Bella's POV

I think we travelled for three days straight. Fatigue and shock made my perception hazy. I slept in the passenger seat, starting awake at every jolt. I desperately needed a shower, and to give my legs a proper stretch. My hips and legs ached from sitting for so long.

We changed cars three times, leaving the Volvo for a red sports car of some kind, then a dark green saloon that was deceptively fast, then a little black European hatchback. He didn't steal them, but I figured he had planned this very, very well, and bought them ahead of time, and hidden them.

I had glimpsed into his bag once or twice, and he had a bunch of passports and stuff, strapped together with a thick rubber band. I suppose you'd have to know where to get false documentation, if you had been passing yourself off as seventeen for a hundred years.

We were heading south, I had gathered that much. The air was hotter, heavier, the further we travelled. Edward drove back roads most of the way, avoiding major state line crossings and highways as much as he could. Taking such back-water routes that I barely even saw signs to tell me where I was.

On what I think was the third evening, I was staring out at the darkening landscape, trying to pretend that the man in the drivers seat was Jake, large and warm and safe. This would be so romantic. I sighed inside my head. The dark orange sky setting over the hills and hillocks of pasture, the sparse lines of meager trees sheltering thin cows, all bleached to yellow by the setting sun.

"I don't think that you and Jake have imprinted, you know." Edwards reedy voice slid over from the driver's seat.

I chose to indulge him. Without shifting in my seat at all, I forced my voice to take on the jaded timbre of boredom. "And why is that, Edward?" I sounded like a fed-up mother talking to an obstinate child.

He hesitated for a second before plundering on with his ineffectual yammering. "Because you don't work that way." He said simply. When I didn't reply, he continued. "I can't hear your mind, and I don't think any other vampire talent that relied on using your brain would work at all. You aren't even afraid of us, not like how you should be. Youwelcome monsters into your life, both us and the dogs…" I felt him turn to look at me, but I kept my eyes on the evening view outside of my temporary prison.

"If imprinting works in the way I think it does, then it couldn't work with you, because your mind is closed to our kind… to the… supernatural." He sounded proud, like he had talked through an argument that meant that Jake and I were no longer together. I could have laughed with the absurdity of it.

"Maybe I trust Jake." My voice was soft, like I had taken Edwards critical observations lightly. "Maybe the instinct that tells humans to fear you,closes my mind to you, but tells me to trust Jacob. Which in turn would explain why you can't hear me, but Jake can imprint on me."

Edward drove on in silence for a while, I could feel the waves of impatience rolling off him.

"Have you slept with him?" His voice was smooth, and I baulked at his sudden question.

"You insolent fucker." I growled under my breath. "How is that any of your business?!" I had turned in my seat to face him, but pressed my back hard against the door, as far away from him as I could get.

"I want you." He murmured, his eyes turning to mine. I was speechless, my mouth open. "I could control myself, I know I could." He turned his eyes back to the road, and I realized that he was embarrassed. "I could do it, without hurting you."

I just shook my head. What on earth was going on here? I vaguely noticed that the car was slowing, he was pulling over. I stared at him, completely unable to process what he was telling me. He stopped the car, and took a deep breath. His hands came over to touch mine, and I caught myself staring into his eyes. His face inched towards mine. Exhaustion was suddenly lying over me, in a thick blanket that muffled his voice, dulled my senses.

He leaned towards me, his eyes drooping closed. His sweet breath hit my face, I felt my pulse hitch with that scent. I inhaled, deeply, and I saw Edward's eyes widen a bit as he registered my reaction. I inhaled again, and tried, as I had always done, to dissect it, to figure out what he smelt like. Flowers, definitely, something sweet, night stock or jasmine. How could anyone's breath smell so sweet? It was almost cloying, it clung to the back of my nose, like old fashioned perfume, or… decay.

Alarm bells blazed at the back of my head. He smelt like a god-damned mortuary! "Don't." I gasped, as his lips were only hair's breadth from mine. "Don't… don't touch me."

He sighed, but didn't move away. With his lips so close they were almost brushing mine, and his syrupy breath on my face, he tried to sweet talk me. "I don't want it to be like this." He whispered. "I want us to be happy. I guess I hoped, that when you saw the lengths I would go to, to be with you, that you would at least soften towards me."

I felt my brow crease, but I stayed silent, something inside me was frozen. "I would… pleasure you. If you wanted me to. I wanted to wait, to save that part of myself until I was married… but I would give that up, for you."

I could see the absolute conviction in his eyes. He really believed that he was morally upstanding. The extent of his madness hit me, and I became very afraid. I had to make a decision, but I had no idea what to do. What was my plan again? Anger… right…

"I said fucking DON'T!" I screamed, shoving at his chest with the flats of my palms. "You fucking psycho! Get your goddamned hands OFF ME!" He leaned back into his seat, but kept facing me.

His face revealed no emotion, and it did nothing but fuel my anger. "You! You say you feel so strongly, and can't live in a world without me in it. You say all this shit, and you go to the insane length of KIDNAPPING ME, but you won't even put your emotions on your face so that I can see them. You never have. The only things I have ever been sure that you felt for me was blood lust and exasperation!"

I was panting by this time, so exhausted that I was seeing spots. "Bella…" Edwards voice was miserable, and I focused my eyes on him through the colors.

Oh.

