As Bella pressed her lips to his, Edward didn't dare move a muscle. He could barely believe that she was taking the initiative like this after her performance last night. He was perceptive enough to realise that she was uncomfortable talking about herself yet pleased enough with her attentions to put any query as to why to the back of his mind. When he had seen her with Angus, a natural with horses by the looks of things, his mind had moved into overdrive. Suddenly he could see her by his side in Montana, walking the dogs, helping the cows give birth in spring, family meals and little dark haired children with her kind liquid eyes. For a fleeting moment he saw their future spread out before him until he quickly reined himself back in with the question of why somebody like her would be interested in him in the first place and why any woman would opt for life on the ranch. It was isolated, the weather could be brutal and keeping an enterprise like the Cullen's going took hard physical work. It was beautiful, of course, the great plains, yet beauty alone wouldn't get or keep a wife.
She kissed him softly, chastely, a kiss that he already knew that he would remember long after the memory of all other kisses had faded from his memory. After a moment she wound her arms around his neck, using him for support. Then, and only then, did he believe that the kiss was real and allow himself to touch her. He kept one hand on the door of the loose box, for his own legs were wobbly and he wasn't sure that he trusted them to keep him up, and placed the other hand on the hollow of her waist. She was slim underneath him yet he got the impression that she had a strong core, the kind of steel that would bend but never break. It was her that deepened the kiss, parting her lips with a tiny audible sigh that travelled directly to his crotch.
His resolve weakened then and he took control of the kiss, deepening it, exploring her mouth with his tongue, winding his hands in her dark tresses and running his hands down to the small of her back to embrace her wholly. She leaned into him, kissing him harder, kissing him so hard that she would probably have stubble rash in the morning. He pushed her against the door of the stall slipped his hands under her buttocks, enjoying the shape of the gently rounded globes and the tightening of her arms around his torso. He was hopelessly excited and he knew that she would be able to feel his hardness as the crotch of her jeans ground into his.
The memory of last night stayed in his mind like a shadow and he pulled away for a moment, fearing somehow that he had misread the situation again and that she would run away at the first opportunity. Yet when he pulled away she squeaked in protest and looked at him through those long lashes with dark lust filled eyes. Her lips were slightly swollen from their kissing and her hair was messy and wild. He had never seen anything more inviting in his life.
"Are you sure?" he whispered urgently.
"I'm sure," she breathed, biting her bottom lip as she stared into his soul, making him groan.
"Oh god Bella," he moaned, "what are you doing to me?"
"Making you hard by the feel of it," she whispered. Just her use of the word "hard" made his cock twitch and she giggled, obviously feeling the effect that she had on him. Suddenly a little chestnut head appeared behind Bella, snuffling at her hair as if checking whether it was hay.
"Angus," said Edward, in an exasperated tone, loosening his grip on Bella and pushing the nosy little pony gently out of the way. "You have terrible timing."
"Or good timing," said Bella, taking his hand in her surprisingly strong one. "Maybe he's telling us that it's time to go back to your truck." She didn't have to ask him twice. He squeezed her hand tight and she smiled at him and then they were walking back to the truck. Speed walking in fact. He was sure that she would have trotted alongside him if he had not used every ounce of self control to keep to a normal pace.
"Are you sure about this?" asked Edward.
"About what?" she asked. "Fucking in your truck?" Even as he winced at her use of the swear word his cock leapt again, directly affected by her deliberate provocativeness. "I'm virtually sober," she said, seriously, crinkling her nose in a terribly cute way that affected the part of his brain that loved cute kittens. "Just for once I want to do something for me. Something crazy. Something sexy." She squeezed his hand tighter and lowered her voice to a tone barely above a whisper. "And I want that something to be with you."
The truck door slammed shut. It was not until the reverberations ceased and the truck lapsed into complete silence that he dared turn his head to look at her, fearful that she would change her mind. She gazed straight back at him, lust and a hint of defiance in the chocolate depths of her eyes.
"Do you want me to take you home?" He asked the question gently, but his white knuckles gripping the steering wheel gave away how important the question was to him.
"No," she replied, her cheeks colouring in a way that reminded him, for a moment, of Rose's warning that she didn't have much experience with men. "I mean," she tucked her dark tresses behind one ear, lowering her gaze slightly, "I know I was all gung ho and stuff a minute ago, but I don't really want to do it in here…."
He laughed out loud, amused and relieved that was the problem. "Don't worry," he said, "you're much too nice a girl to treat like that." He touched the side of her cheek, savouring the velvety smooth skin, before touching the bottom of her chin and gently pulling her mouth to his. This time it was his turn to kiss her chastely, a soft, sweet kiss, the type of kiss that every girl wishes had been their first experience of men. After a moment he pulled away, halting his head a couple of inches away from hers. She kept her eyes closed for a moment, one finger moving to her lips as if remembering the press of his lips against hers and then her eyes opened, soft and blinking as if from a deep delicious sleep.
"Let's go then," she whispered. "I'll text Rose and let her know where I am." Edward breathed a sigh of relief as he put the key into the lock and turned it so that the engine roared into life. If Emmett and Rose knew they were together then he wouldn't have to try to explain to Emmett. In truth, he wasn't quite sure what was happening here himself but he intended riding the train until he found out. The second benefit of Bella telling Rose directly was that Emmett would know that the hotel room was taken. For a horrible moment he had thought that if Emmett and Rose were expecting to use their hotel room that he would have to take Bella to the horse trailer. He didn't want to go to her hotel room, feeling instinctively that it was taking her out of her usual environment that was opening her up to him but on the other hand the horse trailer was cold and functional, hardly a romantic place for a liaision.
Stop thinking so hard, Cullen, he told himself, shaking his head like a dog shedding droplets of water as he put the truck into reverse and backed out of the parking space. She likes you, you like her. Don't ruin things by fast forwarding six months in your head when tonight has barely begun.