Chapter 14
After he leaves it takes me a few minutes to realize what just happened. I stand and look out over the water, and I can't deny I feel a bit chastised. My mind works, thinking about what he said. What has he done to make me distrust him versus everything he's done to show me differently?
I change into my swimsuit and relax in the lounger, doused in some sunscreen I found in the bathroom because Lord knows I can't let the sun touch my pale skin for too long while I wait for his return.
The boat is bobbing gently on the wake caused by passing sailboats and luxurious yachts as I work out my thoughts. Some of these other ships are just mind boggling with their decadence. There are plenty of sun-kissed beauties on the decks of these boats, laughing and tanning, walking around in skimpy bikinis or simply topless. The whole thing is exotic, from the people on the other vessels to the houses on the banks, clearly the richest of the rich. I'm in awe as I look around and wish I could figure out how to just fucking enjoy this. I think about my original plan, about having this fling and walking away unscathed, keeping Charlie protected, but I don't see how that's possible.
Edward is gone longer than he said he would be, so I turn on my stomach and undo my white bikini top, hoping to get a hint of color. I feel sad that this might be ending sooner than I like, if I can't bring myself to open up. I contemplate what he's said about trusting him, thinking about everything that's happened since we got here. My thoughts trip and stumble, coming to conclusions and then debunking them as soon as I think I've figured out what to do.
"Bella, as lovely as this picture is, I don't want you to burn." I turn my head and glance up, squinting against the rays at Edward's silhouette as the sun is blocked behind him.
"I'm covered in 50 SPF. I'm practically bulletproof." I yawn and drop my head back down, stretching my limbs out in front of me. "But I probably should turn over." It's then that I remember I untied my top. Feeling mischievous, I start to move, twisting until I'm on my back before propping myself up on my elbows. "Are you going to join me?" I raise one hand to shield my eyes from the bright light and look up at Edward, who surprisingly is looking at my eyes.
I, however, don't return his polite gaze; instead, my perusal travels down his shirtless body, enjoying the way his bronzed skin glows where there is no ink.
"You might want to cover yourself," he says, handing over a towel.
"Seriously?" I laugh, incredulous.
"Bella, that conversation we had before…"
Fuck. His manner is serious, not the carefree Edward I've come to know. "What about it?" I tense and grab the towel, laying it over my breasts, feeling suddenly stupid.
Edward sits on the next lounger so he's facing me and rests his elbows on his knees, his hands rubbing back and forth against each other. "I feel like I've bullied you, and I should apologize."
I let my jaw slacken but close it quickly. Edward seems contrite, almost worried. I sit up, holding the towel against my naked torso. "What do you mean?"
"I shouldn't make this a tit for tat. You don't need to tell me about your situation, how you got here. It's a very personal thing, and I don't want you to think that I take your reasons, whatever they are, lightly. You said this isn't a game to you, and I want you to know that I respect that."
I look at him, the sincerity in his eyes shining through as I contemplate his words. Maybe whatever this is, is salvageable after all. What he's just said speaks volumes about his character, making everything else obvious. I realize now why he was so incredulous at my distrust. "I'm going to ask you again, are you using me?"
"No, I told you that," he says, slightly frustrated. He swallows before standing and pacing to the other side of the boat where he flips his sunglasses down to look out over the gulf. A short burst of angry laughter escapes him, the sound getting lost over the water. "Un-fucking-believable."
I smile at his back. "You showed me your vault."
"Yes, my vault," he repeats, a bit snarky. "Not to mention my brothers, my life, my plane, my fucking home…"
I nod. "Yes, you did."
"Okay, so?" He asks, turning back towards me. I hate that he's shielded his eyes from me.
I shrug and pull my legs up under each other, sitting criss cross. "What you said… about all the ways you've led me to believe I couldn't trust you. I didn't realize how badly I could screw you over. I was only thinking of how you could do me in."
"Apparently."
I shrug again. "I didn't really see it that way, I didn't think about the chances you were taking, showing me all of it."
"Do you see it now?" he snaps, making me flinch.
"I do. You've trusted me all along."
