Boy, Did It Hit the Fan
12
Edward looked back and forth between us, finally settling his eyes on Jacob.
"Oh… you," Jake said then turned back to me, "I guess you won't be coming out to the job site. I'll talk to you later." He slammed the sliding door shaking the glass.
I was expecting Edward to go after him but instead he walked over the wall and put one hand against it and the other hand to the bridge of his nose. "Bella?" he said very quietly.
"Yes," I answered.
"Do you still love me?"
"Yes," I answered, my voice shaking.
"Do you still want to marry me?"
"Yes."
He took a deep breath and then moved so quickly I didn't see his fist make contact with the wall. A large hole replaced the area where his hand had once been.
"Edward… please," I begged him.
"Please what, Bella?" His nostrils were flaring in rage as he spoke. "Please let you remain human? Please watch you leave me for another man? Please stop loving you? Which is it?"
"Please talk to me," I yelled in frustration. "Explain about Tanya. Explain why you left me. Explain why you ignored me when I asked you to come back."
His eyes flashed with anger and he dropped his head back and stared at the ceiling like he was trying to make sense of everything I just said.
"Bella….I….I'm at a loss here."
"Did you sleep with Tanya?"
"WHAT?" He roared.
"You have perfect hearing Edward. You heard what I said."
"Why would you think that?" He stared at me like I had grown another head. "I don't like what you're implying and I think you better stop right now."
"I am not implying anything. I am asking you outright. And maybe I am wondering since, oh, I don't know, because you never called. Or maybe because your phone was always off. Or perhaps it was Tanya calling to tell me about it!" My own voice was matching his in volume.
Edward seldom used his vampire speed around me but he launched himself across the room and appeared right in my face. "Bella, did you have sex with that boy because you thought I had sex with Tanya?"
"I didn't have sex with Jake," I said emphatically. My mind instantly went to yesterday, when I pulled Jacob into a passionate kiss. I put my hands over my face to hide my shame. "But I did kiss him," I confessed as I slid to my knees.
The door opened and Jasper walked in. He ignored Edwards's low growl and came over to where I was kneeling. He put his fingers around both of my wrists and pulled my hands from my face, then lifted me to my feet.
I completely expected to be ripped apart or at the very least find myself airborne and crashing through the nearest window. Instead he pulled me into a tight hug and turned to Edward. "You apologize to Bella this instant!"
"No, I….." I tried to explain to Jasper that Edward didn't do anything wrong, it was my entire fault, but he placed a finger over my mouth.
"Edward," he spoke calmly, "you always do things your own way, without thinking about what is best for others. It was fine when it just involved the family, but now you have to put Bella first if you want this to work. You left her here alone with a house full of vampires; you might as well have delivered the human boy to her door gift wrapped."
Edward dropped his head as Jasper continued, "Turning off your phone was cruel."
Edward flinched but didn't say anything. "And not to tell her why is inexcusable. Tanya is another subject," he continued.
I had never seen Edward look so hurt and so guilty at the same time. He reached out for me and Jasper pushed me gently into Edwards waiting arms.
"Talk it out calmly," Jasper instructed as he left the room.
Edward's voice was barely above a whisper when he finally spoke. "Why, Bella? Why did you kiss him?"
I looked at him in defiance. "First you tell me about Tanya."
He shook his head. "Tanya is nothing to me. I don't know where you heard any differently."
"Esme told me she was in love with you and you tried to have feelings for her but you didn't."
"Bella, my family has been together as mates for a very long time. I was a burden to them in my loneliness. I tried to care for Tanya, for their sakes, but she has never been more than a cousin to me."
"Did you ever kiss her?"
"Yes," he admitted sadly.
"Did you kiss her when you last saw her?"
"No, I did not."
"So, she wasn't…..teaching you ….things?"
He chuckled loudly. "No, she wasn't teaching me things. Do you know what a succubus is, Bella?"
"No."
"Tanya uses men for her own sexual gratification. It's a game to her and unfortunately it sounds like she added tormenting you to her list of games."
"She called on Rosalie's phone and I answered." I shuddered at the memory. "She told me she was teaching you ways to satisfy me as a newborn. I kissed Jake because she made me feel stupid and inexperienced." I lowered my head when I felt tears threatening.
Edward pulled back as he spoke, "I want you to think very hard about my next question. Why do you think you were drawn to Jake, why him?"
"That's simple Edward. He was here!"
"Emmett and Jasper were here, too."
"I guess I'm afraid of them," I admitted. "But not just because they are vampires, but because they are your brothers. They both have amazing wives and I just feel so inadequate."
"Bella," he started.
