A/N: Happy Friday!

Betad by the lovely Michelle Renker Rhodes.

Most characters belong to S. Meyer

Chapter 10 – Eye Opener

Lying on the pool lounger with my eyes closed, I listen to the smooth, calypso beats coming from the band and let my mind wander to Edward and everything we've done since I arrived in Key West.

"Look at that smile," I hear Rose say, teasing me. It only makes my smile grow wider.

Yet when I remember that in a few days I'll be gone from here, gone from the constant, warm sun, the warm waters, the laid-back life, gone from…Edward…my smile fades because after all, this is just a vacation. I know that. Edward is part of that vacation - a beautiful part, the very best part. But in a few days, he'll be nothing more than a wonderful memory.

My chest tightens.

Suddenly uncomfortable, I open my eyes. Off in the distance, I see a large, white sail with the blue and red Eclipse logo waving majestically.

Edward is back from his morning cruise.

Though I know we agreed to see each other this evening, I've got a sudden urge for him, so I get up and wrap myself up in a black cover-up, digging through my pool bag for a mirror.

"Where are you going?" Alice asks, opening one eye.

"I'm just going to say a quick hi to Edward. I'll be back soon."

"Sure you will," Alice chuckles, closing her eye again.

"Just make sure you put the 'Do Not Disturb' sign up on the door if that quick hi turns into a quick-ee," Rose says.

I roll my eyes, but as I walk off towards the catamaran, I find myself contemplating the possibilities…

OOOOOOOOOO

I spot Edward when I'm still a few yards away from the catamaran. I'm in the middle of the horde that's already crowding the marina, and he's facing the boat, his back to me. Before fighting my way through the crowd, I stand there for a few seconds, taking him in. His bronze hair is beautifully windblown, and his tanned skin looks absolutely delectable in the bright sunshine.

I start walking towards him, but then I hear loud giggles.

A group of four girls are making their way down the platform off the catamaran. Though from this distance I can't hear what they're saying, I watch as they each stretch out a hand for Edward to "help" them down. They giggle and laugh loud, shaking their bikinied hips as they debark. It's sort of funny to watch.

That is, until the final girl in the group makes her descent.

Unlike her friends, she's not giggling stupidly. Even from here, I can see the slow, sexy grin across her face, the way she looks at Edward as he helps her down. If this were a few days ago, I'd probably find it humorous, especially when she purposely trips on absolutely fucking nothing as an excuse to press her tits against Edward's chest.

Except that this girl is probably the most gorgeous girl I've ever seen in my life.

Her long, red hair is a wavy creation of perfect, spiral curls. She's got creamy skin that's tanned the most perfect shade of bronze, and her plump mouth appears to match the shade of her hair.

And her figure…Jesus.

She's got on a skimpy, black bikini and hasn't even bothered with any sort of cover-up; though if I had her body, I probably wouldn't ever cover it up either. She's not too thin and by no means too heavy, but she's got these curves going on, and for the man who's confessed to having a thing for small, firm mangoes, she's gotta have the best set of perky, tight mangoes ever created.

Mango Girl finally gets her perfect tits off of Edward's chest, and then all her girls pile around her and Edward. They whip out their phones and take selfies with him before gathering their bikini-clad bodies together while Edward spreads his arms wide over their shoulders for a group photo. When they've finally taken enough pictures to fill twenty albums, they all start walking in my direction – well, almost all of them.

Mango Girl stays behind with Edward, talking and grinning at him, showing off those perky mangoes of hers.

Her friends are now only a couple of feet from me. Giggling, they stop and turn around, facing Edward and their friend.

"Lucky Bitch! She said she was going to give him her room key! I wish I had the balls to do that!"

"You know Victoria. When she sees something she wants, she goes for it!"

They all laugh.

Meanwhile, 'Victoria' has now reached out and taken Edward's hand in hers. She swings it back and forth as they talk, and he appears to make absolutely no effort to disentangle himself.

