Chapter 3:
Keeping a Kiss Collection
Fourteen hours.
In only fourteen hours I would be visiting my paradise for the first time.
I'd imagined it so many ways – an exotic escape protected by swaying palm fronds, skirted by endless blue waters, draped by a cloudless sky.
We would be staying there together for seven days.
Seven days. On the island. Alone. With him.
No matter how I thought of it, the fantasy became more delicious every time I dared to entertain it.
"What will we... do the whole time?" I asked him the evening prior, whilst folding the last of our laundry on our bed as we packed. There was a flirtatious edge to my words, which did not go unnoticed by my attentive husband.
His eyes glistened in amusement for a moment as he paused above his suitcase, lifting his head to stare at me with a soft smile.
He tossed his last shirt inside carelessly and closed the small distance between us, coming to stand beside me. His fingers pried the skirt I'd been folding from between my hands and laid it down on the mattress.
"I thought I'd start by kissing every...exquisite...inch of your body..." He punctuated the words appropriately with chaste kisses across my cheekbones, lingering when he reached the corner of my lip. "That would take a while, wouldn't it?"
I whimpered weakly in response.
Resting in the hollow of my neck, he nestled his nose behind my ear and whispered even lower, "Then you can do the same to me."
My insides tickled pleasantly at the proposition. In the instant I felt it, I gripped the front of his shirt and pulled him to me in a fiery kiss. Now that he had revealed his true intentions to me, I was suddenly eager where I was once nervous. Just one more night...
"Or we could just keep doing this..." he mused breathlessly as I nibbled on his lips. I held him tighter and he lifted me up, wrapping my legs around his middle. I could feel his smile as I kissed him fervently, never once pausing for breath as I trapped his head between my hands.
He let me exhaust myself until I was limp and panting, then he spoke softly. "I'm beginning to think we won't have a spare moment, darling."
I hid my face in his neck and smiled.
"I hope not."
-}0{-
That night Carlisle read me countless books about tropical utopias, and he teased me with gorgeous descriptions of the beach on my island that would have made any dreamer swoon.
Carlisle had been to beaches all across the world, from Indonesia to Colombia. He knew the varying colors of the ocean in all parts of the earth just as well as he knew the warmth of the waters below the equator line, and the hot rays of the sun that we could only indulge in while hidden from human eyes. Carlisle had only ever experienced these wonders alone, but now he would have me to share them all with.
"Does my island look like this?" I asked, pointing to the bright color photograph in the book he held against our laps. He cocked his head behind me as he looked over the picture.
"Your island is much prettier than this," he whispered, adding a kiss to the tip of my ear.
I beamed to myself as I tucked my head against his shoulder, resting my fingers contentedly on the open book to trace the printed shoreline. "We'll be able to sit out in the sun whenever we want, Carlisle," I murmured wistfully. I felt him sigh over my head.
"Mmhm..."
I turned my face slightly to stare out the window we rested beside. It was a cool, windy night, with barely a sliver of a moon very high in the darkened sky. I could make out the sounds of distant cars if I listened carefully, along with every blade of grass that danced in the breeze.
After so many years of hiding in the house during the day, I had begun to desperately miss being free to roam in the sunshine whenever I pleased. It was almost impossible to take that risk when we lived around people. But a private island would give us the freedom we both longed for.
Out of curiosity I asked Carlisle how we would manage to get to the island.
"By boat from the mainland," he replied simply.
"We'll have to wait for a rainy day," I realized, a wrinkle of worry creasing my forehead as I glanced out the window again.
"We'll be fine," he assured me, comforting me with a sweep of his hand through my hair. "Everything will be perfect."
I closed my eyes and giggled softly until the motion of his hand through my hair ceased.
"What's so funny?" he asked me.
"Everything is perfect with you," I teased.
I heard the smile in his voice when he replied, "Of course it is."
I lightly pushed his arm aside while he chuckled at my reaction, taking firmer hold of the book we shared.
"Turn the page now," I told him.
His fingers folded over mine and took the next page along with them.
"I love these trees," I murmured, pointing to the pictures of tall palm trees on the beach. "They must look so pretty when they wave in the breeze."
"Do you know why they're called palm trees?" Carlisle asked, eager to share a bit of his infamous old world trivia with me.
"Why?" I humored him with a smile, already guessing what the answer could be.
"Because their leaves resemble hands with outspread fingers... See?" He demonstrated by taking my hand and tracing the inside of each of my fingers from base to tip until they were evenly splayed.
