Back with another chapter! Thank you for all the reviews so far! You're all lovely!

This chapter is for my darling Stine, 'cause it's her birthday today! :D

Oh, and this is an Edward point of view ;) Enjoy!

Chapter 9: Beauty

Edward

From the very first moment I saw Bella in daylight, away from the real horrors of our situation, I hadn't been able to see anything but her beauty. And I had never before called a woman beautiful. Pretty, yes, but beautiful, not once. But Bella; she definitely deserved that title. More than deserved it. Her mahogany hair flowed effortlessly around her delicate features and even though she was somewhat small, she still had perfect curves.

Although the circumstances weren't ideal—not at all—I still couldn't stop myself from staring at her at every possible moment. And she wasn't even wearing anything that was usually labeled as sexy. I mean, slightly fancy looking sweatpants and a hoodie had never been pieces of clothing that I would have loved to see on a woman, but Bella managed to make me want to see her in nothing else but that.

But even though she was waking up parts of me that had been dormant for a while, I had managed to subtly keep my distance from her and focus on getting us out of this mess.

Until now at least. Until she had started undressing in front of me, leaving her in nothing but a dark blue bra and tiny black panties.

Before I could completely change my mind and hide somewhere behind a tree, I decided to grow a pair of balls and try to behave like nothing had changed. After asking if Bella would be fine with it, I peeled off my clothes, aside from my blue boxers—which ironically matched her bra—and stepped into the fresh water.

After two days of sweating in the same clothes, this little stream was like heaven on earth. I quickly washed my skin, trying not to focus too much on the beautiful girl who was less than a foot away from me.

The tension that hung around us was palpable, but we both seemed to ignore it pretty well. I continued to scrub my body until I was sure I had pealed of an entire layer of skin in the process. Although I was a bit cleaner, I didn't relish the thought of having to put on dirty clothes.

As I walked out of the water, I could feel her eyes on me, and somehow it made me all warm inside. Like every nerve ending in my body was on fire.

Ignoring the little voice inside my head that was screaming at me to acknowledge these feelings, I picked up both of our clothes from the muddy ground and tossed them into the water. There was no way I was putting those back on before they were at least somewhat clean again.

"Good idea," Bella said as she came closer to help me with the new task. That's all the communication that was exchanged between the two of us as we tried to get the traces of the forest and the crash, out of our clothes before putting them up to dry.

As I looked at the wet clothes that hung over a few branches surrounding us, I realized that we would have to wait until they were dry again before we could continue our journey. Which also meant we would have to stay in our underwear a while longer. I groaned silently, hoping that I wouldn't do anything stupid with Bella walking half naked around me. I was only a man after all.

Bella, on the other hand, seemed a lot more comfortable in her own skin as she started picking out two cans of food from her backpack. After taking a deep breath, I walked closer and took a seat next to her, trying to ignore the beauty that was now within reach. Instead, I tried to focus on the stuff that was supposed to be food. It was horrible. And the hot, damp weather didn't really help either. I had to keep myself from gagging every time I took a bite.

"So..." I started, in an attempt to start a conversation and keep my mind from the nearly inedible food and the still present tension. "Why were you going to Bolivia, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Visiting my mother," she said, around a mouthful of food. I usually detested when people did that, but she somehow made it look cute. What?

"She's Bolivian?" I asked, distracting my mind from wandering back to Bella and everything that made her either beautiful, cute or unbelievably sexy.

"Oh no," she laughed, and then swallowed. "She moved there on a whim, to connect to her inner spirit or something like that."

"And your father was okay with that?"

"Well, they're not together anymore so she's free to do as she pleases. Although my dad wasn't really happy to hear I was visiting her." Instantly a wave of unease hit me as I realized that her father was now probably even more unhappy with the fact that she went to visit her mother. Although I was fairly certain that all he cared about right now was getting his baby girl home.

"And your dad lives in New York?" I couldn't stop myself from asking question after question so as she answered every single one of them, I tried to form an image of Bella in her normal environment. Away from all the greens and browns, surrounded by people who loved her.

