Gone Without A Trace
Chapter 11
I slumped my shoulders over as Edward continued to pull me through another set of doors. I could hear the music, and feel it, pounding out of the speakers behind yet another set of doors at the end of a hallway that lay before us. I sighed and Edward glanced back at me. I saw his eyes drift downwards and then snapped back up to look at my face. I frowned when he smirked.
"Would you stand up straight please? I don't want the men in there to oggle at you more than they already will." I gaped at him.
"Excuse me?" His smirk grew as he glanced down again. It took me a minute to realize that he was looking at my chest. I wrapped my arms around my torso, attempting to hide myself, and looked down at my feet. My face was instantly red.
"When you slouch over like that you can see down your dress." He stated while pushing my shoulders back with his hands. I jerked my gaze back to him.
"Why were you even looking?" I snapped. He smiled and laughed. I felt the corners of my mouth twitch at the wonderful sound. His smile was replaced with the smirk and he reached for my hands again.
"I've told you before. I may not be human, but I am still a man." My mouth formed an 'o' and I looked down at my heels, again.
Edward chuckled and gently tugged on my hands.
"Come on, love."
I reluctantly let him continue to pull me down the hallway to the pulsing doors. I narrowed my eyes as something occured to me.
"Wait just a minute. What are we doing here? You don't even like this kind of music!" I accused. He snorted and slowed our pace.
"So? That doesn't mean we can't come here." He turned his pale face around so that he could look at me. His eyes pleaded with mine.
"Please, Bella. I haven't gotten to take you out on a real date. Do you think you could at least pretend that you're having fun?" he paused to pull me closer. "For me?" His eyes began to smolder and it took every ounce of my being to tear my eyes from his. I glanced down at his lips and licked mine, moistening them. I sighed and looked back up, into his eyes. I grinned, who could resist that?
"With you, I won't need to pretend. I always have fun." He grinned goofily. I bet you I just boosted his ego quite a bit. I bit my lip and smiled. He tucked some strands of hair behind my ear, and leaned down slightly to peck my lips lightly. My eyes fluttered shut as I nudged my face forward to deepen the kiss, but he quickly pulled away. I frowned and opened one eye. I opened the other and glared at him. My actions didn't seem to take affect on him to much since he only grinned. He squeezed my hand and winked.
"We'll just save that for later." He smiled at me and pulled me back into step beside him. We made it to the doors in record time and he pulled one door upen. I could hear the music clearly. It was some type of techno music. I glanced at Edward as he guided me forward. I gulped and took a small step forward. He moved his hand to the small of my back and pressed ever so gently. I reached my hand around for his free hand which he quickly took. I smiled, slightly reassured. With Edward there, nothing back would, or could, happen. I took another step into the room.
I could now see the dance floor. The bodies were packed together tightly. I gasped as their scents washed over me, making me take a step back. Edward put his hands on my shoulders and led me forward, his body pressing mine from the back. I shuddered as I felt his cool breath hit my ear.
"Don't worry. You won't slip up. If it becomes to much for you then we'll leave, alright?" He lightly began to massage my neck. I took in an unecessary deep breath and blew it out of my nose. Well, here goes nothing.
I tilted my head up, acting confident when I was clearly not, and took a big step into the club. Their scents hit me like Hurricane Katrine. I winced and took another step, slightly smaller than the last one. The scents weren't as strong anymore as I continued into the club, shuddering only occasionally. Edward kept a comforting arm wrapped around my shoulder. I exhaled and shook my head slightly, attempting to get rid of the slightly dizziness I was feeling. I resisted the temptation to pounce on a nearby dancer. I was thankful that Edward was there to help if needed. I gritted my teeth as the dancer shook her head, her hair thrown in my direction, and the scent washed over me like a tidal wave. Edward noticed me squeeze my eyes shut and he quickly placed himself between me and the woman. I sighed and slowly opened my eyes. Edward gave me a reassuring nod and we continued through the crowd.
We reached an empty booth and quickly claimed it as ours. I leaned my head back against the cushion and took a deep, calming breathe. Edward sat still at my side, waiting as I regained what little control I had. After a few more seconds, I turned my head to look at him.
"You okay love?"
I nodded when he paused. He reached his hand up and tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. He stroked my cheek lovingly and I shivered at his touch. His face adopted a worried expression as he scrutinized me.
"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. You're not ready for crowds like this."
I opened my mouth to tell him I was fine, but was interupted when a tall blonde woman who resembled Rosalie walked up to our table. I glanced at her, wondering what she could want. Edward didn't even blink. She stood quietly before clearing her throat when she realized he wasn't going to look at her.
"Uhmm, hi." She paused to glare at me. Edward turned his head stiffly, looking her dead in the eyes. He put the full force of his eyes on her. Her knees gave way and she leaned on our table for support.
"Did you need something?" His voice was low and cold. It almost sounded deadly to me. He showed no emotion on his face as the woman's face turned red. I almost felt sorry for her.
"Hi.. I'm- Sarah.." She stammered. Edward once again, didn't blink. Couldn't she take a hint? I raised my head to look at her face.
"Hi, Sarah. Would you mind? We're trying to have a conversation." Her head jerked to look at me, and feigned surprise, as if she just noticed I was there. She exhaled loudly and glared at me.
