AN: Reviews - input on how much Jake we want in this story? Good Jake or Bad Jake? Leave him out of the story beyond the club chapter? Let me know what you think about that, as well as anything else you might have to say, and a teaser will be sent your way. Now... let's get on with it...

S Meyer owns all things Twilight. I'm just an unoriginal mooch.

Chapter 9

I scanned the crowd for Edward, finally spotting bronze hair among the masses. As I slowly approached them, an arm wrapped around my wrist and carefully spun me around.

"Bella?"

I knew that voice, but the face was barely familiar. A toothy grin formed on the man's face, bringing back some boyish features. Holy shit!

"Jake?"

He pulled me into a hug. Yeah, he cheated on me in high school, but that was almost 7 years ago, and hey, we were barely dating. Deep down, there was a good guy under the horny teenager.

"How are you Bells? You live here now?"

"Yeah, I've lived here since college. I went to NYU. What about you? Just visiting?"

"No I actually moved here 3 years ago working as a photography intern for a freelance agency. It's awesome, they took me on and I can choose what companies to work for and what projects to take on. I just finished a calendar shoot for a car club. It was awesome!"

"Wow, right up your alley huh? That's great, Jake."

"Yeah definitely, so how've you been? What are you up to now?"

"Well I'm a layout designer for Cosmo now, it's pretty fun. Um… yeah not much going on in my life right now. I'm pretty boring I guess." I could have told him about Mike, but why bring that up when it was nearly over anyways? It'd be too awkward to talk about.

Jake opened his mouth to say something but was cut off;

"Whoa, Bella and Jake reunited! How are you Jake?" Jessica yelled in her annoying nasally voice.

Jakes eye widened as he looked over at me. Yeah, the chick you cheated on me with. I gave him a little smile to let him know that it wasn't awkward. It was a long time ago.

"Hey Jess. Uh… you and Bella are friends again huh?"

I shook my head and started to say "no", which was the truth, I just never said it out loud. Jessica spoke before me though.

"Oh yeah, I'm really good friends with her boyfriend, Mike."

"Boyfriend, huh? Can I meet him?"

"Oh he's not here right now. He's back in Pittsburgh visiting with his family. His dad had a bad accident at work and was in a coma for like.. a week. Right Bella?"

I gave him an awkward smile and rolled my eyes, "yep Jess, you got it."

"Well hey, great seeing you Jake. Bella if you see Lauren, tell her I found a gorgeous man by the bar and to come find me there whenever she's done humping Edward or whatever."

Humping Edward? That bitch! Go home and go to bed, don't you two work in the morning?

"Hey I'm gonna go find uh… Lauren. Make sure she's not getting thrown into a gang bang or something like that."

"I'll help." Jake smiled. It was a smile that met his eyes and I could tell he was just trying to be polite. I accepted and we weaved through the crowd towards where I saw Edward just a few moments ago.

"That's Lauren. The half naked chick dry humping that guy's leg."

"Is he grimacing or smiling?" Jake asked with a laugh. As we got closer Jake decided, "definitely grimacing. Do we like Lauren?"

"We hate Lauren." I said with an evil chuckle. Then, some big Amazonian sized woman bumped into me and sent me crashing into Jake's chest. I could feel his extremely well-defined chest through his button-down shirt. Jake felt like a man, no longer the boy I once knew. He grabbed my right hand and playfully twirled me once around.

"Yeah, I grew up a little." He smirked, "we found Lauren and her victim, wanna dance? We'll keep an eye on them."

I looked down and bit my lip, contemplating what a dance might mean to him.

"Something tells me you're not watching out for Lauren."

I snapped my eyes up to him, accidentally showing my shock and giving myself away. Before I could shake it off, he answered my shocked stare.

"Bella, you practically growled when Jess told you Lauren was with this guy. I'm pretty sure I saw some flames in your eyes too." He joked. "Bella, just dancing. No strings attached. And… we can spy on this guy without it being too noticeable. Unlike how we're just standing here now…"

I looked around and laughed, shaking my head. "Yeah, we do look pretty ridiculous don't we?"

"I don't know about you, but I definitely don't. I look good all the time."

I smacked him on the shoulder and he spun me around, holding on to my hips as we began to sway to the music. This was actually fun, dancing without it being erotic. It felt like I was dancing with Alice or Rose. Except with much bigger hands. And washboard abs were moving across my back. At any rate, it still didn't feel… passionate. Dancing with Edward, however… well, I could only imagine.