"Was that just an excuse for you to hold my hand, Carlisle?" I pried, a distinct note of teasing in my voice. I let my neck bend back to rest on his shoulder so I could look up at his face.
He stared down at me with a look of pure innocence and asked in a husky voice, "Do I need an excuse to hold your hand, Esme?"
With that, he grasped all five of my fingers and bent them neatly back into my palm, firmly holding my fist inside of his hand.
Before I could offer him a predictable reply, I noticed that his face was already inches from mine, and I watched through hooded eyes as he leaned down to kiss me. His mouth parted against mine, and he pressed his tongue to the underside of my upper lip, coaxing me to open for him.
His kisses lovingly scorched my lips, his pace eager but mellow – a comfortable balance between the two. When his face finally parted from mine I felt the calming contour of his finger against my bottom lip. He had developed a small habit of touching my lips, studying them after he had kissed them. It was as if he wanted to see if anything about them had changed, if his kiss had somehow altered their texture or shaped them differently. His eyes were mildly fascinated when I looked up at him, still fixated on the effects of our kissing.
"Your eyes are far away," I observed fondly, my voice groggy.
His face was flawlessly serious, but the pitch black depths of his eyes were unmistakably playful when he replied to my remark. "I was just imagining what you would look like, lying on a beach like this one," he said, his words rough and silky as he prodded the picture of the sun-kissed shore in our picture book.
"I wouldn't look much different than I do right now, I suppose," I sighed casually, stretching my neck back as he cradled me closer in his arms to whisper against my ear.
"But in my imagination you are naked, darling..."
A tiny gasp of surprise escaped my lips, and I caught his boyish grin just before his fingers made a devious path for my blouse buttons.
"And is that the real reason you bought me this island, Doctor?" I asked crossly, folding my arms protectively over my chest. "To see your wife lying stark bare in the sand every day?"
"There are so many more reasons than that, my love," he sighed suggestively against my cheek.
Like a helpless fool, I melted instantly at his words. He chuckled tenderly as I straightened up with effort, clutching his shirt to bring myself high enough to meet his lips for a sweet, fleeting moment.
His kiss left a warm tingle dancing on my lips as I let myself settle back into his arms. "I can't wait to walk on the beach with you," I muttered through peacefully closed eyes, as if talking in my sleep.
I listened as he leaned over me to crack open the window, inviting the cool night air to tease our clothes with a wayward breeze that smelt of flowers and rain.
His hand tightened around mine as he gently shifted my body along with his to settle among the cushions in the bay window. "I fear that I may lose your heart to the sea, Esme," he sighed pensively.
"Impossible," I said with a giggle and an affectionate nudge to his arm.
"Just wait until you see it. It is the most magnificent sight in the world. The pictures cannot even compare," he said, trailing his fingers over the edge of the page until the tips of his fingers collided with my own. "You will never find a brighter blue than that of the ocean. The sand there is so white you'd swear it was snow. And the scent of salt is so strong it will inebriate you."
I smiled wistfully to myself at my husband's intoxicating descriptions.
"Maybe you are in danger of losing my heart to the sea, Carlisle," I teased. "Are you sure you still want to take me there?"
Closing our book, he lifted my hand and gently kissed the tips of my fingers.
"I have no choice."
-}0{-
It still amazed me that two decades ago Carlisle had given me a book of South American maps as a gift before we were even engaged to be married. I'd confessed to him my silly dreams of one day traveling as far as Rio de Janeiro. Needless to say, these dreams were anything but silly anymore.
Now we were going there together. Finally, I would see the sun rise over an endless blue ocean with my husband's hand in mine. It seemed almost too good to be true until after two days of traveling, we finally made it to the South American coastline.
The sun was delightful, but the frequency with which it showed itself in the South made it very difficult for us to travel freely around humans. However, I was too ecstatic to be embarking on such a romantic journey to fret over the delay.
We arrived in Rio de Janeiro before dawn, sparing us a few hours to explore the city before the risk of full sunlight set in.
The most stunning sight of all was the statue of Christ the Redeemer, hovering over the city with its arms outspread in a gesture of inconceivable compassion. I'd found it almost eerie in a way, most especially because we'd arrived quite early in the morning when the sky was still dark and ominous. Lit by the dim morning city lights, the grandness of the statue was dulled ever so slightly, giving it an aura of regal tranquility as it stood over the silent mountainside.