Now for the past few minutes, my mind has been screaming at me to leave already, but my feet don't seem to be receiving the message.

"There she goes!" one of the girls calls out.

So now I've got to watch as Mango Girl waves what looks like a credit card, but I know to be a room key, in front of Edward's face before sticking it in his front pocket. With another salacious grin, she struts off in the direction of her friends.

And I stand there, watching Edward just stand there. After a few seconds, he walks over the platform and back onto the catamaran, and I turn and leave.

OOOOOOOOOO

"What happened?" Rose asks when I return to the pool. "Alice and I were about to order a couple of drinks to keep us busy here in case you needed privacy upstairs." She winks.

Silently, I take my place next to them on my pool lounger, put my shades on, close my eyes and tilt my head up to the sun.

"Bella?"

"What?"

"Did you see Edward?"

"I must've missed him."

"But…I see the sail from here."

I sit up. "Yeah, I…you know what? I've actually got a bit of a headache. I think I'm just going to go back to the room for a little while and rest."

"You okay?" Alice asks. "Want us to come back with you?"

"No, no. I'll be fine. I just need to get out of the sun for a bit."

As I make my way out of the pool area, I try to calm my racing heart. I'm upset. I know I'm upset; the question is why. I knew exactly what this was. It was clear from the beginning. No, it wasn't exactly a hook-up, but it was barely a step up; a vacation fling. He never promised me anything beyond that, and I never asked him to do so.

Then why am I so fucking…hurt? Why does it literally ache to breathe right now?

I need to be alone. I need to lock myself up in my room for a while until I can figure out what the hell is-

Someone grabs my arm, and I whip around.

"Hey, Beautiful."

Edward's green eyes sparkle. He's grinning that suggestive, sexy grin he's given me from day one – the same one he was probably just giving Mango Girl. His hand trails down my arm until he reaches my hand, and he threads his fingers through mine – the same fingers he just had threaded through Victoria's.

"Hey," I smile back.

"Where're you going?"

"I…I've got a headache. I was just going to lie down for a bit."

"Want some company?" he asks, pouting those lips that were all over my body less than twenty-four hours ago. While his thumb rubs the back of my hand, I manage to keep the smile plastered on my face, but I don't trust myself to respond because I don't want to say something stupid.

For a split-second, his perfect brows seem to furrow.

"I've got to get back anyway. We've got another cruise leaving in a few. I just wanted to come by and say hi."

I still can't speak. It's taking all my effort to keep smiling.

"Are we still on for tonight?"

I swallow and force my mouth to form words. "I'm not sure. I've got to see how this headache goes. I'll let you know, alright?"

He narrows his eyes, his furrowed brow more pronounced. With his free hand, he circles my lips with his thumb, and it feels so good I've got to fight not to kiss the tip.

"Alright, Love," he says lowly. "I really hope you feel better. I'll be lonely without you tonight."

"I'm sure you'll find some way to entertain yourself."

I regret the words as soon as they're out. They're stupid and petty and senseless.

Edward's jaw tightens. I can tell he's puzzled by my attitude, and I don't want to act this way with him. We've only got a few days left. Like Alice said, I should be enjoying them.

"Look, I'll call you if I feel better, okay?"

He searches my eyes, and I try not to blink or squirm under his intense gaze.

"Alright, Bella," he says. He leans in and gives me a soft, lingering kiss, and God, I want to respond, but when I close my eyes, all I see is red hair and a pair of perfect mangoes.

"Good-bye, Edward," I whisper, and then I turn and leave.

OOOOOOOOOO

Upstairs in my room, I call room service for a bowl of fruit and a bottle of wine, and then give myself a mental smack down while I wait.

"Damn it, Bella! What the hell is your problem? You're only here for four more days and the hottest, sexiest, sweetest and funniest guy you've ever met wants to keep fucking you! How is that a problem?"

Mango Girl.

It's fucking Mike's fault. He's fucked with my ego, and now I'm taking everything way too personally.