I closed my eyes and continued to sway back and forth against Jake, just feeling the music. A little later, Jake bent down to tell me something in my ear.

"That guy looks like he's about to rip my head off."

I snapped my eyes open and saw a straight up pissed off Edward glaring at both Jake and me. Jake stopped dancing and Edward made his way over to us, Lauren galloping behind him.

"Edward, hey." I spoke.

"Hey man, Jacob Black." He reached out his hand to shake Edward's.

Edward hesitantly took Jake's hand and shook it. Play nice, boys. Edward looked back down to me, still partially glaring, "did you just meet this guy?"

I rolled my eyes, "Jake, this is Edward. And no, Edward I didn't just meet him."

"I went to highschool back in Pittsburgh with Bella."

Something about Edward's jealousy was… hot.

His expression softened and he slightly smiled, nodding to Jake apologetically.

"No problem; glad to see people are taking care of her out here." Jake grinned, rubbing the top of my head like I was a puppy. It was annoying, but endearing all the same, in some weird way.

"Well hey, I'm gonna get back to my friends now. Bella it was great seeing you. I still have the same cell number since high school so keep in touch alright? Nice meeting you, Edward." He extended his hand to Edward's one last time and weaved back through the crowd. People come and go so quickly. Yep, like that Glinda chick from the Wizard of Oz.

"Bella have you seen Jess anywhere?" Yeah, skank, by the bar picking up men.

"Yeah, up at the bar."

"Okay good, I'm so thirsty!" Lauren yelled as she moved past me and walked over to the bar area.

Edward looked down at me and pursed his lips, then he grabbed my hand and lead me rather quickly back to the table.

"So you were getting pretty friendly with your old buddy."

"I could say the same about you and Lauren."

I looked down at my drink that had been sitting unattended for a little while and frowned. God I was thirsty, but I can't risk it being drugged. Yeah, that really does happen.

Edward went to the bar and ordered fresh drinks and set them down at the table. He got me another tequila sunrise and he got a beer.

"Have you ever tried one of these before?" I said motioning to my drink.

He shook his head and I pushed the glass over to him. He took a drink and shrugged, "not bad. I'll stick with my beer."

"More for me." I took a few big gulps and set the glass back down. Not smart to quench your thirst with alcohol, kind of an oxymoron, but it was cold and it was wet, and my throat was dry as hell.

Edward slid closer to me and plucked the cherry from the rim of my glass and held it up to me by the stem.

"Do it again."

I opened my mouth and he put the cherry inside. I held it there for a second and smirked at him. He leaned closer. I removed the cherry and quickly had it swallowed, then knotted the stem once again. I pulled it from my mouth and held it in the palm of my hand. "Ta da?"

"Where did you learn that?"

"Seduction 101 at NYU."

"Oh, okay. Seriously."

"I taught it to myself back in high school after I saw it in a movie."

"Nice. By the way, Lauren pretty much tackled me as I was following Jas and Emmett over to you guys. She kept telling me to dance with her, and Emmett heard and told me to man up and go dance, then he winked at me. He's trying to find me women, yeah, I get it. But she wouldn't let go of me. Then I saw you and that guy. That's all that happened, I swear."

"Jake, by the way. And you don't have to explain anything to me, you're a free man."

"Oh don't play that bullshit card, Bella. You know it bothers you that Lauren was touching me just as much as I fucking hated watching Jake touching you, innocent or not."

I bit my lip and stared at my drink. I did tell Edward we're together for the most part. That's usually what 'boyfriend' means, secret or not. I don't know up from down lately. Hell, I barely even know Edward and here I am having some secret relationship. Wow, I really don't know Edward much at all. I put it in the back of my mind for now. You'd think Alice would warn me if he had any serial killer tendencies.

I threw back the rest of my drink and turned to Edward.

"Dance with me."

He took a long pull from his bottle and got up, then held out his hand to me.

"Yes ma'am."

I smiled, taking his hand and going over to where our friends were dancing.

"Remember, control yourself, Swan. Emmett can't catch on." He said into my ear.

Clearly he was messing around, but control myself? Ha! You control yourself!

