Thanks for the reviews! The lemon is hypothetical...I have no idea if you can actually do it there or not. It just sounded good :D
Chapter 14
Bella
"Momma! Momma! Let's go!" Eli tugged at my shirt.
I braced myself and put the phone to my ear. "Just a minute, baby. I've got to make a phone call."
He looked up and glared at me.
"Why don't you go see if everyone's here yet?"
"Fine." He stalked off towards the door.
"I'll hurry, I promise!" I called after him.
All of Edward's family had taken the day off so that they could go with us to Shedd Aquarium. Eli was dying to see the whales and sharks and couldn't get out the door fast enough. I, on the other hand, was busy trying to get a hold of the lawyer Edward had spoken to two weeks ago.
I finally got through after spending twenty minutes on hold and now had a meeting scheduled with Mr. Jenks at one tomorrow to tell him what I wanted in the agreement and to get an idea of what type of custody I was seeking, since I was so clueless.
I had no idea going into this that there were so many decisions to make. It made me feel so naive.
Edward's arms wrapped around my waist and he kissed the back of my neck. "Get everything taken care of?"
"No. I had no idea what I was talking about!" I felt his silent laughter against my back. "Don't laugh at me Edward Cullen; it's not funny!"
He turned me around so that I was facing him. "It is. A little." He chuckled some more. "So what's the next step?"
"I have a meeting scheduled with him tomorrow at one. Think Esme can watch Eli for a couple of hours?"
"I'm sure she'd love to." He placed a chaste kiss on my lips. "Everyone's here. Are you ready to go?"
"Yeah."
He grinned widely. "Thank God. Because if Eli asked me if we were ready to go yet one more time, I think I might scream."
We got to the aquarium, and I had to hold the back of Eli's shirt to keep him from running away from us. Emmett saw my dilemma and scooped him up and sat him on his shoulders.
I relaxed. "Thanks, Em."
"No problem, Baby Bird. Someone's gotta control your little monster."
"Hey! I'm not a monster!" Eli protested.
"Oh, no?" Emmett turned his neck so that he could see Eli. "Then why does your hair stick up everywhere? And why do you have these pointy ears and tentacles for arms? And why do you stink so bad?"
He giggled. "I don't stink!"
"That's it. Cullen?!" Emmett called.
Edward turned around and looked at Emmett curiously. "Yeah?"
"We need a doctor's opinion here. Eli says he's not a monster, which he clearly is, judging by the pointy ears, crazy hair, and tentacles for arms. And that's all I can see. There's no telling what he's hiding underneath that shirt. He might have eyes on his stomach or something. Not to mention the smell."
"I have to agree with Emmett on this one. You definitely stink. In fact, if they let you in, I think we should throw you in the tank with the dolphins so you can get a bath. It's hard to hide the fact that you're a monster when you stink so bad."
He giggled again. "You're not throwing me in with the dolphins!"
"Oh, yes I am!"
"Edward!" Eli fisted his hands on his hips even though he was on Emmett's shoulders.
"Fine. I won't throw you in, but I can't speak for Emmett."
Emmett laughed like an evil villain. "I'll throw you in one of the tanks before the day is over!"
"I'll make sure you get in the tank with the dolphins, not the sharks. I really don't want to have to clean up the mess." Edward shuddered. "Yuck, Eli guts."
They continued like this while we bought our tickets and went over to the Caribbean Reef Exhibit. Eli screamed and yelled every time he saw one of the characters from Finding Nemo. He swore the sea turtle's name was Crush, and I spent ten minutes telling him the turtle's name was in fact Nickel, not Crush. Eventually, I convinced him that it wasn't Crush when I reminded him that Crush lived at Disney World in Florida.
Crisis averted...
We went over to the Oceans area, and Eli continued to squeal about Nemo and Dory. I finally had to put my hand over his mouth and tell him that as exciting as it was, I needed him to quiet down, because people were beginning to get annoyed.
The group broke up, and we started to walk through the smaller exhibits. Eli took off with Carlisle and Esme, leaving me alone with Edward. We got to the moon jellies and stopped.
Edward's hand slid down my stomach, and I felt his hot breath on my ear. "It's awfully dark in here."
I straightened up. "No."