He waits a moment, looking at me before speaking. "How did you finally come to this conclusion?" He steps back over to the lounger next to mine; sitting so he faces me once again.
"You got what you wanted, the painting, right? You could've just taken that at the airport, leaving me on the public plane only to find my crate 'missing' at baggage. You made sure that I wouldn't be held responsible with Irina. Also, you wouldn't have brought me to your home and showed me something that, let's be honest, I could make a fucking hefty profit from if I were to tell anyone about your art room. You're right. The way I figure it, you've shared more with me than I have with you. You've taken all the risk and are now allowing me to feel as safe as I need to be."
"Go on." He smiles, the smugness rolling off of him in waves while I roll my eyes.
"Also, you could've taken advantage of me at any point yesterday. In the art room, on that staircase, after I cockblocked you in your bathroom. You haven't."
"Is there anything else?"
I swallow. "You're not pushing me to tell you about my reasons for doing this, even though it's impossibly unfair, this imbalance I've created between us." I bite my lip and he slides his sunglasses back up, his eyes falling to my mouth. I take a big breath, laying it on the line. "And I don't think either of us can deny the chemistry between us. I doubt you're that good an actor," I say, getting one last dig in.
A slow smile spreads across his face, and it's all I can do not to cradle that jaw and plant my lips against his. "You're a very smart woman, you know that?"
"I do." We stare at each other a moment, before I speak. "Let's have this week, Edward, just this week, to forget about what you do, what I do, and why we shouldn't be doing this at all."
Edward's eyes narrow at my words, his hands squeezing together tightly before moving one hand up to rest his chin upon.
"I suppose then, that it's okay if you want to remove that towel."
"Too late, buddy."
"Damn. I'm too gentlemanly for my own good."
"Yes, it's a shame, really. That's what you get for being so much more mature than me."
Suddenly, Edward is on top of me, straddling my chair with his legs on either side of it. I watch as he takes two fingers and gently picks up the edge of the towel covering me, barely lifting it from my skin as he lowers his head to deliver a searing kiss that ends much too quickly. He lifts back up and slowly pulls the towel from my body.
"Fuck, Bella. You truly are beautiful," he groans before tossing the towel aside and trailing two fingers around my breast, avoiding my hard nipple. "Your skin is so warm from the sun."
"Edward," I moan, shifting under him so that his fingers will move.
"Yes, Ms. Swan?"
A sigh escapes me; his pure, sexual rawness makes me unable to filter what my body wants. "Lick me."
His eyes snap to mine, voracious and fierce. He kneels on either side of me on the chair, and I watch as he lowers his head, his eyes remaining on mine as his tongue leaves his mouth, licking from the underside of my breast, across to the side of my nipple and up my chest. "Is that what you wanted?"
"No."
"Perhaps you should be more direct then."
"Lick my nipple. Actually, I want you to bite it." As soon as I've said it, I feel his mouth sucking on the pink flesh, hard and ready for him. He encloses the whole area with his lips, his tongue flicking against the hardness until he pulls back and gives my aching flesh a small kiss.
"Better?"
"I didn't feel any teeth." I move my hand to the back of his head, weaving my fingers into his hair and pushing him back towards me. With a groan, his teeth scrape against me and I moan loudly as he clamps down, a sharp sting encasing my breast. I rub his head, keeping him on me, and he soothes where he bit with his lips and tongue.
My hips begin to move and he takes the hint, laying his full body weight on me. I can feel his cock through the thin swim trunks he's changed into, hard and poking at my equally thin bikini bottom. He shifts a bit, tentatively feeling me out, and when I raise my hips to meet his, he quickly grinds himself against me.
"Oh, hell yes!" I throw my head back at the sensation, as he moves over me slowly, digging in and up while still keeping his mouth firmly attached to my breast. He pulls back and looks at my face before moving in close.
His words ghost over my mouth, his eyes hooded as he watches me. "Like that, Bella?" He punctuates his question with a slow swirl of his hips, his cock heavy against me.
"So good, Edward. You feel so good." One of the hands I've got on his head moves down to his ass, gripping it in case he has any ideas about stopping.