"He has no obligation to you!" I yell out loud, banging my fists against the soft, leather sofa. "Okay, Okay," I say, trying to calm myself. "So maybe the problem here is that he just shouldn't be fucking another girl while he's fucking me bareback. Health-wise, it's not safe. Yeah, yeah," I breathe. "That's what it is."

It's more than that.

"Ugh!" I shut my eyes tight.

The doorbell rings.

"That was quick," I mutter while I walk to the door.

When I open, Edward is standing on the other side of the door, thick, beautiful brows raised high. I open the door wider to let him in, and when I close it and turn around, he's right in front of me.

"Want to tell me what's going on?"

"It's nothing."

"Obviously, it's something. Are you regretting last night?"

"No!" I shake my head. "No, of course not. I told you, it's nothing. I just…" I sigh. "I just need to clear my head, and I'll be fine."

Edward moves in closer, and I attempt a retreat, but my back hits the door. He puts one hand up against the door, and with the other hand, he lifts my chin.

"Tell me."

I draw in a few uneven breaths while my mind struggles to find a way to voice what I'm feeling, but I'm not even sure myself what that is. In lieu of words, I reach forward and rest my palm on his hip.

A sexy smirk automatically lights up his face. "I see someone's feeling better," he says, but the smirk dies away when my hand reaches into his front pocket and comes out with a plastic, credit-card-shaped room key.

I hold it between us for a few seconds before Edward silently takes it from me.

"I wasn't spying on you or anything. I went over to say hi, but you seemed pretty…busy. And I'm not asking for any explanations. I'm having a great time with you, Edward, and I know that this is nothing more than a fun, vacation fling. Once my ten days are up, I'll go back to my real life, and you'll continue doing what you do, and that'll be that. My only concern is that yesterday we did something that might be considered unsafe if it's done carelessly and with multiple partners, and I just want to make sure that's not the case."

He's staring at me, but I can't tell what he's thinking.

"That's your only concern," he asks, his voice strangely monotone.

"Yes."

He nods slowly. "Alright. Well, if that's your only concern, you have nothing to worry about."

I nod too. "Okay," I whisper. "Good."

We stare at each other, and part of me is relieved, it really is, but the way he's looking at me makes my stomach tighten, and I want him to understand that I don't expect anything more from him. In a few days, this will be over, and I'll be fine. He'll be fine. We'll both be fine. And I'm fine now. I am. I really am.

And to prove it to both of us, I reach up and wrap my arms around his neck. "Now," I smile, doing my best to push Mango Girl's lusty grin out of mind. "Where were we?"

Edward gazes at me peculiarly, his jaw clenching and unclenching. His hands curl around my hips, and I revel in the warmth of his touch – until he gently yet firmly pushes me away.

"Her name is Victoria," he says, his voice much calmer than he actually appears. "She wrote her cell number on the key too. Told me to give her a call, and she'd meet me in her room or wherever I wanted." He looks down at the key card still in his hand. "Look at that, she's in this same resort, not too far from this room actually," he muses.

"Edward, I…" I swallow thickly, "I'd rather not know the details."

"You know how often something like this happens, Bella?" he asks, his eyes still on the damn room key. "Weekly, sometimes even daily - not to sound conceited," he grins, but it's a cold grin I'm not used to seeing on his handsome face. "I don't take them all up on it, but yeah, I've had my handful of what you'd define as hook-ups."

"Edward-"

"I mean, sometimes they pretend to play coy," he chuckles. "Like it's some sort of game, which I suppose it is," he snorts. "But hey, I'm single. I don't have to answer to anyone."

"I know, Edward," I cut in quickly, "and I'm not asking for any answers. It just threw me. That's it."

"That's it," he repeats dryly. "You just want to make sure I don't fuck anyone else bareback while I'm fucking you."

I gasp sharply, but Edward continues.

"And I won't; don't worry. I don't make a habit of fucking anyone bareback."