His other hand pulled the collar of my shirt down, and he skimmed his nose down my neck, kissing the hickey I had to cover up this morning. "No?"
I shivered as his hands moved under my shirt, gently grazing my stomach. "It's not that dark in here."
He spun me around and pushed me against the wall in the corner. I couldn't see anything anymore.
"Bella, I can't even see you, and I'm close enough to you to taste you." He demonstrated, running his tongue across my lips. A moan escaped my lips and my eyes snapped open.
"You're going to have to be extra quiet." His hands moved down my hips to the insides of my thighs. "Think you can do that for me, a ghrá?"
"Ummm." I didn't answer. I wasn't sure I could. He was so tense and seductive; I felt like his hapless prey.
His hands were inching closer and closer to where I needed him to touch me. "You've been driving me crazy in this skirt all day."
He plunged his tongue in my mouth, and my traitor hands wrapped around his neck. I fisted my good hand in his hair and pulled his face back.
"I had to wear a skirt so I didn't burn up in this shirt. Someone decided to give me a hickey last night," I panted.
He chuckled. "And I'm so glad I did. It makes this much easier."
He kissed me again and ran his hand up my thigh. He pulled my panties out of the way and slid his finger down me before pushing it inside me.
"Edward," I breathed.
He slipped another finger inside me and twisted them around before pulling them back out. I could hear him fumbling with his belt for a moment before he picked me up and thrust into me roughly, causing me to gasp.
"This is going to be hard, and it's going to be quick," he rasped against my mouth.
He pulled back and slammed back into me, sending intense jolts of pleasure racing through my body. I wanted to scream out, so I bit down on my lip hard, tasting blood. I held on to him tightly as he continued to thrust into me, grinding his hips against mine. I could hear our skin slapping each time he did, and I managed to still be in the frame of mind to open my eyes and look behind us. There was no one there-yet.
"Edward, we're making too much noise," I moaned softly in his ear.
"I don't give a fuck," he growled back.
He continued to ram into me while he kissed me deeply. He shifted me slightly, and I wrapped my legs tighter around his waist. I could feel myself getting closer and closer with each of his movements.
"I'm going to come," I whispered.
He grunted. "Good."
He grabbed my hips in his hands and brutally pulled me down on him, over and over. As I fell over the edge, I bit down on his shoulder while my whole body convulsed with the intensity.
"Fuck," he groaned.
He crushed me against the wall as he came hard, pulsing inside me.
"You bit me," he said breathlessly.
"Sorry," I mumbled against his shoulder. "I was going to scream if I didn't."
Payback for last night, I thought smugly.
He held me against the wall while we struggled to catch our breath quietly. I could feel Edward's heart pounding fiercely against me, and the heat from his body rolled off him in waves.
I moved my face back to his and kissed him softly. "You've done all the work the last few times. I think you deserve a break next time."
He laughed and put me down. "What did you have in mind?"
One of my brows furrowed. "I don't know." I hated not having as much experience as he did. I wasn't sure how to be creative without looking like a moron. "But I'm sure I'll think of something."
We straightened ourselves out before we walked out of the exhibit--and ran right into Alice and Jasper. Jasper took one look at us and his eyes bugged out.
"What have you two been doing?" he asked, trying not to laugh.
"Nothing." I felt my face flame up.
Edward just shrugged.
"Um, Bella?" Alice reached up and ran her fingers through my hair before handing me some chapstick. "You might want to use this. Your lips are swollen, and it looks like the bottom one's been split?" She then reached down and twisted my black skirt back around so that it was properly on my body. I'd somehow missed the fact that it was crooked in my post-coital haze.
My face got even hotter, if it was possible. "Please don't say anything."
Jasper held out his fist to Edward. "Nice!"
Edward bumped fists with Jasper, trying not to smile and failing miserably.
I could feel the tears irrationally building in my eyes from embarrassment. Edward's smile faltered, and he pulled me into his arms, hugging me tightly against his chest.
"I'm sorry. Are you all right?"
"Yeah," I sniffled.
"Bella, we won't say anything." I looked over at Alice. "Frankly, we could care less."
"Yeah. Don't be embarrassed. We've done shit like that before, too." Jasper gave me a small smile.
I nodded my head and took a deep breath. Edward looked like he wanted to hang himself. I wanted nothing more than to snap my fingers and make that guilty look of his miraculously disappear.
