Upsell
-To suggest a higher priced item-
Rosalie lived in a quaint little house on a quiet street, but it wasn't terribly quiet on that particular night. Instead, music could be heard at the intersection at the end of the street where Edward waited at a red light. Bella was finally beside him, and she'd agreed to be his date for the evening. He wanted to feel bad for Mike, but he just couldn't sympathize with his competition. Knowing he had snaked the poor guy's date out from under him didn't make Edward feel guilty at all. Instead, he was on edge and ready for whatever might happen.
Bella, on the other hand, kicked herself for giving in so quickly. She knew Rosalie would smirk at her weakness, but Edward had seemed so earnest when he'd asked her to accompany him. As much as she wanted to continue teasing him, she'd decided it was actually do or die time. If he proved he could behave himself at the party and didn't expect her to act like the girls in his past, then she thought perhaps there was a chance.
As confused as she was, she couldn't help the smile that crossed her features when he leaped out of the car and jogged to the passenger side to let her out. As he passed in front of the headlights, she took a moment to study the jeans that hung low on his hips and the black t-shirt that hugged his solid chest. However irritating the boy might have been, he was even more beautiful than she'd first believed.
"Ready?" he asked, taking in her form-fitting jeans and red silky top.
Just the sight of her made him feel light-headed, but he knew he had no more chances. With his gaze firmly above her neckline, he offered his hand to help her from the car.
The moment they entered the house, the song playing ended and a painful moment of dead air descended. Everyone who paused in the middle of conversation or dancing and looked to see who'd just joined the party. Bella fought against the heat rising up her neck at the attention, but Edward tugged her hand and pulled her through the front room and away from the prying gazes.
"You've gotta be kidding me," Bella heard Lauren hiss as they passed, and she couldn't help but grin. If nothing else happened at the party, Bella had finally gotten one up on the bitch, and that meant the whole night was a success.
As they passed through the kitchen, Edward caught sight of Mike, who was talking to a guy that didn't work at Hospitaliano. When Mike saw them, he grinned widely and waved, sending a wink just for Bella when he saw that Edward had her hand clasped tightly.
"He doesn't look too torn up about losing his date," Edward muttered as soon as they were outside and could hear each other again.
Bella laughed and pointed to two lawn chairs at the back corner of the yard. "That's because I was never actually his date. You just assumed. Mike is gay."
At that announcement, Edward stopped still and stared at her.
"Are you serious?" he demanded, a smile creeping over his face. "You let me think-"
"Don't make a big deal of it," Bella hissed, smacking his arm. "He'd probably prefer to keep it quiet for now while he's figuring it all out. And of course I let you think whatever you wanted to think about it. You have all these girls in your past and I..."
By the time she trailed off, the two had reached the chairs and sat abruptly. Edward let go of her hand and scrubbed his face roughly. Of course she wanted to talk about the girls. He didn't know how to even begin the conversation, but it had to be done.
"Look. To make you understand, I have to go all the way back to high school," he said.
"You don't need to explain," Bella said lightly. "We can just start from right here. I can start here if you can."
Slowly, Edward reached for her hand and tugged her into his lap. The chair creaked under their combined weight but held true. The moment she was seated, he realized his mistake. There was no way that he could hold Bella Swan in his arms and keep his raging hormones in check.
Bella came to the same realization as she placed her hand on his muscled chest. The worn cotton felt absolutely delicious under her fingertips and she longed to press her cheek against it.
"It's only fair," Edward said, his voice strained with the effort of keeping the surging blood in his body from forming a very uncomfortable situation in his jeans.
"Tanya was one of my best friends in high school. I don't know why, exactly, except that her parents and my parents have always been good friends. I was, for lack of a better word, a geek. I was an honor student, I played the piano, and I once walked around with an erection for a good hour because this Italian exchange student named Gianna said my name with her Italian accent. I had no idea how to talk to anyone, much less girls."
The picture that he painted was so different from the one with which Bella was acquainted. Immediately, though, she could sympathize with a younger, skinnier Edward that lacked social graces. He didn't sound as though he had been terribly different than she'd been.