"Baby, there are people everywhere."
"Don't care. It's your boat, right? You said fuck it," I pant, the sensation of him rigid against me causing the tension in my body to build and rise, higher and higher.
"Fuck, I love hearing you say fuck." His mouth crashes to mine, his hips continuing to move against me as I spread my legs further and pull him in closer as my ankles lock together behind him.
My hands move all over his back, touching his heated skin and sliding down under the waistline of his trunks. The feel of the muscles under my hands as he clenches and pumps against me makes me close my eyes involuntarily at the sensation, and I search blindly for his mouth.
I feel his lips on mine, his tongue immediately seeking my own, and locked together above and below; I start to moan as my orgasm hits me. "Goddamn it." Edward says against my mouth before pulling back to watch me as he makes me come, grinding against me, slamming his body into mine until his own orgasm begins, his eyes closing and his breath fanning my face in sharp bursts until he holds it, ramming his hips against mine hard and leaving himself there, finally exhaling and relaxing his body as he comes down.
"Jesus, Bella. You're gonna kill me. I haven't dry humped since I was a teenager." He laughs, burying his head into my neck where I feel him smiling against my skin.
"Yeah I guess that's been a long time, huh?" I giggle, feeling a bit like a high school girl myself.
He lifts his head and shifts his body so he's not pressing all of his weight against me, as he tickles me in the side, making me yelp.
"Be prepared for what a decidedly UN-high school-aged Edward can do to you. I let you off easy just now."
"Oh yeah?" I challenge, looking down at his trunks.
"Oh yeah. Just wait until I slip inside you, Bella, and fuck you silly. I'm going to own you."
After taking turns in the bathroom and a change of trunks for Edward, he makes a light lunch for us, and we eat as he moves the boat around to another location so we can see the other ships in the gulf. He points out some he's familiar with and rattles off statistics and jaw dropping features some of these ginormous yachts contain within.
He points towards a huge yacht a few hundred yards away. "Remember hint two?"
I think for a minute, the second bottle of champagne making me fuzzy. "Oh, the vacation spot of Beyonce and Jay-Z?" I question.
"Yup. Over there. That's how I knew that."
I shield my eyes and look at the boat. "Holy shit. Do you know them?"
"Not really. We're just two ships that pass in the night." He smirks and laughs.
"Thank you, Barry Manilow." He looks surprised that I knew the song reference. "My Mom," is all I say, and he nods, letting it drop. "But that's no excuse for you. Who'd have guessed a sly art thief could be so damn corny?"
"You've uncovered my deepest secret." He grins, before he gets an excited look on his face. "Hey, do you want to steer?" He directs me to sit on his lap in front of the wheel, showing me some of the gauges and the throttle before pointing out where I should head towards. It's not particularly difficult, we're just going straight, but again I think about how much Charlie will enjoy hearing about this. I contemplate asking Edward to take our picture, but decide against it, best not to keep too many memories for… after.
We cruise around for a while, Edward pointing out that we're actually in the vicinity of Cannes where I gape at the coastline for a bit.
"There's a party tomorrow night, I'd originally declined, but would you like to go?"
"Yes, if you want," I say, excited by attending a ritzy party in Cannes.
"I want what you want. I'll tell M to let them know."
As we languidly make our way around the gulf, his mouth isn't ever far from my neck, licking and kissing my salt and sun-touched skin while I make a point to shift on his lap. A lot. He finally stops me, pushing me off of him and smacks me in the ass, telling me it's time to turn back. I relax in the other chair and wave at other boats while Edward grumbles about men looking at my naked chest. His jealousy, even though it isn't real, is cute, and I smile the whole way back.
Pushing away the taunting thoughts of my own words.
Just this week.
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From the planetblue Archive of Awesome Fic List:
Girl Code by LayAtHomeMom
(I have it on good authority my girl is hitting the complete button on this tonight!)
Friends are forever, boys are whatever - unless it's Edward Cullen. Then the gloves come off.
As always, thank you to my brilliant beta Carrie ZM, and my fabulous pre-reader LayAtHomeMom for their hard work.
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