"Hey. It's okay. Really. I just expected to have a few minutes afterwards so it wouldn't be so noticeable and instead ran into Alice and Jasper immediately after. It just caught me off guard."
"I shouldn't have done that. I don't know why-"
I cut him off, pulling him down and kissing him. "I want to do it again, baby," I whispered in his ear.
His eyebrows shot up, and he got a wicked glint in his eye. He nodded but kept quiet. I couldn't help but wonder what was going on in that head of his.
We went over to the Amazon exhibit and found the rest of our group. While Eli was watching the piranhas, Alice and Rose came up to talk to me.
"So..." I looked at Rosalie. "I hear Jacob came over yesterday."
"Yep," I said shortly.
She looked down at my lip. "What the hell happened?"
My hand flew up and covered my mouth. "Um, I fell and bit my lip?"
She looked at me for a while before smirking. "If you insist. So did you guys get everything figured out?"
"As much as I could, I guess." I sat down on one of the benches.
"What do you mean?"
I waited until she and Alice were both sitting down before I began. "Well, considering I don't remember it, I have to take his word for it. Not that I don't believe him. I do, but there's this voice in the back of my head that is screaming at me to take it with a grain of salt, you know?" They both nodded. "Anyway, I told him I wanted a custody agreement and child support."
"No shit?" Alice asked.
"No shit. I don't want to pretend everything's hunky-dory with us when it's not." I shrugged. "And I can't risk him disappearing or not taking care of Eli like he should, just because I don't love him back. Not without consequences, anyway. I will not let Jacob's and my issues affect Eli."
Rosalie put her arm around my shoulders and leaned over towards me. "Remember how I told you I thought you were a great mother?" I nodded. "Even more so now."
I blushed. "Thanks."
We saw a few of the other areas and then went over to the Oceanarium. Edward seemed to get more and more impatient as we went through some of the exhibits, looking at the sea lions, beluga whales, and sea otters. I had no idea what was wrong. Maybe he was bored?
When we got to the dolphin tank, there were two people standing there, smiling at us as we approached them.
"Carmen!" Emmett boomed, walking over and giving the beautifully exotic woman a hug.
"Emmett." She pulled back and smiled at him. "It's nice to see you again. And you too, Rosalie."
Rosalie gave her a quick hug and went to watch the dolphins through the glass.
Edward walked over to Eli and me and took our hands, leading us to where this Carmen person stood.
"Carmen? This is my Bella and her son, Eli." He looked back at me. "Bella, this is Carmen and her partner Eleazar. They train the dolphins here. I went to med school with Carmen before she decided to take her Biology degree and do something else with it."
I looked at the beautiful woman. She did not look like she belonged in the military. More like the pages of Vogue.
"Hi, it's nice to meet you." I had no idea why he was introducing us to them.
"I told Carmen we'd be here today, so she set up a little surprise for Eli."
Now I knew why he was so impatient.
Eli's ears perked up, and he beamed at Edward. "What kind of surprise?"
"How would you like to pet the dolphins, Eli?" Carmen asked.
"Really?" Eli jumped up and down in excitement.
She grinned at him. "Really."
"See, I told you I'd get you in the tank with the dolphins, Stinky." Edward looked at Eli smugly.
Eli's mouth hung open for a moment before his face broke out into a wide smile. "Can I go now?"
"Of course," Carmen replied.
Eli got a wetsuit and a lifejacket on and waded out into the tank with Carmen and Eleazar. Eli held out a fish and threw it into the dolphins open mouth, laughing loudly. I saw the flash of a camera out of the corner of my eye and glanced over to see Esme and Carlisle taking pictures.
"I'll make sure you get copies, Bella." Esme looked over at me and smiled.
"Thanks, Esme. I can't believe I forgot mine."
"It's no problem. These are going to be great." She snapped a picture of Eli rubbing the dolphin's nose.
I watched Carmen kneel down and help Eli with the hand signal to make the dolphins jump out of the water. I couldn't quite figure out Edward's relationship with her. He'd never mentioned her before, and I was pretty sure the names of his serious girlfriends had been Kate, Jane, and Lauren.