Without warning, she felt her heart melt a little and realized maybe she wouldn't have been able to start from that moment in time. The back-story that he gave opened her eyes immensely. She didn't even realize it when her fingers began to trace lazy circles on his chest, but she did giggle when he adjusted himself in the chair.
"Tanya was popular, of course, but she didn't care that no one else talked to me. She always treated me like I was anyone else in her group of friends. And when I started work at Hospitaliano she drew me in with her new friends there. I got better about talking to people, but nothing ever happened with her. She's too much like my sister to even... ugh."
Bella smiled softly at his admission, utterly charmed by the shy, geeky kid he'd once been. Suddenly, she leaned forward and pressed a small kiss to his cheek.
Edward didn't even try to hide his reaction to her affection. With a groan, he finally gave in to the sensation coursing through him and accepted that another embarrassing erection was on the way. His arms wrapped around her slender frame and pulled her closer, and he wondered if he had the courage to use his own lips.
She was staring at his mouth, panting slightly when she felt the evidence of his arousal on the back of her leg. He wanted her; she was certain. His eyes, however, were still clouded with doubt. She knew if anything was going to happen to move them forward, it was up to her.
Her hand moved slowly from the soft T-shirt to the crook of his neck, and she bit back a grin when he gasped. Fingers teased the soft hair that she found there, and he let out a small moan. His gaze met hers, and she was thrown by the stormy desire she saw. In that one moment, she no longer cared at all who Edward had in his past. All she knew was that she wanted to be his now.
As much as he wanted to go slowly and show her just how important she was to him, he couldn't stop himself the moment their lips met. Instead of gently caressing her with all of the feelings he had, he lost control. His hands cradled her face gently, in direct contrast to the absolute passion that he released when her tongue touched his for the first time.
Quickly, she rearranged herself so that she was straddling him in the chair. Again, the flimsy metal and plastic squeaked and creaked, but neither heard over the blood rushing through their veins. One arm drifted to her waist so that he could pull her even closer, and she happily obliged.
His lips... His lips were even softer and more demanding than she could ever have hoped. There was nothing graceful about the kiss, but it was still the absolute most heavenly experience of Bella's life. With a whimper, she pressed closer, delighting in the growl that erupted from his throat.
Hips met hips, both thrusting and gasping, trying as hard as they could to get the friction that they desired, when Edward suddenly ripped his lips from hers with a tiny cry of frustration.
"What's wrong?" Bella whispered, her breath escaping her in ragged gasps. She tried to continue placing tiny kisses on his jaw and neck, but he moved away with a sigh.
"I have no idea what I'm doing," he finally admitted.
Ice seeped through her veins, quickly cooling the heated lust from just moments before. Was he actually trying to tell her that he didn't know what he was doing with her?
"What do you mean?" she asked coolly. "You obviously know what you're doing, so I can only guess that you don't know what you're doing with me. Changed your mind that quickly, did you?"
Struggling to disentangle herself, she pressed against his chest fruitlessly. He still had his arms around her waist and refused to let go. Looking anywhere but his face, she continued to back away from him as much as she could.
"Stop, Bella," he pleaded quietly. "Let me explain, please?"
"Oh, please. It's been up and down, hot and cold since the moment I saw you. You didn't talk to me for a whole week and then you came onto me shamelessly. What am I supposed to think? Just when I think that you like me, I see another girl who seems to think you like her, too. Honestly, Edward... I just can't do this. I really like you and—"
"I'm a virgin, Bella," he interrupted quietly.
That shut her up immediately. His innuendo-laced comments, the heat that he could bring with just a gaze, Lauren's comments about the wine cage—none of it added up at all.
"Bullshit," she finally said, but her heart wasn't in it.
Edward's lips curved into a half-smile. "Not bullshit, I'm afraid. I've always been that geek from high school. I didn't even know how to talk to any girl besides Tanya until I met Alice. Well, basically, I don't even talk to Alice. She takes care of that part. I, uh... I took lessons from Emmett and Jasper on how to talk to you. I've been kind of...crazy about you since I saw you that day in the kitchen."
