CHAPTER TEN
Bella POV
I usually enjoyed this class. Advanced Biochemistry had become a recent interest of mine, a subject that I felt could help me understand certain aspects of myself. This afternoon, however, I was having trouble focusing on what Professor Barnes was saying. Sure, I was still listening and committing every word to memory, but I found my thoughts wandering back to the puzzle I couldn't seem to solve.
Victoria.
Her reappearance had greatly discomfited Alice and me. It had all seemed benign enough, but the way she had watched the stage while Babylon played was odd. Her eyes kept darting over to James, one of Edward and Jasper's band mates. From what I could gather, he was displeased about some arrangement within the band that seemed supremely unimportant. Humans could be so petty sometimes.
Alice saw that Victoria had decided to leave town and should have done so already, so I thought it best to put her out of my mind. It was a difficult proposition; I still had a strange feeling that something was not right, but I couldn't put my finger on it. As I had no evidence of anything amiss, there was no point in worrying myself ragged over it.
"Bella," Alice whispered, much too low and too fast for any human ears to detect.
I tilted my head in her direction slightly, indicating that I was listening and she should proceed.
"The Volturi have decided. They will arrive in ten days. Eleazar, Demetri, and Jane will come," she murmured.
Eleazar and Demetri I had been expecting. But Jane! This was not good news. Jane was a vicious, sadistic vampire who relished the pain she could inflict with her gift. She was a weapon in the Volturi guard; she had no use other than engage in combat. Perhaps she was joining them solely for protection in case we proved to not be entirely of peace, but her impending arrival still made me defensive.
The class ended, and Alice and I were the first ones out of the room. As soon as we were safely away, I turned to her. "We should go to Forks as soon as possible. We must speak to Carlisle and prepare for their visit. We'll probably need to bring Edward and Jasper with us."
Alice nodded in agreement. Neither of us was comfortable with leaving them behind completely unguarded.
Edward and Jasper arrived then. The look of concern on both their faces set off the nagging feeling I'd been having all day.
I went to Edward readily. "Edward, what is it?"
"Tanya showed up while Jasper and I were eating in the cafeteria. She said she thinks James is missing," he said.
The pieces of the puzzle suddenly clanked together. The way Victoria had been staring at the stage… at James. She had been warned, though. She knew she was not to hunt in within a 500-mile radius of where we were. That left only one option. Victoria had taken James, and it had not been for the purpose of feeding.
Edward seemed oblivious to what might have actually happened to his friend, and I wasn't entirely sure I should enlighten him just yet. Besides, I wasn't absolutely certain of what had happened myself, but I intended to find out.
"I'm sure he'll turn up," I said dismissively. Edward still looked pensive when I changed the subject. "By the way, there is something we must discuss." I took Edward's hand and led him to a bench in the now empty hallway. Alice and Jasper followed, but remained standing.
"We know when the Volturi will return," I began. A hint of anxiety marred his beautiful face, and I hurried on to soothe him. "They are sending three of their guard to speak to us in ten days. It's a small contingent, we don't think it's any cause for alarm." I softly rubbed his forearm, hoping the contact would assuage his unease. "Are you up for going to Forks tonight? I'd like to confer with Carlisle and mother about how to best proceed."
Edward remained silent, as if deep in thought. After a long minute, I prompted him, "Edward?"
He turned to look at me then, a small smile on his lips. "Yes, Bella, of course. We can go."
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Edward POV
Would this be it? Would my human life be over in just merely ten days? The thought of that made me panic a little. I knew what I wanted, and that was to be changed, to become like Bella, and to never have to be apart from her, though I wasn't ready yet, I needed a little more time. But these Volturi people seemed hell-bent on making her join them, and now me as well, because of some power that I might possess, whatever that was. I realized then I didn't even know what Bella's and Alice's talents were; all I'd been told was that they had them.
And there was another reason why I wasn't ready. There was still so much I didn't know about vampires, about being one, or even about Bella. There was a part of her that felt closed off to me. As much as she strived for openness, I had a feeling that there was a small piece that she kept shut down on purpose. How could we be together for an eternity when she kept parts of herself from me?
"Drive your car back to your apartment and pack an overnight bag, I'll follow you there. Then we'll just take my car to Forks," Bella was saying as we made our way across campus to where I had parked.
I turned to her to ask about Jasper, but she saw my question coming before I could voice it. "Alice and Jasper are driving separately. I don't have a backseat," she told me with a wink.