As if reading my mind, Edward came over and hugged me against his side. "Carmen was my partner in one of my anatomy classes at USUHS. We kept in touch after she left school and moved back to Chicago. I called her yesterday, and told her I was bringing you and Eli here, because I wanted to show the two of you off. She asked me if he'd like to meet the dolphins. I figured it'd be a hit with him, so she planned to be here and surprise him."
"Do you talk to her a lot?"
"No. Yesterday was the first time I'd spoken to her in two years, I guess."
I was grateful. I didn't think I could compete with someone so gorgeous.
As soon as that kernel of jealousy formed in my mind, I immediately bashed myself for it. Edward was good and honest, and we loved each other. There was no competition with anyone from his past, present, or future. I'd won the moment our eyes met on the dance floor at Willy's.
"Thank you for doing this." I turned back to Eli, who waved and gave me a huge smile. "He absolutely loves it."
"You're welcome, but I didn't do it. I just told Carmen I thought he'd love it." He laughed at Eli when he slipped and landed on his butt getting out. "Just so you know, there was never anything between us."
I blushed. "Was I that obvious?"
He turned so that he was facing me and placed a quick kiss on the end of my nose. "No, but I know you." He stared at me for a moment. "There will never be anyone else, as long as you'll have me."
"Then I guess you're stuck with me forever," I joked.
His face broke out into a bright smile. "Exactly what I had in mind." We started to walk over towards the locker room. "Listen, I was wondering. When is your lease up?"
I froze. "What?"
He rolled his eyes. "When is your lease up?" he repeated.
"November. I only signed a six month lease in case I hated it here and wanted to go back to Forks. Why?"
He shrugged. "Just curious. Hey, I was thinking about us taking a camping trip sometime next month when it cools down a little. Think Eli would like that?"
He changed the subject so casually, I had to struggle to get my thoughts in order. "Um, yeah. I think so."
"I'll talk to my family and see what weekend is best for them once you and Jacob come to some sort of an agreement regarding Eli."
I just nodded. I wasn't sure I could say anymore. What was this about my lease being up? Was he wanting me to move in with him? I couldn't figure out what he meant. We'd only been dating for six weeks. When November rolled around, we would be dating for five months. Could I really move in with someone after only five months?
I looked into Edward's piercing green eyes and knew the answer.
"Edward, I-"
"Fuck!" he hissed.
He spun around and ducked into the locker room where Eli was, disappearing behind the door.
I looked around and saw nothing out of the ordinary, just a few people finding seats in the bleachers to see the next show. Edward's family had already gone back out to the entrance. I was left standing alone.
What the hell?
Edward
Fucking shit.
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
What the hell is she doing here?
I'd been trying to get an idea of what Bella thought about living with me. I didn't expect her lease to be up so soon, but I was actually pretty happy about it. Bella of course reacted the way I figured she would, so I quickly changed the subject and decided to come back to it later. I wasn't going anywhere--there was plenty of time to talk to her about it in the future.
I was pretty sure she was going to say something else about it, but just as she started to speak, I glanced behind her and saw Jane Ryan, standing in the bleachers--staring at me so intensely--I almost expected to burst into flames.
And now I was hiding in the bathroom like a little girl.
I hadn't seen her in years. After I broke up with her, she went completely nuts. She broke into my room and destroyed our room; she ripped the beds into shreds, dumped paint on the floor, and wrote all kinds of shit on the bathroom mirror and walls. Not in lipstick. Oh no, that would have been too normal. She wrote it in permanent marker.
I think I may have pictures of it somewhere.
She called me every day for weeks, to the point to where no one else could leave a voice mail since my box was consistently filled with messages from her. She showed up at parties and events that I went to, watching me from the other side of the room while I tried to ignore her creepiness. One night, I tried to go out with Jordan Rogers, a girl in one of my chem classes. Jane had been watching us the entire night, and when it came to the end of the date and I kissed her, she ran across the field and pulled us apart, claiming she was pregnant with my baby.
At that moment, I had never been more relieved to not own a pet. I'm sure if I had a bunny, I would have found it in a pot of boiling water. If I had a horse, I'm sure it's head would have been in my bed, because needless to say, the bitch was fucking psychotic.