I got Rose's attention and glanced at Edward, then back to her. She squinted one eye in silent question. Alice caught Rose's gesture and looked at me, trying to decipher what was going on. I glanced at Edward once more and then over to Emmett. Suddenly, it clicked with both of them. Rose smirked evilly and slowly pivoted her and Emmett until he was facing away from Edward and I. Alice grinned and followed suit. Jasper wasn't out of the loop, but she more than likely didn't care to see me turn hooch on her brother. I love just how deep girl-talk can go.

I started moving closer to Edward as I danced, and he looked down at me and smiled, trying to hide that hungry look in his eye. Control yourself, Cullen.

I licked my lips and put my back to him, slowly grinding back into him to the beat of the music. Lady GaGa. God, I hated her… but the remix of Bad Romance was playing, and I'll admit it, that song was the shit.

I closed my eyes and let his smell cloud my brain. I continued my motions with my hips and reached back, running my hands along his limp forearms and brought them to my hips.

"Didn't I say control yourself?" Edward said with a nervous laugh.

I craned my neck to look at him, "I've got it covered."

He looked up to see Emmett with his back to us a few feet away with a few people dancing in the distance between us, Rose clearly keeping him occupied. Alice and Jasper looked quite similar, only a bit further away now.

I ground myself into him a little harder, and this time, he responded by letting his hands roam my hip area as he ground right back. He bent down and grazed his nose over my hair and down to my ear lobe, inhaling the entire time.

"Mmm", he half moaned. That noise coming from Edward had me unraveling. I tilted my head to the side to give him more room to… well… do whatever the hell he pleased. I normally hated this kind of thing, and here I am basically giving him invitation to go balls out and suck on my neck like a vampire. I needed to get a hold of myself anyway. Tonight was my night, and I was having a hard time remembering that.

I forced my eyes open, looking for Alice and Rose. I spotted Alice and Jasper back at the table talking and smiling. Jasper had no doubt seen the provocative dance between Edward and I, and I'm sure he really didn't care. He'd welcome Edward over Mike any day, it was Emmett who I was worried about.

I scanned the crowd for Rose, still maintaining my motions to the beat of the music. Before I could find her, Alice and Jasper were back on the floor and at my side. Alice quickly spun me from Edward in a mock dance move in an attempt to get me away from Edward.

"What the hell, Alice?" Edward said. I immediately looked around to see if Rose and Emmett were coming, but turned to come face to face with frizzy haired slut Stanley and her poodle sidekick, Lauren. Classy, as usual…

"Bella! There you are! We've been trying to find you guys. Found a gorgeous man at the bar… totally getting laid tonight. I'm going back to his place, Lauren's gonna hang out with you guys the rest of the night if that's cool." She winked at Edward as she spoke about Lauren sticking around with us. Back up, bitch!

Luckily, Rose randomly appeared to save the day. Er… night.

"Actually we're just about to leave. Emmett's ready over at the coat check, guys."

Alice smiled and grabbed Jasper's hand and danced her way to the coat check, and I mouthed a "thank you" to Rose.

"Okay, see ya!" I said to Jessica and Lauren as I grabbed both Edward's and Rose's hands and practically ran to where Alice, Jasper, and Emmett were waiting. We collected our things and made our way out into the freezing cold air.

"Thank you so much, Rose. I owe you." I spoke quietly enough for only her to hear.

"No, Bella, I danced my ass off for nearly a half hour without a rest or a drink so that you could get your freak on with your boytoy, and I saved your ass from Lauren. You are eternally indebted to me." She replied with a smile. Almost a half hour? It felt like 5, tops.

"Those Aldo shoes that I never wear, the ones you drool over. They're yours."

"Bella, it really wasn't worth that much but… sold." She said with a grin.

"Dude, did you see Rose all on me on that dance floor? Totally getting some tonight."

"Uh, dude, gross. My sister…?"

Emmett waved Jasper off with his hand and I laughed. Only Emmett.

"Dude, totally getting some tonight!" Emmett said to Edward.

"Hell yeah!" Edward said as he high-fived Emmett.

"Damnit Edward! Don't encourage that!" Rose yelled as she smacked Emmett in the arm.

"Yeah Emmett, not like you don't get any all the time now anyways."

"Ooh! Swan!" Emmett yelled and high-fived me. Yep. Get on his good side incase he did see anything. That, and it was too good of a minor burn to pass up.

"Oh I've so earned those boots, Bella. But it's true, I'm hormonal."

"Okay, can we… like… stop? I'm gonna puke." Jasper said, wincing.

"Yeah, who's excited for Long Branch?!" Alice sang in her decently tipsy state.