As I unlocked the car, Bella grasped my arm so I'd face her. She stood on tiptoes to kiss me, saying she would see me in a few minutes. Her breath blew over my face, the smell of her hair wafted around me, and I momentarily forgot my worries.
I got in my Volvo and maneuvered out of the lot, my mind once again preoccupied. I couldn't be without Bella, so whatever issues there were, the only option was to work past them somehow. Just the mere notion of not having her in my life made me want to scream. But, as I drove towards my apartment, I'd decided I had to get some answers, and this trip seemed like a good opportunity for that.
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We made it to Forks in slightly under an hour. It seemed being a vampire enhanced your reflexes quite a bit; she could drive at insane speeds with perfect precision. It might sound kind of silly, but that was one vampire perk I was looking forward to.
Japer and Alice arrived a couple of hours later. Alice had made the mistake of letting him drive her Porsche on the way here, and it was evident by the look on her face that she regretted that decision. Jasper, oblivious to Alice's impatience, was grinning ear to ear, elated by the experience.
While we waited for Jasper and Alice to arrive, Carlisle and Esme had been sitting in the large living room with Bella and me, chatting about nothing of importance. She asked about my sister, what my parents did, if I had grown up around here, all things I had a feeling she already knew. Her line of questioning reminded me of how I didn't quite understand the Cullen family. Since Esme had been peppering me with questions, I figured she wouldn't mind me asking a couple of my own.
"So, Esme, I was curious," I began. "Are you Bella's… mother? As in, her actual birth mother?"
An indecipherable look crossed her face before I continued, afraid that I had sounded rude. "I was just wondering, because I noticed she calls you 'mother', but she calls Carlisle by his name," I explained.
Esme smiled softly in understanding. She glanced at her husband, then turned to me. "Yes, Edward, I am. Has Bella never told you our family's history?" She asked, giving Bella a reproachful look.
"No, mother," Bella sighed. "I guess we just never got around to it," she said apologetically.
"Well, no better time like the present, then," Esme motioned a hand at Bella, prompting her to begin.
"Why don't you tell it, mother? You can explain better everything that happened before I was changed," Bella countered.
Esme looked thoughtful, as if making a decision. "Very well. I suppose we must start at the beginning," she assented.
And without further ado, she launched into her story. She told me how she'd met Carlisle for the first time when she was sixteen years old. He was the doctor that had treated her when she fell off a tree and broke her leg. They had only met that one time, but the crush she had on him from that first moment on never abated.
Esme had lived in a small town in Wisconsin, born to a poor but hard-working family. She was eighteen, and working at the small flower shop in town when she first met Charles Swan, the newly instated constable. He was handsome, gentle, and attentive, and accepting his request to court her bad been an easy decision. They married and lived a happy, quiet life. Charles was a doting and loving husband, but Esme felt guilty that a part of her heart could never belong to him; that piece was irrevocably bound to Carlisle.
A couple of years after the wedding, Bella was born, and the love Esme had for her child was unlike anything she'd ever felt. Suddenly, her world began and ended with the brown-eyed baby girl that giggled loudly every time someone tickled her feet. Mr. Swan was a wonderful father, and the little Swan family was happy. Esme decided to ignore the hole in her heart left by Carlisle's absence, but the guilt of having these feelings for another man when she was a married woman never truly left her. Esme looked slightly ashamed as she recounted this part of the story, but I'd never judge her for this. I knew all too well that the heart wants what the heart wants.
When Bella was six years old, Esme developed a hacking cough that refused to subside. She brushed it aside, thinking it was just a cold, and it would go away on its own. Not until she had lost ten pounds, burned with fever, and began coughing up blood that she agreed to be taken to the hospital.
Charles dropped Bella off with a neighbor and rushed Esme to the local hospital; she was unconscious by the time they got there.
"I was the doctor on call that night," Carlisle piped in. "Her symptoms were text-book advanced tuberculosis; her lungs were destroyed by the disease. She wouldn't live to see the morning," he said, and the pain in his voice was palpable, even though that grim prognosis never materialized. "It devastated me to see Esme at death's door. I had only seen her once before, but I loved her every single day ever since. I'm sure you understand how that happens," he said to me.
I nodded fervently; I knew exactly how that happened. My throat constricted at the thought of ever having to live through that, to see Bella near death. My mind refused to make sense of the concept, it was too horrible to even imagine. Bella must have been thinking along the same lines; I felt her hand grip mine tighter, her whole body rigid with tension.