"Jake isn't threatening," I continued. "I know you think I was his friend because he was human, but that isn't it. He didn't discount my feelings or keep things from me like I am too stupid to understand."
Edward's head dropped again.
"Edward, you didn't even call when you arrived in Chicago. I only heard from you once and every time I tried to call you your phone was turned off."
"I couldn't call, Bella."
"Really, because Alice was able to email every other second," my voice began to get loud again.
He took a deep breath trying to gain the courage to tell me something. I knew it must be really bad. My imagination went straight to Tanya and I felt ice run through my veins as I braced myself for what he had to say.
"I couldn't call because I was doing some medical experiments with Carlisle."
"What?" Of all the scenario's I had imagined this was not one of them. "I don't even know what you mean."
"I wanted to see if venom could be given intravenously," he finally conceded.
I stared at him totally dumbfounded. "What did you have to do?"
"I had venom injected into me."
The memory of trying to pinch Esme sprung to my mind, "How, your skin is too hard?"
He shook his head and looked like he would rather do anything than have this conversation.
"Edward, how did you have venom injected into you?"
"Carlisle had to rip away some of my skin and go straight to the veins."
I began moving his long t-shirt sleeves around looking for wounds. My breathing was becoming erratic and I felt the urge to vomit.
"Bella, your eyes can't see the damage until you're changed. We heal very quickly so don't worry about it."
"What would venom do to your veins? I mean, you're already a vampire what information were you trying to get?"
"Well, we used Carlisle's venom. We added dye to see how soon it went to the heart."
"What do you mean… heart? How would it even spread if your heart isn't pumping it through your system?"
Edward dropped his head and didn't answer.
"Look at me," I demanded.
He raised his head and the emotional pain was evident in his eyes. His voice got very low, "We used a pacemaker to make my heart beat."
I stared in disbelief until I felt myself tug his shirt upwards. He reached up and pulled my hands away. I tried to fight him and make my way back to the hem of his shirt but he was too strong.
I wasn't even aware of what I was doing until I felt my hand stinging in pain. Edward had his hand to his cheek where I had slapped him but I knew it wasn't painful, at least physically, for him.
"You son-of-a-bitch," I screamed as loud as I could as I pushed away from him. "You opened up your chest for an experiment? You turned off your phone so I wouldn't know you were being a guinea pig in some Frankenstein procedure!"
"I don't want your change to be painful, Bella," he pleaded.
"Guess what Edward, it will be! And there is not a damn thing you can do about it." I was now pacing furiously and throwing my arms in the air.
Guilt hit me like a ton of bricks. "I mentioned something in passing and you took it to mean I wanted you to try and destroy yourself? And then you didn't even tell me! Come to think of it Edward you never told me you were leaving. You had Carlisle do it for you!"
He shut his eyes in distress.
"You want to know how to make things not painful, Edward? Don't leave me! Stay by my side and I can go through anything. Don't cut me out of the decisions. Don't do things behind my back."
He tried to wrap his arms around me but I pulled away.
"Your whole family went through the pain, why am I not strong enough? Why do you see me as so much weaker than the rest of you?"
Now his eyes blazed in anger, "I never said you were weaker. You're the strongest person I have ever met."
"Then what is it?"
"I just love you so much and I don't want you to suffer."
"Well, I was suffering and you could have cared less."
He looked stunned and his eyes darted back and forth trying to decipher my meaning.
"You left me here, Edward." Suddenly something dawned on me. "Why are you here?"
"I love you, Bella," he whispered.
"No, I mean why did you come back now?"
"You were never around when I called, so I came to see what was going on."
"You could have gotten hold of one of the others to check on me."
"I did," he finally admitted. "They told me you were with the human."
"So you came back to make sure I wasn't screwing around on you?"
"Bella, don't be crass."
I chuckled cynically, "No, I would hate to be crass. Sick medical experiments are much better than being crass."
He was finally defeated, completely done! The guilt he had carried weighed too heavily on him so he sat silently with his chin dropped onto his chest.
I continued to pace for a few more minutes until my rage wore off. My weak legs were suddenly exhausted. I leaned against the wall and slid down to a sitting position.
"Edward, do you believe in us? Do you think we can do this?"
"I wish I didn't," his voice broke. "I wish I could say no, and you would go home and live a long, full life, but I can't. Because I love you more than I thought possible and I can't exist without you."
"I wish I could go home and have a happy life without you." My voice was flat and unemotional. Pain went hand in hand with being that girl. Elizabeth pointed me to my destiny but actually living it was almost too much.
His eyes shut tightly and he gasped like I had punched him in the heart.
"But I love you more than life itself. I don't want to spend a second away from you because it causes me physical pain. I would rather be here fighting with you than be apart. I want to be your wife with all my heart."