We all yelled some "hell yeah" 's and "woopwoop" 'ed like the intoxicated idiots that we were and continued on our way back to the apartments.

How was I supposed to get Edward back up to my place for the night? Emmett would wonder why he was coming upstairs with us. Wait, did he even want to? Of course he did. Right? You weren't a half-assed tease all night for nothing! Okay, we're almost there, hurry up and think!

I tried to think of good ideas as to why Edward needed to come upstairs. He left his wallet at my place? Slightly suspicious. I didn't need to fool everyone, only Emmett. I could always just tell him to come over once I get home. I didn't even know if he wanted to come over yet. Then it hit me. Kill two birds with one stone.

I pulled my cigarettes out of my clutch and lit it. Normally I'd just wait and go to the balcony. Not tonight.

"Ugh, Bella! You need to quit! It's bad for… Rose's baby!" Alice said with the faint hint of a slur.

We got to the entrance of my apartment building and I stood off to the side.

"Yeah yeah, got it, mom. I'm gonna stay out here and finish this." I said to Rose and Emmett.

"I'll keep you company. Besides, it's not safe out here at night." Edward said with a wink as he lit a cigarette of his own.

We had a doorman who resembled a mammoth sized bouncer who was at the club tonight, so I was pretty safe. But hey, at least it means he wants to see me a little longer. Did that mean he wanted to stay the night? How did I think this was going to work? Ask him, dipshit.

"Oh God, match made in heaven. Have fun, stinkies." Alice said.

"Bite me, pixie." I giggled.

We all exchanged goodnights and Alice yelled something about being ready at 2:00 sharp, then I was alone with Edward.

"Why didn't you wait until you got back to your apartment? Don't you usually use your balcony?"

Well, Edward, thanks for not asking that when everyone was around. Blow my cover. You're not a damn special op. Stop staring at him, time to talk out loud now!

"I wanted to see if you'd stand outside with me for a little." Filter? I meant to say something casual, like, 'yeah I could have, I just felt like one now.' That makes no sense either. No more tequila. Liar.

"Oh, I see. Well it's a little cold to hang out outside, isn't it?"

I saw my opening, I could have just invited him up right then and there. He sounded like he was fishing for an invitation to my apartment, which made my agenda much easier.

"Way to fish for an invitation to my apartment, Edward." Shit! No! Invite him up! Don't call him out!

"I'd rather have an invitation that I had to fish for than being creepy and following you up to your place regardless."

He winked and pulled me closer to him. I smiled and slid my fingers between his.

"Do you want to come up?" I felt my blush creep up my face. He probably wouldn't notice since I was already flushed from the alcohol. Nope, somehow he caught it.

"How about tonight, you leave the lip biting to me?" He pulled me out of the cold and through lobby to the elevator bank.

Leave the lip biting to him? With pleasure! The excitement was already pulsing through me and he barely said anything. Maybe it was because of my slight intoxication. Slight? Or maybe because it was Edward. Edward didn't have to do much to get me in the mood, just maybe yank on that unruly bronze mess at the top of his head. Yep, that simple.

The elevator door opened and we stepped inside. We were the only people in there, and thank God for that. Edward lifted at my hips and pushed me against the wall of the elevator as I instinctively wrapped my legs around him. He ran his nose along my neck, a move that sent me into a spiral every time, and half-whispered into my ear.

"You have no idea what that outfit did to me tonight." This seems oddly familiar. About two weeks ago I was in this same position, only with a different man. He ground up against me and lightly bit down on my earlobe. I moaned as I felt the bite, mixed with the sensation of his growing erection against my core. I think I get the idea of what the outfit did for you, big guy. But this was my night. My night! I was calling the shots!

I reached down and gripped the chair rail and ground right back into him. "I think I get the idea."

The elevator made a sound signaling our stop. I quickly slid out of Edward's grasp and exited once the doors opened. I glanced behind me to find Edward following and gnawing at the inside of his lip.

Once inside of my apartment, I casually hung my coat, all the while trying to be all sexy-seductive-mysterious. In reality, I probably looked as if I were lost in my own apartment. Then suddenly, I really am lost. I have no idea how to be seductive. I needed to make him drool, sweat, and turn his head into an incoherent pile of goo. Aka, put him in my shoes when he simply says my name. Then I remembered.