Carlisle continued, "I couldn't let her die. So I stole her away in the middle of the night and changed her. I only left her side once in the morning to go to the hospital and break the news of her 'death' to her husband." He paused for a moment, a faraway look on his face. "I had to tell him that she had been cremated as soon as she passed in the night, due to the highly infectious nature of the disease," Carlisle said in a grief-laden tone. "His anguish was heart wrenching to behold," he concluded.
I glanced at Bella, worried about how this whole story being brought back to the surface would affect her. This was her family, after all. She sat next to me, her body rigid and completely still. Her face betrayed no emotion; it was blank, expressionless. It was actually a little scary to see how she was not reacting to anything we were hearing.
Esme picked up the story where Carlisle left off. "I woke up a few days later to Carlisle sitting by me. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven, literally," she chuckled lightly. "But when he explained to me what I'd become, what had happened, all I could think of was my Bella. I wanted to go back to her, but of course, I couldn't."
"Carlisle is such a wonderful man… He agreed to my crazy demand," Esme said, looking adoringly at her husband. "I asked that we remain in town and watch over Bella for as long as she lived," she clarified. "And so we did. It wasn't easy at first." She looked a little uncomfortable at this admission. "The thirst is hard to manage as a newborn, and it's usually prudent to stay away from humans for at least a year, but I could not do that. From the moment I woke from my transformation, I worried for my daughter, and that gave me the strength to push back any impulses I might have had that would harm humans."
"We'd lurk around the house watching over her through the night, follow her to school in the morning, I became practically her shadow," Esme said. "I'd go in the house and straighten it out, very subtly, once she and Charlie were out for the day, do little things for them that wouldn't be easily noticed but would help them. I had to continue to take care of them somehow. I never could get over my mothering instincts," she added with a small smile.
"We'd have continued to do this until Bella moved on from this life at a very old age. Carlisle agreed to give me these years to watch over my daughter, but I failed," Esme paused, her voice brittle and low.
In a sudden movement that startled me, Bella was out of the couch and kneeling in front of her mother, taking Esme's hands in her own. "You didn't fail us, mother, there was nothing you could have done," Bella whispered. "You saved me, and now I get to spend eternity with you. You gave me life for a second time," she said, kissing her mother's hands and nuzzling them with her cheek.
At this, my heart started pounding in my chest. So Bella had almost died at one point, and that was why she was a vampire now. She's all right, don't think about it, don't think about it, I chanted to myself.
Bella curled up at her mother's feet, laying her head on her lap. Caressing Bella's long hair with a tender touch, Esme looked at me as if she could hear my inner turmoil, and continued the story.
"It was a Sunday, and it had been raining torrentially for a few days. Charlie had taken Bella to church in the morning, just as we'd used to do. I had taken that opportunity to go in the house and tend to the kitchen a little. Bella cooked for her father and herself, but she was not all that inclined to clean up afterwards," Esme chastised fondly.
"I was done with plenty of time before they were due to return, and went back to my position in the woods behind the house. Carlisle and I were going hunting that evening, but I wanted to see Bella and Charlie safely at home for the night before we left. One hour turned to two, then three, and still no sign of them. I could wait no longer, so Carlisle and I retraced the path they took each week to and from church."
"It wasn't hard to track them… there was so much blood," Esme choked. "A tree had fallen in the middle of the road, right around a bend where it would be hard to spot through the sheeting rain," she continued. "It seemed Charlie couldn't swerve in time, hit the tree, and veered off the road, the car rolling down a ravine. He was already gone when we arrived, but Bella was still hanging on, though barely."
Esme looked at Carlisle with imploring eyes, as if they were back on that ravine. He tightened his arms around her, pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead, and whispered something I couldn't hear.
She looked back at me before continuing. "Bella was seventeen, only seventeen years old, I couldn't let my baby die, I couldn't let her go," she whimpered, as if pleading with me to understand her decision. "She was bleeding so much, she only had minutes, so I did the only thing I could do to save her, after having failed to protect her," Esme sobbed. She shed no tears, but her face was the picture of grief.
I felt like a complete shit for having brought this up. I had no idea they'd had such a tragic history, that dredging up these memories would be so upsetting to them, but I could see why they would be. They were alive now, but as something else. In reality, their lives as they once knew had been lost, and though they got to live on in a different incarnation, they still mourned the lives they hadn't chosen to give up.