He moved off the bed and kneeled in front of me. He took my hands in his and rubbed them gently. Without a word he leaned in and kissed me so tenderly. We didn't feel the need to take the kiss any deeper. We didn't need to feel each others want; we just needed to make a connection, to physically touch.
After several moments he broke the kiss and moved over to sit with me against the wall.
I leaned my head against his broad shoulder and he lowered his to rest on top of mine.
We sat silently for several minutes until a soft knock sounded on the door.
"Come in," Edward said quietly.
Jasper walked in and came to kneel next to us, "Everything okay?"
Edward reached out and patted his shoulder. "Yeah, I think so."
I smiled in agreement.
"Marriage isn't easy, but one thing that helps is open communication," Jasper advised.
"How long did it take you and Alice to figure it all out?" I asked in hope.
He smiled a wide breathtaking smile and said in his slow southern drawl, "I'll let you know when we do, darlin."
Edward and I both began laughing. Jasper nodded at my hand and added, "Looks nice on you."
I looked down in confusion to see a diamond ring on my left hand. "Edward," I screamed. "When….how…..wha…" I dove onto his lap as he allowed himself to fall sideways with me on top of him.
Jasper left us to our disgusting display of love and lust. I kissed Edward passionately as his mouth kept breaking into a smile beneath my lips.
"How did you pull this off?" I finally asked.
"When you said you wanted to be my wife with all your heart, I took your hand in mine and slipped it onto your finger. I hope you like my surprise."
I arched my back so I could pull back enough to look at the ring. It had a huge heart shaped diamond in the center and was surrounded by smaller diamond chips. It was incredible. My movement also made me aware of something else.
"Edward?" I said in a whisper, desire igniting the fire within me.
He looked confused until I wiggled my pelvis against his.
"I'm sorry, I can't help it when I'm with you," he admitted.
The very next instant I found myself lying on my back on the floor with him on top of me. I wrapped my legs around him and giggled.
He moved his hands to the sides of my head, his eyes turning dark. "I can't wait until were married and we don't have to restrain ourselves."
I pushed my hips up into him and he hissed loudly. "Bella, be good," he warned.
"I hope I can be very good," I teased him.
He lowered his forehead to mine. "You have no idea what you do to me." This time it was his turn to push his hips into mine, causing me to moan and my eyes to close.
"Show me how much you missed me," I whimpered.
I was instantly upright as he carried me out the glass door and toward the beach. I lowered my mouth to his neck and licked a warm path to his ear. He didn't stop when we reached the sandy beach, but continued right into the water, heading east away from the house.
When we were out of sight of any prying eyes I felt my shirt rip up the back and fall down my shoulders.
I clicked my tongue at him in fake protest. "Don't destroy my clothes; just ask me to remove them."
He smiled a devilish grin and I heard my shorts rip. Now I was dressed only in my bra and panties. I fervently believe Alice to be a genius by forcing me to wear matching underwear.
I moved his shirt over his head and stared at his chest. I couldn't image the damage my eyes were unable to see. I gently ran my fingers over his skin wondering what kind of pain he endured on my behalf. I couldn't understand how Carlisle could do something so horrendous to his son and the thought that Edward did it for me was more than I could handle.
"Hey," he whispered. "Don't fade on me. Stay with me here, Bella."
I tightened my legs around his waist and kissed him with every ounce of energy I had. We were shoulder deep in the water and Edward was immoveable in the surf as it lapped softly around us.
He moved his hands to my bottom and pulled me tighter against his form. We both let out a gasp of air. That familiar intangible feeling on needing more overtook me. I moved up and down his body feeling like his shorts and my panties were thick walls separating us. He kneaded my bottom roughly, groaning in my mouth with each pass I made over his length.
His steel grip moved me faster and harder against him until my chest felt like it would explode. It was painful how much I needed a release and my head fell back as I gasped toward the sky for air.
He growled loudly at the exact moment I screamed in ecstasy. We collapsed inward into each other's arms, holding on tightly through the involuntary spasms.
"Edward, the venom," I asked in struggled breaths.
"The water dilutes it," he assured me, "as well as your scent."
"Edward, do you ever want my blood?"
"No, I have been able to completely separate the two desires. I'm not tempted at all. Although other temptations make me just as dangerous to you," he laughed.
He handed me his t-shirt to put on and we headed back to the house.
"Can I take you on a date tonight?" he asked with a smile.
"A date… here?"
"No, we'll go to the mainland and go on a real official date."
"I would love to go on a date with you… fiancé," I added.
"Thank you…..fiancé," he laughed.