My clutch! Leopard thong! I swiped my clutch from the sofa table and turned around slowly, dangling the clutch from my fingers. I was about to remind him of my matching thong when I noticed him with his back to me, staring at a picture frame in his hands. It was a picture of Alice, Rose, and me at a toga party back in freshman year. I kept it on the table in my foyer, mainly for a conversation piece, but also because Alice and Rose both had one in their entryways as well. It's as lame as the group hugs, but I love that picture.

"It's so hard to believe that you existed all this time." He put the picture back down and turned to face me. "I heard about you all the time, I felt like I knew you… but actually meeting you… Alice couldn't do you justice. She made you out to be some beautiful angel, inside and out. She was way off. You're… indescribable."

Thud. "That was… incredibly sweet." The filter doesn't even need to be off right now, I'm speechless. The most affectionate words I ever heard from Mike were "you're so sexy, babe" or "there's that cute smile".

Edward knew so much about me, but I didn't know as much about him. Alice would talk about him from time to time, but I rarely paid much attention. I figured he was some playboy running around with daddy's money; he was shacked up with some chick in the middle of his own sister's wedding, after all. Turns out, I was completely wrong in that assumption. Regardless, I barely knew him, and we were in the midst of a pretty serious affair.

Edward was standing inches from me now, slowly running his hands along my hips. He leaned his head into the crook of my neck and slowly kissed patterns across my skin. Everything was tingling on my body. I was getting chills up and down my spine. I think I might have stopped breathing for a few seconds, too.

"Bedroom." I barely breathed to him.

I was through the bedroom door, getting ready to be pounced on or something animalistic like that, but I turned around to find Edward slowly strolling through the door with his eyes focused intently on my own. Something was wrong. What'd I do? Everything was just fine a minute ago.

He must have seen the worry on my face; his mouth flashed his gorgeous smirk as he took my hands in his.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, why?"

"I can tell the wheels are turning up there."

Shit. What do I say to that? Do I tell him I was only worried that something was wrong with him? That's the truth. But deep down, I was also wondering how the hell we got this far and I barely know the man. I'll never doubt him, and I'll never regret what has happened, but I don't really know Edward deep down. He may know what Alice has told him, but what about my likes and dislikes? What about his likes and dislikes? Did he like high school? How does he feel about dogs? What kind of music does he listen to?

"Bella?"

Don't say 'nothing'.

"Tell me something. About you."

He looked at me curiously. "Uh, what?"

"Edward… I… I mean, has it ever hit you that we really don't know each other? And here we are… you know…"

"Do you think I'm a deranged serial killer preying on beautiful brunettes?" He said jokingly.

I breathed out a small laugh, "Edward, I'm serious."

He sighed and moved behind me, trailing his fingers to the caps of my shoulders, playing with the straps of my dress.

"My name is Edward Anthony Cullen," he says as he slowly slides one strap down my arm, kissing the skin that had been underneath it.

"I hate music from the seventies and country music sounds like the recorded slow death of dogs."

I snorted out a laugh, the snort was unintentional, and embarrassing.

"Did you just snort?"

"What? No, it was a half-cough… thing."

He spun me around and pulled me against him by my hips.

"Bella, you just snorted. Admit it."

"I didn't!" I said, laughing.

"Don't worry, it was cute." He placed a small kiss on my lips, then pulled away, "now, where was I?"

"You hate the sound of dying dogs."

"Ah, yes. Well, my first kiss was in 7th grade, behind the concession stand after my baseball game."

"Ooh, little Edward was a ladies man huh?" I teased.

He shrugged, "what can I say? Everybody loves a pitcher."

"I dunno, I'm more of a hockey goalie kind of gal."

He slid the other strap down my arm and playfully nipped at my shoulder.

"You won't make an exception?"

The feel of his teeth on my skin brought back the chills and the tingling was creeping on yet again. "Ye… yeah, just this once."

"Good." He slid the top part of my dress down to my waist. Slowly. Very agonizingly slow.

He noticed that I wasn't wearing a bra of any kind and quirked an eyebrow.

"Nothing worked under this." I said with a shrug.

"Definitely not complaining." He ran his thumbs over my nipples and my eyes rolled in the back of my head. That's normally a no fly zone, what the hell? This man is turning out to me the exception to every damn rule I ever had. Okay, okay, focus.

"So, baseball?"

He continued palming and massaging as he kissed along my collarbone. "I've always loved it since I was little. I love my Cubbies and the only thing more breathtaking than the view from the third base line would be looking at it with you." He looked up at me and lightly kissed me. "Someday." He kissed me again. "Soon."