She started telling me about her father, who didn't live in New York but in a tiny town in Washington called Forks. He had practically raised her as her mother had apparently been doing whatever crazy stuff she wanted. It sure wasn't looking after a child, that much was apparent. So when Bella was ten, her father had decided that Renee—her mother—had to chose between being a mother or being her erratic self. The last choice had obviously been her definite one, but nonetheless Bella didn't hold a grudge toward her. In her opinion Renee wasn't meant to be a mother so it wasn't her fault. Bella had continued to live with her father until she'd gotten a job offer in New York to work at one of the biggest publishing houses in the area. Although she had been reluctant to leave her father to look after himself, she had known that it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. So she moved to New York to establish her career.

"And that's what I've been doing so far. Working, working, and more working," she concluded. "And look where it has brought me." Her hands motioned towards our surroundings, bringing me effectively back to reality. A reality where we were still stuck in a forest with no real vision of being rescued.

For a moment I allowed my mind to conjure up images of meeting Bella in normal conditions—in a bar in New York city or maybe a coffee house to make it even more clichéd. I had no doubt about the fact that I would be blown away by her presence from the very first second. Her true beauty and delicate features would astound me and draw me in. In my mind, I could see myself hesitating to go talk to her, but after a while going for it anyway, hoping not to end up being turned down. Maybe we would have started talking, she about her job as an editor and me about my horrible job as a pilot, which hardly ever allowed me to enjoy home.

Home.

It was a rare concept for me at the moment. I hadn't really been in my hometown since Christmas, and even then it had only been for two days. I missed my family and the few friends I had immensely, but when I was on vacation for a longer period of time I would instantly miss the intense feeling flying gave me. It was truly an addiction.

An addiction I might have just been cured of. As of now, I couldn't see myself stepping onto an airplane anymore ever again. Just the thought of what I had caused was making me nauseous again. I had been suppressing those particular thoughts successfully up until now, feeling it simmer beneath the surface but forcing myself not to let it affect me until we were saved. I knew that if we managed to get out of this jungle, I would have to address it at some point, but right now, I had one passenger I could save. And I would do everything in my power to succeed. Not only because she was the most intriguing, most beautiful and most genuine woman I've ever met, but also because it was my duty—my job.

"So what do we do now?" I asked after a long silence, hoping that starting up a light conversation would make me forget about all of the dark.

"Well, considering that we still have some time until our clothes will be dry, I could put another bandage on that head of yours," she said with a chuckle that sounded slightly forced. I guess talking about home hadn't been a good idea after all.

"Only if you allow me to take another look at your arm," I retorted playfully, hoping to lighten the mood again.

"My arm is just fine," she answered, bending it a few times as to prove me it was healed. Nonetheless I could see the slight grimace that gave away her true pain. "Please just keep it as still as possible until we're back home and you can see a doctor, okay?" I sighed, knowing that she was about a stubborn as a mule when it came to that arm.

"Yes, sir!" she saluted with her other hand before rushing towards my backpack to retrieve the first aid kid.

"Your turn now," she grinned before taking a seat in front of me. Before getting started, she first retrieved everything she would need and put it on her naked thighs. I couldn't tear my eyes away from her movements, or from her for that matter.

When she seemed to have gathered everything, she suddenly leaned closer, to get a better look of the cut on my forehead. The heat of her body and the smell of her skin instantly assaulted my senses. It made my head spin and my heart speed up like I had just run a marathon. She smelled truly divine, like nothing I had ever encountered before. Her cool fingers brushed away the strands of my unruly hair and each time the soft skin of her fingertips touched my forehead, I felt goose bumps erupt all over my body. Before I could grab a hold of her and demand to know who she was and what she was doing to me, she leaned back again, declaring that I was good to go again. I let out a strangled breath I didn't know I was holding, but nonetheless wished she would come back within my reach. I wanted nothing more than to feel her skin against mine again, but somewhere in the back of my mind I knew I had to pull myself together and focus on saving our goddamn lives first.

So instead of acting like a caveman and following my urges, I quickly put my clothes back on and got everything ready to get the hell out of here. I had a job to do after all.

Thank you for reading :)

Love, Ellen