"Well, I'm sorry. But I came to talk to him, not you. You can finish your conversation when we're done with ours." She sniffed and turned back to Edward, a sickly sweet smile graced her mouth, and played with her hair. I pretended to gag. This must have been her way of flirting. She reached a hand over and lightly touched his shoulder, a seductive smile replaced the sweet one. My hands curled into fists and I went to get up, but Edwards hand pushed me back down into my seat. I huffed and glared at Sarah. She was smirkng. I mentally cursed at her, wishing I could throw a drink at her and ruin her hair. I smiled at that thought; she had probably taken hours to get it to look that big. Well, it matched her personality. Big and blonde. My grin widened when I realized she thought she had won.
"Sarah, I don't appreciate you talking to my girlfriend like that." Her smiled disappeared almost as quickly as her make up would have if I had thrown a drink at her face. I snickered. She didn't think I was his girlfriend when she came over here. She gave Edward a tight smile and nodded.
"Sorry." She mumbled and turned on her heel. We watched her retreat back to the bar where her friends were laughing. Once she was gone, the tension disappeared into thin air. Edward took my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.
"Let's get out of here." He whispered into my ear and pulled me up from my sitting position. We weaved through the crowd, back to the entrance. On our way, we passed Sarah and Edward gave me the go ahead nod. I smirked as I grabbed her cup of beer that was sitting on the bar and emptied the contents on her head. She squealed as the liquid streamed down her back and her shirt. I smiled and took Edward's hand again, leaving the noisey club.
Once outside, I felt much better. I was able to build my burrier back up and collected all the control I had within myself. I smiled and stepped off the curb.
"That poor girl didn't know how she was messing with, did she?" Edward grinned as he opened the car door for me. I shook my head in response and got into the volvo. Within the blink of an eye, he was sitting next to me in the drivers seat, the car running.
"Where to now?" I asked, genuinely curious. He smiled.
"Where would you like to go?" I thought for a moment.
"The meadow. I haven't been there in a while." He smiled and nodded, backing out of the parking lot and proceeding onto the highway. With his speeding, it didn't take long to get to the turn off. He pulled onto the dirt road and drove a couple miles out, before we hit a dead end. We both got out of the car, him frowning.
"I can open doors too, you know."
He grinned and motioned for me to get onto his back. I laughed and a look of realization made his way onto his beautiful face.
"I forgot you could run now too." There was a moment of nothing before he grinned and took off. I smirked and followed. I caught up to him in a matter of seconds, keeping pace with him. We ran, side by side. He looked over to me smiling.
"It's a wonderful feeling, isn't it?" He called through the sound of the wind in my ears. My smile grew and I nodded. The feeling was wonderful. It was if you were unstoppable, uncatchable. It was just me, him, and the wind. I shook my head slightly, letting my hair blow in the wind.
I was dissapointed when we reached the meadow so quickly. Edward, sensing my suddenly down mood came over and wrapped me in his arms. He kissed the top of my head affectionately and whispered gentle words in my ear.
"Do you remember the last time we were here together?" His breath blew on my ear, recreating the shivers. I nodded.
"Bella." His tone made me look up at him, instantly concerned. He was gazing at the sunset, just above the trees. I nudged him, hoping he would continue. I was beginning to become nervous. He pulled away and pulled a little black box out of his jacket pocket. I brought my hands up to cover my mouth and watched as he twirled the box in his fingers. I looked up at him curiously, wondering if I was correct at what was in the small, delicate box. He stopped playing with the box. I snapped my gaze up to him as he spoke beautiful words. "I don't want to lose you again." His voice wavered as if he were going to cry. "Losing you made me realize how many times I've come close to losing you.." He paused to look down at the box. "And I don't want to have that feeling ever again. It's a horrible feeling. It's as if someone reaches inside you and pulls your stomach out." I grimaced at his analogy. He smiled apologetically and continued. "That's why I've made a decision. You're one of us now, so this shouldn't be to hard." My eyes widened as he knelt down on one knee, what was left of the sunlight reflecting off of his white skin. His skin adopted some of the pink glow from the sun. He looked beautiful, to put it bluntly. He opened the box and took my left hand in his. "This was my mother's ring. She gave it to me, not long before she died.." His whisper was so low, I thought twice about whether he actually said it. He blinked before looking up at me. I sighed, calling the ring beautiful wouldn't do it justice. I blinked, dumbfounded. "Isabella Marie Swan." I broke my gaze away from the ring and looked up, connecting my eyes with him. "Would you do me the honor of becoming Isabella Marie Cullen?" He looked hopeful, waiting for my reaction. I glanced back down to the ring and then to him. I repeated this action a couple times. "Bella? Will you marry me?" His face had began to drop with every second I didn't answer. He was startled when I threw my arms around his neck and held tightly.
"You didn't even have to ask." I whispered in his ear. He let out a loud laugh and wrapped his arms around me waist, swinging me in a circle. We broke away long enough for him to slide the ring onto my finger. I threw my arms around him again, covering his mouth with short kisses. We met for one long kiss before breaking back into the short kisses. He ran with me, my legs wrapped around his waist, back to his car where he placed me in the back seat. Our breathing came in short rapid breaths, although we could have just held our breath. But, where's the fun in that? Our clothes soon were thrown to the front seat, our breaths coming in time with eachothers. I smiled, this was happiness. Things couldn't get better than this.
Author's Note: OMG, I AM SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG. I really am sooooo sorry!! School just started not long ago, and my teachers have been piling loads of homework on me. I know there's no good enough excuse, but I really am sorry!! ... Don't forget, it's almost the end of this story and on to an "I LOVE JAKE" story! Haha. I've already got one forming in my head, too! All I need to do is write it down. Soo yea, I love ya'll and please forgive me!!!