I watched Carlisle's eyes travel reverently up to the statue as we passed through the city. He seemed haunted by it, in the most beautiful way. I knew my husband well enough to recognize the pious undertones in his gaze when he looked upon objects of holy significance. Yet I was the one who caught myself staring at it far longer than necessary. Something about it had me utterly mesmerized.
"You know they started building it the year we were married," he told me softly, noticing the direction of my eyes.
"Really?"
He hummed in confirmation against my cheek. I sighed and closed my eyes as his sweet scent settled over me, aching to kiss him though we were in public.
"It almost seems... alive," I observed mystically. "Doesn't it?"
He raised his head up to give the stunning monument another lingering look. "It does," he whispered before leading me down to the docks by the shore.
The boat ride to the island would have been nerve-wracking if it weren't for my unbridled excitement. Only one human accompanied us on the short trip, a young native man named Seville. His dark eyes were kindly, though he often spared me a suspicious glance on our way across the water. I knew I must have looked anxious, but it was only my eagerness to finally see my gift that made me appear that way.
The land grew smaller and more distant the further we went. The sea was spectacular even under an overcast sky. I could just imagine how incredible it would look under the sparkling rays of the sun.
My excitement grew with every small island we passed, leaving me to wonder which one we would approach at last. The clouds in the sky had been thick and widespread when first we left, but now they were not looking so reliable. Fleeting strips of sunlight skidded over the waves behind us, causing the water to sparkle and shine. I swallowed hard with the worry that our skin would soon be sparkling in much the same way if we did not hurry.
I squeezed Carlisle's hand when the rays of sunlight looked to be coming in our direction, and he promptly recognized the danger, ordering our sailor to increase our speed in a foreign tongue.
Although our situation really was quite dangerous, I couldn't help but grin to myself as I watched the waters rush by even faster. The sun chasing us from behind certainly made the remainder of our ride all the more thrilling.
I was so distracted by the changing sky that I hardly noticed when our boat entered choppier waters. I looked ahead to find my view of the wide ocean obscured by a bright green mass of land.
"We're here," Carlisle whispered to me, knowing it would take more than just words to confirm it.
I looked to him in shock and he grinned back at me, tightening his hold on each of my hands as he led me off the boat and onto the dock.
The moment my shoes touched the sand, I knew. I had found a new home.
Staring around me, I drank in my exotically astounding surroundings, from the wickedly white sand to the full forests of emerald green palm trees.
I felt like I had walked right into one of the paintings from my books. The entire scene before me was like a work of art come to life.
Carlisle's hands settled on my shoulders from behind, bringing everything at once into reality.
"All mine?" I asked, my voice weak with disbelief.
He buried his lips in my hair and replied softly, "All yours."
-}0{-
I caught my husband smirking at me as I carried my suitcases up the stairs to the house two at a time.
"Trying to be delicate, are we?" His voice betrayed his amusement.
I pursed my lips at him, and he laughed. With an easy smile, he gathered the remaining four cases and carried them up the stairs and into the front hall in less than a second.
"Carlisle, be careful!" I chided, with a wary glance around us.
"Seville left. Nobody else is here to see us now," he reassured, holding the door open for me. Paranoid, I still carried the suitcases into the house at a human pace.
"Is it better to be hopeless or hopeful?" I asked, forcing my tone to sound displeased.
He laughed heartily and shut the door behind us.
"Oh, my goodness," I breathed as my eyes fell upon the interior of the house. "It's so pretty in here." I gave the decorated space a long look of approval.
"Hmm."
Disinterested, Carlisle looked about distractedly, glancing down the hallway.
I eagerly rushed to the dining table where a small white basket of seashells had been placed as a centerpiece. My hands found a flawless oyster shell, and I studied it reverently. Carlisle gave me a strange look.
"I love seashells," I explained bashfully. "They're so... strange and wonderful. You just have to wonder how they came to be."
His eyes warmed as he walked in behind me. "That is one the reasons why I collect them."
"Look at all the colors in this one," I said eagerly, tracing the lines of pink and orange in the fan shell I held in my hand.
"There are thousands of them down on the water – they're much prettier than this one," he said softly, pulling the shell from my hand and looking it over with a critical eye before he placed it back in the basket.
"Can we go look for some?" I asked, not caring that I sounded like an impatient child.
Carlisle's cheek twitched in amusement, but he managed a relatively straight face as he tipped his head in the direction of the hall. "Don't you want to put your things away first?"
I pretended to pout as I walked back to my pile of luggage. I grabbed the heaviest one and dragged it toward the bedroom where the door was already open. I let the carpetbag slip from my hand as I surveyed the beautiful room speechlessly.