He was almost unrecognizable, his suffering, his indecision, dragged his face into a macabre smearing of his normal features. Despite myself, I felt a jolt of pity. "Just because I have always looked calm to you, it doesn't mean that I have felt that way." His voice came out in a wavering breath. "I was always afraid that you would leave me. I heard how other men thought about you, how they would take any opportunity to try and take my place. I couldn't handle it. I saw you in other peoples minds, they would picture you naked! They would picture you doing things with them, to them." He stopped, hesitated.

"And I should have done that stuff with you." He sounded resolute. "I should have touched you… and now you've been touched by that mongrel, he's had his hands on you! Can't you see… It's so much worse…" His face crumpled further with frustration. He had no idea how to explain his point of view in a way that I would accept.

"EDWARD!" I snapped, reaching the end of my tether. "Just shut the fuck up. I don't care about your angst-y, jealous bullshit. You had your chance, and you blew it." I took a deep breath, unsure if I should make him angry or not. But the words came out before I could stop them.

"You're right, you should have touched me, made me feel good, instead of making feel weak and pathetic. But you didn't, and I'm glad, because the way Jake touches me…" I groaned, long and low and sexual. My voice dropped into a sexy growl. "They way he touches me… his fingers are so hot, and so big…" I closed my eyes and wriggled deeper into my seat, ignoring Edward completely, I tried to escape. I conjured up the memory of Jake and I in the rabbit.

We were on our way home after going to see a movie together. I still had those stupid bandages on my hand. Two hours in a dark theatre with Jake had driven me crazy, his fingers had absent mindedly traced the seam of my jeans, up and down my inner thigh, making me quake with excitement.

Jake was driving, putting his hand on my knee between gear changes. "It's a pity you can't stay the night tonight." I groaned, putting my hand over his and sliding it further up my thigh. He let out his breath in a long, low sigh, and pulled the car into the next place he could. Which happened to be the Newton's store car park.

He turned to me, and ran his hand all the way up my leg, pressing on the seam of my jeans with the side of his little finger. I whimpered as he used his other hand to rub my thigh, his hand moving in large, slow circles. "You should have worn a skirt." He whispered, and leaned over to kiss my neck.

"Oh god." My voice cracked. "Touch me, please." He groaned in reply, and reached between my legs to push the seat backwards. I figured what he wanted to do, and moved my hand to turn the little wheel at the side of the seat. While I tried to make the back lie down as flat as it could, Jake fumbled with the button on my jeans, growling impatiently when his fingers blundered.

Finally, he dragged them off me, I kicked off my slip-ons when he pulled my pants from my legs, and watched his face when he paused, stopping to look at me. He grabbed my hips, hefted me up the seat, so that my head was almost hanging off the top of the head rest, and stepped over the gearstick, to lie of top of me. His feet were braced against the floor, and he…

"Please stop." Edward's voice yanked me brutally from my fantasy. My eyes flew open. The car was moving again, and Edward's eyes were on the road. I was panting… had I been making noises? God, I could feel the blood thumping through me veins, I was so turned on.

"I can smell it when you… when you're…" Edward faltered. I stared at him, he was eerily still, even for a vampire. Oh, he wasn't breathing… he didn't want to smell my… desire. Good. I hoped he was hurting.

I curled back into my seat and thought of Jake some more, sweet, tender thoughts this time, quiet moments when he whispered sweet nothings to me… eventually I fell asleep.

I felt a little refreshed when I woke up. The world outside the window was pitch black, the little clock on the dash said 4.07am. My radio station was on, and I leaned over to turn it up a little. Jake and I had listened to this show before, giggling at the strange music they played in the dead of night. I hummed along to an old, old version of 'Wimoweh" and tried to imagine what Jake would be doing, right now. Was he listening to this song too? The thought was comforting, and I snuggled into my seat.

From what I could see in the headlights, the scenery had changed. There were lots of trees, it was almost as green as Forks, but the trees were different. I rolled down my window and sniffed the air. It was insanely hot and humid. I wondered if we had gotten into the swampy areas of the southern states.

The road was bumpy beneath the tires, and the air had a moist, sweet smell to it. I leaned my head against the headrest, and started prepared myself for another long, boring stretch of road, when a house came into view. Low, long and modern, it lay close to the ground, big square windows running along the front of it.

The lights were on.

Edward pulled up in front of the building, and turned off the engine. "Here we are!" He said brightly, as though we had just arrived at the beach for a holiday. I swallowed against my nerves. This was it, my prison for the foreseeable future. On shaky legs, I stepped out of the car and stared. A big old barn was just visible against the trees. The air rang with the songs of crickets.

I couldn't have run, even if I had wanted to, my knees were jelly. Edward pulled our bags from the car and gestured for me to walk ahead of him. I was running completely on auto-pilot. The fact that that I had truly been kidnapped, that I was going to be held against my will for the foreseeable future, finally hit home. I felt my brain shut down, the way it had when I thought Quil was going to kill me. I wasn't scared, or angry, but I felt like I was sitting inside my own head, peering out at the house through glass eyes. I made my way up a gravel path, the crunching of the stones loud in my ears. The over-sized front door was pale wood, I was just reaching out for the handle when it opened.

A woman was silhouetted in the doorframe. Lithe and beautiful and obviously a vampire, she sneered down at me, hatred all over her face. I baulked, stepping backwards into Edward as my instincts told me to get out of her reach. I was so numb that I didn't even flinch when his hand came up to my waist to steady me. He chuckled softly in my ear, and greeted the woman in a pleasant, friendly voice.

"Hello, Irina."