"Romantic." I said with a wink.

"And hockey's pretty cool." He smiled and kissed me again.

I held him to me as he started to pull away and I deepened the kiss. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in even closer. Whoa! Hello! Standing there prominent and proud was little Eddie. No, Ox! He's not going to kill you, he's not a freak, you'll learn more over time, you haven't gotten laid in a week. Help a brother out, go get some.

I started to work on unbuttoning his shirt when he stopped me.

"You don't want me to keep going? Me saying I liked hockey did you in, did it?"

"We'll figure it all out later. We have time. Just, off. Now. All of that."

He unbuttoned a few more buttons and pulled the shirt over his head as I unbuckled his belt and unzipped his pants, leaving him in nothing but his beautiful boxer briefs. I'm pretty sure my tongue is wagging right now and I'm drooling like a hungry dog.

I start to shimmy the dress off but Edward's hands take over for me. "Allow me. I mean, you helped me get undressed so it's only fair…"

"Yeah, okay. Very gentlemanly."

The dress falls to the floor and I'm left in my leopard thong. The leverage I've had all night, now full view for him to see. I didn't care, I was done being seductive tonight. I wanted him. I needed him. His touch comforted me and set me on fire all at the same time. I still had a pretty strong buzz, and my libido was running wild, nothing new there. Something suddenly clicked, though. I wanted the sexual gratification from him, but more than ever, I wanted the connection. I looked into his eyes and felt warm all over. I'm going to love this man someday.

EPOV

I felt the lace on Bella's thong and ran my fingers over it as it lead me to the top of that beautiful rounded curve. I never thought of myself as an ass kind of guy, but maybe I was. Maybe it was just because it was Bella's. No, I was just a Bella kind of guy.

I slid my hands across her and back up her thighs. I pulled away, wanting to see just how much this thing matched her little purse, but she pulled away from me as well. I looked up at her, almost confused, but her eyes held mine. She was breathing heavy but there was no lust in her eyes. They were content and smiling, smiling bright even though a smile barely crossed her lips. I felt it. I felt the warmth of her nearly invisible smile and I felt like I saw heaven itself in her eyes. Chills took over my body and I felt as if I were taking breaths for the first time.

She smiled and pulled me to her lips. She wasn't forceful, she wasn't playful. We were sharing one of the most passionate kisses I've ever felt in my life. Slow and gentle, a way I could never imagine.

I wrapped my arms around her and backed towards her bed. As the bed came in contact with my legs, she broke the kiss and backed away slightly to remove her thong. I followed suit, keeping my eyes on her own the entire time. I could care less about the thong and I didn't want to pounce on her and take her against the wall, I wanted her. No, I needed her. I needed the feeling of being completely wrapped in nothing but Bella.

She slid into the bed beside me and kissed me again, slightly faster, but just as gentle as the last kiss.

I slowly took my place between her legs and we immediately connected. She sighed lightly and closed her eyes, taking her bottom lip between her teeth. Beautiful. When God created her, he followed the definition of the word to a T. Breathtaking.

I didn't have the urge to push any harder or any faster, the feeling of being inside of her was more intense this time than any other time.

I continued to move slowly in and out of her as both of our breathing sped up. She opened her eyes and looked deeply into mine. Her eyes were slightly red, but not from alcohol. There were small tears in her eyes as she smiled, arching her back. She was close. I moved a little faster, and it didn't take long until she closed her eyes and whispered my name, leaving a single tear to roll down her cheek. She felt it too.

I found my release shortly after and laid beside her, pulling her back against my chest. There were no words, just the sound of our breathing filling the air. I pulled the blankets up around us and Bella brought my hand to her face. She placed a kiss on my palm, interlaced her fingers with mine, then slowly started to drift off to sleep.

I've never made love to a woman before. Ever. I've never even been in love.

Then it hit me; my overwhelming need for Bella, her tears, making love to her felt like a completely different world had bloomed right before my eyes and it was ten times the beauty the old one could ever hold. I smiled in my realization and kissed Bella's shoulder. My Bella. I'm going to love this woman someday.


AN2: Sorry for the long break between Ch8 and Ch9, more real life madness, which only makes this story even better. By the way, do yourself a favor and check out 'Maybe I'm Falling For You' by coldplaywhore & Flightlessbird11. Ah-mazing.