human life, you can tell me at any time. I will put a stop to all of this. If you are unsure about tying yourself to a monster, we can take things slower. We can go backwards, back to the first day we met and you can do it all over. Make your decisions based on what you know now, whatever you want."

Bella pulled herself up to look at Edward, letting his beauty overwhelm her. "You were never more glorious than you were that first day you took me to this meadow. And yet, today, I see you even more dazzling, knowing you have chosen me to spend your life with. That first day, I longed to touch your cheek."

Bella ran her fingertips over his cheek bone, and then to his lazily closing eyes, "To gaze into these beautiful eyes, framed by paintbrush lashes. To touch your perfect roman nose."

She smiled as she moved her fingers over his nose, and then to his sculpted jaw. "To pepper this perfect jaw line with kisses, feel it hard and strong beneath my lips.

She bent her face closer again to kiss Edward's jaw from ear to chin. "And lips, oh you the doors of breath, so full and pink, begging for my touch."

Bella leaned in and took his mouth in a hungry kiss. Then she pulled away. "And for all your glory that first day, nothing can compare to the blessing I've been given. I am allowed to touch your face, feel you in my arms, and love you forever.

"Ah, my beautiful Bella, you are a poet. How you see me!"

"You're everything to me." Bella whispered.

"You are my miracle, my destiny, and I will love you for all eternity."

They kissed for a long while, but Edward pulled away from her before things got out of hand. He was following his strict rules again and Bella had yet to find a way around them. She picked up the book of sonnets, and flipped the pages until she found Sonnet 130.

"This is the one that reminds me of us." Bella said, and she began to read it aloud.

"My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;Coral is far more red than her lips' red ;If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.I have seen roses damask, red and white,But no such roses see I in her cheeks;And in some perfumes is there more delightThan in the breath that from my mistress reeks.I love to hear her speak, yet well I knowThat music hath a far more pleasing sound;I grant I never saw a goddess go;My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rareAs any she belied with false compare."

Edward was caught up in her face as she read these beautiful words, yet he could not agree with their meaning. That poem spoke of an ordinary woman, made beautiful in the eyes of her lover. Bella was no ordinary woman.

"Bella…you are so far from the woman in that poem. You are beautiful, you are stunning, you are flawless. And it's not because I am in love with you that I say this. You are exquisite the way God made you, nothing short of perfection."

"Oh, Edward, how you see me." Bella repeated back his words as he took her into his arms for a long embrace.

TBC