**** Chapter Three ****
After a ten minute walk, we are met with a small lake. She sits down on a fallen tree and when she sees me still standing, she pats the space next to her on her right for me to sit down. I do exactly that. We sit in a fairly comfortable silence for a few minutes before she lowers her gaze and speaks up.
"Edward," she breaths out, shaking her said slightly.
"What about Edward?" I question, curiosity levels rising.
She takes another breath, trying to steady herself. She lifts her head and looks back at the lake. I follow her gaze and notice the trees and a few deer are found reflecting off the lake. Little ripples of the water make its way across the surface as the animals take their drink from what Mother Nature had supplied them.
"You know his ability, yes?"
I look back at her, she's still focused on looking forward. I wonder where she is going with this, "Yes," I answer her. "He can read minds."
She nods her head and a slight hmm escapes from her throat. "But he can't read yours," she states as a matter-of-fact.
"No, he can't read my mind. Alice, what are you trying to tell me?" At this point I'm getting worried and my curiosity levels keep on rising, and I really need to know what is going on. Right now.
"He can read everyone's minds, but yours -"
"- But mine, yes we've just been through this," I cut her off.
"Meaning he can read my mind, and what I think of you."
I froze. Not out of fear, but out of shock. Why would Edward care so much about what Alice thought of me, that he responds negatively toward her? He doesn't act that way with Rosalie? I don't understand. "What you think of me?"
She closes her eyes and breathes out, "Yes," before opening her eyes again. Still, she hasn't glanced at me since the moment I sat down beside her.
"Okay, and what do you think about me?" I found myself asking. My heart is beating faster, now I'm worried. I found myself hoping she doesn't hate me, and wondering why I care so much if she does. I only just met her and we've barely spoken to each other or gotten to know one another. I watched her start playing with her hands, I think it's cute how nervous she is. My hand twitched, wanting to hold her hand, but stopping myself just in time. Oh boy. I'm dating one vampire guy only to become interested in his vampire sister. This ought to go down well.
She finally looks up at me. The corner of her mouth twitches in what's supposed to be a half-smile to calm my panicked heartbeat down, though I can see the worry on her face and it does nothing to calm my beating heart. She looks down at my hand that I rested between myself and Alice. She places her own hand on mine and looks back up at me.
I couldn't help but keep looking from her eyes to her lips, and back up to her eyes again. I found her doing the same thing, and she bit her lip, retracted her hand, and quickly looked away upon being caught. I thought it was the sexiest thing ever. If anything, it made me want to jump on her lap and straddle her and kiss her until I was going to die from the lack of oxygen. Get a hold of yourself! Dammit, Bella. Focus! Okay, okay.
"When I entered through the window and I saw you properly for the first time, he knew I was…" she paused. For goodness sake, please spit it out, Alice, I want to know! "He knew I was, attracted, to you."
My breath hitched. I wasn't expecting that answer, but I was sure hoping for it. I didn't think it would happen, though! I realised I hadn't said anything and found her looking at me in concern. "You're attracted, to me?" I asked, not knowing what else to say.
"Yes," she responds, looking back at the lake. "Then when I hugged you, he knew that my attraction towards you was quickly growing. He straight away saw me as a threat."
"Why?" I asked. "Why would he see you as a threat if I'm dating him, and you have a boyfriend?" My voice weakened at that last part, which didn't go unnoticed by Alice as she looked back at me. Her features showed that she was caring and understanding.
"Because he could hear your heartbeat increase when you would look at me, or when I touch you," she looked down at my hand again. "And you tried to move away from him when he held you." It didn't go unnoticed then. Great. Just, great.
She placed her hand on mine again, which caused mine to tingle with the touch automatically. My heart picked up its speed again. She looked me in the eyes, then back down to my lips, her attention shamelessly remaining there longer than what was considered normal. My self-restraint broke when her eyes met mine once again. Fuck it. I leaned forward, caressing her right cheek with my free hand, and met our lips in a tender kiss.