At first I thought my husband's laugh had been to my reaction, and I quickly clamped my mouth shut and turned to face him, only to find him staring down at a note and a set of keys in his hands.
"Seville warned us not to lock ourselves out," he said, still inexplicably humored by the native who had helped us navigate the waters to the island. "Do you want me to bring the rest in?" he asked me distantly, still not looking up from the page of scrawled Portuguese.
"Okay," I murmured.
He left the room, and I sat on the edge of the bed to remove my shoes which were beginning to get in the way. I was so ready to remove all of the excess layers and be utterly free in this place. My body sunk pleasantly into the downy comforter of the bed as I kicked off my tightly strapped sandals and wiggled my toes. Distracted, I ran my hand over the clean white sheets and sighed wistfully.
My husband returned a few seconds later and placed my luggage by the closet. Instead of moving toward me, he walked back to the doorway and stared back at me expectantly. "Let's go."
I stared back at him blankly. "Where?"
"To the beach. To see your precious seashells," he reminded me with a sanguine smile.
I had little way to explain my sudden loss of desire to look at seashells. I found that just wanted to look at him.
"Oh," I uttered lamely, still frozen on the edge of the mattress. The bed was so comfortable, so soft beneath me...
I didn't want to leave.
He was still waiting for me to get up. "Are you okay?" he asked, concerned.
"Yes," I answered quickly. My hands went casually to my knees.
"Do you want me to carry you there?" he asked, his golden eyes glimmering with amusement.
I pretended to consider his offer, as if a decision had to be made. At last I smiled my consent, and he gallantly scooped me up in his arms. He surprised me slightly by carrying me at human speed. Although the beach was only yards away, he prolonged the time it took to reach the waves.
When his feet were just inches from the water, he carefully let me drop to the sand, my bare feet sinking into the fine white dust. I gave a little gasp at the strange new sensation. I had never set foot on a beach before. The sand was burning the soles of my feet, and it was delightfully awkward to walk upon. I loved it.
Carlisle had been right about that... He'd been right about the strong scent of salt as well. I could almost taste the brine on my tongue as I walked along the beach.
"I don't see any shells," I sighed with mock dissatisfaction as I looked around, hands on my hips.
Carlisle bent over to discard his shoes with a heavy sigh and stepped towards the water. "They're near the shoreline."
He took my hand loosely for a few seconds then let go as we reached the curling waves. "There's one." He pointed toward my foot.
I stooped to pick up the strange violet shell, dusting the sand off of it as though it were made of porcelain. "I hope you remembered to bring your collection," I said with a smile as I waved the shell tauntingly before him.
"Of course I remembered it." He grinned at me like a mischievous little boy. "I'm going to clear this entire beach of every last seashell before we leave."
I clicked my tongue and shook my head at him. "I never knew you to be so greedy."
"Only when it comes to seashells," he said as he slipped the small violet shell from between my fingers and hid it inside his pocket. "...and kisses," he added, stealing a swift peck from my lips.
I smiled. "Hmm. Perhaps you should start keeping a kiss collection."
He chuckled in a soft and wistful kind of way, as if he were taking my joke into serious consideration.
"The sun's coming out." I heard him murmur from behind me. I looked up eagerly at the sky as the large rain clouds from that morning finally parted.
The exultant gold rays of the sun crashed over us, and I watched with wonder as his pale skin burst into a blinding shimmer.
A giddy giggle escaped me as I told him, "You look beautiful, Carlisle."
He squinted at me under the harsh light, the strain in his eyes somehow looking exceptionally attractive. He responded to my compliment with light laughter that spurred my heart into restless somersaults.
"You should see yourself," he said with a wide but sober smile. His teeth were startlingly bright against the sun-glazed white-gold of his skin.
On a complete and unexpected whim, I reached down and chucked a seashell at his chest before I fled the scene, giggling madly. I heard him following me through the lush maze of exotic palms that bordered the sand, heading deeper into the dewy jungle.
My flimsy white summer dress was made rainbow with a haphazard accumulation of tropical colors as we raced through the trees. Within a matter of minutes I was covered from head to toe in various nectars, pollens, sand, and dirt. At last Carlisle stopped abruptly at the shoreline on the opposite side of the island, cornering me at the end of our chase. He stood laughing richly at me as I let myself fall into the sparkling sand, then he let his body fall beside me in a heap of carefree elation. I don't think either of us quite understood what we found so hilarious. We were just overwhelmed with joy.