Bella stood, pulling Esme off the couch with her, and grasped her shoulders, gazing intensely at her mother. "I've never been sorry, mother. You didn't fail me. You made sure I continued on, and gave me a chance to live long enough to find my true love, just as you did," she said with a glance at Carlisle. "I will be forever grateful for what you did for me," she finished softly.
My legs lifted me from the couch and my feet moved of their own accord towards where Esme and Bella stood. Without even thinking about what I was doing, I threw my arms around the woman that had created my Bella, and then saved her life, whispering a heartfelt "Thank you." She was taken aback for a second, but then returned the hug, her body sagging slightly as though suddenly relieved of a burden.
I knew it was irrational. She had not saved Bella for me, it had all happened decades before I was even born, but I couldn't help feeling like this was a personal favor to me. I would probably have lived a good enough life if I had never met Bella, but how I would have missed out! I realized now that I would never have been able to feel for another woman the love I discovered I can feel for her. My complete and irrevocable devotion to Bella consumes my entire being; everything that I am is hers, and for the joy of that alone, I owed Esme more than she'd ever realize.
She patted my back a couple of times before breaking the hug, murmuring, "Thank you, Edward."
"Alice and Jasper are here," Carlisle announced just as the pair came into the house, dispelling the somber mood.
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Bella POV
Mother took Jasper and Edward into the kitchen to make them something to eat while Carlisle, Alice, and I settled in the study to discuss the upcoming Volturi visit.
"I don't think it's something we need to be immediately concerned about, though I agree with you, Jane's involvement is reason for extra caution," Carlisle was saying.
"Do you think we should keep the Masens with us, or leave them in Seattle?" I already knew what I wanted to do, but I wanted Carlisle's input. I was certain he would agree with me on that course of action.
"Keep them with us, definitely. The Volturi already know that our family is involved with the boys somehow. The night Felix was nearby and you ran with Edward, that ought to have tipped them off," he deduced.
I berated myself yet again for acting so rashly, but I really could not see another solution to that particular predicament. What else could I have done, let Felix get to Edward? Not an option. But no matter, the Masen brothers were part of our family now, and we would deal with the Volturi as such; a family.
We sat in silence for a minute, each lost in our own thoughts, when Carlisle spoke up, "I think we should go to Alaska, and wait for the Volturi there. Demetri will be part of their group, it won't matter where we are, they will be able to find us effortlessly."
There was definitely something to that idea. The Denali clan lived in Alaska, and was the one other that chose to live the way we Cullens did; they too had come to revere human life and chose to feed on animals instead. Carmen, Irina, and Kate were practically our extended family, close as we were. Having them stand with us would give us an advantage and help provide extra protection for the vulnerable members of our group. I worried the most for Edward; I didn't want him to be changed as an emergency, or a life-saving measure. I wanted him to be ready, and to take that step because he chose it, not because he had been forced.
"That's a great idea, Carlisle," Alice said excitedly. "I'll go call Carmen and let them know to expect us," she announced, leaving the room to place the call.
Once he heard Alice downstairs dialing on her phone, Carlisle began, "Bella, do you think that, under the circumstances, perhaps you should finally start doing what you have been so reluctant to do?"
I knew what he was asking.
"I can't do it, Carlisle," I admitted in a small voice.
"Why not, child?" He asked with apparent tenderness and concern.
"You know why," I interjected.
"Your fears are unfounded, Bella. It won't change who you are," Carlisle countered.
"You can't know that. I don't want to risk it… What I could become…"
"Bella, the time will come, perhaps sooner than we would like, when you will have to stand your ground. They won't give up on you, nor will they let Edward be. We will all stand with you and fight with you to our last breath, of course, but it's unreasonable to limit your chances by refusing to fully develop your abilities," he chided gently. Carlisle abhorred violence, his compassion knowing no parallel in our world. But he was nothing if not pragmatic.
"Carlisle, apart from my shield, which is not all that helpful, my gift can only serve one purpose, and one purpose alone. What will I become if I choose to embrace it? I don't want to lose myself to it…" I whispered.
He laughed heartily at that. "Your shield is not all that helpful? Bella, you can withstand any attacks to your mind, or block any intrusions to your thoughts, without even knowing it's happening. Not even Jane can touch you. I wouldn't call that 'unhelpful'," he disagreed. "And even that is not at its full potential, either. You know you could develop your shield further, learn to extend it, manipulate it," Carlisle prodded. "You could learn to control it enough to utilize it not only as an offensive device, but also to shield others, to use it for protection," he argued.