I made her go to the doctor and get a pregnancy test, which of course came back negative. When the test results came back she attacked me with a scalpel, stabbing me in between my ribs and dragging the knife across my skin where the tattoo of my family crest is. I picked that spot to cover the large four inch scar that was there. Once I got stitched up, I drove straight over to the police station to press charges and file a restraining order against her.
I dropped the charges with the agreement that she get some psychiatric help but kept the restraining order in place. I wanted the threat of legal ramifications there in case she came near me again. She backed off and left me alone, but I still changed my number and got as far away from her as I could when I graduated.
I was paranoid all through med school, wondering when she would show up again, and when I found out that they were looking for Devil Docs the year I graduated, I didn't hesitate to volunteer. Not only was I doing something I loved, but I was going to be on the other side of the world--far away from Jane--doing it.
"Hey, Edward!"
I jumped and looked back at Eli. "Hey." He gave me a funny look. "Sorry. You scared me there, buddy. Did you have fun?"
"Yeah! It was awesome! Carmen said I can come back anytime I want!"
"She did? That's great!" I looked back at the door. "Hey, wait here for a sec, Eli."
I took the few steps to the door and slowly opened it, peering out carefully. Bella had her back to me with her arms crossed over her chest and her foot tapping the floor impatiently.
Shit.
I looked around and saw no sign of Jane. Maybe I was imagining things. Maybe I was crazy. I thought it was her. Same short brown hair, big brown doe eyes, angelic face.
Yeah, definitely her.
I ran my hand through my hair. "Okay. Let's go get your mom."
We walked over to Bella and Eli started talking rapidly about Carmen and Eleazar and the dolphins. After he was finished, we started out of the stadium.
"What the hell was that?" Bella hissed under her breath.
"I'm sorry. I had to get out of here." I looked around me. The last thing I needed was psycho Jane seeing me with Bella and Eli. "We need to leave. Now."
"Why? Eli hasn't even gotten to play over at the Polar Play Zone!"
I stopped her and put my hands on her arms. "Bella. You have to trust me. Please."
She stared at me for a moment. "Fine. Will you just explain what is going on?"
"When we get home," I promised.
We found my family, and I quietly explained to Carlisle why we needed to leave. We quickly made our way to our cars, and I couldn't help but look over my shoulder the entire time. I couldn't escape the feeling of being watched. I couldn't see the crazy bitch anywhere, but I learned a long time ago that she was fucking sneaky.
I got Bella and Eli safely in my house and rushed through every room, checking windows and doors to make sure they were locked. Bella said nothing, just sent Eli to his "room" to play. We had made the guest room into Eli's room, buying him Spiderman bedding and bringing some of his toys from Bella's over.
I sat on the couch and cradled my face in my hands. My thoughts now were of keeping Bella and Eli safe. I prayed that Jane was just an immature nineteen-year-old who made a whole slew of mistakes with me, but I didn't know. The last thing I wanted to do was put the people I held most dear to me in danger.
Bella sat down next to me and rubbed circles on my back with her hand, resting her head on my shoulder.
"I saw Jane," I croaked.
"Okay?" she asked slowly. "So you saw your ex. I don't get it."
"She's fucking crazy, Bella. I still have a restraining order against her."
I looked over to see her mouth open. She quickly shut it and stared at me. "Why?"
I explained everything to her. "I know it was her, Bella. She was staring at me like she wanted to kill me. And she saw me with you. I don't know how long she was there, but there's no questioning our relationship. I can't keep my hands off you. If I put you or Eli in danger, I'll never be able to live with myself."
"Hey, hey." She took my face in her hands. "We'll be fine. I'm sure there's nothing to worry about. You know how you are. You tend to overreact about things. Maybe she still hates you, but she's an adult now, and you said she got help. She doesn't know where you live, where you work, what kind of car you drive, and she certainly doesn't know anything about me. You'll probably never see her again."
I kissed her gently. "You're right. Thank you."
She moved her hands to my shirt and pulled it up. I watched her as she ran her fingers across the scar that was hidden beneath the ink.
"I can't believe I never noticed this before. I'm so sorry," she whispered.
I took her hands in mine. "Don't be. How about we go start dinner?" Her eyebrows shot up, so I laughed.
"Okay, let me rephrase that. You start dinner. I'll chop whatever you need and be your extra hand."
She kissed me quickly. "Okay."