"Your dress has pollen all over it," he noted, brushing the orange and yellow dust from around my waist. His voice was still breathless from laughter.
"It looks better this way, wouldn't you say?" I asked gaily, tossing my hair behind my shoulder as I curved my body to show off the mottled fabric.
"No, not really!" He shook his head robustly. "I much preferred it white."
I scoffed at his obvious teasing and pushed him back into the ground. His arms came back up to grab me before I could make my escape.
"Ah ah... You're not running away from me again."
I sighed submissively as I let his arms lovingly consume my body, bringing me down against his chest. The sun had warmed us during our run, creating the illusion that our exertion had brought about a very human-like warmth. I rested back contentedly against Carlisle's body, basking in the enticing heat that he offered as we stared out at the sea together in awe.
The crystal clear water was a completely indecent shade of aquamarine blue, nearly indistinguishable from the sky. Only my enhanced vision could have made out the fuzzy horizon line that separated the two. I had never even seen the ocean before in my human life, so seeing it now was exceptionally jarring. And to see it with Carlisle beside me...
His arm around my back reaffirmed the reality of it all and I sighed, letting myself fall forever further into his touch.
"Why don't we live here forever?" I asked dreamily.
It seemed an elementary idea until he reminded me why, always the voice of sensibility. "We would completely obliterate whatever wildlife exists here within the first two months, darling."
I smiled bashfully. "Hmm. I suppose we would. You do have a big appetite."
He smirked at me and nudged my side.
"Besides," he continued softly, "this place wouldn't be as special if we spent our eternity here."
"I suppose not." I sighed reluctantly.
His breath tickled my neck as he kissed my scars gently then turned away, face to the wind. I watched as the breeze tousled his warm blond hair in an almost loving way. My fingers ached to elaborate the caress, but I contented myself to remain a shy witness – simply admiring, not touching. The shadows of swaying palms blocked the sun rhythmically from teasing the glitter in his skin – in and out, bright and dim, gold and silver. The magnificence of the seascape before us was stunning, but like everything else, it paled in the presence of my husband.
"I've never seen the ocean this way before," I confessed. "Except in pictures, paintings..." I sighed a bit sadly. "There are a lot of things I've never seen."
My life had been painfully one-dimensional before Carlisle had found me. I was only beginning to discover what true wonders lay waiting for me in the world.
I felt his chin lovingly nudge the top of my head as his lips brushed through my hair. "I'll show you everything, Esme." His voice was so steadfast that I shuddered. "We have forever."
In those three words, I felt the utter force of his love exquisitely combined with the power of his wisdom, gathered from centuries spent all over the globe.
Carlisle had done everything; he had seen everything, he had met people historians could ever only ever pretend to know. It was always overwhelming for me when I imagined all of the things he had done and what he continued to do, doubting I could never measure up to that level of magnificence. I hardly deserved him, yet he was the one who believed he had never deserved me.
My lungs gathered the hundreds of different scents around me; salt water, sand, fruit, my perfume – all were overpowered by his natural fragrance – decadent and mildly arousing even as he remained innocently oblivious to its effect on me.
The level at which I was blessed was sickening. This angel of a man was mine for all eternity. And every day I only seemed to fall deeper in love with him, just as his adoration of me never reached its ever heightening peak. What we shared was the coveted fairytale love that everyone had always told me only existed in romance novels. It was that ridiculous, unattainable level of love made perfectly attainable in my immortality. Our love was perfect because our passion never faltered; instead it grew stronger every day.
My eyes fluttered open, and I looked up into his face. His eyes positively glowed a bright, rich color of sunflower petals under the light. I never ceased to be floored by the saintly perfection of his features. Every time I even glanced at him when he smiled like that, it was like being born all over again. I starved for that smile. It was the smile that made me believe I didn't deserve him.
Unable to respond, I promptly wrapped my arms around his shoulders, pulling him down over me in a passion drenched kiss. It pained me that I could do so little to show him how intensely I loved him, but words just wouldn't explain the phenomenon. Neither, admittedly, would any kiss.
But I so badly wanted to kiss him.
There was such reality in that kiss, in the way I felt every nuance of his lips pressed to mine, his every breath washing across my face, the fierce way he held me in his hands. I could have remained in that moment for the rest of my life.
But life goes on, even for an immortal. I truly believed that our time together had been well spent already, and we had not even begun.
I half expected Carlisle to carry on and make love to me in the sand, but he drew away slowly, a little reluctantly to whisper in my ear.
"I still need to show you the best part of this island..."
