Title: Reckless
Author: marjorie16
Fandom: Twilight
Summary: Edward leaves Bella in NM. She desperately needs to find him. So at the age of 19, she successfully writes and publishes a bestselling book, 'Twilight', to catch his attention. Unfortunately, not only does she catch his attention but also that of other vampires. And these immortals are not so happy about it.

When you're "forbidden to remember" but "terrified to forget", what do you do?

You write.

What if it were all true?

* Third Person POV

CHAPTER 4

"Casa della Palma Lodge and B&B," Bella read. "Now that's a mouthful."

"Boy howdy," Lily exclaimed. "I didn't expect it to be this big."

"Oh well, you can't complain. So." She grabbed her suitcase. "Where to?"

"You're in Room one eighteen and I'm at one twenty, Miss Swan."

"Keys?"

Without a word, Lily handed her the keys. A strange sound creaked. "What was that?" Lily asked.

"What was what?"

"There was…" She paused. "I thought I saw a pair of shadows."

"Shadows?" Bella asked. She wouldn't admit it, but the place was giving her the creeps too. To ease the atmosphere she laughed a shaky laugh and smacked Lily's shoulder. "Don't scare me, Lily!"

"I wasn't…" Her voice trailed off. Then, resigned. "Yes, Miss Swan."

Together they walked silently through the deafening silence. Bella reached her door first and bade goodnight to Lily. She opened her door to a dark room, lowered her suitcase and hastily turned on the lights.

When she closed the door behind her, she went got onto the bed and dropped her suitcase. Italy was a long way to go, she thought. And tomorrow, she'll be more exhausted. Removing her jacket, she grabs her toiletries, rushes to the bathroom. And then, strange cold hands clasped over her mouth. The touch was familiar.

Dangerously familiar.

"Promise you won't shout," said the velvet voice. Tears were forming in her eyes. She hadn't heard that voice in more than a year. Silently, she nodded.

He let go of her mouth and faced her to him. He didn't release his hold. And for what seemed like eternity, she gazed once again, into his topaz eyes. Edward. Edmund.

And she was speechless.

"You and I had a deal," Edward said. "Nothing reckless in exchange for your safety."

She couldn't respond yet. Still savoring the smooth texture of his pale skin, so like a marble carved in the image of a god. His long dark lashes, framing his shadowed eyes.

"What have you done, Bella?" His beautiful velvet voice was getting louder. He removed his hands, they were starting to hurt her, turned around and got hold of something. A book. Her book. He held it out in front of her. "This is by far the most reckless thing you've ever done!"

"No."

"What?"

"Twilight's not the most reckless thing I've done." Finally finding her voice. "Not to sound melodramatic, but I've played this scene a hundred times in my head. I've planned a hundred reactions just to get ready for whatever you have to say to me. But I couldn't have known that you'd tell me that that book is the most reckless thing I've ever done because we both know that loving you is, by far, the stupidest thing I've done!"

To that, Edward couldn't respond.

"I know that was a bit cheesy and I'm the writer here so I'm supposed to be the subtle one. You just caught me at a wrong time. Anyway, it's the truth," she continued, then paused. Her eyes softened. "You're here. You're actually here."

"I would have thought you'd expect me," Edward said. "After all, you'd written a book about me. By now, you should be the leading expert on Edmond a.k.a moi. You should have known that I'd come to you."

"I admit I expected you to. Sooner, actually."

"Timing has never been one of my stronger points."

She didn't know what he meant by that. "Look, I never intended to publish the book. I wrote it to remember and not to forget. I was afraid that I'd wake up one day and find out that it was all a dream. My mom was the one who got me to publish it. And how would I have known it would be a hit?"

"Maybe…" Edward replied, taking a seat casually on the couch. "But, that's not your point, is it? You knew what the book could do."

Bella stared at him first, then, reluctantly turned her face away, folded her arms and paced the small room. "I knew you'd come."

"It was stupid!"

"But now you're here."

"That doesn't change anything! You're still in danger and I'm going to have to protect you. Again." He stood up. "Can't you see? Everything I've done, every ounce of effort to keep away from you was all for the hope that you'd live a normal life! But no! You had to go write a book exposing every piece of secret you knew about my wor---"

He couldn't continue. Not because he didn't know what to say next, but because he didn't want this moment, the moment that Bella ran to him and held him this way, be over so soon. He stayed put, cherishing every moment. This felt just like it did last time, maybe better, like he was alive.

"I knew it wasn't because I was ugly," she said through her tears. She hugged him tighter.

"What did you say?"

"When you left, you told me I wasn't enough," she started. "Only at first I thought it was because I was… well, physically, you know."

"Look at me." He raised her head to the level of his. "You, my love, are beautiful."

"Your love?"

"I have to apologize, Bella. I can see that I've hurt you but, please believe me when I say that I did it all to protect you from what I am, from my world."

"I already have a case full of exercises on Edmond's character development. Trust me, I understand every word you're saying."

He wanted very much to kiss her, but he was afraid it was too soon. After all, it'd been more than a year. She might have had other relationships… no, that can't be. There was something about the way she was that told him that she belonged to him just as surely as he did to her.

"That reminds me," he said. Drat. She was waiting for him to make the next move. She wanted him to kiss her. Heck. She was the one who wrote a romance novel, which was pretty much a series of love letters. She wasn't going to initiate the kissing part. Not even as a last resort. She wanted to know if he wanted her. "Edmond wa---" He released her and turned to the door.

"What is it?"

He moved towards the entrance and slowly opened the door.