He was right, of course. Intellectually, I understood and agreed with what he was saying. In practice, however…
The self-shielding part of my gift happened subconsciously; it was not something I had to actively control, it protected my mind automatically and impenetrably. There was another aspect to it, one over which I had very little control, and it scared me to death. I could hone it, master it, make it a more precise weapon.
And that was the crux of the matter. A weapon. That was the one reason why I had been so resistant to even acknowledge this side of my gift. I didn't want to possess the ability to destroy, — even more so than I already did just for being a vampire — let alone fine-tune it into sharp precision. I didn't want to become what the Volturi longed to make of me… A weapon. I utilized my gift only once, unknowingly, a horrific experience I wished to never repeat. Once I became aware of what I was capable of, I'd gone above and beyond in my attempts to suppress it, to ignore it.
But fate was not without irony. It seemed as though I was doomed to embrace this part of myself for the sake of survival. My own instinct of self-preservation, strong merely because it was in our nature to ensure our own survival no matter what, was not enough to push me into accepting my ability. The instinct to protect Edward, however, was all consuming, practically a compulsion. Could I risk becoming the one thing I'd vowed never to be, if it meant Edward's safety?
"We'll speak no more of it for now. I'll keep up with my research, of course. Hopefully we'll find something to help you," Carlisle said, interrupting my internal argument. "Let's wait and see what happens in Alaska, and then we can discuss it again." He sensed my anxiety in talking about this, and wisely decided to drop the subject. "Come, let's go join the others," he invited, extending his hand to me.
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Edward POV
I woke up from a deep sleep in the middle of the night to find myself cocooned in a blanket, Bella's arms draped around me, my head on her chest.
"What time is it?" I croaked.
"Almost 4am. Go back to sleep, my love," she murmured, brushing my hair off my forehead.
As I became aware of where I was, and of Bella's nearness, I was suddenly wide-awake. "I'm not tired anymore," I assured her, licking my lips before touching them to hers.
She returned my kiss with a soft moan that lit me on fire. I freed myself from the blanket and pulled her close to me, kissing her deeply, running my hand up and down the side of her torso. I pressed myself down harder on her, needing to get closer, but it was never close enough. I needed more, I needed all of her.
Her movements were hesitant. I was embracing and kissing her with wild abandon, unafraid to show her just how much I desired her, but she was holding herself back, unwilling to do the same. The sting of rejection made me still my advances.
Bella sat up, pulling me with her, and held my face level with hers. "Edward, what's wrong?"
It was harder than I thought to say this out loud, to admit that the woman that could burn me where I stood with a mere glance might not feel the same way about me. I swallowed hard, and forced myself to speak.
"You don't want me," I stated in defeat.
Her eyes widened at my statement. "Why on earth would you think that?"
"I don't know, it's just… I keep throwing myself at your mercy, and you're always pulling away from me," I answered.
This had her confused. "Pulling away from you? I don't understand," she said.
"Just now, when I touched you, it felt like you were recoiling from me," I explained, my voice heavy with dejection. "I don't want to force you to do anything you don't want to do."
"Let me see if I understand you correctly," Bella said, not without a hint of annoyance. Crap. "You deemed my reactions vacillating, and concluded that the reason for that is that I don't want you, whatever that might even mean."
"Uhh…" was my very irrefutable response. I apparently sucked at having "the talk." There was hope for me yet!
"You are correct, Edward. I am holding myself back, and being very careful when I touch you, but not for the reason you think," Bella said.
Without another word, she turned to her nightstand and picked up a small crystal ornament shaped like a swan. Its wings were outstretched, as if readying to take flight; it fit neatly in the palm of her hand. Bella nodded her head at the item to make sure that I was watching, and lazily wrapped her fingers around the figurine as she held my gaze. After an expectant pause, she opened her hand. The ornament was gone. All that was left now was a handful of glitter.
"I don't want this to be you," Bella said matter-of-factly as she stood up to throw the sparkly dust out the window.
I don't mind admitting I was little dumbstruck. I felt like a fucking idiot for making assumptions. Of course, I knew she was freakishly strong; she had run at an insane speed with me on her back as if she were carrying nothing heavier than a purse. But aside from when she had to haul me around on her back, I hadn't really seen any other evidence of her inhuman strength, and that made it very easy to forget that Bella could do things to me that I couldn't do to her. Like crush my bones.