I try to swallow once more, but I can't get past the lump lodged in my throat.

"You know, when I met you a few days ago, I thought you were playing the same game. You had an interesting angle, though." He grins again. "The fake husband. That was a new one. It intrigued me so I took you to that private, little snorkeling place, and there you were, squirming in my arms, in that tiny, white bikini."

I breathe out through narrowed lips.

"But then you said you had to get back to your friends," he presses on. "I assumed you'd say something to me while you were getting off the catamaran, but you didn't. And then the next day, I thought I'd see you hanging around the pier, but you weren't. So I went looking for you, and you give me your little speech on hook-ups." He snorts. "Still, I figured you were interesting enough to spend some real time with. But you know what, Bella?"

I feel sick to my stomach. The thing lodged in my throat is now making it hard for me to breathe, but I force myself to hold his steady gaze.

"What?"

"None of that, none of it," he sneers, "not a boatload of big-titted girls, nor dozens of goddamn key cards rammed into my pockets, nor you and your fake husband bullshit give you the right to try to make me feel like a fucking asshole."

And with that, he turns around, opens the door and stalk out, slamming the door behind him.

OOOOOOOOOO

I stand there for a few minutes. Then I go lie down.

It was just a vacation fling. I knew that from the get-go. We were both having our fun, and I'm not going to lie here and pretend to feel defiled. I knew exactly what I was doing. Neither one of us was trying to start a relationship.

So now it ends sooner than I would've thought, but I knew it would end.

I close my eyes and try to sleep for a while, but my mind replays every moment with him; from the moment I first saw him flirting with Jessica to snorkeling with him to laughing and joking with him to feeling him moving inside me…

to the furious expression on his face as he stormed out.

I sit up and look at the clock, expecting it to be a couple of hours since he left, but it's only been about twenty minutes!

I rush to the bathroom and splash cold water on my face. And then I rush out of the room.

"Come on, come on!" I groan as I anxiously press the elevator button.

I tap my foot on the marble floors as the elevator makes its descent.

I rush out of the resort, running through the grounds as people look at me sideways. I run down the marina, where I can thankfully still see the sail.

When I get there, Tanya is the one standing by the platform, holding the clipboard.

"Is he here?"

She raises a brow. "He's in a shitty mood, and my cousin is rarely in a shitty mood," she says accusingly. "So you need to go."

Instead of trying to explain myself to her, what I try to do is board the platform, but Tanya stands in my way.

"Come on, Tanya!" I say.

"Do you have reservations? Because we've got a full load today."

I glare at her, but she doesn't budge, and while I ready myself to shove the beautiful bitch out of the way, I hear a chuckle. When I look up, Seth is at the top of the platform.

"Come on, Tan, let her through. Maybe she'll be able to calm Ed down. He's about to throw Paul overboard."

Tanya scowls my way, but then slowly, she finally moves, and I hurry through.

"Thanks, Seth," I say once I'm finally on board. I'm panting heavily from my run, hunched over with one palm planted on either leg.

"No problem," he chuckles.

When I finally gather enough breath to straighten up, I catch sight of Edward. He's standing in the middle of the boat, looking straight at me. Even from here, I see how his eyes are devoid of any of the humor or warmth I've grown accustomed to in the past few days.

Without any acknowledgement, he turns away from me and launches right into his welcome speech for the tourists, grinning and chuckling in all the right places, fascinating everyone as usual. Once he's done, he moves portside and leans against the railing. I follow.

He turns around when he feels me behind him, a water bottle in each hand, holding one out to me. I take it silently, and then we just watch each other.

"Playing stowaway games now, are we?" he finally asks.

"Edward, I was never playing games."

"Really?"

"Look, I'm sorry, but-"

"Stop, Bella," he says, grinning and looking down at the bottle in his hand. "You and I don't owe each other any apologies. You had fun, and I had fun. Like you said, that's it."