"Boy howdy!"

"Hello, Lily," Edward said. "My name is… uh… Robert. Robert Patterson."

Lily couldn't respond, clearly stunned by the absolute beauty of his face. Bella had to snap her out of it. There was nothing she wanted more than to be alone with Edward.

"Lily!" She snapped her fingers in front of her secretary. "Snap out of it!"

"Wha? Oh sorry." She jerked her eye glasses in place. "I-I heard someone raising his voice here a minute ago. I thought you were being robbed or something, Miss Swan. You can never be too careful."

"Yeah, thanks. Sorry about that," Bella replied. "We'll be quiet now." She carefully closed the door and faced Edward once more. "I just thought of something."

"What?"

"How long are you going to stay here? I have a schedule tomorrow and you can't go out in the sunlight. Assuming of course that you're here to stay…with me."

He smiled her favorite crooked smile. "As long as you want me to."

Her brows creased. "You said that last time."

"Last time I didn't know what's on your mind." He paused. "Now I do. Quite vividly, I might add. I can't imagine how I seem so, what was that word you used? 'God-like'."

She blushed. "That was a favorite, if you must know." And then, still not sure of his answer. "Are you really going to stay? Permanently this time?"

"Yes," he said with deep conviction. "In fact, I'm not going to let you out of my sight. Cancel everything you've planned for tomorrow and book a flight to South America. Soon."

"What?" Bella asked, baffled. "Is something wrong?"

"Bella, did you think I'm the only vampire who could read?" he asked, trying to make a point. "Our kind only has one rule: discretion. This book --" he grabbed the book again, "is not what we might call, 'discretion.'"

"Oh my gosh! Victoria's coming to get us?"

"Victoria?" he exclaimed. "She's already dead."

"Dead? Who killed her?"

"I did."

"You?"

"Well, I had to do something," he said like it was an everyday thing. "I couldn't do anything with myself when I left you. Anything that doesn't involve you is pointless."

Her eyes softened. "See… that's why Edmond has so many fans."

"Ugh!" he bellowed. "Do not mention the name 'Edmond' or the word 'fan girl', 'fanpire', and 'five bucks a piece' to me. Ever."

"That bad, huh?" She was already on the same page. That was one of the things about her. She understood him perfectly. Little did she know that to him, she was the goddess.

"Can we get back to the point?"

"I can't cancel tomorrow's affair, Edward. A lot of people are expecting me. I wouldn't want to deny them more quality in-depth time talking about you."

"My personal issues aside; you're in danger, Bella. We both are."

"From who?"

"From the vampire world's royalty. I've told you about them before." He paused. "I won't tell you any more about them because that'll just agitate you. All you have to understand now is that they are very powerful. And they very possibly want you dead. I'm sure as hell not going to wait around for them to do their job."

Her brows creased. "I'll make you a deal."

"Forget it. You're not going anywhere but out of this country. And besides, I've already made a deal with you once, and we all know how that ended."

"Will you hear me out at least?"

He gazed into her shining eyes. "Fine," folding his arms. Prepared to be indulgent.

"Tomorrow's schedule is crucial. I have to be there at every event because that's where I can get solicitors for my book. I could get contacts, whatever."

"So?"

"So, give me one whole day and then, I'll cancel my whole trip here."

"Bella, you have to stop the entire promotion of that book. It's dangerous."

"Just let me finish tomorrow's scheduled activities and then, I'll come willingly. Deal?"

Knowing there was no way around it. He conceded. "Deal."

* * *

"Just stay in the car, all right?" Bella said. "It's almost night-time, anyway. Thank you for agreeing to let me stay for a day. I'm going to go up to that dinner arrangement. I'll call you when I want to go home. Talk to Lily about the schedule…Rob."

Edward could hardly focus. There was something about the way her little black dress folded down to her hips that was keeping him from forming coherent thoughts. "Okay," he said, simply. "Don't do anything stupid."

"I'm sure I can still tell the difference between a spoon and a fork."

"I love you."

"I love you, too." If he was going to kiss her, she thought, now would have been the perfect time. But he let it go. What was the matter? She brushed her teeth today. She turned around and walked upstairs to the big hall. The door opened, a maid let her in. The door closed firmly.

Edward drove the car through the next block. He was running one hundred and ten miles per hour. And it was raining outside.

"Boy howdy," Lily said. "I didn't know Miss Swan knew anyone in Italy. In fact, she told me she'd never been here."

"We just met," Edward easily said. He was good at lying, especially to people who gawked at him all the time like Lily was doing. "So Lily, why don't you cancel everything in Bella's schedule here in Europe. I'll book us a flight to the U.S.. Don't ask any more questions."

"Okay. What Miss Swan wants, Miss Swan gets." And then, there was silence.

"I'm having a bad feeling," Edward said. "Who's house did we drop Bella in?"

Lily hastily searched her bag to regain her organizer. "Uh… House of V-Volturi. I'm not sure how to pronounce that."

And before she knew it, the car was raced like lightning back to the Volturi mansion.

* * *

"Wow, you guys have cool paintings!" Bella exclaimed as she looked at the works of art.

"They're antiques," a high child-like voice descended from the marble stairs. "Centuries old."

"Oh really?" Bella swung around to face the girl. She was small but she didn't look a bit fragile. She gasped as she glimpsed at the pale girl's eyes. They were a deep shade of crimson. "Good evening, Isabella Swan. My name is Jane."

"Oh crap."

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Cliffhangers are love. Review!

BTW: In case you were wondering, that was intentionally spelled 'Patterson.'