"But...but Kate." She spat the name. "And Lauren for Christ's sake! Are you really going to tell me that you didn't share special moments in a practice room or the wine cage?"
"Kate is the biggest diva-bitch at Cornish, and I wish I'd never been chosen as her accompanist," Edward sighed. "She's a ridiculous flirt that seems to think we're made for each other. She's never been too bad, though. Not like Lauren... Jesus. I think I'm going to need a restraining order, in all honesty. "
Bella had ceased her struggles and sat forward on his lap again. He sensed she was finally listening and knew he had to get the rest of the story out or they could never have a now, much less a future.
"About two months before you started, Lauren cornered me in the wine cage."
Bella winced, sure that she knew what was coming.
"I tried to be polite, Bella, I swear, but it only encouraged her. She shoved her hand down my pants and was trying to force a hand job on me. I shit you not. I ran and slammed the cage door behind me. She was actually locked in for about thirty minutes while I talked to Carlisle."
"You should have pressed charges!" Bella exclaimed. "That's... oh, my God, Edward!"
Everything finally made sense. Her sex god was really just a shy boy who couldn't help the crazies that fixated on him, herself included.
"Carlisle said that, too. I decided I'd just leave it alone, as long as she couldn't come near me at work. So far, she's not tried anything outside of work, but I wouldn't...you know."
"So what makes me so special?" Bella asked, trying desperately to set herself apart from the other girls.
A slow smile crept across Edward's lips, causing Bella's heart to flutter once more. With a trembling hand, he pushed her hair away from her shoulder, exposing the long line of her neck. Before he could lose his nerve, he pressed his lips gently to the spot just below her ear and then murmured in a low voice that shook her to her very core.
"Everything."
At that exact moment, the chair finally gave up the fight and collapsed. The couple hit the ground with surprised shouts before breaking into uncontrollable giggles. Bella was pressed tightly against Edward's chest, and except for the sharp metal frame poking his back, he'd never felt anything so amazing in his life.
"We can learn together, you know," Bella whispered, reaching up to stroke his hair softly.
Instead of answering, Edward rolled over and shoved the destroyed chair away. Bella, thinking that he was trying to climb on top of her, yelped in amusement and batted him away.
"Not here!"
Edward realized what she had assumed and collapsed again in laughter, his body pressed tightly against hers. Before he could get carried away, though, he rolled quickly to her other side, leaving the broken chair behind.
"I don't want just that, you know." He studied her profile in the lights from the party.
"Hmmm?" she murmured, watching his mouth once more.
"Sex," he clarified, sending a jolt of electricity through both of them. "I don't just want that with you. I want...well, I want everything. Is that okay?"
With his heart racing and his palms sweating, he waited for the girl of his dreams to answer the age-old question. At twenty-two, he had finally asked someone to be his girlfriend, and Bella Swan was worth the wait.
"Way to go with the upsell there," she teased, rolling over so that she was lying on top of him. "Of course that's okay. Better than okay. In fact, let's get out of here and maybe get started on...everything."
Edward chuckled as he stood and helped her to her feet. Together, they crossed the lawn and entered the houseful of people again, but only long enough to find the hostess and say goodbye.
Rosalie stood with Emmett, Alice, and Jasper, and the conversation halted when Edward and Bella arrived. The new couple didn't even say a word before Alice leapt into action and flung her arms around Bella.
"Nice job," Jasper said, offering Edward a fist bump.
"Thanks for the help, guys," Bella laughed, pulling on Edward's hand.
"It was the stuff I told him to say, wasn't it?" Emmett asked, puffing his chest out with pride.
"Get real. He got his smoothest lines from me," Jasper scoffed.
Edward's cheeks colored slowly, and he silently pled for help with his eyes. Taking pity on him in his discomfort, Bella wrapped her arms around him and smiled.
"I'm sure you both helped him get started, but in the end, he knew exactly what he needed to say."