"I didn't mean…" I draw in a deep breathe. "What I meant to say is…I mean, what I want is…" I groan, impatient with my own ineloquent self.

He chuckles, but there's no humor in his voice. I watch his index finger scratch at the water bottle label; short, clean nails anxiously trying to peel it off.

"What do you want, Bella? I'll tell you what you want," he says before I can even attempt an answer. "You've been hurt, and that's…fucked up because someone like you should never have to go through something like that. So what you want is someone to help you forget what your asshole of an ex-fiancée did. Someone to give your wounded ego a boost and to remind you of how beautiful and smart and funny and adventurous and deliciously fuckable you are. So there you go, Bella; I'm reminding you. You're all those things and more. Yet at the same time, you want to make sure that whoever's there to remind you of all that doesn't forget that he's nothing more than a human dildo."

"I didn't mean it that way. Look, I said stupid shit, I know," I say, my own indignation building. "But give me a break here, Edward. She was holding your hand and sticking her room key in your pocket. What am I supposed to think? And no, I'm not an insecure person under normal circumstances, but you told me yourself that you just wanted to fuck me. And you've got to remember that I was just left at the fucking altar. And though the more time I spend away from him, the more I realize how much of a mistake that marriage would've been, yes, the whole incident has messed with my ego! She was sticking her room key in your pocket!" I reiterate. "And…and…I guess I'm feeling…easily spooked these days."

He looks up at me, eyes hard at first, ready to retort.

But then he cocks his head sideways, and the fury in his eyes seem to dissipate. They soften, hard green melting into soft emerald.

He looks down again, sighing.

"When I first saw you, especially that first morning here on the catamaran, I did want nothing more than to get inside those little, white bikini bottoms. So…" he sighs, raking a hand through his thick hair, "I can see how your ego would take a blow from something like that. I understand you being spooked," he says, and then snorts, his eyes staring somewhere beyond me. "And I suppose seeing some girl stick her room key in my shorts doesn't help the situation."

"You're a flirt," I say. It's not an accusation, not anymore. It's just a fact.

His eyes return to me. "I wasn't…" he shakes his head, but then he draws in a deep breath and leans against the railing once more. "Yeah, I suppose I can be…overly friendly," he admits. "She grabbed my hand, and I couldn't be bothered to pull it away. That's all that was."

I shake my head and look down. "I don't know what to say to that."

"I don't know what to say to that either," he says, and then I feel his fingers graze my cheek, brushing from one side of my face to the other, and I look back up.

"But I do know one thing. Right now, Bella," he whispers, eyes blazing as he inches his face closer to mine, "I only want to be friendly with you."

I draw in a few uneven breaths, bewildered by the way his words, his touch…everything about him makes me feel.

"It was more than just the bareback thing," I admit.

He nods, his green eyes boring into mine unrelentingly. "I was never going to use that key."

I swallow thickly and nod, trying to look down again to escape the intensity of his gaze, but he doesn't let me. Instead, he holds my chin between his fingers.

"I wanted to get inside your bikini bottoms," he says.

"Yes, you told me that," I smirk. "And you got inside them alright. Over and over."

"Yeah," he murmurs thickly. "And I had to spend time with you to do so. But Bella…the more time I spend with you…the more time I want to spend with you. You're not just a…fuck. And I wasn't going to use that key," he repeats.

I breathe out unsteadily, holding his gaze. "I want to spend more time with you too. That's what I want."

For a few moments, he searches my eyes, and then he wraps his arms around my hips and pulls me in closer, pressing me against him, and it feels…so, so warm.

And I breathe in deeply, filling my lungs with the sea air and with the scent of him.

"So what do we do now?" he asks.

"Now…we enjoy our time together?"

He stares at me while I once again hold my breath.

"Yeah," Edward murmurs. "That sounds like a plan."

A/N: Thoughts?

Twitter: PattyRosa817

Link to 'Stories by PattyRose' is on my profile page.

Alright guys, have a great weekend, and see you on Monday!