Thanks so much for all the reviews. I grin like a stupid fool every time I see a new one pop up in my inbox.
Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Twilight.
Next up, the rest of date night, with Bella up at bat. Read and review!
0
0
0
BPOV
Oh. My. God.
Fuck.
I latched the bathroom stall door and sat down on the closed toilet. I put my head down on my knees and squeezed my eyes shut. I drew deep breaths, trying all my old tricks from the early days of Eclipse, when I had horrible stage fright. Inhale slowly through my nose 1..2..3..4..5, exhale out of my mouth, 1..2..3..4..5.
Slowly I felt like I was regaining some control over myself. I pulled out my cell phone and scrolled to Rose's number. I had typed in the text, one word, HELP, and paused with my thumb over "send".
Why was I calling Rose? Up until a minute ago it had been going okay. Sure it was awkward and forced, but we were complete strangers pretending to be dating. It was bound to be awkward. Okay, so he was a dick, but not impossible to deal with. When I asked questions, he answered and for a minute there we'd been conversing like real people. It was weird that Jake came up, of all people, but whatever.
And then he kissed my neck…
I couldn't argue with the reason he'd done it. That's why we were here, to make people believe that's what we did with each other. And when I thought back, it really had started out innocent. I was even sort of giggling.
And then it hadn't been so innocent.
So he got carried away, why am I so freaked out?
Because I did, too.
Goddamn it. That had been the hottest, sexiest thing that had ever happened to me. And the feeling when he touched me…my God. Like I'd been zapped by lightning. I've never felt like that ever. My skin still tingled at every point on my body that he had touched. And my panties were wet. Damn.
Even after I pulled away, as I looked at him across the table, looking so damned stunning with that gorgeous sex hair going everywhere, all I really wanted to do was climb across the table and into his lap and keep going where we left off.
This was bad. But it's also not really his fault. Okay, so he started it, kissing my neck like that, but it's not his problem that I can't control my reaction to him. I was just another stupid girl falling prey to the Cullen charm. I would have to be stronger than this. I could do this. I had to.
I stood up and left the stall and checked myself in the mirror. I might feel like and earthquake just rocked my whole body, but I looked just the same, so that's good. I caught the woman to my left checking me out in the mirror surreptitiously. I could nearly hear her thoughts.
Yes, bitch, I'm here with Edward Cullen. And I'm leaving with him, too. Yes, me. Suck it.
Okay, leaving together only so he could drive me home, but she would never know that. For all she knew we were going home to have hot throw-down sex…Ungh…..Must stop thinking about hot throw-down sex with Edward.
I steeled myself again, threw my shoulders back and headed back to the table. The guy that Edward had ratted out as a gossip reporter was scribbling furiously on a piece of paper beside his plate.
Hope you enjoyed the show, mister. It was all for you. Well, it was supposed to be for you. My damp panties told a different story.
Edward was sitting at the table with his head in his hands. He had another drink in front of him and our food had arrived while I'd been gone.
He looked up at me questioningly as I slid back into the booth. I shot him what I hoped was a calm, reassuring smile, even though the sight of him made my stomach clench and my heart speed up. He looked at me a moment longer then shrugged slightly and looked back down at his drink.
I tried to focus on my food. It was actually delicious, chicken and couscous and a million other things in it. I wish I'd paid better attention to the menu when I'd ordered, I hadn't even read the description. But I was too keyed up to eat much, so I mostly just pushed it around my plate.
Edward seemed equally disinterested in his dinner, he mostly just drank. Before I knew it he was paying and we were leaving. We still hadn't said more than a handful of words to each other.
We stopped at the front door for a minute while the hostess pressed Edward with her sincere hopes that we'd enjoyed our meal and that everything was exactly as we'd hoped. She was still all but undressing herself for him and humping his leg and it was still pissing me off. Hey, bitch, this may be fake but you don't know that! He's my date! It didn't help that he was fucking flirting with her. Right in front of me. It was all I could do to stand there and stare into space and pretend I didn't notice her simpering at him and him shooting her that crooked grin.