Bella sat back down on the edge of the bed, looking uncertain whether she should touch me at all. Way to screw yourself over on that one, Masen.
I moved closer to her, touching my hand to her face. "I'm sorry, Bella. I understand now. It's just that the possibility that you might not feel for me what I feel for you…"
Bella answered my fears with a greedy kiss. She was still careful as ever, as if calculating her every movement, but I could taste the need on her lips. I knew that taste well; it never left my own mouth.
Bella pressed her lips to mine briefly once more, then broke the kiss to say, "Never think I don't want you, Edward. I have waited my entire existence for you." She touched her cheek to mine, holding my face to hers by the back of my head. Nuzzling me lightly, she whispered, "You are my life now."
I was practically purring like a fat cat after getting a treat, some ear scratching, and a nap in the sun, all at once. However, my contentment was short-lived. I wrapped my fingers around her arm to pull her to me, and was met with the unwavering resistance of her skin. What would our differences mean in terms of intimacy? Would we even be able to have sex? I was suddenly very worried about this. What? I'm a guy, these are matters of great importance to my people.
My brain was going a mile a minute trying to come up with a palatable way of asking the question without sounding like all I wanted was to get in her pants.
I tucked an errant lock of hair behind her ear, buying myself time before I blurted out, "Bella, do you think it will be possible for us to, you know…?" Masen, you smooth motherfucker. I wanted to slap myself; that had sounded way less stupid in my own head.
Bella fidgeted with the edge of the bed sheets, twirling it in her fingers, and bit her lip. I wanted to untuck her lip from underneath her teeth and lick it, but stopped myself in time. I was a pillar of self-control.
"I don't think it will be possible for us, Edward. Not before you are changed," she said in a small voice.
My stomach plummeted at the thought of having to wait. Not only that, but I wouldn't get to experience sex with Bella as a human, only as something else that I didn't know nor understand. Would it feel the same? Would I be the same?
Bella seemed to have picked up on my deflated spirits. Lifting my chin until my eyes were level with hers, she said with a lascivious little grin, "That doesn't mean we can't do other things."
I perked up at once at those words, pun fucking intended. Bella's mouth was on mine then, her hands on my chest, slowly descending down my stomach, and I almost had a seizure from the surprise of her touch and the overload of sensations her hands elicited.
My fingers knotted in Bella's hair, pulling her head to me so I could smash my mouth against hers. I was so incensed, I was completely losing it. My breath came in ragged pants, my stomach clenched so tight it was almost painful.
Bella fingered the elastic waistband on my pajamas, teasing me; I could feel her lips curling up in a smile against mine. She was about to slide her hand under the fabric, and the anticipation of her touch had me holding my breath.
Knock, knock.
Are you fucking kidding me!?
Bella looked startled by the gentle rapping on the door, as if it had been a surprise to her as much as it had to me. She quickly pulled her hand away, tossing the blanket over my hips, and I wanted to roar in frustration. "Come in," she invited.
Alice entered then, smiling broadly, an angelic expression on her face. "I'm sorry, am I interrupting something?"
Bella didn't answer; she simply gave Alice a death glare that would have had me shaking in my boots. Alice seemed unfazed.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Edward, I didn't know you were awake," she apologized.
She sounded so sincere I almost believed her. But if Bella had once been able to hear my heartbeat and tell the difference in the patterns to know when I had woken up, I'd be willing to bet Alice — and probably the rest of the Cullens — could hear the racket my heartbeat and my breathing had been making just a minute ago. Shit. I forgot about that. Everyone in this house, apart from Jasper, could hear exactly how much of a horny bastard I was. How could I look Esme in the face now, when she probably heard me mauling her daughter?
Fuck. That was going to be awkward.
"What is it, Alice?" Bella asked impatiently.
"Carlisle sent me to get you. He says he needs to speak with you," Alice replied.
Bella nodded with a heavy sigh as she stood up, sliding her shoes on. She leaned over me to kiss me briefly, promising to be back soon, and slid out of the room.
Alice made to follow Bella. She opened the door, paused, and turned to face me with impish glee. "Oh, and Edward? Esme won't mind," she whispered conspiratorially and left the room, a tinkling laugh echoing in her wake.
A/N:
Some people sent me PM's asking questions about stuff I seemingly "forgot" to address. All will be revealed in due time, have a little faith. ;)
I'd love to hear what you guys think of this chapter, so leave me a review. Thanks for reading! =D