Finally he had enough of her and we turned to leave. I could hear the paparazzi explode into noise the minute we walked out the door. When we got to the gate opening onto the sidewalk I could see that the scrum of paparazzi outside was even bigger now, like they'd sent out some sort of paparazzi radar signal that something good was going down.
Edward scooped me under his arm as we walked out onto the sidewalk before I could protest and hustled us briskly to the parking lot. They were absolutely swarming around us, jostling each other and shoving, flashes going off in my face non-stop like a strobe light. The calls and questions were deafening. If I'd been alone I would have been utterly panicked. But Edward squeezed my shoulder a little and pulled me in closer to his body and I let him and I felt safer. He kept his free arm out in front of me, hand spread out, to ward them off and keep anyone from actually touching me, and I was grateful for it.
We slipped through the gate to the parking lot and they peeled off because it was private property and they couldn't follow, leaving us alone. Edward loosened his hold on me a little, but he didn't take his arm from my shoulder.
We were almost to the car when he dipped his head in to whisper in my ear. His warm breath blowing across my skin made me erupt in goosebumps and my knees went weak.
"See that clump of bushes over there? One of the photographers must have scaled the fence, because he's hiding in there."
"Oh…" I said, because I had no other response to that piece of information and his nearness was making me positively stupid. How did he spot them? He must have some super sense that sniffed out paparazzi.
"Bella?" His face was still just inches from my ear.
"Yes?"
"Hold still" he said, and then his mouth came down on mine.
We were to the car by now, and with the arm he still had around my shoulders he turned my body into him and pressed me back against the car in one swift motion. The frisson of electricity I'd felt when he had his lips on my neck was absolutely nothing to what happened now. Every single inch of me exploded against him.
His lips moved firmly against mine. It felt commanding, but controlled, and I thought for a minute that this might really just be for the benefit of the photographers, no matter how I was responding to it. He felt and tasted every bit as good as I thought he might. And his smell…warm, a little spicy and something else which must have been just Edward. It was making me feel drunk.
I felt his tongue slip along my bottom lip. Oh, God. This was so not for the photographers anymore. My stupid traitorous body didn't care and my mouth opened of its own accord. His tongue slipped into my mouth and I met it with mine. He shifted the angle of his head and dove deep into my mouth and I gasped against him. My hands flew to his shoulders to steady myself, but then I realized I was gripping him hard, pulling him into me. His hands slid up to cradle the back of my head, his fingers knotting tightly into my hair. He moved forward into me and my back pressed into the car door. He kept moving and crushed himself against me. I could feel his belt buckle pressing into my stomach, his chest against my breasts. It felt so good, so insanely good. All I really wanted was to pull him into the car and do everything else. And now it didn't feel controlled anymore... at all. We were both snatching ragged little breaths in between our desperate kisses.
My hands slipped up to the back of his neck and I finally got to touch the hair that had been calling to me since we met. I tangled my fingers in the hair just above his collar and made a tight fist. He growled…growled... into my mouth and I swear I nearly came. He pushed his hips into me and his right knee slid in between mine. A small moan escaped my throat involuntarily as his thigh hit my center. I could feel his erection, hard and pressing against my hip. One of his hands left my hair and slipped down over my shoulder, and then lower, just skimming the side of my breast.
I moaned again and that's when my brain woke up. Because there was only one place this was leading and that was a bed, with him and me in it. And that would be fantastic, but also very bad. Because Edward Cullen ended up in a lot of beds with a lot of women. And it did not matter that no one's hands and lips had ever made me feel like that. I was not about to become yet another number in the Edward Cullen Collection of Random Fucks. Maybe if I was still just some anonymous girl in Seattle and he was just some anonymous guy I met in a bar. Then maybe, just maybe, I'd let myself do this, tumble into bed with this incredibly hot and sexy stranger, consequences be damned.
But neither one of us was anonymous and this is complicated. Because we have an arrangement to deal with. Because I really like his sister, and Jasper might just love her.
So I let go of his hair and stiffened in his arms for a second time tonight. He moved back a tiny bit, sensing my resistance. He pulled his lips from mine and I dropped my head quickly, so I didn't have to look at him as I gasped for breath. His breathing sounded just as ragged. He moved his hands to rest lightly, harmlessly on my shoulders.
"I didn't mean for that to happen…like that." He muttered, his voice sounding like gravel.
I took a deep breath hoping I could trust my own voice.
"Let's just forget it."
"But…"
"Forget it" I snapped, because if I didn't get mad I was going to cry. "Look, let's…" I was about to go off on him, but of course, there were still witnesses, so I slipped out from underneath his hands and started around to my side of the car. He paused for a millisecond and then shot out in front of me, to get to the door ahead of me.
He closed me into the car and crossed back around to the driver's side. I fought to hang on to my anger while I waited for us to be alone.
He fell into the driver's seat and gripped the wheel hard before he threw a glance at me. He started talking before I could.
"Sure that got a little intense. But I'm not sure what you're so unhappy about. We're supposed to be a couple. So a photographer just got a picture of us being a couple. Since you're in this for the exposure, I thought that would make you happy. It'll make you famous, right? And isn't that what you want? Isn't that why you're here?" His voice was dripping with sarcasm.
I drew in a sharp breath and my eyes narrowed at him. Fucking asshole.
"That is not why I'm here. I couldn't care less what this does for me. I don't give a shit about the fucking photographers and the media and the gossip and being famous. I don't care what they say about me, I don't care what the public thinks. But Aro is sure that what makes me famous will make the band famous. And that's a good thing. For them. I would do anything for them, even something I hate. We've spent our whole lives making this music together. Now that we have our chance, I'll do anything it takes to make sure people actually hear it."
Okay, I was being a little hyperbolic. There were definitely parts of tonight that I in no way hated. But I needed to gain control of this situation. And he needed to not touch me anymore. Even though right now I wanted nothing more for him to touch every inch of me. That wouldn't get us anywhere.
He clenched and unclenched his jaw for a moment, staring straight ahead out of the windshield as he thought about what I said. I really didn't want to keep fighting, so I sagged with relief when he simply started the car and pulled away.
We said nothing most of the way back to my house, which was really something, since it was a long way. Eventually I had to talk, just to give him directions, since he didn't know where I lived. So at least we were speaking, albeit tensely.
My phone beeped in my bag to indicate I had a text. I pulled it free and glanced. It was Jasper.
How is it going?- J
I texted back.
Long story. Tomorrow- B
Edward glanced from my phone to my face and back again.
"Do you need to call someone?"
"No, it was just Jasper."
His face turned to stone again and he didn't speak for the last little bit of the drive. I had no idea where we stood. Was our arrangement still in place? Or were we done before we'd even really started? But I was too upset and tired tonight to ask him, especially since he looked so angry and mean. I was just going to try to forget about it for a little while and figure it all out later. Besides, if we talked about this anymore tonight I was pretty sure I would cry and that would be humiliating in the extreme.
We stopped at my house and I turned to him quickly.
"Thanks for dinner," I muttered, before I scrambled quickly out of the car. I didn't want to linger to see what he would or wouldn't say.
I turned and ducked into my dark front yard and hurried up the walk to the house and shut myself inside. The car lingered in front of my house for another few minutes before I heard him pull away. I finally let myself sag against the living room wall. Much to my dismay, I started to cry. Not hard, but tears leaked out from under my lids nonetheless.
My phone rang. Rose.
"So?" she jumped right in, "What's going on?"
"I just got home," I sighed.
"Tell me everything!"
"I will, Rose, I promise. But not now. It was tiring. Tell you what, get to the studio half an hour early tomorrow morning and I'll tell you then."
This appeased Rose and I was able to slink off to bed and bury my miserable head in the covers. I wasn't going to sleep any time soon, though, I knew it. Between speculating about what tomorrow would bring and reliving every scorching touch from him, I tossed and turned the whole night, finally drifting into a fitfull sleep in the early pre-dawn hours. I dreamt of Edward, Edward's hands and Edward's lips, and Edward's sneering, angry words. I woke feeling just as close to tears as I felt last night.
